Into the Labyrinth [Re-Mastered] [Hybrid SACD - DSD, Original recording remastered]

Dead Can Dance | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 22, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Hybrid SACD - DSD, Original recording remastered
• Label: 4ad Records
• ASIN: B0015YFOHY
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,382 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Yulunga (Spirit Dance)

2. The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove

3. The Wind The Shakes The Barley

4. The Carnival Is Over

5. Ariadne

6. Saldek

7. Towards The Within

8. Bird

9. Tell Me About The Forest (You Once Called Home)

10. The Spider's Strategem

11. Spirit

12. Emmeleia

13. How Fortunate The Man With None

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Their goth-sounding name and dour visual image aside, the prolific duo of Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard produce wildly eclectic but utterly unique music. Their painstakingly crafted albums encompass numerous arcane genres, from European classical music to ancient Celtic and Middle Eastern folk styles, often employing authentic antique instruments to achieve their ambitious, emotive soundscapes. The 1993 effort Into the Labyrinth found Dead Can Dance mixing their medieval leanings with more exotic Eastern influences on "Saldek" and "Yulunga," while exploring Celtic balladry on the traditional "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" and theatrical songcraft in their interpretation of Bertolt Brecht's "How Fortunate Is the Man with None." --Scott Schinder

Product Description

This 1993 release saw Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard embark on individual paths. While this record of all new material was considered a commercial breakthrough (it was 4AD's best-seller at a million copies worldwide and counting), it was also their most divided. They both wrote songs independent of one another, on separate continents.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Dead Can Dance Album, November 18, 2005

By 

M. Mierzwa (Davis, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Into the Labyrinth (Audio CD)

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.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for Dead Can Dance fans., August 15, 2004

By 

Hrd2hndl (DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Into the Labyrinth (Audio CD)

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.

46 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars DCD's most popular album, but perhaps the least interesting, March 1, 2001

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Into the Labyrinth (Audio CD)

INTO THE LABYRINTH, released in 1993, was Dead Can Dance's biggest success, selling over 800,000 copies at last count. For many people, including myself, it was the first exposure to Dead Can Dance and seemed indeed a fascinating album. However, after having collected every release by DCD, it is apparent that INTO THE LABYRINTH is the least of their albums.

From 1986's SPLEEN AND IDEAL to 1991's AION, Dead Can Dance explored a world of baroque, classical, and Renaissance song structures gifted with the unique touch of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. INTO THE LABYRINTH, however, shows a massive change in style. Gone are the orchestral elements, and here Lisa and Brendan display their interest in Eastern music. It's a strategy that doesn't impress, because their talent was really evident most in the style that they had formerly performed.

Another problem is the inconsistency of the record, caused by Lisa and Brendan's increasing tendency to work apart. If it wasn't for a magazine article I read from this era, I would seriously doubt that Lisa and Brendan even came together to record this album. The album is split into Perry's (no longer philosophically brilliant) songs and Gerrard's (increasingly absurd) glossolalia.

On 1996's SPIRITCHASER, Perry and Gerrard had become more comfortable with their new style, but they never again reached the peak that their earlier style afforded them.