Shankar
Caroline
The Epidemics

Shankar vocals, violin, synthesizer, drum machine
Caroline vocals, synthesizer, tamboura
Steve Vai guitar
Gilbert Kaufman synthesizer
Percy Jones bass
Recorded February 1985 at Stickwork Studios, New York
Engineer: Chris Richards
Produced by Shankar/Caroline

Full moon on Friday
watch out for the werewolf

 Who’s next – who’s next
who’s next
Close the windows – pull the curtains
who knows – what may happen

Funny story. When I slid this CD into my computer, the Gracenote Media Database upped my anticipation by filling in its genre as “Traditional.” Which is exactly what this album is not. If you’re looking for a quirky lollipop that has baffled ECM and Shankar enthusiasts for decades, however, then by all means lick away. With pleasant enough vocals by Caroline, not to mention the collaboration of guitar legend Steve Vai and bassist Percy Jones (of Brand X fame), one can only imagine the visceral possibilities of throwing Shankar’s astounding virtuosity into such a milieu.

On that note, the musicianship is healthy and the record not without its charm, which may or may not convince you by the third track, “Situations.” I just find myself yearning for Shankar’s violin, which only makes a few lilting, if fiery, appearances on tracks like “Don’t I Know You.” Vai also has his moments in the sun (check his solo in “You Don’t Love Me Anymore”). I imagine this music may have nostalgic value for some, and far be it from me to criticize what might for them be a very real attachment. All I can say is that I’m jealous they can see what I cannot. But with lyrics like the ones from the last song (“Full Moon”) quoted above, and a lackluster mix that all but drowns Jones’s snaking lines, it’s difficult to gauge the artists’ intentions. Tongue-in-cheek experiment? Worldly statement? Either way, I feel lost, and welcome anyone who knows better to help me find my way.

It’s quite beyond me why someone as brilliant as Shankar would make this record, to say nothing of why it fell under ECM’s purview, except to surmise that both artist and label were capitalizing on what was then a very real and fervent interest in musical crossovers. Yet not even the crossover potential is there, as Jones himself notes in a 2004 interview:

It’s very different from most other things you’ve played on. I was expecting something maybe a little Eastern sounding.

Well that’s what I was expecting. He kept saying that he was going to be doing some Indian music, and maybe doing some gigs in India, and I was really up for that, because I love Indian music and it would’ve been a good chance to learn. But it never happened, it just continued in this sort of Western pop format, and that never went anywhere.

Interesting musicians on that record, he had Steve Vai….

Steve Vai played on the record but another guy did all the gigs. It was an unusual record for ECM I thought. I haven’t heard anything else on ECM even approaching that. I was disappointed that I never got to do any Indian stuff with him.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, when hearing an ECM album I haven’t immediately connected to, I’ve always been able to get over my sometimes misinformed or ego-driven reactions and take the music again on its own terms, to stop either trying to fit it into an arbitrary critical system or interpreting it against or through the particular mood and/or circumstance of that initial listening experience. And yet, I regret to say this album falls into that one percent to which I don’t see myself returning. Still, it’s an intriguing detour on ECM’s otherwise steady path through a sonic territory as vast as it is varied, and further proof that the “ECM sound” is just a myth.

Endearing cover, though.