A great bit of jungle exotica from funky sitar player Ananda Shankar – composed as a full piece with an "atmosphere of twilight and the feeling of watching animals at a water hole", but with a sweeping soundtracky feel that makes it more like some lost 70s film gem in the best places! There's some nicely subdued funk in the mix – as Ananda's sitar grooves over guitars, keyboards, and compressed bass and drum parts, occasionally touched with modern exotica styles, as in the work of Mandingo. Titles include "Night In The Forest", "Jungle King", "Jungle Symphony", "Sa Ra Ga Machan", "Romantic Rhino", "Charging Tiger", and "Monkey's Tea Party". LP, Vinyl record album

A double-length set of work from funky sitar player Ananda Shankar – and a collection that features 2 of his lesser-known albums from the 70s! Musical Discovery of India is a 70s musical tour of Shankar's homeland – performed with his sitar in the lead, and some very sweet soundtrack-style orchestrations in the back!! The style's a bit less funky than before, but still extremely evocative – as it blends Indian styles of instrumentation with more western approaches to soundtrack scoring and a bit of post-colonial travelogue! Titles include "Discovery Of India", "Akbar's Jewels", "Namaskar", "Kaziranga Beat", and "The Hill Train". Next up is Sa Re Ga Machan – a great bit of jungle exotica, composed as a full piece with an "atmosphere of twilight and the feeling of watching animals at a water hole" – but recorded with a sweeping soundtracky feel that makes it more like some lost 70s film gem in the best places! There's some nicely subdued funk in the mix – as Ananda's sitar grooves over guitars, keyboards, and compressed bass and drum parts, occasionally touched with modern exotica styles, as in the work of Mandingo. Titles include "Night In The Forest", "Jungle King", "Jungle Symphony", "Sa Ra Ga Machan", "Romantic Rhino", "Charging Tiger", and "Monkey's Tea Party". CD

The funky sitar of Ananada Shankar – recorded in the 80s, but with all the brilliance of his 70s work! Like his other great albums, the production's a mix of soundtrack and funky instrumental styles with more traditional Indian ones – and the bulk of the set comes off sounding like some lost Bollywood score from the 70s – funky and spacey at the bottom, without as much of the clunky styles that you might expect from the cheesy 80s image on the cover. The set includes the long mellow tune "2001", plus shorter groovier numbers that include "Planet X", "Flights Of Fantasy", "Universal Magic", "The Voyager", "Vibrations", and "Explorations". LP, Vinyl record album

Swirling psychedelia from the late 60s & early 70s – raga inflected soundscapes featuring the sitar – and a plethora of other mind-altering instrumentation in the psych pop canon! Many of the tunes are kind of sole examples of a psychedelic combo trying out the sitar sound, while others feature regular dabblers – but it's all groovy stuff. Features acts from the UK and US scenes, with the Mecki Mark Men, Moonkyte, Full Moon Band, the comparably iconic Ananda Shankar, and much more! Titles include "Free" by Mecki Mark Men, "Caves Of Her Mind" by Stunt's Blue Leg Expedition, "I Know What To Say" by The Ugly Ducklings, "Where Will The Grass Grow" by Moonkyte, "Prayer To St Peter" by Nick Carter, "Renunciation" by Ananda Shanker, "One Grain Of Sand" by Wizz Jones, "The Shoemaker Of Leatherwear Square" by Lemon Pipers, "Aurore Cosmic" by Popera Cosmic and more. 20 tracks in all. CD