Hive

Gamelan Madu Sari have been operating out of Vancouver for nearly a quarter of a century, ever since a Javanese gamelan ensemble came to town for Expo 86 and fetched up at the city's Simon Fraser University This, their second CD (on a record label that is no relation to this magazine), shows them to be an ambitious, accomplished, and brave group; about half of the tracks are taken from a performance mixing live shadow puppetry and digital effects that the group performed in Java in 2007, which is a bit like delivering coal to a Newcastle pit.

On the evidence of Hive, Madu Sari are at their best when mixing Javanese elements with ideas and instruments from elsewhere, Egyptian rhythms and texts from Shakespeare, courtesy of a setting of words from The Tempest by the English composer Alec Roth, are deployed to fine effect, whereas the weakest tracks are those closest to traditional forms. That includes the opener ‘Ganjil’, which doodles around for ten minutes without ever quite achieving lift-off.

Most of this disc, though, is great The most successful, all composed by members of the group, are the hypnotic instrumental ‘Symmetries’, which mixes ideas from gamelan and bell-ringing, and ‘Bonessongs’ and ‘From Heaven To Earth’, both of which overlay the gamelan with sweet folky vocals and unusual lyrics – ‘no more hot biscuits/from supernova kitchens’ – that walk the fine line between charming and dippy. If you like any combination of world music, electronica or contemporary classical, you'll find something here to enjoy