Lakota Piano

Lakota Piano is an excellent new age recording from Brule. Inspired by the pioneering group XIT, (the first Native American rock band signed to a major label) Brule has taken their melodies and transposed them to essentially piano and keyboard strings. What makes this concept work is that the melodies are quite pretty and there are enough slight variations to keep things interesting. The opening and final cuts ("Color Nature Gone" and "End") boast beautiful and haunting melodies, while "Someday" injects water sounds and traditional singing in the background. At other times gentle percussion is heard gently, but it never overpowers the main keyboard based melody. What also makes the music come across so strongly is the clean, clear sound of the recording; it simply has an excellent clarity of tone that jumps out at the listener, albeit it in a soothing, relaxing way. Although the words that inspired this recording often describe the struggles and plights of the American Indian, the music consistently soothes and relaxes, and at best touches the heart.