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<< -- 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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