[dakini]	review from derek

In a recent interview with Brooklyn reggae/jungle producer/performer Dr. Israel, he commented "If you're playing real music a song is not necessarily going to be three minutes ...it might not get good until 11 minutes into it, but that's the reward of having the patience to listen to it." Listening to Makyo's "Behind the Veil" remix on Nada Masala vol.2, you're as hooked by beat one as by beat whatever 12 minutes later; somehow patience is not as necessary as the ability to fall into the groove.

Yet this entire record accomplishes the feat - Masala 2 doesn't lead you to meditation; rather, it is a sonic snippet of downtempo brilliance, a comforting meditation in itself. "Behind the Veil" is trance par excellence, not of whirling dervishes but opiated hookah dens scored by digital drones and throbbing bass tones. Makyo's other cut, "Erzulie (Phantom Remix)" is not as outright, taking time to build into lax. Masala's "Lucid Dreams" is aptly titled, the sonorous bansuri woven into a jazzy hi-hatted rhythm. Professor Trance gives a solid class in aural reflexology with "Inner Horizons," and Sevda's "Veil of Illusion" pleasurably subdues all initiates into the hypnotic shroud of maya.

Brahmanic and Buddhist philosophy has long taught the overcoming of illusion (to attain the coveted state of moksha, release) through various yogic and psychological exercises, leading away from the phenomenal world. Tantric belief, however, deems five essential elements necessary (as proscribed in the Mahanirvana Tantra): wine, meat, fish, parched grain, and union of man and woman. There is a double-blind; each element represents a personal state of being, leading one away from attachment. The mandala is a tool to do such - a circular image eventually pointing past the representation to the great silence of the divine. Consider Nada Masala vol.2 a sonic mandala to lead to such space.