Rate Points :4.5
Binding :Audio CD
Label :Cantaloupe
Manufacturer :Cantaloupe
MPN :21028
ProductGroup :Music
Studio :Cantaloupe
Publisher :Cantaloupe
UPC :713746302825
EAN :0713746302825
Price :$19.98USD
Lowest Price :$13.77USD
Rating Point :4 Helpful Point :6
Connoisseurs of Aphex Twin or of avant-garde music will enjoy this. It would provide the perfect soundtrack to a Richard D. James movie, and it might run like this: Richard, the main character, receives a package delivered by a strange postman, very tall, smoking a pipe. He opens the package and sees a note which reads: I Want Your Soul I Will Eat your Soul Come to Daddy! Hugz n Kisses xxxoxooxox He kind of freaks out, as a bunch of motorized teddy bears jump out of the package and start jumping around wrecking the place and then settling into a weird dance. He opens the doors and shoos them out. He follows them and they lead him on a weird trek through London during a foggy afternoon. The bears lead him through the city, to a terraced garden. The bears then run off too fast for him to follow, and leave him in this garden. He has a weird meditation type experience, then decides to take a nice long walk home to clear his head. He goes through the city, seeing favorite stores, passing a dock, eventually arriving in his home town, his street, and finally his house. A fresh horror beholds him when he discovers that he left his front door unlocked, and the door ajar! He slowly enters the house, expecting the weirdest and worst, and gets it! The house has become totally rearranged, everything moved around, and some things broken from the earlier frollick with the teddy bears. He goes into his bedroom full of a nameless wonder and dread, and sees lots of heart-shaped helium balloons with "WE LOVE U" written on them. He just stands in the doorway going nuts, too confused to even react. He decides to go back into the living room, and as he hsteps in, he notices all his friends sitting around. THey laugh and say Surprise! and remind him not to leave his door unlocked. They help him straighten up the place, then make a few more jokes about him needing to remember to lock the door, then leave. Then, a wild thunderstorm comes up, and he rides it out, just glad to have his house back to normal. He goes outside, thinking the storm has abated, only to behold a fresh terror in the form of a hailstorm! Wild hail rains down with intense lightning. Then he notices that the hail looks a lot like those balloons..... And those "friends" of his did look rather teddy-bear-shaped. Spurred by a fresh freak-out, he races back through the city, this time at three in the morning instead of three in the afternoon. He races past the dock, past the shops, and finally ends up in the garden again. He has another meditation. We do not see what he sees, but he suddenly runs from the garden, on a crazy route through the town. He finally arrives back at home, but fortunately this time he locked the door, and he goes in, safe and sound. He notices his calendar says APril 14th, and he feels happy. He then enjoys having his house and his life back to normal.....or so he believes. Then the credits roll with the remixes. Yes, a very interesting album indeed.
One of my favorite discs lately
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :8
I love this cd, and its definitely worth the more than standard price. Those expecting to hear more stuff like the Philip Glass orchestration of "Icct Hedral" that came out a couple years ago will be pleasantly surprised - this is a much more enthusiastic endeavor. Firstly, theres a much wider range of instruments used, including bassoons, english horns and trumpets in addition to the strings and wide array of percussion. There really needs to be more bassoons in the world in general. Many of the songs chosen are on the more complex side of Aphex Twins repetoire, and the acoustic versions match every skip and hiccup of the originals. Most of the tracks here are from "Druqks", which was one of my least favorite Aphex releases. (I thought it was a case of Richard James following trends rather than creating them.) However, listening to this let me go back to it and appreciate it from a compositional perspective. The other tracks seem to be split between the Richard D. James album and Selected Ambient Works 2.
This ensemble worked very hard to try to match the sounds used in the original songs, at times using found objects to replace the sounds of heavily-processed drum machines. There are some most beautiful/ingenious examples too: in "Meltphace 6", a blaring piccolo fills the role of what was originally squealing feedback, and in "4", an english horn occasionally tugs the lead line away from the strings.
I only have 1 small complaint: 2 electronic "remix" tracks are included as a bonus, which disrupt the mood presented by the rest of the tracks.
Imaginative re-working of Richard D James
Rating Point :4 Helpful Point :16
I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical when I first saw this release by Alarm Will Sound. There have been tons of crossover releases (going both ways) in terms of classical artists remaking popular artists and vice-versa. William Orbit tackled the masters with his Pieces In A Modern Style while the work of Radiohead has been transcribed to both classical and solo piano pieces and The Balanescu Quartet got Possessed by Kraftwerk. Its been going on for decades, with everyone from the New York Philharmonic playing the Bee Gees to Apolyptica doing string quartet versions of Metallica songs.
On Acoustica, Alarm Will Sound obviously tackles the work of Mr. Richard D. James, and even for a big fan like myself (who can often be rather cynical), I have to admit that the young 22-piece group has pulled things off pretty darn well. In terms of arrangements and compositions, the group could have easily chosen another electronic artist that wasnt quite as challenging, but theyve adapted thirteen tracks of Aphex Twin on this release and amazingly play them all acoustically (with the only exception being electric bass). The songs themselves are turned into pieces that breath with strings, brass, woodwinds and live percussionists, along with some vocals.
In addition to all of the above instrumentation, the group also raided toy stores and created homemade instruments in order to recreate some of the more unique sounds that Aphex Twin uses in his music. The result is something that is entirely true to the original, played with an almost astounding precision, yet is just human and different enough to sound original. Truth be told, I dont listen to Aphex Twin as much as I used to, but hearing these interpretations of his work made me start fishing out his releases again and hearing them in a slightly different light.
If you need proof that the group didnt stray from difficult pieces, they tackled both "Cock/Ver 10, "Omgyjya Switch 7," and "Mt. Saint Michel" from Drukqs (each have their own insane rhythm section, which the group tackles with 4 percussionists), as well as the hilariously playful "Logon Rock Witch" and the beautiful "4" (which might be one of my favorite Aphex Twin songs ever) from The Richard D. James. On the slower sides of things, the group recreates both "Blue Calx" and "Cliffs" (the title generally given to the track due to the liner notes picture) from Selected Ambient Works Volume 2.
Theres a lot of other stuff to digest on the release, but the pedigree of Alarm Will Sound is high (their first release was an acclaimed performance of two Steve Reich pieces) and their reworkings of Aphex Twin will likely appeal to fans of Mr. James himself or classical music fans who are looking for something quite a bit different from the ordinary. The release concludes with two "remixes" of their interpretations, and unfortunately they sound by-the-numbers given the music that came before them (both opting for a fairly straightforward house feel). Even with the somewhat lackluster ending and silly title, Acoustica is still a pretty fun little listen.
(from almost cool music reviews)
A Revelation
Rating Point :4 Helpful Point :0
5.0 out of 5 stars A revelation, 20 Mar 2008
Always in search of the weird and wonderful but equally wary of futile novelty, my discovery of this surprising musical experiment demanded a listen. But could this New York chamber group translate some of the most groundbreaking, demented and thoroughly noisy experimental electronica into an acoustic format? Yes, yes, yes! And wonderfully so. Even the most furiously percussive challenges are an absolute triumph. The only other musicians I could conceive of living upto this damn near impossible challenge would have been The Kronos Quartet, but even then they would have had to expand their instrumentation. If you liked the staccato sounds of Clogs on their avant-chamber masterpiece Stick Music, or if you enjoy the sonic persecution of Penderecki, Lygeti, or the more palatable Bartok and Hermanns Psycho, then this could be for you. Perhaps they will attempt the music of Autechre next.
ok, a good attempt but still off
Rating Point :3 Helpful Point :0
Nothing can truly recreate Richard D. James music except for a computer or a God. It is an adequet emulation of some of his best works but a lot of the tracks are totally unrecognizable, especially blue calx which uses absolutely no reverberence on the percussive layers! If your a die hard Aphex Twin fan or simply like classical music over electronic, I reccomend it otherwise, dont bother with it.
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