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From The Desk Of Dead Meadow’s Jason Simon: Ali Akbar Khan

JasonSimonLogoOn new album Warble Womb (Xemu), Dead Meadow continues going its own way with a thick, dense sound that includes traces of folk, metal, ’60s rock, swampy blues and murky psychedelia. Hints of Howlin’ Wolf and Neil Young also go drifting through the mix from time to time. The long hours the band puts into its music is evident on every track of Warble Womb, an album that took three years to put together. The songs were shaped in Dead Meadow’s home studio and involved experiments with new sounds and recording techniques. Guitarist Jason Simon will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Dead Meadow feature.

AliAkbarKhan

Simon: Ali Akbar Khan is the master of the sarod, an Indian instrument similar to the sitar but with a timbre closer to that of a guitar. Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar studied together under the tutelage of his father, Allaudin Khan, though I much prefer Akbar’s playing to Shankar’s. I find Akbar to be a good deal more lyrical and moving. I must admit, I’ve pulled all sorts of melodic ideas out of Ali Akbar Khan’s playing over the years for my own use on the guitar. I even took a few months’ worth of classical sarod lessons because of him.

Video after the jump.