December 4, 2009
I guess I would describe Andrew Poppy’s …And the Shuffle of Things as experimental minimalist classical crossed with lo-tec electronica. It mixed piano and glockenspiel with vibraphone and bass guitar using short loops of notes, omitting any drum or beat machine. Think a cross between Treewave and Far Corner.
The music was accompanied by some visuals projected onto a semi-transparent screen in front of the musicians, which sometimes gave the eye something to focus on, but more often just provided a shimmer effect intended to set the mood. Though it was meant to be an audio visual performance the sparseness of the visuals was such that this is the last I will say of them.
The music was a composition of short loops of notes layered over one another, which repeated time and again subtly changing throughout the pieces, as do the loops in standard techno and trance tracks. Unfortunately the loops were repeated around 40% longer then they had any right to be, which really stymied any interest that the subtle changes might have generated.
This is a pity really because the musicians were very skilled indeed. Each changed to a different instrument or two thought the performance, and when playing the repeated loops they kept in perfect time and were on occasion able to pull of some really rather tricky rhythms.
But the nature of the music didn’t lend itself to live performance, and the same effect would have been just as well achieved with some creative use of a music program like dance ejay. Moreover, if it had then one would have at least been able to add some heavy beats or dirty bass, and speed up the whole affair.
In the end of the day …And the Shuffle of Things did not do it for me. If I want minimalist chill-out I will stick on Bonobo’s One offs and B Sides, which manages to keep things interesting without over egging the custard. If I want experimental I will put on some Mahvishnu Orchestra. This however fell between the stools of both and I'm afraid I found it neither interesting nor compellingly simple.
The music was accompanied by some visuals projected onto a semi-transparent screen in front of the musicians, which sometimes gave the eye something to focus on, but more often just provided a shimmer effect intended to set the mood. Though it was meant to be an audio visual performance the sparseness of the visuals was such that this is the last I will say of them.
The music was a composition of short loops of notes layered over one another, which repeated time and again subtly changing throughout the pieces, as do the loops in standard techno and trance tracks. Unfortunately the loops were repeated around 40% longer then they had any right to be, which really stymied any interest that the subtle changes might have generated.
This is a pity really because the musicians were very skilled indeed. Each changed to a different instrument or two thought the performance, and when playing the repeated loops they kept in perfect time and were on occasion able to pull of some really rather tricky rhythms.
But the nature of the music didn’t lend itself to live performance, and the same effect would have been just as well achieved with some creative use of a music program like dance ejay. Moreover, if it had then one would have at least been able to add some heavy beats or dirty bass, and speed up the whole affair.
In the end of the day …And the Shuffle of Things did not do it for me. If I want minimalist chill-out I will stick on Bonobo’s One offs and B Sides, which manages to keep things interesting without over egging the custard. If I want experimental I will put on some Mahvishnu Orchestra. This however fell between the stools of both and I'm afraid I found it neither interesting nor compellingly simple.