Collegiate Times

“Violet Flame” by Michael Collins 

Released: Oct. 15, 2011

Once a member of the transcendent psychedelic group Prince Rama with sisters Taraka and Nimai Larson, Michael Collins was involved in the first four albums the band released. 

He has now set off to make music on his own. Since his departure, Collins has been performing under various names, including Michael Collins Master of Ceremonies and MC2.

“Violet Flame” marks his first album as a solo act, releasing it himself on Bandcamp as well as selling cassette tape versions of the record at his live shows.

In terms of actual musical style, the songs Collins makes now are at times significantly different from those he helped Prince Rama record. 

“Violet Flame” as a whole has very strong 80s post-punk influences throughout, most notably in the droning, baritone vocals. 

On that point, it would not be hard to imagine many people being turned off by Collins’ voice. 

It’s deep and can sound put on at times, but once you accept the context of the record, you can get past the stranger qualities of his voice and get into the song in its entirety. 

At times Collins voice even sounds reminiscent of lo-fi synthpop contemporary John Maus’ deep, reverberant vocals.

The fact that you can sometimes actually understand what Collins is singing is a major departure from Prince Rama, who usually sings their mantra-like lyrics in a mythical, other-worldly language. 

Songs such as “Like This Before” and “Helpless (You Took My Love)” are nearly traditional pop songs, especially the latter, which is a cover of a song by 80s girl group The Flirts.

While Collins may be following a slightly different path than his former bandmates, his past affiliations with the Larson sisters and the Hare Krishna community still play a role in his
music. 

His album is tagged as “New Age” on his Bandcamp page and two of his songs (“Radhika Stava” and “Radha Ramana”) are essentially Krishna hymns. 

Neither of these songs feature easily understood lyrics, but they are still interesting to listen to, if only for the backing instrumentation.

That being said, the music of “Violet Flame” straddles a unique line between New Age, avant-garde esotericism and accessible, electronic pop music. 

Watch any of the few videos posted to YouTube of Collins performing live, and you will see how his work exists as a mash-up of psychedelia and dance music as crowds of audibly confused show attendees dance in the wash of kaleidoscopic projections, bathing them in colorful light. 

You can even hear someone shout something about dubstep, misled by the thumping bass that Collins employs in many of his songs. It is equal parts club scene and spiritual experience.

It’s exactly this blurring of experimental and conventional music that makes “Violet Flame” such a great album to listen to. 

If you are at first turned off by the vocals, you can let yourself ride along to the beats Collins fills his music with, gradually acclimating yourself to the rest of the song. 

Once you are able to reach a point of understanding, you will soon see that what Collins has crafted here on “Violet Flame” is at least on par with anything he ever created with Prince Rama — if not better because of its increased accessibility.

Download “Violet Flame” for free (and legally) from Michael Collins’ Bandcamp: MichaelCollins.Bandcamp.com.

A version of this article appeared in the Nov 15 issue of the Collegiate Times.