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 | Delerium:Karma (Warp Music/EMI Music - 1997) Just released! Leeb and Fulber return in Delerium mode, with 75 minutes of music, expanding on the style of Semantic Spaces. There's a much stronger focus on the singers this time; most of the eleven tracks feature lead vocals, mainly Kristy Thirsk, but also label-mate Sarah McLachlan and two others. |
| enchanted evolves slowly, layer upon layer... a slow bassline, eerie synth tones, ethnic percussion, a strumming harp, singing pygmy children, then a groovy dance beat kicks in, along with the familiar oohs and ahhs of Kristy Thirsk. She whispers and wails her own words, while Leeb and Fulber create a typically gorgeous mix. (Although somehow the "pop" vocals and pymgy children don't quite jive together IMO...)
A rousing rhythm and various layers of tribal chanting open duende which is soon overtaken by a strong beat and Camille Henderson's heavily sustained vocals. The song's perky tempo and smooth synthesizer string section contradict her refreshingly macabre lyrics. twilight is an instrumental track (excluding a few sampled wails) with a pleasant little rhythm. It's heavy on the keyboards, sounding somehow like Depeche Mode in spots. As always the arrangement is impeccable. Beautiful strains of Spanish guitar and (yes!) the monks open silence, Sarah McLachlan's contribution. (I understand these are real, live monks as opposed to sampled monks.) This is a wonderful blend of sounds; I just love this chants and dance thing! Sarah's vocals aren't at all bad either. forgotten worlds contains admitted, attributed sampling of Dead Can Dance, and builds a middle-easternish atmosphere through it's percussion, electric sitar, hazy drone, and warbling (Arabic?) male vocals. The beat picks up into something more contemporary but the styles mix very well. Nothing necessarily new here, but wonderfully executed. lamentation continues in a similar vein though with a more subdued air. Various ethnic woodwind instruments are used, plus assorted wordless, vocal pieces (male, female and monk). When I compared Kristy's vocals on Semantic Spaces to Madonna... I hadn't heard Jacqui Hunt performing euphoria (firefly)! A very pretty, poppy song. If all the pop stuff sounded like this, maybe I wouldn't consciously avoid it... Dead Can Dance appear again via samples in remembrance, another rich, delicious mixture of various sounds and styles with a strong middle eastern tinge. An almost-cliched, but thoroughly enjoyable, bass synthesizer/dance beat appears, as do the monks and what might be a beautiful hammered dulcimer. Kristy is back with wisdom, the disc's shortest cut at 4:48. Pretty, nice... sounds like what I would expect to hear on VH-1, a bit more lushly produced though. My least favorite track. I don't know where koran's male vocal comes from or what it's saying, but it gets impassioned. I get distracted by wondering what it's up to (Is it a real language, or just wordless syllables?). Very exotic and hazy, like some aural opiate, it runs just over 10 minutes, making it the longest track. 'til the end of time is the closing track. A slower beat, another vocal track by Ms. Thirsk. This would be a dreamy ballad, I suppose. Now that we've got the play-by-play out of the way, I have personal things to deal with... part of my enchantment with "Ambient" music is the general lack of distracting, limiting vocals. These guys and gals have created a real genre-bender here; it's wonderfully put together, the vocals, too, are quite well done (each singer wrote her own lyrics) , but is it "Ambient"? Oh, let's not quibble over semantics... I suppose I'll just have to give them credit for not sticking in some pre-defined rut, and simply appreciate some beautiful music. Overall, this CD seems a more mature release than Semantic Spaces, and could even propel them into "real" pop stardom. ( I still am very much looking forward to getting my hands on some of their pre-"sell out" material!) I almost forgot to mention the packaging. Beautiful art and design! |
| Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber are master sonic craftsmen. What their work here lacks in originality, is redeemed by the sheer inventiveness of their lush arrangements. One very strong upward thumb. If you like an active beat, extremely interesting mixes, monks, middle eastern effects... and lead vocals, perhaps both of your thumbs will go up. |  |
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