Customer Reviews

Antler Dance

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Boiled in lead has always experimented with several different things in one album, but other albums, such as Orb, seem to work together anyhow; the diverse elements create an interesting synergy that keeps you going even when the tunes change mood and style.

Antler Dance feels more like a collection of random tunes thrown together. Some are excellent, some are good - but the album as a whole does not hang together.

That said, I'd better repeat, there is some EXCELLENT stuff in this album. My two favourite tracks, worth the price of the whole album, are the back-to-back instrumentals, "Sugarfoot Congress", and "Drowning". The first is a rocked up trad. set, that only gets wilder and harder - and better - as it goes. The second is a fiddle-dulcimer tune that I can only say is one of the most beautiful pieces BiL has ever done. Those two instrumentals also work in sequence, unlike many other moments on the album.

Also notable are the trance-like "Neda Voda" (Though it's badly placed enough that the placement affects the tune to its detriment), a crazed cover of Bomey M's "Rasputin", and the poetic hard rock "Walk through the Door".

Disappointments are "Robin's Complaint", which is lyrically sarcastic but sadly, musically whining, "Hook 'em Cow", which wears out after the first few listenings (Though it works fairly well live), and the overlong "Nasrudin" - which is made worse by following "Neda Voda", as the two combined create a stretch of around fifteen minutes of directionless instumental. Since "Robin's Complaint", "Bring it Round", and "Hook 'em Cow" make for an excessively long stretch of short sarcastic pieces, I wonder that they did not shake up the order of the songs a bit more; it would have improved things. Of course, simply replacing the (few) pieces that are not up to their usual standards would have improved the whole album more.

I liked the record. Heard it on the radio{Newry Highwayman} and bought the cd. I was amazed at the wonderful polyrythmic perversity of the music. Try it you'll like it.

I'm one of the lucky ones who was in a club awaiting a Husker Du show (I think it was Huskers, I went to this club so much...), and the guy spinning the tunes from the DJ table announced the debut of his band, which mixed Celtic/Irish trad with the ferocity of heavy/fast rock of the punk variety. They tore the place up with electric guitars and penny whistles, bass, fiddle and drums. It was like seeing Jethro Tull reborn as a punk band. Ok, that's a horrible generalization.
They've expanded to include other "world musics" in their material, but still retain a central sound and energy level that many other bands would envy. This one comes along with all their earlier vigor and louder guitars crashing into violins while telling folk tales in thee styhle ov olde.
Turn on your deck and hold onto your hat, this one's been out 15 years and I still love it.

VERY POWERFUL LYRICS,INTENSE INSTRUMENTAL IMAGERY.BOILED IN LEAD ROCKS YOUR CEREBRAL CORTEX,A MUST FOR FANS WHO LIKE TO THINK AND ROCK SIMULTANEOUSLY.THESE GUYS HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY AND YOU SHOULD LISTEN! I DID AND IT SOUNDS GREAT.ALSO LISTEN TO "HOOK'EM COW" IT'S HILARIOUS.

BiL is famous for their eclecticism, but they are at their best when they don't stray too far from their wheel house: Celtic trad. and rock fusion. In Antler Dance, they stay there for the first 6 songs or so, which are very enjoyable. Hi-lights are the chant-along-able opener "Newry Highwayman" and the instrumental "Drowning," which is the album's best track. The first 6 cuts, while more vigor than virtuosity, are energetic and infectious.

Things start to get "different" with "Bring It Round," an amateurish, but not bad folk/bluesy blend about a bored day laborer of some sort. The album gets outright weird with "Hook 'Em Cow," which is, as far as I can tell, a country spoof, and weirder with "Rasputin," which is like a They Might Be Giants song, only not as smart ("Ra-Ra-Rasputeen, Russia's finest love machine...").

And then the album gets bad. "Neda Voda" and "Nasrudin" are, at the risk of sounding ethnocentric, exotic navel gazers. The closer, "State Trooper" is an unlistenably bad attempt at heavy metal.

I admire BiL's willingness to experiment, but I wish they'd cut down on some of the variety-for-variety's sake and stick to bringing experimental elements into what they do well. At least their experimentation doesn't come across as pretentiousness, but a little less "humor" a bit more craftsmanship could have made this an excellent, and not just fun album.