Album Review

Joe Prisco [allmusic.com]

The previous album was a reckoning and a consolidation -- having signed onto a label that was primarily acoustic and low-key, SHADOWDANCE let their slip show with a bit of energy. On THE DREAMS OF CHILDREN, they brazenly stepped out like can-can dancers, and grabbed the listener with both ears by their new keyboardist's liberal use of the DX7.

It's hard to overstate the importance here. Windham Hill had carefully cultivated a certain recumbence in its catalog, and Shadowfax had slipped in the back door solely because the CEO was enthralled by Chuck Greenberg's lyricon. That instrument is indeed featured, but not before David Lewis' DX7 and Stu Nevitt's drums set the tone: arpeggiated, percussive, energetic. Not content with that, they amped up the exotic percussion overdubs, making TDOC sound more World than New Age, but not exactly divorced from the fusion/prog-rock era that birthed the band. By the end of the album, we've crossed those genres into the middle-eastern-metal drama of ''The Wailing Wall'', and this is not your hippie aunt's New Age music anymore.

Not surprisingly, they never ventured quite that far again, making TDOC the perfect fulcrum of their catalog: softly melodramatic synth pads, pokey thumb piano, and floaty violin share time with an all-but-rocking-out rhythm section. The brainy stuff is there, but it's still pop enough for mass enjoyment. You can play it in the background (except for that last piece) but you won't be bored if you pay attention.

Highly recommended. And don't call it New Age (or Jazz), unless you want to call it New Age Fusion.