Karmetik Underground

This is a perfect example of the package potentially ruining a decent album. Press releases that spout gibberish about "religiously infusing packed dance floors with live instrumental fusion” and being "determined to spread love like wild fire” are a perfect way to turn off anyone who isn’t generally attracted to the trippy, hippy pop set. But Wave Being by Victoria, BC-based Karmetik Underground is actually good. Really good. Rather than just sampling vaguely worldly sounding things and looping them to create something a whole bunch of stoned people can gyrate to, they instead have an ear towards a progressive, cohesive long song form, in keeping with the traditions of Indian raga and other cyclic music. It is hypnotic and movement-infused music without being irritatingly repetitive. Tracks like "Liminality” showcase a great deal of instrumental talent, particularly from sitar player Anjay Kapur. Does the album truly make the listener one with the universe? Maybe not, but it can pull you into its own little world long enough to take you somewhere, and a somewhere more interesting than the places where fusion coalesces into a larger collective experience and love spreads. The message may be mostly immaterial but the music is not.