From: owner-canadian-music-digest@smoe.org (canadian-music-digest) To: canadian-music-digest@smoe.org Subject: canadian-music-digest V2 #117 Reply-To: canadian-music@smoe.org Sender: owner-canadian-music-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-canadian-music-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk canadian-music-digest Sunday, July 18 1999 Volume 02 : Number 117 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Out of Nowhere CD review [Paul Schreiber Subject: Out of Nowhere CD review // from thish week's ish, hot off the press :) // // Paul Imprint Online: Arts - Friday, July 16, 1999 (Volume 22, Number 6)   Cicero: Out of Nowhere Cicero Out of Nowhere Dead Daisy Records Paul Schreiber Imprint staff Imprint readers already know Waterloo grad Dylan White gives a great live show (we covered the CD release party back in March). But how does the studio version of Cicero sound? In one word: excellent. White's combination of honest, emotional folk songwriting and pop instrumentals blend together for truthful, textured music. When musicians put together a record, they like to bring their friends and Cicero is no exception. White featured labelmate (and Dead Daisy Records founder) Emm Gryner's stunning harmony vocals on "The Wind and The Rain." On the album's final track, "Yellowbelly," he plays electric guitar and bass and lets fellow Toronto singer Sarah Slean's soft voice deliver the words hauntingly. White's voice is complemented by Gryner's in the beautiful call-and-response number, "The Wind and The Rain." His emotional cry: "Why don't you understand the way I don't know what to say when I talk to you?" Her response: "Why do you analyze it all?" It's a story we're all familiar with, and Cicero tells it from an original and intriguing angle. Throughout Out of Nowhere, weather and the environment are used as unique metaphors for emotion. There's the apparent lovers' quarrel in "The Wind and The Rain"; the sun and the rain appear once again in "For Me," and hills and clouds show up in "Impossible Ray." Cicero picks up the tempo on the fourth cut, "Impossible Ray." White dreams and ponders what could have been, accompanied by a strong bass, drum groove and subtle harmony vox. The relationship theme runs through Out of Nowhere, and can be heard again two tracks later in "One More Midnight," an interrogatory exploration of departure. White's song-writing skills are evident. His lyrics are filled with deep emotions, clever rhymes, stories expressed with distinctive metaphors, an abundance of unanswered questions and unusual dialogues and monologues. He turns phrases in his own style: "a borrowed sweater betrayal" and "you're a baby's sigh when someone is singing a lullaby" are two examples of White's writing talents. On Out of Nowhere, White wrote the music for six of the seven pieces solo (he was assisted by guitarist Attilio Difiore and sometimes harmony vocalist Bev MacDonald on "The Wind and The Rain"). A multi-instrumentalist, Dylan White plays acoustic, electric and bass guitars with great skill. All the lyrics are also White's handiwork. Cicero is going somewhere, and soon. For more information on Cicero and Dead Daisy Records, check out http://www.deaddaisy.com. ------------------------------ End of canadian-music-digest V2 #117 ************************************