From: owner-angry-psychos-digest@smoe.org (angry-psychos-digest) To: angry-psychos-digest@smoe.org Subject: angry-psychos-digest V10 #115 Reply-To: angry-psychos@smoe.org Sender: owner-angry-psychos-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-angry-psychos-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "angry-psychos-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. angry-psychos-digest Sunday, October 9 2005 Volume 10 : Number 115 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Poe or not Poe? [Davey08@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 12:19:16 EDT From: Davey08@aol.com Subject: Poe or not Poe? Amazon: Serene singers and lush electronic textures and strings are often a prescription for smothering romanticism and overwrought pop-treacle. Rhys Fulber, the force behind Conjure One, succumbed to that with his other band, _Delerium_ (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/41819/002-0630775-1909644) , on their last album, _Chimera_ (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009P1MS/002-0630775-1909644) ." But Fulber's post-Delerium project, Conjure One, though using the same formula, has a darker, sometimes more foreboding edge. On their long awaited second CD, superstar singers Poe and Sinead O'Connor are gone in favor of a bevy of lesser known voices, but little else has changed. That's not bad although "Endless Dream" sung by Jane (no last name) echoes "Center of the Sun" from the previous album perhaps a bit too closely yearning lyrics rising to cathedral heights in a soul-haunted chorus. Jane's got the kind of warm crystal clear alto that makes even the awkward lyrics of the title track sound like heavenly entreaties. Joanna Stevens eschews words all together when she powers through a Middle-Eastern derived wordless hymn on the ecstatic grooves of "Dying Light." Conjure One almost becomes a different project when Rhys Fulber sings on "I Believe" and "Beyond Being," one that recalls the glistening electro-pop of _Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark_ (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/48663/002-0630775-1909644) . But singers Tiff Lacey and Chemda bring it back to the Conjure One sound. From the orchestral-electronica of "Pilgrimage" to the poignant intimacy of "One Word," Extraordinary Ways is an album that seduces easily. --John Diliberto ------------------------------ End of angry-psychos-digest V10 #115 ************************************