<<  -- 3 --  Robert Hugill    NEW EARS

Erectile cognitive bop bits starts in spiky, modernist style but mixes more melodic material, popular song rhythms and the sounds of a harpsichord. Pomp and vindaloo starts with a string-rich Broadway style arrangement. Later on in the movement, tuned percussion comes to the fore, with the addition of electronic instruments and some Indian ones, plus hints of Latin-American rhythms.

Felini's pickup truck features country-style music with plectrum and Hawaiian guitars potently combined with Kurt Weill-like melodies [listen -- track 5, 0:00-1:01]. This movement contains a fascinating section made from just found (non-melodic) material [listen -- track 5, 2:50-3:55 and track 5, 5:17-6:20]. Invocation and fanfare of the Tahitian garbage fairies uses a frenetic, rhythmic figure which hints at an oriental scale.

Whatever the various styles and instruments thrown in to the mix, I felt that the overall sensibility holding things together owed quite a lot to modern-jazz; though some of the things that the group get up to might horrify purists! But then this whole disc is about horrifying purists. This is the sort of music that needs to be listened to with an open mind and an open brain; if the juxtapositions of alarmingly different musical pastiches offend you, then beware. But the twentieth century has been full of artists who have created the new out of found objects and assemblages other people's works. At its best, such work enables us to view the original works with new ears.

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