Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995 11:34:07 -0600 
      From: "blueeyes.brownhair" (vonminde@RINTINTIN.COLORADO.EDU) 
      Subject: Re: Lisa Gerrard 'The Mirror Pool'

i wonder, how eager are we to hate this record?  why buy it at all?  why
not just listen to it at the record store and say it sucks?  it's one of
those 'my mother always says' instances......if you go into something with
a negative attitude you'll probably have a negative outcome.  isn't
anyone willing to give this record a chance?  or any new 4ad release, for
that matter?  i am becoming more and more convinced that it's just
impossible for people to get excited about anything anymore.  i drove to
the record store yesterday, bought 'gentle creatures' & 'the mirror
pool', and drove home with glee and anticipation.  and i was rewarded
with two interesting records that are beautiful and challenging.  it is
good that they are challenging.....i thought 'filligree&shadow' was
challenging as hell.  it was difficult to get over dominic appleton
singing 'dum di dada didi' (or whatever) in 'the jeweller', but that
record became a part of how i live, so much so that my vinyl copy had to
be replaced when the cd was reissued in the u.s.  i am only speculating;
perhaps everyone is giving this a fair chance, but it's hard for me to
take these calculated slaggings of the record following hard upon the
release with total seriousness.

for my part, i have not completed my opinion of 'the mirror pool' yet.  it
was playing in my darkroom all yesterday; weaving in and out of my
consciousness.  i'll say that it really got under my skin in a good way
in a few parts.  it's becoming familar and i'm beginning to love it.
i've been bored with DCD for the past six months; not that i thought the
records were particularlly boring, i just opted to listen to other
things.  this has got me excited again.  i think lisa is singing
wonderfully, bringing back some of the deeper and more unique parts of
her vocals.  i can not say that i find this dull in any way.  'glorafin'
and 'the rite' are certainly not without passion (to name just a
couple).  these songs transcend the silliness that pervaded in works
from ITL ('towards the within', 'the spider's stratagem').  is the
problem that we've heard it all before?  can we only take so much
esoteric wailing from miss gerrard?  in that case, they should have
stopped with 'within the realm....'  it should have been over then.  this
is precisely why this record is challenging.  you have to force yourself
to look at what lisa is doing in a new way......rediscover her.

can we really say that DCD is making newage music for an adult
contemporary audience?  i mean, do you think they've really just given up
their passion for music to make records specifically for this crowd?  i
think it's more accurate to say that the adult contemporary crowd has
discovered them and decided that this is what they like right now.
warner bros. and 4ad are certainly taking advantage of this, but i don't
think there is any need to blame the musicians for their audience.  and
it's not just the new stuff....i've met adult contemporary people who have
bought all the records and love them.  now they've gone on to discover
other 4ad stuff and renounced their vh1 beginnings.  and besides, some of
'the mirror pool' is pretty dark and scary.  i have a hard time imagining
'the rite' being played on the local liteFM station.....

intelligent rebuttals to the list.  *please*  let's make this a better place.

if any aphex fans made it this far....is 'honey rhubarb' out in the US yet?

        .disappearingatthebigOmotel.........mark.


      Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 15:14:19 +0100 
      From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen (larsi@IFI.UIO.NO) 
      Subject: Late, late

Lisa Gerrard - The Mirror Pool

I can see why everybody is so down on this album. It does seem a bit
new agey, but it seems good enough to me. It doesn't set the world on
fire, but I like it just the same. I guess I had expected more - if
this was from a new, unknown artist, I'm sure I would have been bowled
over.