| ...Of The Two Prophets. "2CD pairing two LPs released by Terry Riley on Kuckuck in 1982 and 1983 respectively. Descending Moonshine Dervishes is actually a live solo performance in Berlin from 1975, where Riley utilizes his signature tape delay device, the 'time lag accumulator', to process improvisations on a Yamaha YC 45D organ, chopped so it can be tuned to just intonation. His works 'Shri Camel', 'Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band', and 'Rainbow in Curved Air' all utilize this device on assorted instruments, but this piece has most in common with the classic 'Persian Surgery Dervishes' (Shandar, 1972) in process and intent. 'Descending...' is dedicated to Guruji a.k.a. Pandit Pran Nath, the masterful Indian vocalist with whom Riley started studying with in 1970, and though this is not a vocal piece, Guruji's influence shines through as it becomes apparent that not only does this music have a pulse, it breathes. With his left hand creating a series of drones, and his right comping on a pre-selected group of scales, it is quite easy to forget what instrument one is listening to after a while. Not as stunning as 'Persian...', this is a fine, fine listen nonetheless. The second disc is a group of three vocal and keyboard pieces (recorded 5/10/1982), with lyrics composed and sung by Riley himself. He rarely sings on his records, and judging from this it's a shame, he's an accomplished Eastern-style vocalist. With that said, the accompanying music played on a Prophet 5 synthesizer is actually a bit tough to take. It has nothing to do with the status quo ante position of 'back to analog', but there is something about this particular keyboard sound that puts me back in my yellow beanbag chair watching Space 1999.That said, it's still worth the price of admission for the first disc..." -- Billy Kiely |