Acid Brass

Williams Fairey Band | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 10, 1998)
• Original Release Date: February 10, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mute/Blast First
• ASIN: B0000067X0
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #343,893 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Can U Dance

2. Jibaro

3. Voodoo Ray

4. Pacific 202

5. Strings of Life

6. The Groove That Won't Stop

7. Let's Get Brutal

8. Cübik

9. Day in the Life/Can U Party? [Medley]

10. What Time Is Love?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars BRASSED OFF ? YOU WON'T BE !, July 30, 1998

By 

D. Burns - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Acid Brass (Audio CD)

For lovers of the unusual, this CD brings you the superb musicianship of an outstanding English Brass Band coupled with the toe tapping infectious tunes of the acid house club scene. It's wacky, it's surreal but it works.

4.0 out of 5 stars AN EXPERIENCE DIFFERENT FROM ANY OTHER!, August 22, 2007

By 

Paulo Leite (Lisbon, Portugal) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Acid Brass (Audio CD)

It's written on the cover: A collection of 10 Acid House Anthems played by The Williams Fairey Brass Band.

The problem with these kinds of albums is that most of them usually try to reproduce the original music without thinking on the specificities of the reality they are working in.

A brass band is very different from the world of synthesizers and I believe that any attempt to recreate one while using the other will create unsatisfying, carnivalesque, funny material.

Now... this album sets the bar quite higher from the moment they chose 10 tracks from one of the most "unreproducible" music genres (if you think of using a brass band). And the result is a little mixed.

The playing here is top notch. The Williams Fairey Brass Band is one of the most awarded brass bands in the UK. As the booklet indicates, since their foundation in 1937, they are past winners of the BBC's "Best of Brass" and twice holders of the "Granada Band of the Year" - not to mention a total of ten first prizes at the annual Whit Friday March Contests.

Now, I did not know some of the songs they selected. But still, they all sound great, with, sometimes, that eventual mistake of getting too close to something that was not meant for brass. Meaning that the big challenge in a project like this is "to rewrite and reread the Acid House material in order to make us think they were born for brass - and not simply a brass version of something.

Listening to the album, I can clearly see the struggle with the outstanding "born for brass" approach and the corny "brass version".

Still I believe the "born for brass" approach wins. That's a good thing.

The best example of it is the 4th track, called PACIFIC 202, which, I must say, is one of the most (if not the most) dazzling brass tracks I ever heard in my life. It is nothing less than astounding. In fact, I had to go back to it several times.

The achievement on this track alone would be sufficient to justify the whole project. Fortunately enough, the album has other tracks that are immensely successful: Day in the Life/Can U Party, What Time Is Love, Jibaro, Voodoo Ray, Let's Get Brutal, Cubik and What Time Is Love?

I did not like the first track, "Can U Dance?" - Bad opening for a great disc.

I believe we need more albums like this.

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Can I get my money back?, July 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Acid Brass (Audio CD)

After all the good reviews, I expected great things from this album, which made my disappointment all the worse. Sorry, but this is a complete failure in every way. The arrangements are static or plodding, and the use of traditional percussion (handclaps, for cryin' out loud!) only heightens the feeling that you're listening to a high school band that can keep a tune. I know they thought they were bridging the old and the new, but they've only succeeded in dragging down the exciting into the mundane. Even as a goof, it's just no fun. For the real thing, I strongly urge everyone to check out Empire Brass' PASSAGES, which, while a bit different, successfully achieves the artistic aims this album so completely fails to.