Robbie Robertson - Contact From the Underworld of Redboy

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Music reviews of Contact From the Underworld of Redboy

Music Review: This stunning album will change your life forever!
Rating: 5 Stars

"The Sound Is Fading" begins the life-altering journey with the sound of an Indian Drum. Eventually pianos come in and a strange voice comes in and the song becomes a very odd chord structured track with a dark and disturbing mood to it. The voice singing in the background is traditional chant sung a Native American girl and recorded in the early 1940s. She died in a house fire along with most of her famiy caused by political arson not long after the voice recording and learning of this, this song has taken on a much more frightening mood in my opinion. It's a great song all on it's own field. "The Code Of Handsome Lake" is a brighter more bluesy sounding song about a Seneca chief who was dying of alcoholism and turned to the power of the creator to cure himself of it and others following his path to curing themselves. The Seneca are one of the six nations of the Iroquois tribe and I'm from the Cayuga nation and this song as a result is very powerful to me. This is one of my favorite songs on the CD. "Making A Noise" gets my nod as the angriest song on the entire album. It starts with wobbly guitar effects and Native American voices before becoming a strange instrument comes and the song becomes a dark trip-hop mix of trip-hop, dark ambient pop, and a very rebellious atmosphere. Don't be turned off by an occasional swear word. This song definitely makes a noise by being a wonderful song. The song pauses at 2:51 with an awesome narrative line that you need to hear. The song resumes at 3:20 and then goes on from there. "Unbound" brought me to tears when I first heard the haunting woman chanting and the ambient intro. This is a much mellower song, with a calmer but very hazy, and dark atmosphere like that of an approaching storm. This song I'm guessing is about not having ones traditions being confined within the borders of a reservation. This is the absolute winner on this album and the best song of 1998! We then head into what I consider the most heartbreaking song of all time "Sacrifice". The song itself is very dark, creepy, and eerie. However it's its theme that makes it so saddening. In the song is a recording of Leonard Peltier during a 1996 interview from his prison cell and him telling about the atrocities done to him, and also tells of his ancestors' sacrifices from as recently as 25 years before the interview. The song also tells of destroying Native American's cultures by forces, i.e. "cut off all your hair, take away your language". This song changed my life forever. I was a happy-go-lucky person when the song started playing. When it was done and I learned of its theme, the smile on my face melted away into sadness and anger over learning about what happened. BTW, in case y'all are confused, this is a great and powerful song and one of the most brilliant songs of modern times. It just brought me to a tear, that's all. "Rattlebone" is a trippier song with a dark, nighttime urban mood about how Native American's not only preserved their cultures but are living them as we speak. I must say, this song is totally awesome. Well done Robbie! "Peyote Healing" is a serene and laid back song with Peyote Chanting and most bass and electric guitars and the Peyote Chanting. This is a nice break from the intense and dark themes of the previous songs. "In The Blood" is a dark, but somewhat red sunset mood song with a relatively upbeat ambient mood. The song from my guess is about embracing the Native American heritage inside oneself as it's in one's blood. This is another favorite song of mines. "Stomp Dance" is the brightest, and most upbeat song on the album. It's an upbeat, somewhat joyous song with a beautiful blend of dance beats and Native American chanting and some blues. "The Lights" gets my nod as the eeriest song on this entire album. It's a dark, and trippy song with a very 'outskirts-of-civilization' mood that tells of Native Americans making contact with aliens 'out-there-in-space' far from 'civilization'. This is such a wonderful song. The final track "Take Your Partner By The Hand" is the oddest song on this CD, blending trip-hop, some hip-op, jazz, and pop with a bit of a 1950s feel. Just listen to the awesome poetry in the song. I don't want to spoil the fun. This song needs a listen to know what it's about. It wraps up this experience.

This album is NOT for the faint-at-heart. It will completely and irreversibly alter the character in you. I was once a happy, naïve brat once at the beginning of 1998. At the end of that year when I had this CD for months, I was angry, sad, and in tears over the horrible injustices done to my ancestors, something that haunts my mind to this very day. For a year that I generally thought was a boring year for music, this album left 1998 forever etched in my memory. This album is an essential need.

Description of Contact From the Underworld of Redboy

Folk CDs

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• Rock