Dilate (CD - 1996)

Personnel: Ani DiFranco (vocals, acoustic, electric, steel & tenor guitar, Hammond organ, synthesizer, thumb piano, bass, bongos, shaker, drum programming, samples); David Travers-Smith (trumpet); Michael Ramos (Hammond organ); Andy Stochansky (drums).

Engineers include: Mark Hallman, Marty Lester, Ed Stone.

Recorded at Congress House Studio, Austin, Texas; Grant Avenue Studio, Hamilton, Canada; Chemical Sound, Toronto, Canada in December 1995 and January 1996.

Personnel: Ani DiFranco (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, steel guitar, synthesizer, bongos, shaker, sampler); David Travers-Smith (trumpet); Andy Stochansky (drums).

Audio Mixer: Ani DiFranco.

Recording information: Chemical Sound, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (12/1995-01/1996); Congress House Studio, Austin, TX (12/1995-01/1996); Grant Avenue Studio, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (12/1995-01/1996).

Photographer: Mark Van-S.

Unknown Contributor Role: Ani DiFranco.

Arranger: Ani DiFranco.

Expanding musically beyond the folk-rock-ish guitar pop of its two immediate predecessors, NOT A PRETTY GIRL and OUT OF RANGE, Ani DiFranco's seventh album in six years adds Hammond organ, synthesizer, bass, and even trumpet to what was once a stark musical vision. Though DiFranco supplies much of the instrumentation, longtime drummer Andy Stochansky and a few other collaborators assist.

DiFranco successfully expands her musical frontiers without compromising her fierce self-determination. As always, this is a major lyrical theme on DILATE, particularly on the title track and "Napoleon," a scathing and self-aware treatise on DiFranco's tenuous position as a best-selling "voice for women." Critics were puzzled by the keyboard-led, beat-heavy rearrangement of the spiritual "Amazing Grace," but DiFranco's next releases, the Utah Phillips collaboration THE PAST DIDN'T GO ANYWHERE and the MORE JOY, LESS SHAME remix EP, explored this new musical direction in greater detail. minimize