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Prophesy

By: Nitin Sawhney
Label: V2
Released: 18 Jun 2001
RRP: £9.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

One amazing journey - By: , 05 Apr 2005
The concept of travelling the world & creating an album based on various cultures is always going to be a tough thing to complete. All I can say is that Nitin Sawhney has pulled off this mountain of a project with breathtaking results.

The 15 tracks of 'Prophesy' display a highly interesting & diverse body of work, from a man with a real passion to produce something amazing.
From the uplifting opening 'sunset' Sawhney creates a wonderful soundscape through chilled out beats, guitar, Tabla drums & moving orchestral touches, it's an atmosphere followed equallly by 'Nothing' string melodies conjure up amazing sci-fi vista's & rousing vocals create an ethereal world.
Acquired dreams is an early highlight & takes the tone to a deeper emotional level, moving oriental vocals & instrumentation help create a truly beautiful setting that paves the way for a swirling DnB laden orchestral outro.
'Nothing more' floats in next, & is just a simple acoustic take on track two, In a way it seems a little pointless as a song, but I'm sure Nitin has his reason's...
You won't be considering this track for long though, 'Moonrise' bounces in quickly & is
undoubtedly a masterpiece, This Spanish salsa creates a breathtaking mood accompanied by moving strings & heartfelt vocal work, If you don't understand the vocals (they are Spanish) it doesn't matter- this track is equallly amazing whether you get them or not, & in a way makes it alll the more haunting & mysterious.
The American street guru walks in next, a break from the moving melodies he provides a thinking point in his spoken word approach to 'technology in his modern world'
He actuallly provides some amazing insights despite his appearance as just being a 'bum off the street'.
The moving track 'the preacher' get's the melodies floating again, simple acoustic strumming & haunting vocal work creates quite an atmosphere.
Next is probably the best track on the album 'Breathing light' moving orchestral strings & deep piano grooves roll along with an energetic DnB beat, the ethereal flute patterns just add to the brilliance of this instrumental masterpiece, One of Nitin's finest productions.
Developed' is a track again on the spoken word tip , with an aboriginal perspective on the world & how they as a culture are treated ' music is a universal language, it doesn't hold any prejudice' as is said.
This is followed by the wonderful 'footsteps' simply a children's choir singing- simple, if anything, but creates an amazing worldy atmosphere.
'Walk away' brings the album back into deep & emotional territory, haunting piano & lyrical work touching on the previous track footsteps, light orchestral & middle eastern touches create a truly beautiful song.
The album now takes quite a dark leap with 'cold & intimate' electronic synths & moody strings accompany a rousing vocal performance.
Breaking the dark mood is the street guru again, he continues his interesting view on technology...
this lighter atmosphere is shattered again when Nitin takes a heavy back seat ride into some confronting hip-hop, distorted guitars, heavy beats & gritty lyrical work sung in a style reminiscent of the prodigy's 'diesel power' it creates the most disturbing track on the album.
The extreme nature is then washed away with another of the best tracks on the album, actuallly the album's title track 'Prophesy' a choir builds, & accompanied with giant percussive sounds & middle Eastern instrumentation get's faster & faster until it's a sweeping high octane worldy masterpiece.

and then it ends.

Nitin Sawhney has achieved a great feat here, pulling together culture, instrumentation & mood's from almost every musical genre, it's a breathtaking journey across the world that only he could pull off in such spectacular fashion.
as the dictionary states- Prophesy: 'to foretell or predict'
If you want to hear the emotion & mood of culture in the future, this album is the closest you will get to the truth.

Haunting, exhilarating, just brilliant! - By: HannaLucy, 10 Jun 2004
I absolutely disagree with thiefinni from Bicester- I think that the Street Guru tracks are fantastic & are well placed in the album to almost give illusion to an interval at the theatre. I find them interesting pieces of social history (if I should read that much into it). On a different point I have to say I bought this album by pure accident & absolutely hated it initiallly as I did find it grating & didn't get what he was reallly trying to say without becoming annoyed by too much variety. However now I can't get enough of it, the mixture is now indeed a delight rather than irritation & I find it both mellowing & exhilarating to listen to- for me, now the perfect combination!
Fantastic ! - By: , 29 Jul 2002
When I was recommended this album by a friend of mine I didn't quite realise what I was letting myself in for. This must be the best album I have heard for years. Ethnic & haunting, uplifting & beautifully written. This album is not to be missed!
Displacing the Street Guru - By: , 02 Feb 2002
I didn't reallly get into Prophesy until about the seventh or eighth time around. Initiallly I found that it didn't hang together as well as Beyond Skin or Displacing the Priest even though the range of songs is almost exactly the same: R'n'B balllads backed by subtle Indian vocals, lone eastern voices melting into chilled drum 'n' bass, a swooping juxtaposition of Asian & Latin voices, a heavy electro effort & gentle Brazilian love/rejection songs. Indeed, having got to know the album better I think the Prophesy songs better than their earlier 'equivalents'. The opener 'Sunset' is more affecting than 'Broken Skin', 'Breathing Light', 'Nothing' & 'Cold & Intimate' are alll superb & 'Moonrise' is almost (though not quite) as good as 'Homelands'. This last song has a pleading Arabic voice graduallly soothed by the Brazilian voice & chorus he sings against. Breathtaking.

No, what still grates & prevents me from loving every moment of the record is the new stuff. Whereas the theme of Beyond Skin (nuclear proliferation & the threat of an atomic apocalypse) was well presented by quotes interacting excellently with the mood-piece songs, the theme of this album (the evils of technology) holds together less well (how on earth did he record the album, then?) & we are stuck listening to Street Guru, parts 1 & -God help us!- 2, in which an anonymous New York cab driver witters on about the joys of multiculturalism & the hope that we don't rely on technology too much in a stream of vague platitudes. A further track, 'Developed', has a similar format with an Australian Aborigine but is hardly as objectionable because he doesn't labour his point as much.

These tracks get in the way & break up some of Nitin's finest playing & mixing to date. I would just urge him to stick to genuinely affecting modern music with a political edge & to stop lecturing me. Nonetheless, a great record.

Sawhney's panoramic masterpiece - By: R. Pieters, 23 Sep 2001
Beyond Skin was my first journey in to the world of Nitin Sawhney. Beyond skin was one of the most diverse unchatocharised albums I'd ever heard with a strong Asian fusion. For Prophesy despite the mixed reviews which have deffered me purchasing the album. I was not dissapointed & I have found Prophesy an even more mature international & political collaboration. Nitin Sawhnney's Prophesy takes you to sounds of crystal chilled lounge tracks to international trips which take you to New York rapping, to Iberian back street flameco strums to Indian symphonies & Australian Aboriginal sounds. Nitin Sawhney's Prophesy project despite being somewhat overproduced. My conclusion is a diverse masterpiece, which crosses world music with jazz, rap trip & hip hop.But don't keep the Prophesy experience to your self, spread it around.