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Artist: The Orient Express
Title: The Orient Express
Label: Golden Reborn Classics
Catalogue: GRC 004
Date: 1996
Country: Germany
Style: Psychedelic

Tracklisting:
1. Fruit Of The Desert (2:54)
2. Dance For Me (2:47)
3. Layla (3:39)
4. Birds Of India (3:49)
5. Train To Bombay (2:51)
6. Caravan Of Silk (2:42)
7. Azaar (4:31)
8. For A Moment (2:07)
9. Impulse (42 Drums) (4:48)
10. A Little Star (2:26)
11. Cobra Fever (2:27)

We'd never come across Orient Express before, one of the rare rock-oriented acts on the Mainsteam jazz label in the late 60s and 70s -- but after a spin of this super rare hybrid of heavy psychedelic rock, HUGE percussion and electric Eastern string effects we're hooked! The group mixes heavy use of the electric sitar Danelectro started producing at the time, layering it with equally trippy turns on electric oud, melodica and minitar. It's full of heavy tribal percussive pounding, and good old fashioned hard rock -- which makes for one of the trippiest arse whompins' we've had in a while! Amazing stuff, especially if you're willing to indulge a nice big dose of heavy psych rock along with your big drum breaks and beats. The Eastern vibe seems to more or less be a shtick with these guys -- which would be annoying ONLY if the results weren't so hot!

The Orient Express' sole LP from 1969 stands today as an early experiment in world fusion — and a pretty successful one at that, at least artistically. Guitarist Guy Duris is a Frenchman who became enamored with the oud, a classical Arabian guitar. Belgian Bruno Giet is a bass player with a rock background. Iranian Farshid Golesorkhi is an award-winning percussionist in the Persian tradition. As a trio, they only left 35 minutes for posterity, but these minutes are filled with interesting ideas and kitschy songs, all originals. All three men sing in English, with an accent so thick most lyrics become undecipherable (and, from the bits you can make out, they don't seem worth deciphering), but the songs are quite good and very positive: "Dance with Me" features greatly ornamented vocals Arab-style, while "A Little Star" and "For a Moment" are straightforward pop songs of their time, albeit with dumbek battling the drum kit for percussive prominence, and sitar providing a background texture. Duris and Golesorkhi get solo features ("Layla" and "Impulse (Forty-Two Drums)" respectively), and "Azaar" is a canon song. The other tracks are instrumentals ranging from Indian-tinged psychedelic tunes to crosses between French pop and Middle-Eastern classical music. The Orient Express uses a lot of the clichйs associated with Middle-Eastern music, except that these were not clichй yet back in 1969 and they are being used here in good faith. It explains why this LP still sounds fresh and exciting today.