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Amazon.co.uk Review
This blending of various folk musics with her own Tamil roots is one of Susheela Raman's strongest suits, and one she revisits often on Love Trap, with guests including jazz saxophonist Iain Ballamy, members of Yat-Kha (the Tuvan throat-singing heavy rock combo) and Fela Kuti's old drummer Tony Allen. It even has some occasional flamenco touches (no doubt a product of the environment, as the album was recorded in southern Spain).
Guitarist and producer Sam Mills remains Raman's crucial musical partner, along with regular live band members Aref Durvesh (percussion) and Hilaire Penda (bass). The mood is seductively swaying for most of the album's journey, filled with instrumental colours during its varied run of solo showcases. Raman's material ranges from Joan Armatrading's "Save Me" right through to a selection of ancient hymns and devotional songs. Whichever direction she takes, Raman's meditational vocals impose a distinctly individual character to all of this exotic dipping and picking. --Martin Longley
Review
Susheela sings her own individual take on Indian Classical, traditional Tamil music and a smorgasbord of other world musics. She has already won a legion of admirers and a Radio 3 Award for world music two years ago. And on the basis of this lovely second album she's likely to win many more.
Producer Sam Mills creates a live, organic feel. The instruments hover in the middle distance, with Susheela's voice placed firmly where it belongs, at the front of the mix. It's as though he's recreating the drone that underpins Asian music but with a modern band. The result is a twilit musical world: all kinds of sounds and instruments, from kora to piano to clarinet are integrated without a false note.The sparse duet featuring Greek clarinetist Manos Achalinotopoulos Dhamavati is one of the albums many highlights. Tony Allen, Fela Kuti's legendary drummer provides exactly the right pulse: understated yet driving.
The cover of Joan Armatrading's "Save Me" seems like an interlude between the other high points. And if the title track, a reworking of an Ethiopian pop song is a little corny, it does act as a clever introduction to the rest of the album, showcasing ideas that are developed later.
Adjectives to describe this wonderful music started to fail me. Instead I just let myself go, carried away by its subtle, hypnotic charms.
If this is a trap, it's one made out of honey. --Nick Reynolds
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Customer Reviews
The core thing is that Susheela Raman has a really beautiful voice. Even when she sings the traditional songs (which I far prefer) her voice has a haunting and hypnotic individuality.
The whole 'Copy Controlled' thing (you can stop reading now if you're not interested!). Pretty lousy thing for the record labels to do. Unfortunately they are legally allowed to. You only purchase a licence to play the music in the format of a CD. Course it's not showing much good will on their part, and I object to that as much as the next person. Especially for the average punter out there like me - who just wants to put it on their Zen to listen to for personal reasons. What is so short sited of the record labels is that people will eventually stop buying material they cannot put on players. They'll lose all that extra revenue from someone eg with line splitter playing music to a mate on the tube saying "this is great why don't you buy it". Also means in reality hackers and fraudsters will find ways around it. Then they will get no money at all. Not even from people downloading material legally. BA HUMBUG! I say to all you over bloated rich mean record labels. I think you may have just shot yourselves in the foot. I also feel sorry for the artists who will themselves suffer at the hands of fraudsters.
It's a mixed bag and I find some of the songs a little cheesy-actually it's the ones sung in English that are the worst offenders! When sung in an Indian-subcontinental language they just sound so much more convincing! There are a couple of great tracks that I love. 'Sakhi Maro' is just a lovely song with a delightful acoustic guitar and 'ethnic' lute-type instrument. Raman's singing can be excellent although at times it's overly 'breathy' and seems to come from the back of her throat-which can be annoying! I also like 'Ye meera divanapan hai' but mainly because it reminds me of my Mother and Father playing this song when I was a child...............
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