Radio Java

by

Various Artists

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This is not an album of consumer friendly sound bites carefully selected, picked free of questionable (ie: truly foreign) material, and packaged in such a way as to allow the listener to add a notch to the "worldliness" of their tastes to be displayed as it were a trophy alongside their Deep Forest CDs. What this is, is a continual stream of exquisite sounds and music from a time and place that has never been truly documented in the West in anything but the most sterile of forms. The blasts of raw brilliance that stream out from these recordings in an unending barrage of color and sound oblivion communicate the heart and soul of Javanese culture in a way that has previously been completely impossible to access for those that have not actually been there.

This is a truly exotic masterpiece, all the more so for the fact that it was not carefully crafted and mastered in order to make it more accessible for the Western ear. The beauty and complexity found in these recordings will provide you with a whole new level of appreciation for the possibilities inherent in music. Every single time I listen to this album (and I have done so well over 100 times) I find something new, something which my Western brain simply could not comprehend the last time I listened to it.

If you're looking for a safe, easily digestible and packaged listening experience, stick with Folkways. If you're interested in something truly adventurous, beautiful, and exotic, give this album a try.

And did I mention the packaging??? Without exception, Sublime Frequencies provides the most incredible packaging that I have ever seen wrapped around any piece of music whatsoever. This is not a collection of hits to be downloaded to your iTunes player and put in random rotation. This is an album to be fully experienced - touched, seen and heard. It is truly sublime. Highly recommended.