''Jesus East'' is the second album by

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

electronica band

Black Cab A hackney or hackney carriage (also called a cab, black cab, hack or taxi) is a carriage or car for hire. A hackney of a more expensive or high class was called a remise. A symbol of London and Britain, the black taxi is a common sight on t ...

, released in 2006. The album was described as "sitar-drenched, blending Indian instruments (looped and droning) with driving rock’n’roll and country guitar stylings". Band member Andrew Coates explained: "The album's two musical signposts are the Beatles' sitar-drenched "

Tomorrow Never Knows "Tomorrow Never Knows" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written primarily by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released in August 1966 as the final track on their album ''Revolver'', although it was the firs ...

" and German Krautrock duo

Neu! Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plank, w ...

. We kind of had this theme which was

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...

goes to an ashram in India and comes back to Germany via the autobahn. It really was the rough idea of what we were trying to do music-wise, and everything came from there." The album included a spoken-word section by former

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

tour manager

Sam Cutler Sam Cutler (born Brendan Lawrence Lyons; 10 March 1943 – 11 July 2023) was an English tour manager for The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, and other acts. Early life and career Cutler was born on 10 March 1943. He was an Honours Graduate in Co ...

, whose voice had also appeared on the band's previous album, '' Altamont Diary'' in soundbites taken from a documentary film about the ill-fated 1969 free concert at

Altamont Speedway Altamont Raceway Park is a motorsports race track in the western United States, located in northern California, west of Tracy. It opened on July 22, 1966, and operated under the names Altamont Speedway, Altamont Raceway, Altamont Motorsports ...

in California headlined by the Stones. "You have to remember we were 'celebrating' the biggest bummer of his life, a period he’d consigned to history," band member Andrew Coates told the mess+noise website. "But he was coming down to Victoria for the Rainbow Serpent festival so we arranged to meet up." Cutler agreed to contribute a spoken-word piece to the ''Jesus East'' album, which was then in production. "It was like a bad interview," guitarist James Lee recalled. "We were coaxing him, but it was going nowhere. So we put the backing track loops on, gave him the mic again, and he did it all in one take." Mess+noise reported: "The result was 'Valiant', the second-last track on ''Jesus East''. In it, Cutler—now in his mid-60s—reminisces about the glory days of the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

entourage (famously known as 'Deadheads'): their unity, sense of shared spirit and open-mindedness. He also expresses his disillusion about today’s music scene. 'Nowadays, it doesn’t feel to me like there’s that community of spirit when I go to music shows. For a start, everyone’s doing different drugs,' he laments. Towards the end of the piece Cutler advises 'young people today' to 'go for what is real ... look at your own heart and your own spirit ... follow your own master'. The song polarises Cab fans, says Coates. 'Some people really hate that song, some geezer raving about the Grateful Dead ... They’re like, 'Who is he?' "

Track listing

(all songs by Andrew Coates, James Lee) # "Hearts on Fire" — 6:09 # "Jesus East" — 4:14 # "Another Sun" — 5:27 # "Underground Star" — 3:18 # "13 Days" — 6:34 # "Surrender" — 4:08 # "Randy Sez" — 1:57 # "Simple Plan" — 3:24 # "Valiant" — 7:02 # "The Path" — 4:51

Personnel

* James Lee — guitars * Andrew Coates — vocals, arrangements, programming

Additional musicians

* Anthony Paine — bass * Richard Andrew — drums * Alex Jarvis — guitars * Ashley Naylor —guitars * Steve Law — keys *

— spoken word ("Valiant") * Hermant Kumar — tablas * Rudhey Gupta — sitar * Sayaka Yabuki — vocals ("13 Days")

References

{{Authority control 2006 albums Black Cab (band) albums