INTO THE LABYRINTH

Dead Can Dance

Prog Folk

4.00 | 163 ratings

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BrufordFreak

I LOVED Aion. This is going back to explore more of the Middle Eastern sounds as they began on Serpent's Egg.

1. "Yulunga (Spirit Dance)" (6:56) starts very powerfully with some extraordinary overtone vocals, but then comes down to Earth with the second half and the hand percussion. (13.25/15)

2. "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove" (6:16) despite Brendan's attempt at passionate vocals, it's not believable and the song is nothing very exciting or dynamic. (8.25/10)

3. "The Wind That Shakes The Barley" (2:50) Lisa sings Celtic a cappella. (4.25/5)

4. "The Carnival Is Over" (5:28) Brendan's best song ever! So nostalgic and almost eerily sad! (10/10)

5. "Ariadne" (1:54) Silk Road campfire music. (4.75/5)

6. "Saldek" (1:07) music for Silk Road ablutions--or scarf dance. (4.75/5)

7. "Towards The Within" (7:06) one of the rare songs on which both Lisa and Brendan sing--together, bobbing and weaving with each other--on multiple tracks! When Lisa takes over solo voce in the middle it sounds a bit like OFRA HAZA. (13/15)

8. "Bird" (5:00) * (8.75/10)

9. "Tell Me About The Forest (You Once Called Home)" (5:42) interesting instrumental choices to weave with Brendan's vocal. Not sure they belong together (or if it works). For once the DCD computerized synth sounds sound old and dated. (8.5/10)

10. "The Spider's Stratagem" (6:42) definitely a song projected straight out of Asia Minor or the Arabian world. Lisa is so talented! (8.75/10)

11. "Spirit" (4:59) * musically very similar to Massive Attack's "Teardrop" as well as some fairly recent Cure and U2 work. (9.5/10)

12. "Emmeleia" (2:04) another duet--this one a cappella and sounding very Balkan monastic. Amazingly well executed and recorded! (4.75/5)

13. "How Fortunate The Man With None" (9:15) the only epic-length song on the album opens with very pleasant sound palette and a very strong Brendan Perry vocal. Very cool! The "strings" build out in the fourth minute is perfect. Through two verses and I'm LOVING this! I love how the music keeps shifting beneath the very steady storytelling of Brendan's vocal. Wow! I am shocked at how much I like this one! Really captures some kind of ancient milieu. (20/20)

* Absent from CD editions--they're both good songs that

Total time 65:19

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of progressive World Folk music that has some extreme highs and some relative low points.

BrufordFreak | 4/5 | 2020-2-26

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