Enchant - Juggling Nine Or Dropping Ten

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Artist:	Enchant
Title:	Juggling Nine Or Dropping Ten
Label:	Inside Out IOMCD064
Length(s):	64 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2000
Month of review:	10/2000

Line up

Doug Ott - guitars
Ted Leonard - vocals
Paul Craddick - drums
Mike Geimer - keyboards
Ed Platt - bass

Tracks

1)	Paint The Picture	7.03
2)	Rough Draft	6.14
3)	What To Say	4.20
4)	Bite My Tongue	5.41
5)	Colors Fade	5.25
6)	Juggling Knives	5.02
7)	Black Eyes & Broken Glass	4.33
8)	Elyse	5.47
9)	Shell Of A Man	6.01
10)	Broken Wave	5.22
11)	Traces	7.19
12)	Know That	1.27

Summary

Now Break was certainly a good album and the band has after the Xen intermezzo returned with this album. The title I guess may have something to do with knowing one's limits.

The music

Paint The Picture opens the album forcefully, in a very symphonic vein with a bombastic keyboard line (think later Genesis at their most symphonic) that sticks in your mind. The main stay of the song are the vocal parts, with a clearly audible bassplayer right behind it. The guitar is acoustic throughout the verses, but at the end there is time for some good melodic electric guitar. Rough Draft consists of two distinct parts, the first and closing part that is similar to the first track with good melodic lines, quite up-beat and during the bridge in the middle the mood of the songs changes strongly, becoming quite mysterious. Enchant has always been a band with the strength of composition up front. On What To Say, a typical example of the somewhat progressive song directed material we hear plenty of guitar, both acoustic and electric. Especially the acousic guitar gives the music a singersongwriter feel. However the arrangements are very dense and of course the Holdsworthian guitar solo at the end isn't typical of that kind of music as well. Bite My Tongue opens a bit like alternative rock, but with more variation rhythmwise. I wonder if Leonard sings all the vocals on this track, in the verses his voice sounds different (and having no booklet...). The chorus is quite catchy and I guess this is the most accessible track so far, if it weren't for the guitar intermezzo with Flamenco guitar (think Mr. Velasco of SB's The Light) and the rather loud guitar solo right before that. Colors Fade is a not so impressive track that is most striking because of the weird keyboard sounds that pop up. Juggling Knives brings us to some more funky music with the bass player dominating in the beginning. The vocal part sounds rather playful, juggling notes this time. A very loose sound to this song, but to good effects. With Black Eyes & Broken Glass we return to the style of before: forceful and full sounding song directed progressive rock/metal, but never definitely in either of these categories. No problem with that as long as the songs are good, and in that respect Enchant does not let you down. After Elyse we come to Shell Of A Man with some sensitive melody lines, vocals that sound sometimes a bit far away, bleeping electronics and plenty of tempo changes. Powerfully chorded in part this is one of the most varied tracks I think, but not without the typical Enchant sound. Some people compare the band to Rush (some to Marillion, but that is totally not the case) and there are some parallels: generally heavy, but the music is never really metal, the music is for this too ehm intricate or something. Also the vocals of Leonard are often on the high side (but never coming close to the helium vocals of Geddy Lee). I guess the song directedness and compactness of the music and the fact that a song of Rush is recognizably Rush and the same holds for Enchant, are for me the strongest links. Also a song like Traces brings us the necessary catchy tunes so that you listen and your ears wake to the sounds. For the rest the music is quite dreamy. The quite middle part reminds me of Marillion's Brave. The short closer is the acoustic Know That.

Conclusion

Enchant is a band that takes a few listens. This held for Break, it also holds for this album, for then the distinction between the songs becomes apparent (as with Marillion). The music is compact, densely arrangement in most places and focused on songs. Still, compared to Break the music seems more varied, in part more symphonic. This also makes it possible that this album is longer than Break, I feel. A band with a distinctive sound, harbouring an accidental influence here and there. A worthy follow-up to its predecessor.