This is another album from the ‘70s that I missed at the time. It attracted quite a lot of attention and is now regarded as something of a landmark, which I’d have to say seems justified, although I don’t know a lot about the jazz-rock fusion genre. Landmark or whatever you want to call it, it certainly made John McLaughlin a household name (well, you know what I mean) and it’s an extremely impressive piece of work. For me it’s the sort of thing that produces more amazement at the virtuosity than emotional engagement.. You have five extremely skilled musicians playing with mind-boggling speed and precision, and with a kind of surging energy that makes the title seem appropriate—they often seem to be approaching some sort of ecstacy. “High-energy” was a favored term in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, and as I remember was mostly applied to loud, crude (in every sense), frantic rock bands who were in the end monotonous. But Mahavishnu’s energy is real and focused.
They aren’t always saying a whole lot. McLaughlin in particular sometimes seems to be engaged in speed for the sake of speed, and his playing in the acoustic accompaniment to the one slow lyrical piece, “A Lotus on Irish Streams,” is harsh, bordering on ugly at times. I found myself wishing they had let violinist Jerry Goodman solo more, as his contributions, when not deformed by very ill-advised effects that work well on the electric guitar but sound silly on the violin, provide some of the album’s best moments. Likewise for Jan Hammer’s electric piano—the more he uses effects, especially whatever it is that makes that cartoonish sproingy sound, the more dated and irrelevant he sounds. But these are relatively small flaws in a very rich album.
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Light On Dark Water 
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