Customer Reviews

Tales of the Red Dawn

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I'm not sure what's missing from this disc that the first reviewer despairs? I haven't heard the first CD, but based on this one I'd be more then willing to have that also. I found a lot to like in the sounds here. I was dubious going in thinking I might only like the track w. Bill Laswell, which is outstanding in every way. What got me was I liked this album from the opening bars & it kept my interest very enjoyably going forward throughout. There is some very nice peripheral sounds incorporated w. the music that add a rich textural dimension. Also the percussion is coming from a large group of instruments & I love how they bounce w. the sound. Very little vocalizing, but that's fine by me. If you like contemporary world music &/or Dub sounds, give it a spin. You may find yourself wanting more. A solid album.

Don't listen to the Amazon review for this album, which states that this disc is boundary-pushing and "unlike anything heard from the underground world electronic music scene." In fact it sounds like a by-the-numbers distillation of EVERYTHING you've heard before on the electronic world music scene. It's got the same Arabic chants, instrumentation, samples and dub basslines heard on virtually every release of this nature, with very little to set it apart from the crowd of similar artists out there. Yawn.

This is a shame, because all the hype about cutting-edge sounds and visionary innovation actually does apply to their debut album, "Ritual of Carousel," where the mixing was crisp, the instrumentation varied, and the songwriting focused and tight. I loved that disc and immediately hunted down this one hoping for a similar level of quality. What I got was a meandering, formulaic, plodding album that could've been cranked out by any hack from the Buddha Bar series. Don't know what happened to this band in between albums, but I'm guessing some key personnel must have departed. Here's hoping album #3, if there ever is one, is a return to form. I want THAT band back!