43 years passed between English post-punk group
Essential Logic's 1979 debut
Beat Rhythm News: Waddle Ya Play? and
Land of Kali, the next album-length release of new studio material to bear the band's name. Founder/leader
Lora Logic was anything but musically dormant during those decades, and her presence is so unique that even the passing of that much time can't dim the personality and odd charm exhibited on these songs.
Land of Kali opens with "Prayer for Peace," a reworking of a tune from
X-Ray Spex's 1995 comeback bid
Conscious Consumer.
Logic and her friend
Poly Styrene co-founded
X-Ray Spex as teenage punks, and by the early '80s both were deeply involved in a Hare Krishna organization. Both worked on the original rendition of "Prayer for Peace" and the
Essential Logic version ties Krishna chants into its even-keeled groove.
Logic's energetic sax playing shows up on many tunes here, adding the same accents of fun and curiosity to smooth and synthy moments like "Alien Boys" as it did to the band's more jagged early material. Co-production from
Youth makes
Land of Kali anything but jagged, with a lot of tracks in the midsection leaning into deep dub bass, slick electronics, and moments where
Logic's perpetually punk sensibilities meet R&B undercurrents. The title track is marked by bright and busy horn sections, and "Sky Rocket" (a song written with
Logic's daughter Malini) ponders mortality and spirituality over a slinky, high gloss instrumental. Listeners expecting new revisions of "Aerosol Burns" will be disappointed by
Land of Kali's lack of chaos. However, those who have been paying attention to her abundant depth will appreciate the album as another chapter in
Logic's ongoing evolution, one that celebrates her ability to be strange, mercurial, and refined all at the same time. ~ Fred Thomas
