Musician Reveiws

Korma

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/7/korma.htm

The music of Korma rewards the listener on multiple planes. Along side the spiritual message of Korma there is the sensory delight of hearing eclectic instrumentation which is masterfully highlighted in the pleasant context of complex world rhythms. A plethora of ethnic instruments are featured in such a way that no particular instrument, sound, or rhythm seems to be over stated. Although Korma's signature sound is definitely Reggae the palette of musical influences coloring their sound is rich enough to produce a unique and broadly appealing style of music. The vocals of Wallace Pryor and Dan Bayne aptly compliment the world ambience which Korma creates. Their voices seem to add a prophetic edge and urgency to the religious message of their songs.

In the CreatorsWeb interview below, Wallace Pryor, mentions that Korma does not perform in live venues. Instead the group primarily sticks to the studio. Although this recording emphasis does serve to produce a deeply layered sound that is aurally intoxicating, one can't help but feel that Korma has a sound and message that could captivate a live audience in the proper setting. Be sure to check out Korma at http://www.soundclick.com/korma

The music I write for Korma is kind of a mixture of different kinds of world music, including my bluegrass background. I'm planning on recording some fairly straight fiddle and mandolin instrumentals in the style of American and Irish traditional
music sometime in the near future. Murder City Players does covers of Jamaican styles such as Reggae, Ska, Rock Steady and Dancehall. We also have two song writers, and the original stuff is based on those styles.

My Korma music, for the most part, targets people who belong to the same religion I do: the Baha'i Faith. I deliberately tried to be a little harder edged than a lot of other Baha'i Music, so some Baha'is wouldn't really like what I'm doing. I also try to bring up issues that people may not be comfortable with or care about. I have a few protest type songs; "Food Fascist" is the only song about genetic engineering of food that I have ever heard. I would like to reach people who are protesting those kinds of things, but I haven't really been able to do that as yet.

Murder City Players has played in some really nice nightclubs here in St. Louis. I wish I could have done as well for my own band. Korma has become a studio thing, a band that doesn't really perform live anymore. We had fun when we played for Baha'i audiences, but Korma didn't really work very well as a club band in St. Louis. People don't understand what we are doing for the most part.

Stringed instruments, mostly--guitar, mandolin, violin, bass. Other stringed instruments I have played for
recording are viola, tambora (Indian droning strings), bouzouki (Greek mandolin-like instrument, but an octave lower), 5-string banjo (I'm trying to learn). Other instruments include harmonium (Indian keyboard), melodica (kind of a harmonica with a keyboard), shanai (Indian oboe), punghi (Indian snake charmer's flute). I've dabbled with percussion, mostly Indian and
Middle Eastern stuff--tablas, duffli, dhumbek.

When I play with Murder CIty Players, I play a Fender Stratocaster through a Rivera amplifier

I do record with my own 4 track equipment at home, but I haven't got the hang of transferring analog to digital. Mostly, I try to work with professional and semi-professional recording engineers who have better equipment and know more about it than I do.

My mother played the piano, my grandfather played mandolin, guitar, concertina and other stuff. I started playing guitar when I was about 8 or 9.

Hard to say. The first stuff I really got into was Simon and Garfunkel, then Bob Dylan, then The Beatles. I was really interested in bluegrass and American folk music for many years. I got interested in reggae in the 1980s. I don't care very much about pop music. I like to experiment with different genres and say things that are on my mind. With Murder City Players, I try to play guitar in a late 60s early 70s Jamaican Rock Steady/Ready style, so I listen to recordings by guitar players like Lynn Tait, Hux Brown, Ernest Ranglin. A lot of those old Jamaican records don't have full credits for all of the musicians, though, so I often don't know who I'm listening to.

I've been able to build friendships with people all over the world, which is just amazing.

Late 2000 or early 2001. I wasn't really interested in the Internet until my brother
introduce me to Mp3.com.

To tell the truth, I have no idea. I've had the most success with buying my own Korma CDs from the Internet and selling them in my home town. Mostly Baha'is buy them. There is a web site, RadioNur.com, that concentrates on Baha'i music. I would like to sell my CDs through them, but I haven't got all the details worked out as yet.

Keep playing with Murder City Players, keep recording my own stuff with Korma and as a solo
instrumentalist for the bluegrassy stuff

I think of myself as an individualist. I think self-expression is the most important thing. I would rather write music that I love and everyone else hates than to try to figure out what other people want. I really like using scales, modes and dissonant harmonic expressions here and there. This can really vibe some people out, but that's okay. Being true to myself is very
important to me. If I could do that and be successful, that would be wonderful, of course. The Beatles were able to express themselves in weird ways, with George Martin's help, and people still loved them. I wish that could happen for my music, but the odds are certainly against it.