I always suspected that Mali Sastri had some sort of supernatural powers, but her take on “Coventry Carol” leaves no doubt, as Sastri’s enchanting vocals create enough of their own magic to fuel any mystical holiday night. While I have never seen the Northern Lights, I imagine that they might sound like this if you could plug your headphones into them. Sastri paints the minor suspensions of this ancient melody with piercing color and wonder. Not whimsy, mind you – wonder.

Continue reading “Boston Band Crush ~ C.D. on Songs: Annual Crushmas Pageant 12/2011”

Continue reading “METRONOME 1/2011”

Much has already been written about [Mali] Sastri’s uncanny vocal range, but her theatricality proved equally impressive. Her disposition switched from new-age songbird to woman scorned to woodland fairy to blood-thirsty werewolf to sultry lounge singer according to the mood of the music.

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GENRE | COOL, COLLECTIVE CREEPINESS

VERDICT | AMBITIOUS AND EERIE

Upon a Penumbra isn’t your typical 10-track album, and Jaggery is not a typical band.

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“Although zillions of bands either experiment too much or just tell people they experiment too much, Jaggery exist as sonic liquid that fills numerous pigeonholes. Forged with restrained jazz drums, elevated strings, piano and harp rippling like rain on a windshield, and a smidgen of world-music accompaniment, Upon a Penumbra is more a series of unsettling mediæval lullabies than anything you could call art rock. As she bounds and soars from fragile murmurs to smirking indignation to full-on operatic wailing, Sastri keeps everything safely distant from easy-listening territory. I can’t envision Enya spitting the serrated despair Sastri conjures on ‘Paucity City.'”