4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
High-energy, ear snack food, June 18, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Gigantic Dancing Human Machine: Bang on a Can Plays Louis Andriessen (Audio CD)
Anyone who knows Louis Andriessen's music won't be disappointed in this crisp, hard-driving, spare music. The cascades of notes, the obssessive slithering around tight clusters of notes, and the pointillistic rhythms have the hallmarks of minimalism, but it seems an innacurate label for pieces so jam-packed full of notes. And there's moments of humor, surprisingly, if you know where to listen. Sincere, virtuoso performances. Recommended.
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8 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too Minimal, April 13, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Gigantic Dancing Human Machine: Bang on a Can Plays Louis Andriessen (Audio CD)
Minimalism has had its share of great, truly reductionist works: Glass' "Two Pages", Reich's "Pendulum Music", Bryars' "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" - but none of these failed to capture the imagination of the captive audience.
Unlike these significant works, Louis Andriessen's works represented on this disc (although performed quite well by the now-infamous Bang On A Can) go almost nowhere with the very little material present. While the other composers took highly limited material and turned it into something way more worthwhile than the sum of its part (notice I didn't pluralize this word...), Andriessen uses the same amount of material and succeeds only at utterly boring the audience.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE minimalist music (Glass, Reich, Adams, Riley, Gorecki, Part, Nyman, Tavener, Bryars, Duckworth, Lansky at times, etc...) but I just don't think this disc lives up to the other great works of the genre.
To be fair, track 1, Workers' Union, actually travels pretty well, but it outstays its welcome pretty badly. Hoketus and Hout, although initially intriguing, lose any sense of ingenuity or emotion once you get a few minutes into them.
Should you pick up this disc?
Yes.
Will you enjoy it?
Not as much as you could have had BOAC picked more musical
works.
Overall, I would skip this disc until you absolutely need it for your collection...otherwise check out some of Andriessen's other music...I'm sure you'll be quite satisfied with anything but these pieces!
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