| CD REVIEW Brendan Perry |
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Band : Brendan Perry Whenever I'm at Concrete Web headquarters (and that's probably more often than the collegues, as I aid the editor-in-chief with the updating of the site) and there's download albums to be taken along for review, I make it a good habit to take anything released/ distributed through V2. Not only am I the only one of the CW crew whom w/could like some of the poppier stuff there, but probably my year-long background (I've been collecting stuff since 1978, and active in music journalism since 1985...can you believe that? You'd better!) singles me out as the one able to write about 'em. When I took along thís album, at first I didn't even remember what Brendan Perry stood for, but I only needed to read the first paragraph, in which it's mentioned that he was one of the halves of Dead Can Dance, to know which kind of music I might expect here! And, good heavens, I was absolutely right in thinking so, because except for no female vocals by Lisa Gerrard being present, this could just as well have been an album by his former band. It's funny though. DCD officially dies in 1998, during the recording process of the 9th studio album (which was never released). One year later Perry released his debut album Eye Of the Hunter (on DCD's label 4AD), and (in contrast to Gerrard, who since then had 3 solo albums, numerous movie scores, and 6 collaboration albums – among which the much appreciated 2008 Farscape with Klaus Schulze, which I had the extreme pleasure and honour to review) was not heard of again until he and his former partner set out on a 2005 world tour. Or, at least, so it seemed to this at first ill-informed non-entity, but in stead Perry has contributed a cover of “Dream Letter” to the 2001 Tim Buckley tribute album Sing A Song For You, contributed to two songs on the 2003 Zoar album Clouds Without Water, and to Two songs on the 2009 Piano Magic album Ovations. Perry's sophomore album still has that somewhat eclectic range of influences (going from Keltic to Oriental and Middle-Age, mixed into, of course, more Occidental aka “western” type of electronics Ambient music), which make his music so hard to define yet so easy to recognize (also due to his typical vocal approach). Just like his solo debut, the new album contains 8 tracks (total duration just under 51 minutes), and some of the tracks have a socio-political criticism in their lyrics. Album openers “Babylon” (nice Middle-Eastern music patterns) and “The Bogus Man” can both be seen as anti American world politics, the first as a reaction to the country's warfaring in the Middle East, the second against the type of corrupt politician, to which so many other crooks in the rest of the world have styled themselves. Oh...erhm, I did mean to say “politician”, instead of (NAH!)...you understand! A third song titled “This Boy” is also mentioned as being a song to put a face on those who wage war on behalf of politicians. Being the shortest song (not even 3 minutes) on the album, it also has a rather abrupt and unexpected ending, rather like as if someone cut the song short in the middle of recording. Then “Inferno” is rather about the shafing away of normal “human” emotions through the intermediate of media like television (you know, seeing visions of hell-on-earth for entertainment makes one less sensitive to people actually living those situations). Although the album was generated completely with synthesizers and samples (the intent was to create “...a neutral electronic soundscape which would in turn mirror a world that is becoming increasingly more dependent upon machines to perform tasks for us...”), the music has still a warmth to it (some instrument samples, like one of oud I guess, sounds so réal, it's unbelievable to know that it might be electronically generated), in spite of the overall Gothic feel! Check out some of this guy's music at myspace.com/brendanperry (if you're a Dead Can Dance fan, forget about checking and simply go out to order the album at your favourite local record store...or order on-line, if that's your thing...I'm sure Perry will be laughing in his fist, seen his original intent with the album's music). To me, this IS an essential buy, and a more than worthy addition to my year-lists! 98/100 Tony. |