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Yoke Shire - Masque Of Shadows

Artist:	Yoke Shire
Title:	Masque Of Shadows
Label:	Zygo Records 30002-2
Length(s):	42 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1999
Month of review:	05/1999

Line up

Craig Herlihy - guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals, harmonica, dulcimer,
mandolin, theremin, marimba and melodihorn
Brad Dillon - drums, percussion, glockenspiel
Brian Herlihy - guitars

Tracks

1)	The Three Welcomes	0.49
2)	Black Tower	5.40
3)	Shape Of A Dancer	4.52
4)	Magic Circle	3.44
5)	Maiden Voyage	5.10
6)	The Brook, The Mirror And The Maiden	9.21
7)	Return Voyage	2.11
8)	Ghost Notes	2.13
9)	Masque Of Shadows	6.41
10)	Magic Dust	1.29

Summary

A continuation of their promo single A Foreshadowing. Now for the real work...

The music

The Three Welcomes is the slightly Frippy opening. Black Tower is more typical for the style of Yoke Shire. The sound is good, the music is quite bouncy and percussive with treated vocals. This is one of those bands that is hard to pin down on something. The music has some blues rock influences and some people might think of a band like Man. Hence, the music is quite close to rock, but with that necessary difference that makes it possible for me to review it here. Not all of this is apparent in Black Tower yet, which is as yet not that melodic or "progressive". I wonder why the ending though. It DOES groove. Shape Of A Dancer was already reviewed by me since it was a song on the preview CD single. A slow moving track with nice melodic interlude, some quick fingered piano and some groovy guitar playing. Magic Circle is a happy little ditty, a folk tune in fact. This is thoroughly compensated for by the heavy bass opening of Maiden Voyage (yep, also on the single). This song has some psychedelic influences. Some of this song is taken into the nine minutes of The Brook, The Mirror And The Maiden. Plenty of diversity here, but always in a structured well-dosed way. This is how these songs should be written. To give you an idea: sanctified sounding choirs, bubbly keyboards (the Brook?), some eerie keyboards as well. The song conveys to me the darkness, dampness and quietness of a dark forest. Return Voyage brings back the Maiden Voyage of earlier. Ghost Notes is a nice hazy sounding track, a bit of a musical box type (and not forgetting Dick Turpin) and later some train like loud guitar work. Interesting. The title track is next. We return to the rock of the first few tracks it seems. Nice bass work on this one, but on the whole not a very appealing track. It never really gets going. The album closes with the short restful Magic Dust.

Conclusion

A very nice album. Original, with some more straightforward rock in the beginning (but not too straightforward, mind you), but a terrific "epic" in the middle. I really liked most of the music here. It seems the band has really thought well before recording and the result is to be admired. The music can groove and you might meet up with them in a bar sometime, but they also have the - dare I say it? - sophistication to keep proglovers happy. Well done.