Everything about this little known LP from Paradise Lost Records seems just a little off. Shrouded within a facade of mystery, I've been able to discover virtually nothing about Oracle or the album. Even reports and rumors about the Paradise Lost pressing being a re-issue of a 1976 original can not be confirmed, at least by me. However one thing is a certainty... this spin will be amongst the oddest you will ever encounter.
A fervid desire to discover something about Oracle overcame me shortly after I started spinning The Invocation... part one of the three part 25 minute track entitled The Oracle Speaks that comprises Side A of the album. There had to be more than the mere aural ataxia that met the ear. Little was gleaned by examining the front sleeve. However, the back cover was more illuminating... particularly what seemed to be a key to enlightenment:
This key was a Rosetta stone... 3 phrases in English and, presumably, Sanskrit correspondents which indicated the underlying theme for this album might well be ontological in nature:
I honor the light that shines within you } Namaste
God dwells within you, as you } So Ham
There is only one } Ekamsat
After determining the phrases above were indeed Sanskrit, I wondered if the album's title might be as well. It was... and after some rudimentary research, I concluded that "Nataraja Da Nada" symbolized a convergence and/or merging of life forces or energies, both metaphysical and phenomenal, with or into Oracle's music composition. Although I shall, undoubtedly, never ascertain with definitive certainty if any members of Oracle, the imposing Rameshwar in particular, were actually students or active practitioners of eastern religion, philosophy or meditation, I proceeded to examine the album as if they were. However, although I began to ear an Eastern aura when playing The Invocation, I can not state honestly that such harmonic atmosphere permeates the spin. And the lyrics, while maintaining some very slight and tenuous ties to Eastern ontology, can not be mistaken for proselytizing verbiage.
The Proclamation, the second of the troika comprising The Oracle Speaks, seems to start at about the 2:40 mark with searing, acidic guitar licks... in stark contrast to the opening segment. Aptly titled, much of this is, indeed, an Oracle proclamation on the nature of things:
There’s all kinds of people in the world,
But there’s only one family of man.
There’s all kinds of religions in the world,
But there’s only one God
The Oracle Speaks concludes with Don't Hold Your Breath, a psychedelic pronouncement discounting any possibility that disposition and perspective, at least for an Oracle, is subject to change. In other words, don't hold your breath waiting for an Oracle to modify his/her modus vivendi.
Side B, The Awakening, is even less structured and less tame than Side A and sounds like it may suffer from several audio production glitches. Seemingly beginning with an instrumental representation of chaos, the track, and the spin, ends with a quasi philosophical murmuring about beatitude:
And when the day is over…
The soul will be the knower…
the glower…
the shower...
Become the tree of love and light…
Nataraja Da Nada is one perplexing trip.. one that may be praised too readily, without merit, by fans of drug and/or mysticism induced music... but one that may be dismissed too easily by others.
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