Hinterland Under The Watlerine. Release Date : November 18, 2003. Label: Hybrid Electric. Rating: Andy doesn't dig rating stuff. Hinterland brings us in gently, starting with easy strings and easy harmonica... the instant thought is that this will be a beautiful CD. There are huge, cascading instrumentals to start songs, large chunks of vocelless bits. But the voice is used here as an instrument. There are lyrics, but you can't really pick them out easily; it's mostly just a flowing high strain over everything else. It's layered upon layers and layers. Three or four scintillating vocals going on at once. I find it somewhere between Bjork, Tori Amos, Delirium, and heck, I'll say it, Enya. It's all mellow and slow, and every instrument is pulled like taffy into these distorted wails, haunting. Flutes... also haunting. It's like a legend or something. Pans and unicorns and dragons. It's pretty and flighty and airy. There's points where the guitars come in and rock everything up a bit, and remind you that it's modern and real, and not something that's stranded in a fantastical medieval fantasy world... but gently. There's noise, surreal noise. And always that astounding voice. Song of choice : Digging "Portrait Of My Invention" and "Tiger Tiger." -Andy Scheffler Elsewhere Hinterland website Published : January, 2005.