[realworld]	review from vijay choksi

If Anokha was transported to a small north Indian town, this jewel is what emerges. State of Bengal, aka Sam Zaman (brother of MC Deedar of ADF, by the way), and sitar maestro Amanda Shankar took just seven weeks to create this mesmerizing masterpiece of an album.

I don't know about you, but many times when I find that an album acclaims to fuse western and eastern beats. it turns out to be too much on the electronic side. This is what I call real fusion where you get a good amount of everything. With Zaman on electric bass, electronic drum and percussion, we get his usual stylee: heavy drum 'n' bass, with influences of rock, jazz, and funk.

Then comes everything else in perfect harmony: the mighty sitar, the veena, the excellent flute, and the tables (and I swear everything is equally featured). The blend of east and west is like two horses running side by side: firstly there are two horses, with eight legs in all, but if you look at it from a perpendicular angle and their strides fixed just right, you see ONE horse... All tracks are made so well that you will choose not to distinguish the east from the west but see it as a unified front, almost as if one couldn't exist without the other.
Then it wins your mind.

What adds to the value of the album is the fact that it was put together as a project, from rehearsal, to tour, to studio. Ananda Shankar passed away sometime during the project which then turned this into a tribute.

RIP
Ananda Shankar, 1942-1999.