The Inner Mounting Flame  (Audio CD) 
by Mahavishnu Orchestra With John McLaughlin

Equal parts Coltrane, Miles, Cream, and Hendrix, The Inner Mounting Flame was a shot across the bow of pop, a stunning instrumental mix of modern jazz, psychedelic blues, and Indian mysticism. From the opening bell of the title tune, with it's roiling intro, bold cross-rhythms and soaring guitar-violin unisons over a churning 6/4 pulse, this is clearly not your father's Oldsmobile. On furious arrangements such as "The Noonward Race" and "Vital Transformation," you can hear guitarist John Mclaughlin and violinist Jerry Goodman toying with the round-robin, rhythmic/melodic dialogs that defined their live performances, keyed by drummer Billy Cobham's remarkable backbeats swing and keyboardist Jan Hammer's harmonically expanding yet simple vamps. Rick Laird keeps everyone grounded with simple, rocksteady basslines, giving the tricky odd meters and complex blues variations of arrangements such as "Dance of the Maya" a strong rhythmic anchor. Yet the band was also capable of great subtlety, from the supple rhythmic cycles of "You Know, You Know" to the acoustic folk airs of "A Lotus On Irish Streams." --Chip Stern