ARTIST: Padma
TITLE: Here
LABEL: Just Music
GENRE: Rock
BITRATE: 176kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 48m total
RELEASE DATE: 2008-06-02
RIP DATE: 2008-07-22
URL: http://www.myspace.com/padmamusic
Track List
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1. Half A Person 2:53
2. Spacefood And Balloons 3:41
3. Pilot 3:29
4. Song For An Entryphone 4:46
5. I Don't Think So 2:54
6. Throw My Drugs Away 3:52
7. Waiting For Dolma 5:03
8. Dawn 2:39
9. Funny 2:08
10. Ballad Of G And Eva 3:18
11. All The Fish 2:38
12. When You Don't Really Like 2:24
Yourself
13. Firelight Dance 2:48
14. Budda Energy 5:41
Release Notes:
'Here' is as musically straightforward as its title suggests. For Padma is a man
of few airs and graces, with no false gestures or emotions on show at any point
in this record.
Emotional depth is here in abundance, however, and there is a deep seated blend
of melancholy and contentment running through both music and lyrics. The
contentment seems to come from the author's survival of a brain haemorrhage
three years ago, though he maintains in his blog this hasn't changed his overall
view of life.
This album could well have been called 'Home', were it not for Padma's frequent
travelling and nomadic lifestyle. So home is where he is at the moment, and when
you listen to the record it feels like he's in the same room with you.
The lyrics are well-crafted, wry, and at times deeply affecting, spun over a
simple accompaniment that often comprises just the guitar, with occasional
backing vocals and spatial effects. It deviates little from this format, but
given the approach doesn't need to. Only in Buddha Energy is there a real group
of people present, the final chorus given a communal feel.
Single Spacefood And Balloons is lyrically entertaining, though there are gems
elsewhere. "If the world was a nicer place, well I'd throw my drugs away", he
sings. Or, on Pilot, comes the sort of lyric that makes you reach for the rewind
function, when he sings "didn't you notice, I've been lying here with high
heeled sneakers on". More profound is the opening Half A Person, a softly spoken
memorial that observes, "when you were here I thought I was so strong, now
you're gone...it's so wrong."
The album works on two levels - first as very pleasant, calming background music
to start or finish the day two - or second as a set of well-versed observations
on life and its emotions. If you can make the time for it, the rewards are
plenty.
About the artist:
Padma is a UK-based singer-songwriter, signed to Just Music. He hails from a small suburban town near Sheffield in the North of England. He has been a practising Buddhist for over 10 years and at one time intended to spend his life as part of a Buddhist Order. In the end it was his inability to cope with that exact thing – order – that led to him going his own way, choosing instead the path of the artist.
Armed with a tent, rucksack, and sleeping bag, and inspired by the writings of Jack Kerouac, Zen poetry, and Eastern philosophy, Padma hitched around England, Scotland and France. He slept in woods, by the side of the road, and on friends’ floors. During this period he wrote extensively, often by the side of the road, or under a tree, sheltering from the rain.
It is common for committed Buddhists to take Buddhist names, and for that name to be both a goal and the path to it. ‘Padma’ means ‘lotus’. Beginning its life in the mud at the bottom of the pond, the lotus intuitively finds its way to the sunlight, where it opens out its petals and celebrates. It’s about integrating the spiritual life with the realties of life, and not getting caught up in being too ‘spiritual’ – at least not in any false way. It’s also about trusting that you naturally know your way – a lotus doesn’t need a map to find the water’s surface.
Padma’s music speaks both of the mud and the sky – both the gutter and the stars. His lyrics are very personal, but through drawing on personal experiences and observations, Padma often makes a wider philosophical or political point.
In 2005 Padma suffered a near-fatal brain haemorrhage, followed by emergency brain surgery. As soon as he was well enough, he packed up, left London, and headed for the hills. When he’s not in the UK performing or recording, Padma now lives in a yurt in the Spanish Pyrennes.
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