La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Fernando Rocha Villas Bôas | Campinas, SP Brazil | 02/26/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The tour de force Without Mercy I and II are Vini Reilly's masterpiece. With the title taken from John Keats' La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Without Mercy is a perfect modern fugue. The fugue theme was later made explicit in the album Domo Arigato in 1985, in the 2:16 short music Mercy Theme. All stanzas are arranged in such a perfect and logic manner that a later attempt to skip some of them in the album Valuable Passages in 1986 was not successful - once you hear the original Without Mercy I and II you will notice that something is missing from the Valuable Passages version. The stanzas softly evolve inside Without Mercy I fugue, and are revaluated and refreshed in Without Mercy II, this time in a new rhythm. Like any well-written fugue, it should be listened with attention - but the attention is worth. I first heard it ten years ago and it remains great.
All other tracks are good but two of them are worth a special attention. A Little Mercy presents a very short version of some of the stanzas developed in the main fugue, with a different beat, and All That Love and Maths Can Do, from the previous 1980 album Lips That Would Kiss is one of the best short pieces of Vini.
Enjoy it!"
Satis-factory surprise!
ChrisWN | Santa Cruz, CA | 07/01/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"At the time this came out I was a certified factory records junkie, but was also starting to get into Philip Glass. So when I previewed the EP (because it was on factory) at a local store, I was quite taken aback.....a big departure from anything I had heard, but quite appealing. So I bought it..and soon after the album that followed. I still play it more often than most other DC recordings since it doesn't Vini doesn't sing on it (while I've been a long time fan, I do still cringe at some of his vocal work). As to the "remastering"...they really missed the mark. The remastered CD's, while including some hard to find material, are of poorer sound quality than the original CD releases. They've edited the silence in between tracks, but haven't improved upon the quality of sound (and sometimes the sound quality of the reissues is worse than the originals)."
Time to find me
loteq | Regensburg | 05/09/2000
(3 out of 5 stars)
"With this album and an accompanying tour (from which the live cut "Domo Arigato" emerged), Vini broke to remarkable success in Japan. This CD reissue is a compilation of the original album, the "Say what you mean" EP, and two obscure songs. Continuing with the neo-classical tendencies of its predecessor "Another setting", "Without mercy" consists of two nearly 20-minute long pieces. It's an ambitious venture, but this confluence between electronic drums, wind instruments, piano, violins, and some guitar parts remains a lukewarm and tedious affair. The lack of concise textures and memorable melodies makes this mega-work sound like art for art's sake, and it doesn't reach the quality of genre-classics like "Tubular bells". The "Say what.." EP release is a little more powerful and consistent. Vini's typical guitar lines are absent, but the exotic arrangements keep the densely percussive tracks fairly interesting. And Vini's singing is a clear improvement upon 1981's "LC". After all, it's not a landmark recording in Durutti Column's discography, but a welcome purchase for fans of experimental chamber music."
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1