orchestral

Letter from New Virginia

admin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:31:00 +0000

Did you know that one of iTunes musical categories is “unclassifiable”? Such a description is apt for the music of Donny Hue and the Colors. The group uses many unusual instruments, including autoharp, melodica, glockenspiel, and theremin, as well as guitar and organ on an album that can alternately be described as psychedelic, minimalist, and orchestral.

The instrumental “Into the Woods” plays like the opening of a movie, setting the tone for the album. It is pleasant sounding yet laid back until the music stops abruptly and we hear a very very quiet sound resembling wings. Both the emphasis on melody and the bizarre use of ambient sound carry over as the album progresses.

“You’re On Your Own (We Could Help)” is a bit left of center, but whimsical in a Beatles-esque way. The lyrics make little sense: “Mr. Romo, how do you so elegantly bow?” “I Speak of the Hayseed Cousins” sports a country vibe with jangling guitar and laconic vocal while “Callidope” has a bluegrass feel and is marked by prominent harmonica and a fast-paced rhythm. We then have “Fairlady of the Springboard,” a waltz on which we hear piano and violin, and as with many other songs, the music obscures the vocals. It’s not that you can’t hear them, but that they don’t seem to be saying much, and the music is more the focus. The band gives a Southern rock feel to “Woods,” which has drawling vocals, ambling solos, and piano and horns that add to the crescendo finale.

Musically, Donny Hue and the Colors know their stuff, and while the album is interesting to listen to once, it doesn’t get any less strange or chaotic the second time around. Until the group learns to focus their talents more, I won’t be adding them to my playlist.

Written by: Karen Duda, October 26th 2009

I Am the West

admin — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:10:00 +0000

By Lovers

Able Heart Records

Love is complicated. What seems to be heading in one direction can catch you off-guard and go someplace else. So too, Lovers depart from the realm of singer/songwriter and venture into the world of electro-pop. Lovers' latest album, I Am the West, opens with catchy synth rhythms coupled with the sweet, airy vocals of Carolyn Berk. And while I esteem female-fronted pop bands who embrace the risks and vulnerabilities of a minimally-produced album, I also want to hear something new. Much to my dismay, I Am the West struggles to differentiate itself from countless other electro-pop albums in circulation.

At first listen, I was distracted by persistent reminders of other bands' music. The meandering synth recalled the great indie bands of the '90s; the pure, exposed vocals ached like those of Mirah (whom she thanked on the CD insert). Don't get me wrong; I still love '90s indie-pop and can't get enough of Mirah, but where is Berk? I caught inconsistent glimpses of her unique sound, and yearned for more. "Tonight" gave me such a glimpse. The song comes together offering an entrancing, lucid and complex composition that opens with orchestral strings and the twang of a slide guitar. Berk's voice enters potent yet whimsical, as she questions a lover's whereabouts.

"I wind through alleys and empty lots, my endless arms are still reaching/But it's your heart, you do with it what you want tonight"

After "Tonight," the album slows down considerably, the songs bleeding one into the next. I waited for another developed tune like "Tonight," but it never came. While the instrumentation was consistently skilled and melodious, the lyrics teetered from charming to downright cheesy. "Confucius say I'm so confused" and "You're a jungle baby, I'm just a little panther" might be sort of funny or endearing in a different context, but ended up detracting from the songs' overall quality. Particularly disappointing were the lyrics of the euphonious acoustic ballad "Stay Another Night." The song pleads a lover to stick around, implying that self-sacrifice is an acceptable route to avoid the pain of losing a partner. Living in a culture saturated with negative stereotypes about submissive and accommodating women, that's not a message I want to hear.

Lovers' latest movement toward electro-pop with I Am the West offers a vitalizing new sound for the band, but struggles to break new ground. Still, there's something to be said for the simplicity of something familiar.

Written by: Sofia Marin, May 22nd 2009

Circle of Water Life Suite (2/27/2009)

admin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:50:00 +0000

Shedd Aquarium

Chicago, Illinois

There was a sparrow lose in Kovler Family hall. "Excuse me," I sotto-vocced to a worker. "Are you aware that there is a sparrow loose in here?" She nodded. "It's been here since five." The feathers fluttered overhead. It did not chirp, nor did it crap on the carp of bronze, or the verdigrised octopi that hold the chandeliers' lamps to their chains.

Although the interloper did not follow us into the hall and improvise, the scheduled singing was splendid, particularly 21st Century Sharecropper's Blues—"Give me my money. Give me back my mind." Consuming culture recalibrates. Also, beforehand concertgoers can wander through the exhibit tanks to admire reef species, languid arms of kelp, hungry sea anemones, a range of liquid habitats. Plastic frogs and sea horses six feet long menace overhead, aquatic pinatas. An informative display contains dozens of invasive species. I once saw two score lampreys stuck to a sturgeon. More recently, a Chicago poet and I established how much is marketing: if we renamed the Asian Carp "Osakan Jadefish" and sold it for $17.50 a pound, we might create an insatiable demand.

The second concert in the series Circle of Life Suite was written expressly for the Shedd Aquarium by Chicago Sinfonietta's principal violist Reneé Baker. Featuring the Mantra Blue Free Orchestra, also directed by Baker, selections performed included the third and final movement from Ulysses Kay's Choral Triptych, "Alleluia" featuring the Chicago Community Chorus. The mission of the Community Chorus is to include all, and I experienced a moment of delusion that I might sing, but then they opened their mouths and vocalized. Slightly better odds than my ballet career, perhaps, but I have been asked not to sing when they roll out the office birthday sheetcake. Handel's "Water Music," "Caravan" by Duke Ellington, and other selections by Satie, Gershwin, and Sondheim were played. "Send in the Clowns" was stricken from the program, Baker explained, due to their inability to find a clown.

Apparently the Conductor also possesses a profound fear of fish: the Shedd provided a fish-free visual montage—lizards, frogs, birds, and assorted amphibians flew by. To me, the moments of personal digression are a positive in any performance, an additional facet of context. The music chosen is eclectic and accessible, the amenities adequate, and the species, charming. Recommended.

Written by: Erika Mikkalo, April 12th 2009

Oh Perilous World

admin — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 18:45:00 +0000

By Rasputina

Filthy Bonnet Recording Co

Oh Perilous World, chamber-rock trio Rasputina’s sixth full-length album, is a study in what happens when blind ambition meets undeniable talent in a head-to-head death match. Talent usually wins out, but not without its causalities.

In this case, Rasputina has created an album filled with gorgeous melodies and string arrangements that are undoubtedly impressive to both casual listeners and the aficionados. However, with lyrics culled from newspaper clippings and history books, Oh Perilous World would be much easier to appreciate if it was an instrumental. Melora Creager, Rasputina’s founding multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, comes off as unforgivably pedantic, particularly in the opening track “1816, the Year Without a Summer.” Yes, it’s interesting to know that Mary Shelley’s writing of Frankenstein may have been indirectly influenced by crazy meteorological events of the day, but not every great story makes a great song - a distinction that seems to have passed by Creager in a flurry of mandolins and guitar strings. Her lyrics sound jumbled and forced, and while I’m willing to give a bit of leeway to someone writing songs from Osama Bin-Laden speeches, just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

There’s no denying the extraordinary level of talent in Rasputina; after all, any band that’s toured with Throwing Muses, Nirvana and The Pixies can’t be all bad. It’s just that their talent is out of focus on Oh Perilous World, over-reaching and misguided. Creager supposedly decided to write from newspaper accounts because she found them more bizarre than anything she could come with on her own. That may be true, but there’s a reason we read newspapers, not sing them.

Written by: Lily-Rygh Glen, July 29th 2007

Poverina

admin — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 17:10:00 +0000

By Astrid Swan

Minty Fresh

Finland's own multi-instrumentalist Astrid Swan’s debut album, Poverina, was released on Minty Fresh Records on May 22. The opening track, "They Need You if They Think You Love Them," starts out gently with a tapping glockenspiel and cleverly transitions into Astrid's husky voice and piano. The arrangement is intense and dramatic at times with almost a full orchestra of instruments.

It is hard not to compare Ms. Swan with the much underrated '70s quirky-pop diva, Laura Nyro. Both women not only have sultry styles of their own, but each singer is able to blend together several musical elements of pop, soul, folk, show tunes and Swan's own influence, jazz. Swan says that "[j]azz was often played in our home, and although I used to say I hated it, it seems something has rubbed off onto my songs."

One main thing I noticed in hearing Swan's jazz influence in her music is the unpredictable chord arrangements. The music can be complicated with dynamic shifts in tone, which plays with our ideas of tempo and style. Swan uses her piano like a weapon at times. An example of this is the track "Second Chance," which has unexpected variations and intense lyrics such as: "he gave me broken wings/and told to fly/he said I have eternity/and time is an ocean/that I can fly over." The Bacharach-esque title track, "Poverina," is a catchy tune, which has fast dynamic musical shifts reminding me of Fiona Apple, and demonstrates that Swan's singing range is extremely versatile.

Astrid Swan's melodies are memorable, and, like Nyro, her voice is an acquired taste. It is not for everyone, but it works beautifully with her music.

Written by: MK Matson, July 21st 2007