A Reminder - "Eye of the Hunter" By Brendan Perry - 1999...& "Into the Labyrinth" By Dead Can Dance - 1993

When Dead Can Dance's live album, Toward the Within, was released, I was excited by the direction in which Brendan Perry was moving with some of his work. There was a new, more down-to-earth quality about some songs, like "American Dreaming," produced without the occasionally shrill input of Lisa Gerrard. Unfortunately, Spiritchaser was Dead Can Dance's followup. I anxiously awaited the refinement of that musical wandering. When I picked up Eye of the Hunter, I had what I needed...almost. I can appreciate Perry's longing to deal with existential issues in unique settings, as in "Medusa." However, sometimes his mythological bent makes it sound like recording sessions were crammed between rounds of Dungeons and Dragons. That said, I actually dug the more traditional tunes, such as "Saturday's Child" and "I Must Have Been Blind." It was a relief to hear reaffirmation that Perry is not a one-trick Druid's pony. The best vibe on the album is the road-movie gloom of "Death Will Be My Bride," which must have made Nick Cave VERY jealous. Every song, of course, is topped with Perry's finely tuned baritone, (which he credits to his mom's Frank Sinatra collection). My biggest wish was for a bit more dynamism and motion in the material. We know from the most boisterous DCD work how big Perry can make music. However, if he broke a sweat while doing this album, it was from concentrating on its sonic perfection and complex imagery.> Review By belloq75



AMG Review...
With a regular American deal in place for the first time ever, thanks to 4AD's linkup with the WEA conglomerate, Dead Can Dance made a splash on commercial alternative radio with "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove," the first single from Into the Labyrinth. Raga drones, a strange clattering beat, a haunting wind instrument, orchestral shading, and Perry's ever-grand voice make it one of the more unlikely things to be heard on the airwaves in a while. It all begins with yet another jaw-dropper from Gerrard, "Yulunga (Spirit Dance)," with keyboards and her octave-defying voice at such a deep, rich level that it sweeps all before it. Wordless as always but never without emotional heft, the song slowly slides into a slow but heavy percussion piece that sounds a bit like "Bird" from A Passage in Time, but with greater impact and memorability. As the album slowly unwinds over an hour's length, the two again create a series of often astounding numbers that sound like they should be millennia old, mixing and matching styles to create new fusions. Perhaps even more impressive is that everything was performed solely by Perry and Gerrard — no outside guests here, and yet everything is as detailed, lush, and multifaceted as many of their past albums. New classics from the band appear almost track for track: Gerrard's a cappella work on "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," the gentle beauty of "Ariadne," the rhythmic drive and chants of the title song. The conclusion is a slightly surprising but quite successful cover — "How Fortunate the Man With None," an adaptation of a classic Bertolt Brecht tune about the turn of fortune's wheel. Given a restrained arrangement and Perry's singing, it brings Labyrinth to a satisfying end.

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