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| Artist: | Xen |
| Title: | 84000 Dharma Dreams |
| Label: | Inside Out IOMCD 041 |
| Length(s): | 48 minutes |
| Year(s) of release: | 1999 |
| Month of review: | 06/1999 |
Line up
Paul Craddick - drums, bass, guitars, keys
Ted Leonard - vocals
Doug Ott - guitars, bass
Mike "Benignus" Geimer - programming
Bob Madsen - bass, guitar
and includes a few more guests.
Tracks
| 1) | She Plays | 4.43
|
| 2) | Psycho Pilots | 5.47
|
| 3) | Prettyzntenuf | 4.47
|
| 4) | Find A Way | 5.39
|
| 5) | Red Letter Day | 5.55
|
| 6) | Birthright | 6.10
|
| 7) | Psychedelica | 5.54
|
| 8) | Middle Ground | 5.25
|
| 9) | Existentialism | 4.25
|
Summary
Well, you might have seen from the line-up: this is Enchant with a little
help from their friends. However all music has been written by Craddick
and they may indicate why this is released under another title. Or maybe it
is the music?
The music
Since the vocals of Leonard dominate the music of Enchant and his vocals
are present here as well, the music reminds firstly and foremostly of Enchant.
However, the sound is "less progressive" in the strict sense. Intelligent
songs might be a better description, with plenty of variation it has to be
said. All in all Enchant is also not that typically progressive, but I think
Xen is a bit better adapted for a larger audience. It may be that the music is
less melodic than Enchant and more rock directed . Psycho Pilots combines the
somewhat late-Rush-like vocals with some rather heavy rhythm guitars. The
hevay guitars with the non-heavy vocals almost imply King's X and I think in
approach and progressiveness the bands come close. I do not mean that the band
itself sounds like a copy of King's X, however. Prettyzntenuf is a rather funky
track, although the chorus is more in the Enchant style. The melody is good
and Leonard shows the back of his tongue here. Find A Way is rather quiet
track. Nothing much happens here and this songs reminds quite a lot of
Enchant. This is different on Red Letter Day. The melodic, drawn out vocals
are of course reminiscent of Enchant, but the music is quite heavy and in fact
it sounds quite original: heavily played bass and noise in the back. The
song is also very percussive making for a strong groove. Birthright and
Psychedelica add little new to the music, except maybe the spacey guitar
in the latter. The music stays strongly song directed. Middle Ground opens with
the combination of acoustic guitar and the Enchant sound, but later on the
electric guitar takes over. The solo is not very melodic.
In Existentialism we here a good melody sung by Leonard, friendly acoustic
guitar and some mellotron. A naked song and impressive in its stillness.
I can't help but wonder what an orchestral breaking loose would have done to
it, it might have spoiled the effect. Who knows.
Conclusion
A hard one to judge. The music on this album may be a little more mainstream
than Enchant, but many of the characteristics are still there. The music can
sound more varied since the strength of Enchant lies in the song and the
melody and not in variation. On the other hand I like Enchant much better,
because of their more crafty songs and better melodies (and it can very well
be because of the more proggy sound, who knows). Still, I think everybody who
likes Enchant will want at least to take a listen (a big fan of Enchant I know
could hardly distinguish the two bands).
© Jurriaan Hage