"Rasa Bhava" --originally released in 1996 on the late, un-lamented Silent Records-- was the debut album by MAKYO, a stunning concoction of eastern motifs and ambient dub. "Rasa Bhava" was a seminal release in the marriage of meditative Indian sounds such as veena, tabla, and tamboura, with the hypnotic possibilities of tape loops, dub trickery, and ambient soundscapes.

Recorded between 1994-1995, "Rasa Bhava" sat in SILENT's offices for a year as a buzz grew over the few MAKYO releases that had popped up, like the powerful Hindustani hip-hop groove of "dakini" on Planet Dog's Feed Your Head. At the last minute, a track was dropped to make room for Bill Laswell's powerful re-mix of "devabhanda", a 12-minute ode to a tantric sexual position. All things come full circle: it was Laswell, with Material and their track "Mantra", which had inspired the MAKYO project in the early days --now Laswell was re-sampling that track in his remix of MAKYO.

"Rasa Bhava", has been praised by Raygun, Lotus, BPM, Muzik, Mixmag, XLR8R, Keyboard, and CMJ. As Lotus reviewer DJ Eli Star called it; "non-stop exotic bliss."

The album was finally re-released on UK ambient-dub label Entropica in late '99, where despite the passage of three years, two pressings quickly sold out.

Trance states induced by music can be found amongst many cultures, but most are sacred in nature, closely connected to religion and ritual. Among the Arabs, however, there is a form of trance that exists outside the religious context, produced entirely by music: this is called TARAB.In much of the Arab world, music and TARAB have become so inseparable that TARAB has taken on the meaning of music as a whole.

The physical manifestations of TARAB are fainting, loss of consciousness, frenzy, crying out, and tearing one's clothes. In extreme cases, TARAB can also lead to madness and death.

TARAB comes from the word tariba, which means "to be moved, agitated", or, alternately, "to want to move, become excited". Thus, a singer like Oum Kulsoum is referred to as a mutriba, "she who moves people", and it was common for people who listen to her to be seized by TARAB.

In Iraq, village drummers who enter into TARAB, climax their performance by smashing their drums on their own heads. Which is the origin of the term "Breakbeat".

Salasvati is the Godess of Music in the Hindu tradition---always pictured with a Veena, with four arms, one can imagine she plays it fairly well. Brahman (the God-head) created Salasvati from his own body, but was soon possessed by the beauty of his daughter. Wishing to avoid the lecherous eye of Brahman, Salasvati often tried to escape. Brahman prevented this by growing 3 new faces to be able to look in all directions at once. When Salasvati tried to escape upwords into the heavens, Brahman grew another face on top of his head. Eventually, Salasvati relented and became the bride of Brahman.

"Devabandha" refers to a certain tantric sexual position---the man lies sprawled across the woman, both with their arms & legs extended, her breasts stabbing his chest. Recommended
Tantra is one of few religious traditions to recognise that the spiritual and the sexual are linked, not in opposition.

A giant, black, terrifying god, drinking frothy blood from skulls.
Invoked in tantric ceremonies to exterminate evil spirits.
This piece was inspired by a mandala in which Mahakala appeared---we attempted to interpret the mandala's structure into a musical form.

Sunset beach, Koh Phanghan, Thailand. Second only to Goa on the Asian trance circuit.
Very free and open, just be sure to avoid it during the Full Moon, when it's invaded by tourists from nearby Koh Samui and LOTS of cops.
Any other time of month, it's laid-back, full of fun for trancers. Be sure to check out HARMONY,
the house on the hill, for those looking to chill. Ravers should stay on Sunrise Beach while chillers should stay at Sunset, or the isolated beach at Leela.
Sunsets here are the most beautiful I've ever seen.
We have yet to discover words or music capable of expressing this beauty, but "Drifting" is an attempt...