Chants and Dances of the Native Americans

By Steve McGowan (stevem@dcs.gla.ac.uk), March 31, 1995

        1. Intro & Prelude (How the West was Lost)               3.00
        2. Tor-Cheney-Nahana (Winter Ceremony)                   6.58
        3. Ly-O-Lay Ale Yoya (The counterclockwise circle dance) 5.14
        4. Ya-Na-Hana (Celebrate Wild Rice)                      7.05
        5. Dawa (The Cradlesong)                                 4.18
        6. Gitchi-Manidoo (Advice for the Young)                 6.01
        7. Yeha-Noha (Wishes of happiness and prosperity)        4.02
        8. Ta-Was-Ne (Elevation)                                 2.38
        9. Heya-Hee (Intertribal song to stop the rain)          7.37
        10. Shamanic Chant No. 5 (Heal the soul)                 1.31
        11. Yo-Hey-O-Hee (Brandishing the Tomahawk)              6.16

Published on the Virgin label: CDV 2753 (7243 8 39881 2 9)

All tracks arranged, mixed and produced by "The Fearsome Brave". Native American songs all traditional except tracks 1 & 3 co-written and co-arranged by Peter Kater.

Any Enigma fans out there will probably like this album a great deal, as it reminds me a lot of their work. In particular, the theme and overall style of their song Return to Innocence seems to recur throughout this CD.

I was expecting the album to be more oriented to the native chants, accompanied with the "traditional" native instruments. However, I didn't realise beforehand that the album was more oriented on the pop music side. Yes, there are still chants and traditional musical instruments used on the album (or so it sounds), but they're merged with a modern beat which does tend to predominate on a few tracks.

Still, it's not necessarily a bad album for this. And it does have the added benefit that a donation will be made to the Native American Rights Fund (but how much of a donation is not made clear) for each CD sold.

Explotation of Native Americans? Don't ask me. Probably not - if you take into consideration that it must have been released with the blessing of the above organisation; but, again, one assumes that it's been released with the blessing of this organisation.

There's also a few glossy photographs on the inner sleeve of various Native American artefacts, faces and land.

Overall, not a bad album. I would've liked more emphasis on the Native American aspects, but that's just me. I'm pretty certain any Enigma fans will go for this CD in a big way.

For further information on the Native American Rights Fund, write to:
Native American Rights Fund, 1506 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado, 80302, USA.