It turns out progressive rock and Indian classical music really fit together quite naturally, as both genres share a fondness for spiralling scalar figures in unison, and long pieces culminating in 'shredding' solos with ever increasing displays of technicality.  All musicians involved are clearly interested in pushing the mastery of their craft to '11', not only with speed and complexity but with the variety and expression of their melodic content.  This is an ambitious recording that clearly took a massive amount of work to create.

The album is filled with rich and unconventional timbres, mostly clean/acoustic with a sprinkling of electric guitar.  Jason Everett's bass is a 7 string, and Trey Gunn's warr guitar has a bright, loose 'twang' which I initially mistook for a sitar.  The entirety of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra is included on "Mysterious World", and at least 10 other musicians are credited in the liner notes as well.  Strings appear not only on "Mysterious World", but throughout the album.  I hear an electric violin in several places, a haunting siren sound which remains underused to this day.

In addition to powerful and fluent odd-metered drumming, Selvaganesh provides scatting and chanting that furthur anchor his rock solid pulse.  His hand drum beats are additionally accented with a drum set.  It's a very thick rhythm section, and the kind of odd-metered music you can really feel, and start to count along to yourself.  Accents are everything, and they are clearly felt here.

Jawdropping bassist Jason Everett really steals the show, with agile and extremely technical arpeggiated playing.  In his hands, bass guitar is a lead melodic instrument, and he thoroughly explores the beautifully pure higher registers of the instrument.  He can pluck with sharp aggression as well, and his dynamic solo in "Resolve" is a powerful emotional moment.  Gunn follows with some Ribot-esque surf shred in this mammoth 9 minute highlight of a track.
Among the most interesting moments are the flamenco tinged folk of the fully acoustic "Zyryab (Paco de Lucia)", the initial 3 part suite of "Moksha", which is at points indistinguishable from traditional Indian music, and the droning post rock expansiveness of "Grapes for Khan".

The Deep Energy Orchestra has accomplished an ambitious synthesis of traditional Indian and western prog rock / jazz fusion, even surpassing all previous attempts in my eyes with their elegant fluency and expressive tunefulness.  In these musicians' skilled hands, genres and styles are seamlessly united into a soul stirring, intensely intricate cavalcade of melody.  Special mention goes to Jason Everett, who must be one of the greatest bassists on Earth.  I would hope such a recording would be able to stir something in just about any listener.  Truly, one of the best albums I have ever heard.