Up

Equal parts John McLaughlin’s spiritualized Shakti ensemble and pop-tweaked Bollywood soundtrack album, Karsh Kale’s dense exploration of variations on electric tabla weaves dense synths and digitized BPPM into a shimmering haze of switched-on fusion. Shifty electrobeats punch up the competing tempos of “Butterfly Effect”, while the throbbingly dissonant “Be Like Water” harks directly back to Kale’s early work with fellow global groove hound Bill Laswell. Title cut “Up” is where Kale gets to show off, opening with chiming guitar and sitar before the composer’s dusky vocals move proceedings into proggy grandiosity.