John McLaughlin's Floating Point (2008): Selected Reviews and Track 'The Voice'

Given that it is Jazz Fusion Week here on Rock Revival there is one man that we could never miss out and that is John McLaughlin, a pioneer in fusion ever since the heady days of Mahivishnu Orchestra.

His new album Floating Point came out earlier in the year, an incredible album blending electric fusion with Indian musicians as only John does best....the reviews have been impressive

All About Jazz

One of the most fluent, evocative and powerful albums in a career filled with high points, Floating Point works because, just as he's accomplished in his own career, McLaughlin has brought together a group of musicians for whom much of the music is far outside their comfort zone.
It's McLaughlin's very trust in his musicians' adaptability—the very same flexibility that encouraged Miles Davis to tell McLaughlin to play as though he'd never played the instrument before on In a Silent Way—that makes Floating Point so compelling. McLaughlin's Indian friends may not have jazz in their blood the way it is in the guitarist's, but by approaching unmistakably western-informed music (often written, however, with linear themes that could easily translate to a more Indo-centric approach) with an eastern mindset, they make Floating Point an album that, in McLaughlin's lengthy discography, is one of his most successful fusion records, with the term fusion referencing the broadest possible definition.

Abstractlogix

As John relates the Floating Point to the interaction between musicians, it could also apply to the music itself. McLaughlin is a master of merging/blending the music of the East and West, but on Floating Point the method is slightly different. John brings the East and West close together, but he doesn’t let them touch: like the hands in the "Creation of Adam" on the Sistine Chapel. The rhythms of the East serve as a foundation while the harmony of the West is suspended above them; each moving parallel to the other at the same time – and the effect on your senses is startling! Your ears react to the melodies, your body reacts to the rhythms; and your mind has to connect the two. But as Funkadelic rightly put it, "Free your mind...and your ass will follow."

The Guardian



Here is 'The Voice"