Customer Reviews

Contact From the Underworld of Redboy

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With some native american heritage myself, I've sampled a few artists (Nakai, etc). But I put this album and Robertson's "Music for Native Americans" together at the top of my "native american" list. It's traditionally influenced without being trite, modern without being too edgy. Thumbs up.

Better than therapy, lovelier than a summer rain, smoother than smoke, heart pounding like Bison, sentimental like a first kiss, tougher than leather, rapturous like love. Robbie Robertson delivers once again. This album does the very difficult: it communicates an authentic sense of culture and history without beating you upside the head, while also being totally OPEN and embracing to outside influence. This music communicates its history to you in simultaneously subtle and overt ways (just like most Indigenous people do in person), and speaks to your head and heart at the same time.

And for good measure, it also gets you off your ass and gets you dancing. Now what could be better than that?

For God's sake Robbie, you've made us wait long enough! Give us another album already!

*****

This music is as free and uncontainable, as the Spirit of the indigeonous peoples of Turtle Island.

With precise skill and Creativity, Robbie Robertson, again, steps from the roll of performer, to take his place beside the likes of Paul Simon, as one of today's most profound producers in the music industry.

Contact From The Underworld of Red Boy, is yet another level of Sacred Spirit manifested into the physical, through the inner worlds of Robbie Robertson.

"Sacrifice," with Leonard Peltier, is a welcomed and needed reminder of the fast-shrinking rights and liberties of every man woman and child, of this great land and I'm glad to have this paticular cut, to pass on, to those who need to hear "one of a million stories."

This album is blessed with Traditional Ceremony and charged with enough techno-fun, to carry the soul, easily, between the worlds of heaven and Earth. I find Robbie's musical transcendence, a joy to experience.

Steamy and haunting, like the inipi ceremony.

Hey Robbie, is it hot in here, or is it just YOU!

In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse,
Mitakuye Oyasin
Come Again Moon

So, you've already worn out your Graceland & Rhythm of the Saints recordings? Good news, Wasichu! Robbie Robertson gives you a taste of ethnicity folded into corporate musical paradigms. Hop into your Suburban with alloy wheels and shove this disk into your player while you cruise the 'burbs. Listen to it and feel spiritual--maybe you've even read all the Lynn V. Andrews books and are nearly a shaman yourself. Anyway, don't get too comfortable, this music can mess you up for life.

I was once a happy yuppie, just like you. I lived in the America of the free and the brave. I already had Robertson's Music for the Native Americans and considered it one of my faves. After I heard an NPR interview with Robbie about his latest project, I rushed out to get my own copy of this CD.

Hey! This music isn't quite as "spiritual" as the other stuff. This music has an undertone of anger. Still, I was as angry as the next guy, and I know that "once upon a time" injustices were perpetrated against these noble primitives. Of course they're angy--but isn't it nice how they preserved their traditions so that we forked-tongue palefaces can appropriate them for ourselves?

"Making a noise in this world ... I don't want your promise ... I don't want your whiskey ... I only want what belongs to me" What's that all about? Don't we have treaties? Federal grants to people on the reservations?

Sacrifice. Track 5. Cool, esoteric opening. Who's this guy saying "We have a million stories to tell, I'm just one of the million or more stories that could be told"? Leonard Peltier? Who's that? "Sacrifice your freedom, sacrifice your prayer, take away your language, cut off all your hair, sacrifice the loved ones who always stood by me, stranded in the wasteland, set my spirit free."

"I'm living in the United States Penitentary, which is the swiftest growing Indian reservation in the country."

Whoa! That's not right!

"Shootout ... two agents killed ... one indian murdered ... I was found guilty before a jury of non-Indian people ... The prosecutor stated that they did not know who killed their agents nor did he know what participation Leonard Peltier *may* have played in it, but someone has to pay for the crime ... a lot of nights I lay in my cell and I can't understand this hell, this hell and this terror ..."

Leonard's word is too compelling to ignore. Cruise the internet. Read his story. Find out about broken treaties, about activists harrassed, jailed, murdered. Maybe this is the "Land of the Free," but it helps to have white skin.

I can't go back. Innocence was so easy.

"I've gone too far to back down ... not until my people are free will I give up ... if I have to sacrifice some more, then I'll sacrifice some more."

Don't buy this CD unless you're willing to examine your role in the oppression of indigenous people. I noticed that this album is most popular in Denmark! Hey, that figures. The Danes didn't massacre, starve, poison, and infect 10,000,000 people, then beat the survivors for practicing their traditional religion.

My ancestors came to this country after the last of the Native Americans was safely herded onto a reservation, treated worse than cattle in many instances. Not my fault, eh?

Whose land do I live on? Whose government continues to oppress, persecute, and cheat the survivors? I'm a white American, a wasichu. When I do not act, I become an accomplice to genocide, to persecution and oppression.

There. I've warned you. Click somewhere safer. Get yourself a nice Carlos Nakai flute CD. Go buy another Lynn V. Andrews book. But whatever you do, DON'T buy Leonard Peltier's book, Prison Writings. Then you'll *really* never be the same.

. . . while remaining authentic Indian to the bone. An incredible mixture of musical cultures combining brilliantly realized studio wizardry with Native American singers and styles. I especially love the opener "The Sound Is Fading" that features insistent background chanting from Leah Hicks-Manning (DO-IT!-DO-IT!-DO-IT!). Incredible guitar from Robbie Robertson that seems to harness the echos of the universe with solomn rage.

The feelings of Indian Pride and the raw exposed emotions with occasional animosity toward white people may be off-putting to some, but I say TOUGH. There are legitimate emotions here that need to be expressed. The always beautiful but occasionally uncomfortable music perfectly compliments the often heart-wrenching subject matter.

The entire album is extremely sensual sounding, in particular "The Code of Handsome Lake" and "Unbound," the latter being one of my favorites that I felt deserved more airplay than it got. All these songs skillfully deliver their powerful messages without banging you over the head with them. That's not to say that some don't get pretty intense, especially "Making a Noise" and "Rattlebone." The voices of Indian Warriors on these tracks are downright scary. In fact, the vocals all over this album are pretty fantastic and unique.

"Sacrifice" demands to be heard. Leonard Peltier matter-of-factly relates his heartbreaking story of being falsely imprisoned for over 20 years. Over a meditative beat, stirring female vocals and otherworldly swirling effects, Peltier maintains a determination to never give up: "Not until my people are free will I give up." He was recorded over a phone line from prison where he remains to this day, condemned in the name of vengeance.

Primeaux and Mike bestow "Peyote Healing" with extremely soothing vocals. The whole song is positively etheral. "In the Blood" is jubilant, funky and majestically defiant, possibly the best song on the album. "Stomp Dance" is a triumphant affirmation that America is still Indian Country. "The Lights" is a solomn, mysterious track that alludes to Indian knowledge still unperceived by the average caucasian. An ominous closing track.

The bonus cut is way cool. Someone on this forum rightly compared it to a square dance song. A killer piano loop and hip-hop beat hypnotize as Robertson paints a surreal picture of some sort of counterculture clubland. Killer scratching. I love DJ Premier and think it would be great if Robbie collaborated on a whole album with him.

Following up on his "Music for the Native Americans" CD Robertson made this wonderful CD. If you've heard his other CD, then you have a pretty good idea of what to expect. If not, then it can best be described as an ephemeral blend of Native American imagery and dancy pop/techno type stuff with lots of synthesizers and an ambient sound. All the songs on here are incredibly beautiful, from the modernized peyote chants of roadmen of the Native American Church on "Peyote Healing" to the haunting ambience of "Unbound" to the incredible voice of jailed AIM activist Leonard Peltier on "Sacrifice". Along with "Sound is Fading" which features the recorded voice of a girl who was murdered (along with her entire family) by racists, songs drawing upon Native American themes and imagery such as "Stomp Dance (Unity)", "Making Noise", "In the Blood" and "Rattlebone" round out the CD. The highlight of the CD, in my opinion at least, is the "Code of Handsome Lake". This is a moving song about a Prophet who revitalized the Six Nations of the Iroquois, againing showing the influence that Native American culture, history and beliefs had on this CD.

It ultimately closes out with the track "Take Your Partner By the Hand", which sounds for all the world like a club remix of square dancing. Very... interesting. Certainly worth listening to at least once, even if it is pretty distinct from everything else on this CD. Ultimately I can say nothing more than that you must experience this cross cultural dance party for yourself.

This was a gift I'll always treasure, so meaningful to me for many reasons. It's an incredibly moving testament to Robbie Robertson's genius and roots, a combination of various styles blended with terrific melodies, some knock-out arrangements, and superb musicianship. There's a compelling intensity to Robertson's soft and husky voice, coupled with his extraordinary guitar work, that go straight to my soul.

For anyone who like me, can't understand how the land of the free can tolerate the imprisonment of Leonard Peltier, "Sacrifice" is a must...it's heartbreaking to hear his voice, so full of courage and pain.

It's hard to choose favorite tracks. A current favorite is "Unbound", but this music is so multi-layered that I know that the more I listen, the more I'll find to like. This universal music can't be categorized or forgotten...it has great beauty, and many memories.

I really enjoyed "Music for the Native Americans", and I was not disappointed by this CD either. As with "Music", this CD is composed of an interesting blend of Native American music and chanting, and Robbie Robertson's excellent songwriting. If you don't understand the lyrics of the Native Americans songs, then you'll have to appreciate the chants, etc. based on their lyrical beauty- which is quite easy to do. As I speak only English, I am not qualified to discuss them in any depth greater than saying that they are worth listening to.

Robbie Robertson has nothing but good songs on this CD- every track is well-thought, and there are no throw-away songs that only make the CD longer. "Making A Noise", "Code of Handsome Lake", "In The Blood", and "Rattlebone" are the catchiest tracks. "Sacrifice", while it has a very catchy chorus, is a quite serious song. It familiarizes you with Leonard Peltier's life using audio of Leonard Peltier himself. I've listened to this song a lot. "Take Your Partner By The Hand" is very experimental and interesting. The lyrics take a turn for the surreal, but the overall experience of that song is enjoyable. The CD is better with "Partner" than without. "Unbound" is a relaxed, slow ballad that I would say is the best song of the CD.

I would recommend this CD to anyone who liked "Music For The Native Americans" or wants to hear something out of the ordinary. My interests are mostly pretty conventional, but that did not at all prevent me from enjoying this CD. The musicianship is all well done, the sound is complex and varied, and thus it earns five stars.

Contrary to reviewer Epstein, this album is tremendous all the way around, including Robertson's vocals which are well-balanced by his many guest-vocalists. This CD combines ancient philosophies and melodies with contemporary technological grooves and is nothing short of brilliant. Great songwriting and production, and some truly tasty guitar work -- inspired, right next to "Music for Native Americans." This CD should be getting way more airplay and critical acclaim...

This is purely an emotional response, but given the fact that Indian people are relegated to stereotypic and one-dimensional presentations, it's almost cathartic to hear new, fully fleshed art. We are a living, breathing, enduring and -- believe it or not, we don't all live in tipis -- modern culture, it is validating to see it reflected back to us not only in the faces and sounds of our ancestors but also in the faces and sounds of ourselves as we are now.