My Sleeping Karma, Mela Ananda – Live: Blissful Gathering
It’s now been about 11 years since Bavarian heavy psych outfit My Sleeping Karma made their self-titled debut on Elektrohasch Schallplatten. One can recall getting that album from the label, with its mostly-white cover, its Eastern inflections, and what would turn out to be a nascent version of their approach that subsequently incorporated themes from Hinduism and Buddhism, drop the idea of vocals entirely, and greatly expand the sonic palette overall while remaining vigilantly consistent in its flow. From 2008’s Satya (review here) onward, My Sleeping Karma have become a considerable presence in the European underground because they’ve proven themselves able to foster their sound into something and progressive and individualized without letting that core groove slip away. Their growth can be charted across 2010’s Tri (review here), 2012’s Soma (review here) — which found them releasing through Napalm Records for the first time — and 2015’s Moksha (review here), which pushed them beyond limitations of genre in a way both natural and driven by an underlying consciousness.
But even that happened while My Sleeping Karma sounded like My Sleeping Karma, and as they’ve come into their own over their years, they’ve begun to have an influence on other acts around them, particularly the psych-jam sphere — though to my ears much of what they do has always carried over as more meticulous in tone and structure, however based in jams it might initially be. As such, a live album is probably overdue, and the arrival of Mela Ananda – Live via Napalm is most welcome in how it provides a glimpse of what the experience might be like of watching them play — sadly and more than a bit to my shame, I’ve never had the chance to do so — and how it spans their catalog to highlight their evolution. Unsurprisingly, it flows like mad.
Accompanied in its digipak form by a bonus DVD of the band’s Rockpalast performance, Mela Ananda – Live rightly keeps Moksha in focus. The cover art by Sebastian Jerke alludes to that album as well with a return of the horn-throwing Ganesha that appeared on its front, though the position of that character on a stage with a band before a crowd of freaks and aliens also speaks directly to the idea of performance and the title here, which reportedly translates to “a gathering of bliss.” Fair enough for the four-piece of guitarist Seppi, bassist Matte, drummer Steffen and keyboardist Norman, who’ve made spiritualism and the exploration thereof through music central to My Sleeping Karma since they first set out on their path, but Mela Ananda – Live also gives the band a showcase to let their audience realize how steady their output has been over the last decade-plus.
I don’t know if it’s comprised of one recorded evening-with or multiple gigs, but the 10-song/69-minute offering would seem to find them at the top of their game — at least to-date. As Moksha opener “Prithvi” begins here, they construct a momentum that carries through the set with a fluidity that’s striking in how akin it is to their studio work. Because their tones have always been so smooth, and have only grown more so over time, it wouldn’t seem unreasonable to think they’d have a harsher edge in a live setting, but though “23 Enigma” from the self-titled — here listed as “Enigma 42” — builds to a weightier thrust as closer “Hymn 72” from the same record also will at the end of the show, both it and “Glow 11” — which follows and appeared on the self-titled as well as Soma — demonstrate the patience that has emerged in My Sleeping Karma‘s aesthetic.
Their delivery is energetic and all the more able to hold the crowd rapt for that, but they don’t lose sight of the immersive aspects of what they do either; the entrancing way in which the bass sets the foundation for the guitar and keys in the memorable “Ephedra,” or how Tri opener “Brahama” so gracefully unfolds its peaks and valleys. “Vayu” and “Akasha” represent Moksha well back to back, and the turns that follow into “Brahama,” “Psilocybe” (from Soma) and the penultimate “Tamas” (from Tri) bask in the molten naturalism that has become, in many ways, the defining hallmark of My Sleeping Karma around which their evolution has taken place.
Granted, this probably shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s followed them for a stretch of time, but being their first live recording, it’s a new context in which to hear their songs interact with each other. Even “Hymn 72,” which follows the band thanking the audience (off-mic) and seemingly coming back out for an encore, doesn’t feel out of place with its more hurried, straightforward push. My Sleeping Karma may have developed considerably since the self-titled was released, but while Moksha and Soma were more progressive in their outward impression and that seems to be the direction they’ll keep moving, there’s further emphasis in Mela Ananda – Live of just how essential their beginning was in making that happen.
They’ve proven over the last 10 years to be one of Europe’s most forward-thinking heavy psych bands, and gained plenty of due acclaim as a result, so even if one wants to level the live-album-as-fan-piece accusation at this release, it seems to me to be well earned on their part both in celebration of what they’ve accomplished to this point and as a representation of how they view their own material, which only deepens the understanding of the listener in kind. One doesn’t necessarily want to venture a solid guess at what might come next from them, but if Mela Ananda – Live makes anything plain, it’s how signature My Sleeping Karma‘s sound is, and how committed they are to evolving it with sincerity, atmosphere and a continuing sense of adventure.
My Sleeping Karma, Mela Ananda – Live album trailer
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Tags: Aschaffenburg, Germany, Mela Ananda Live, My Sleeping Karma, My Sleeping Karma Mela Ananda Live, Napalm Records
