There is no escaping that Dhani looks exactly like his late father, George Harrison. Furthermore, Dhani’s vocals are also identical. Footage of Dhani covering his father’s songs is haunting. This may explain why Dhani has until now been only involved in bands with “faceless” entities and why none of his bands has ever been called “Dhani Harrison and the Uncles”. It is not common knowledge that Dhani has had success in bands such as The New No. 2, where among other projects, he composed the soundtrack to Beautiful Creatures. Another side project, Fistful of Mercy, with Ben Harper, was named “One of the Best Side Projects of 2010”.
As Dhani Harrison is entering the limelight, it would be very easy for him to borrow samples from Ravi Shankar’s ragas, his father’s psychedelic-inspired gems, such as Love to You and George’s classic guitar riffs, such as Revolver’s opener, Taxman to name a few. George’s musical inspirations are virtually undetectable on IN///PARALLEL, which very brave and extremely risky. The question is: was it also downright stupid? George was an outstanding musicologist who knew which musical arrangements galvanised his vocals.
IN///PARALLEL opens with Never Know, a haunting soundtrack on its own with beautiful string arrangements. You feel you have a Birdseye view to a dystopian yet still hopeful universe. There are influences from Jeff Lynne’s, War of the Worlds; however, ownership is solely Dhani’s. The majority of the rest of the album (with the exception of Admiral of Upside down), has far more electronic influences. This is immediately noticeable on track two, War on False. The haunting feelings grow more intense. The best cuts of Massive Attack and Portishead find a home here.
Standout tracks include Úlfur Resurrection, seven and a half minutes of electronic fuelled room 101 intensity with added fearsome electronic guitar overtones. London Water offers you the vision of a post-battle scene. There is pain and suffering, you feel uncomfortable looking but over the course of eight minutes are drawn closer and closer and won’t want to look away. Mereki provides a beautiful and disturbing vocal contribution adding to the track’s intensity. The guitars are even scarier. Mereki also features on Poseidon (Keep Me Safe); which maintains the terrifying momentum. IN///PARALLEL also has some relatively sanguine moments with Downtown Tigers. The easiest songs to digest, easy being a misleading word, are Summertime Police, All About Waiting and playout track, Admiral of Upside down, the most organic and stripped down song on the album. Every track will nonetheless give your emotions an intense workout and put your musical taste buds into a frenzy.
IN///PARALLEL is not an album engineered for mainstream success with Radio 1 or Capital FM ready singles. It cannot be appreciated if instant upbeat gratification is sought. Nonetheless, with almost one hour’s worth of music across just ten tracks; there is no waste. Dhani Harrison demonstrates that the traditional concept of making an album as opposed to focusing on individual tracks produces the greatest album results. IN///PARALLEL has been Dhani’s attempt to demonstrate his ability at producing world-class arrangements. IN///PARALLEL proves Dhani Harrison is as skilled as George Martin, has his own unique sound and identity and can hold his own.
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