The title of this one is Bang On A Can Classics, but I file this as Nick Didkovsky's Amalia's Secret. Bang On A Can (BOAC) is a New York-based collective that supports contemporary music with considerable success (including their own recording label--where you can buy this recording). In fact, co-founder David Lang won the Pulitzer Prize for composition this year. I've always thought of BOAC as something of a "downtown" New York group, where they favor grit and a fusion of rock, jazz, and classical styles.
This disk is performed, like many of the BOAC disks, by the collective's all-stars, meaning a melange of member composers and regular performers. At times, they play like formidable amateurs, meaning that some of the subtlety and polish of serious pros is missing. It seems like the rock music influence sands down the musicians' ability to make more sophisticated music.
Mr. Lang's work, "Cheating, Lying, Stealing" opens affairs with a clanking, urgent rhythm that aptly demonstrates the BOAC's general predilection for drones and lengthy, repeated pulses. He builds drama by layering longer tones over the rhythms, letting both surge and fade. A couple of the other works, like Julia Wolfe's "Lick" and Lois Vierk's "Red Shift" use both rock drums and rock guitar, although both are pretty aimless and, well, poorly integrated (although Ms. Wolfe's piece works toward a kind of fun psychedelic freakout, everybody playing loud and fast at once).
In fact, except for Mr. Lang's piece, most of the works on this disk seem more like jams than fully-realized compositions. I'm a big fan of avant-garde music, but this disk shows the dark side: musicians who appear to lack the interest or ability to create more meaningful structures. It's funny, I've been holding off for years, not checking out the BOAC works. Now that I've gotten this disk, I'm disappointed.
3 out of 10
CDs listened to today:
- Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
- Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas for Piano
- Either/Orchestra: Across The Omniverse
- The Joggers: Solid Guild
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