Customer Reviews

Dockstader: Quatermass

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just went from one shock--finding out that the DVD collection of Maya Deren films has not gotten a single review yet--to this orphan of about the same era. If you get rid of hippies and beatniks, what's left for the 50's and 60's is a less self-promoting and more circumspect American avant-garde. Unfortunately, few know it was ever there. Hippies and Beats knew how to market and engage mass media better than they would have ever admitted.

This, and the other disc from Starkland, are spectacular collections of early experimental collage and concrete "music".
The pieces are tough to describe but there is a deep musicality to them and they don't sound like early pure electronic offerings and they aren't, by any measure, ambient. Dockstader used "real" sounds and manipulated the heck out of them. Anyone interested in modern sampling should find these fascinating (in fact this should be required listening for that set!) and a bit intimidating--it was all done with minimal multi-tracks, overdubbing, and scissors...and the results are just great and wear well over time. One almost wishes this line of musical thinking had been pursued more vigorously before the Moog and other synths kicked in. It's got a unique texture and depth to it. Really beautiful, emotional, and evocative stuff. The recordings here are first-rate.

I am not a trained musical critic, but I find Quatermass strangely appealing. Although the work is filled with discordant notes (often causing beat notes between the stereo channels), it hangs together, having recurring themes very much like traditional classical works. The final movement brings back the themes for a final crescendo. Having played it countless times since discovering Quatermass in the 1970s, I am thoroughly familiar with it and can whistle some of the segments, much to the puzzlement of those around me. By far, the best way to listen is with headphones or ear buds. I experience abstract colored patterns and moving objects in my mind during some parts of the recording. It's truly one-of-a-kind and a superb work of art.