This Just In

Alarm Will Sound
Originally uploaded by bsglaser.

Artist: Alarm Will Sound
Album: Acoustica: Alarm Will Sound Performs Aphex Twin
Source: Prize

I am trying to get fewer CDs these days, but sometimes I can’t even help it. Cantaloupe Records (the modern classical label run by the Bang on a Can folks) had a survey in a recent edition of their e-newsletter, and I responded. Hey, they wanted some info, and I didn’t mind giving it. Total time invested: 2 minutes.

Then, a few weeks later, I get an e-mail back from them that my survey results were chosen at random as one of 5 “winning entries,” and I could have my pick of their catalogue. Really? Well, OK.

So I picked this CD, wherein more than a dozen musicians, playing everything from oboe and cello to curtain rod and duck call, tackle the songs of electronica pioneer The Aphex Twin from an acoustic POV. And dammit if the thing doesn’t work: the skittering beats are still there (this time, done by man rather than machine), along with the repetitive-but-evolving melodies and counterpoints, and the strange sounds. It doesn’t sound like electronic music or acoustic music, really, but a diggable bastard child of the two (though it’s worth noting that the pair of remixes at the end – wherein the acoustic translations of electronic sounds get reprocessed as electronica – might be the best tunes here).

I didn’t buy this record, or even try to buy this record, but I have it anyway, and I dig it for sure.