Search - Dead Can Dance :: Into the Labyrinth [Re-Mastered]

My Favorite Dead Can Dance Album

M. Mierzwa | Davis, CA USA | 11/18/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"About the Band:

Dead Can Dance is considered the seminal example of the ethereal or heavenly voices genre. In fact, the name of the label, 4AD, which carried many of the 1990s DCD releases, is sometimes also used to describe this genre of music, which is a fusion of subtle electronics, vocals, drums, world music, and a near limitless count of instruments. Brendan Perry sometimes has been described as a gothic Frank Sinatra. Lisa Gerrard's enchanting vocals are often sung in a language only known to Lisa. I count myself among the many that hold these two musicians in the highest esteem.



About the Album:

Compared to more recent albums that are loaded with bonus tracks, the 50-minutes of Into the Labyrinth would seem short, if it weren't for the fact that I like to listen to this album over and over again. I count this album as one of my all time favorites, and certainly my most prized Dead Can Dance CD.



One of the nicest things about this album is that it features nearly equal amounts of both Lisa's and Brendan's ghostly vocals. On some tracks they accompany each other, while others feature only one of the artist's chilling or mystical sounding vocals. Simply put, this is beautiful music to relax to. I honestly give this album my highest recommendations!



Two tracks I'd recommend sampling: "Towards the Within" (featuring Lisa's vox w/ Brendan backing) and "Tell Me About the Forest" (featuring Brendan's vox). I believe they best represent the range of songs you can expect with this album. Please note that while all the tracks feature vocals, the lyrics for only those sung in English are included in the liner notes.



Similar Artists:

Chances are if you aren't yet familiar with Dead Can Dance, that you've not yet discovered some of these other bands, but I highly recommend them as well: Das Zeichen, Impressions of Winter, Love is Colder Than Death, Qntal, Corvus Corax, or Helium Vola. There is a rather large (and somewhat underappreciated) range of artists still producing heavenly voices music that is similar in quality to Dead Can Dance. Please check some of them out as well.

"

A must have for Dead Can Dance fans.

Hrd2hndl | DC | 08/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are a few artists today that you can plug in to and fully appreciate a composer's marriage of lyrics against musical arrangements. Tori gets it, Trent Reznor will bathe you in it and Chris Martin is the most authentic about what it all means. Yet Dead Can Dance is the most creative and risky, with it's unpredictable presentation and delivery. It does not stick to one predictive rhythm or precussion beat; it takes risks with different languages, draws passage from hymnals and reinassiance literature and retells it or adds a musical arrangement that is unyielding and unapologetic with the antagonist and protagonist in their story telling and conclusions in their music. "Into the Labyrinth" and "The Spirit Chaser" are must haves for any Dead Can Dance fan.



For those that are not familiar with DCD, doing a search for them, you will find reviews under "goth" "metal" "new word" "Neochristian" "alternative." The reasoning is that defining their music is indicative of the title of their second track "ubiquitous" (ala "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove"). I first became acquainted with Dead Can Dance when a boyfriend played it for me, when I wanted a backdrop to camoflague any noise that a roommate might hear upstairs. "The ubitquitous mr. lovegrove" was the selection he selected. I got lost in the sound of it, and it wasn't until later that giving it another listen, that I understand the double-entrende in it and forshadowed the end of our relationship. Yet in that moment, I kind of got lost with it. The sound is intense and it ushers georgian chants (reminiscent of Benectdine monks) against an oboe, strings and percussion drum arrangements while Brendan talks about getting deceived and confronting his truths against lingering residual regret.



"I thought that you knew it all"

"I'd see all the signs before"

"I thought that you were the one"

"In darkness my heart was won"



and later an anti-climatic

"now I'm serving time in disillusionment"

"keeping time to the beat of an old slave drum"



The genius of the last line is that Brendan adds a drum arrangement with a lash to it reinforces the feeling of entrapment and enslaved. The next track is Lisa Gerrard's accapella take of an irish hym "The Wind that shakes the barley." Her voice is so rich and tells a tale of morning love lost in war.



Play that against track 7, a persion love song "Towards the within" and the chants that express deep regret of something lost that translate in to a warning about remaining fenced in at the sound of calavalry and the message is clear about squandering a win at the expense of love lost.



I have 3 copies of "Into the Labyrinth" for home, car, and work. Every time I listen to it, I find something that I missed, be it a note or a line, or an instrument that is subtly blended in against the melody. If you don't have "In to the Labyrinth" or "SpiritChaser" in your DCD inventory - get it. It's an example of Brendan's intricate play on words, like the "sonambulistic" conclusion he draws about the pursuit of American dreaming, a sleepwalk in the dark. There is a reason that Adrian Lyne worked in "Devorzhum" in to the montage of his movie "Unfaithful" and the conflict that Diane Lane's character is suffering after her betrayal and leaps right in to her remorse and she recants what she has just done.



Play "Into the Labyrinth" and then give "SpiritChaser" a chance, and see if you don't catch yourself replaying it again on a Sunday afternoon, perhaps sharing with someone with whom you are intimate.







"

Not the Best Introduction to the Uninitiated Perhaps?

Hrd2hndl | 04/22/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After many spins in my CD player, this CD has become one of my favorite DCD albums. Of course, when I first got the CD, I would never have said that. It just seemed really strange to me then. Luck for me, this CD was not my introduction to DCD, which was The Serpent's Egg (their finest, in my opinion, due to the marvelous song "The Host of Seraphim"). So, while I recommend this album to all true music lovers, you should be aware that it was a turning point in DCD's musical career, and it is very different from their earlier more European, Classical works, which I heartily recommend you sample first. The best songs on the album for me are: "Ariadne," "Yulunga," and "Towards the Within." A lot of people I know also like "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove" and "The Carnival is Over." Finally, I would like to point out that this is DCD's best selling album but not necessarily their absolute best overall, although I really love it."