Reviewed by Ian Hayter

40 years after The Beatles and 30 years after Garth Hewitt, America's Caedmon's Call have discovered India and its music. This jewel of an album is packed with the sounds and atmosphere of India (apart from, curiously, a couple of brief excursions to Ecuador on the beautiful "All I Need (I Did Not Catch Her Name)" and "Volcanoland"). The title of the album (and opening track) refers to the plight of India's Dalits - the lower caste untouchables who are forbidden even to share the wells of their more privileged neighbours - and there is a strong theme of social justice to the set. (Possibly for their American target audience for whom "social justice" is still pretty close to communism, the band state in their liner notes that it's not actually a call for social justice but "in the end, it's a call to evangelism"). What of the music, though? Well, it's very good indeed. There is plenty of energetic Indian drumming thumping along under the excellent arrangements and the insightful lyrics. The song "There's Only One (Holy One)" is a wonderfully uplifting song of worship, in the style that the band have really made their own on recent albums. And there are samples a-plenty of Indian singers and musicians (and some Latin Americans) melded into the songs à la Paul Simon. In fact, "Bombay Rain" sounds remarkably like some of Simon's 'Graceland' period music. If you're interested in the plight of the Dalits, then Garth Hewitt and friends have done it better, really, but this is a fine album musically and the disc is, of course, enhanced, with a video and plenty of other information about the music and the issues. Well worth the money.

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