Delerium is a collective of musicians who have been around much
\nlonger than many music fans might realize. It’s also been some time
\nsince Bill Leeb’s brainchild made itself heard, but in 2000,
\nDelerium has shouted as loud as their Enigma-like trances will
\nallow them, first contributing to the
\nBounce<\/i> soundtrack, then to
\nChristmas Songs<\/i>, a compilation from Nettwerk artists.<\/p>\n
Now comes
\nPoem<\/i>, the long-awaited return of Delerium. While this is my
\nfirst full-length taste of their work, it proves to be good –
\nthough best taken in small batches.<\/p>\n
Leeb (who may be best known for his work with Front Line
\nAssembly) knows how to take a melody and wrap a trance-like beat
\naround it, creating something that isn’t techno or dance, but isn’t
\nalternative… or even classical, for that matter. In fact, to
\nattempt to describe the vibe that some of the tracks on
\nPoem<\/i> create would be both unfair and inaccurate. This might
\nseem like a cop-out to some people, but it is truly something you
\nhave to experience for yourself.<\/p>\n
\nPoem<\/i> pairs up Leeb and his collective of musicians with a
\nwide variety of vocalists – not the least of whom include Leigh
\nNash of Sixpence None The Richer (“Innocente” – a track which is
\ngood, though pales a bit compared to her solo effort on the
\nBounce<\/i> soundtrack) and Matthew Sweet, who surprises with the
\ngentleness of his delivery on “Daylight”.<\/p>\n
Other artists might be more familiar to our Canadian readers,
\nbut Medi\u00e6val B\u00e6bes (“Aria”) and Joanna Stevens (“Myth,”
\n“A Poem For Byzantium”) turn in such wonderful performances that
\nAmerican listeners (or anyone else, for that matter) will want to
\ndiscover other full-length works by these artists. Yes, it feels a
\nlittle uncomfortable at times to keep hearing changes in vocalists,
\nbut it all washes out in the end.<\/p>\n
There is but one problem with
\nPoem<\/i> – and, regrettably, it’s not a small one. The music is
\ndesigned almost to work itself into the listener’s background, or
\neven to relax the mind. The problem is that the listener can get so
\nrelaxed that they lose focus in the album – and when one does try
\nto pay attention to the most minute details, the disc tends to
\ndrag. The one track that seems to fly by – the 10-minute “Amongst
\nThe Ruins” – doesn’t have much to set it apart from the rest of the
\ntracks, and its minimalism is eventually its downfall.<\/p>\n
Some people might look at Delerium and call them a clone of
\nEnigma. In a sense, that’s not fair. Though both groups borrowed
\nheavily from Gregorian chants (at least for one part of their
\nrespective careers), Delerium seems to be the more pop-friendly,
\nworking in more recognizable names. If only they could keep the
\nenergy level up, though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6508],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-36927","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-delerium","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36927"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36927"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}