16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You Need this Album, 23 Sep 2000
This review is from: Into the Labyrinth (Audio CD)
A fantastic soundscape of mood, emotion and melancholy mixing medieval influences and sometimes brooding, sometimes uplifting vocals, Into the Labrynth is a masterpiece of production- strings, keyboards, percussion- absolutely gorgeous. This is classy and you'd be doing yourself a favour if you bought it (and an even bigger one of you then go out and buy all of their other albums). A joy.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
My very first taste of Dead Can Dance's music, 15 Aug 2009
This album was my first taste of Dead can dance's music: as a result this review is really aimed at those people who, like me, are new to the band and perhaps considering buying some music.
I decided to try some of their music because of the number of artists who refer to Dead can Dance's albums as amongst their favourites, and also because I had really enjoyed Lisa Gerrard's vocalisations on an album of Klaus Schulze's electronic music ("Farscape").
I've enjoyed the album and will probably buy some more from the band, but did find it slightly more "eclectic" than I'd expected. Aspects that I wasn't expecting were that Brenden Perry does quite a fair bit of singing, probably more than the other half of the duo, Lisa Gerrard, and another is that Lisa actually does some proper singing, whereas I was expecting mainly vocalisations. Having said that, neither of the aforementioned unexpected aspects were unpleasant, in fact quite the oppositte. Two of my favourite tracks off the album are "The Carnival is Over" and "How Fortunate the Man With None", both of which are Brenden's vocal: the added beauty of these tracks is the near-symphonic nature of the subtle keyboard playing - gorgeous! "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" completes my trio of favourite tracks; this is a splendid, folky song with Lisa singing unaccompanied.
Elsewhere, there is a lot of eastern influences in the rhythmic and melodic writing: overall the album comes across as some kind of world-folk ambient music - always enjoyable but not quite up to the pleasure I took from the three simpler tracks mentioned above.
It's been an enjoyable experience and, like I have said, one I will probably repeat. To any other newcomers I would say that it's definitely worth a try, in particular of you enjoy dreamy, predominantly eastern soundscapes.
Incidentally, I bought the download version and the sound quality was very good.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mobile Fidelity Vinyl 2011 version, 9 Feb 2011
Firstly, this is an exceptionally beautiful recorded album, whether on CD, SACD or vinyl version. However, it's also quite expensive for this special Silver Line (budget!) Mobile Fidelity master on vinyl. The reason to buy this would be? Is it better than the excellent SACD version?
Firstly the Mobile Fidelity SACD version is a giant leap forward compared to the standard CD version. There is far more detail in the music and the voices have a real natural sound to their timbres. Bass is very full and firm and the treble sparkling.I've always considered these SACD's as premium quality products and a giant leap forwards from their CD counterparts. Can the vinyl really be any better? Well, I compared the two on good quality equipment and the results were pretty amazing. The vinyl was even more spacious, the bass deeper and lower and the treble sweet and more detailed. Voices were the biggest gain being far more natural and "in your living room live". Comparing back to the SACD, it just sounded harsh and digital, something I wouldn't have believed before. The quality of the packaging is also of high quality, but so are the SACD's.
To summarise, an excellent product, probably the best rendition of a format for home listening, but why 4 stars? Simply, the cost. The vinyl costs 4 times what the SACD cost and is it 4 times better? Well no, and yes? Your decision and good luck with it!
Go on, I would!
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