Holy Cat by Thaw

Best known for melding post-rave dance/trance with a scholarly use of Far Eastern music and samples, Loop Guru have been unfaily edged out of dance music history by lesser populists and outright charlatans. Undiscouraged, Sam Dodson aka Salman Gita and cohort 'Mad Jym' return here with thaw, the first new Guru project in five years, 'an ecstatic fusion of sacred chant and urban shamanic trance' - in other words, more of the infinate same.

Best here are "Love me" "Give me your attention, I want you to love me" - a satire, perhaps, on the spurious shamanism of celebrity culture, "No Separation" with its fleeting nod to Debussy, and "Simplicity" an excursuion into mental galaxies that leaves you happily stranded way, way inside your head.

David Stubbs - UNCUT

THE GLASS EYE

Thaw

Holy Cat

3.5 eyes

This has become one of my favorite albums. The first time I put it in the cd player, I was intrigued, the trance pulled me in and hasn't let go yet! It calls to me sometimes, "Put me in the cd player."

Sam Dodson described his new venture as "devotional music," but let's not get the wrong idea! This is not gospel; This is not religion shoved down your throat; this is not something you would hear in a church... at least I don't think so (there are some strange churches out there). It almost borders on the topics covered in Buddhist Philosophy, but at the same time it doesn't.

A wave of music drones, sucking listeners into the vortex. Once it has their full attention, it commands them to "Love God to the point of absolute distraction." Then you hear Sam's evil laugh... over and over. It's almost scary! In my opinion true electronica and techno should be something that you can trip out to while on E. Under the influece, it's not too hard to trip out to music. Real good electronica and techno can make you trance out without drugs, but music of that quality is hard to find. That's probably why I dig Holy Cat so much.

Early in the album, a man says "And without you doing anything, I will meditate you." Playing the music either quiet or loud can bring you to an altered state of mind, but Holy Cat brings you into this world of bells and doplets of Disney quality highlighted by chanting girls that sing of "no separate self," " no world, no sex-organs" Then there is the monotonous voice of a teacher that says "The way of sovereign, the way of truth is the way of complete distraction from the current of life, from the tendencies that produce that burden and produce the drama of your existence from the day to day. Only when there is complete distraction by the guru, by the divine, do your tendencies become obsolete>" The wicked chuckle follows.

As much as it may sound as if the album is a course on finding the guru, it's really not There's not really that many words contained on the album - not like traditional vocals - and it can most definitely be danced to. The change-ups are great, and it's something you can get into on first listen. I enthusiastically encourage picking up this album. I mean it's Sam Dodson of Slipper and Loop Guru with some friends. It's good, It's really good.

Marisa Williams

THE EXPRESS & THE STAR

Anyone who ever accused the Loop Guru brigade of being longhaired layabouts obviously never consulted the band discography. That said, five years has passed since the last Loop Guru album proper. Sam's collaborated with The Damned's Rat Scabies for Slipper, however, and the output continues with Sam joining Guru Jym for their debut as Thaw, a vehicle for an 'ecstatic fusion of sacred chant and urban shamanic trance'. It's another take on the Guru tip, but with more emphasis on the spiritual seam which ran deeper on that material. "Devotional music was traditionally intended to draw people into a state of self forgotten ecstasy" says Sam. "This ancient impulse has been watered down into the staid sounds of the religious and new age or the more self focused feel of modern trance". The result is strangely organic, mesmerising in places, even absorbent - the aural equivalent of a colourful Kitchen towel.

CAMPUS CIRCLE

Thaw is a side project of Loop Guru founders Sam and Mad Jym. While the duo doesn't stray far from the template created by their more famous day project, Thaw does bring some fresh new ideas to the table in a stagnating ambient and downtempo scene.

Holy Cat is heavily influenced by the ambient works of obscure groups like Autechre, but also introduces found sound snippets of devotional speakers as texture, a trademark of their work with Loop Guru. Also making an appearance are beautiful vocal tracks like "No Separation," which evokes memories of Portishead and Bjork's recent collaborations with Matmos.

Holy Cart is a wonderful and intelligent release that combines the best ideas of the glitch-hop laptop community with tthe verse chorus-verse sounds of traditional pop music. Now where's the vinyl? Grade A+

Sean Michael Yoder - Campus Circle

MUSICOMH.COM

Thaw are the latest offshoot of Loop Guru, the London based global fusion duo whose name has become synonymous with Summer festivals and blissed out breakbeats. Thaw's debut album attempts to fuse together sacred chanting to a form of trance music. It's a brave attempt and will no doubt enthrall those who have waited five years for new material from Loop Guru.

The opening track 'Adi' is an excellent introduction to Thaw's music. It's reminiscent of Trans-global Underground with it's ethereal vocals - as the track bounces through it's seven minutes, vocalist Linda Conroy starts off like Natacha Atlas, before slowly transforming into Bjork. The guitar that punctuates the track drives it along nicely and you can imagine this going down a storm in various dance tents around the country in the next few months.

The following track, 'Love Me' is built around samples of quotations from a spiritual guru, Avatara Adi Di Samraj, a figure who features heavily on the album. If this conjures up visions of Kula Shaker and their rather misguided Sanskrit lyrics a few years ago, calm down - Thaw are obviously immersed in this culture and no matter who off-putting an entire album of 'urban shamanic trance' may sound, they pull it off.

Vocals on the album are shared between the aforementioned Linda Conboy, and Jacqueline Clemons who demonstrates her quite beautifully rich voice on the ambient tinged 'No Separations'. Clemons also shows up on 'Simplicity' which is reminiscent of Zero Seven's recent output, and on the stand-out closing track, 'The Universal World Prayer', which she also wrote.

This isn't a record to appeal to everyone - an hour long album of ancient chants and trance backbeats can get heavy going, and 'I Bow Down' will test the most patient of listener. However, Clemons' magnificent voice is demonstrated well here and hints at a long future for her. If the recent release by Jah Wobble tempted you to further expand your musical education, then invest in this and visit one of the many festivals that Thaw are due to perform at this Summer. This probably makes even more sense under a blistering sun, in the middle of a field somewhere.

John Murphy - Musicomh

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