Customer Reviews

Magnificat

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

 

 

I first heard the album magnificat over one year ago, unfortunately, I didn't posess the money to buy it at the time and assumed that I would be able to find it elsewhere when I finally had my finances situated correctly. However... I soon found how hard good techno is to find. It has taken me over one year to finally find this cd and once again hear the hard core industrial percussion and the hardline techno and electronica instrumentation mixed dilligently with 16th century gregorian chants (sung by the los angeles chamber choir) This album takes sampling to a level that has only been touched by mod composers on computers with the mixing of two genres of music, superficially different, but similar at the core. If you like to feel the music run through you and get caught up in a flood of sound, music, and chant, then buy this album. You won't be disappointed

Industrial Monk's debut album begins with the swirling sounds of almost any electronica-based album, but descends gradually into an amazing blend of choral beauty and electronic strength. The unexpected marriage of the dark, heavy-handed synth lines and symphonic vocal arrangments presents an experience unlike anything you can find in most electronic music genres. Obviously rhythmically gifted, Industrial Monk transcends the lower levels of gothic lyric and replaces it with symphonic choral arrangements of traditional Gregorian chants. An intense experience, worth listening to more than once.

This album is another in the line of mixing chant with modern bass lines and rhythms, ala Enigma. This time, industrial styles rule, for an overall great result. Hearing the Latin Mass for the dead (Requiem aeternum) in a Rap over a heavy-synth techno bass is definitely something not to be missed (TRACK 2). A great way to set up a modern day Gothic mood. Only real complaints are the CD is too short (only about 50 min. of music), but if you like interesting, intelligent music that you can jam to, consider picking this one up.

I had been hoping for a long time for something like Industrial Monk's Magnificat, a fusion of two styles that on their own I sort of like, but they do get boring after a while. That is techno and Gregorian chant. This is one of the few CDs where I like every song.

I recommend this CD to a more musically literate audience, one who has listened to not only techno, classical or jazz, but in addition a less mainstream form of one of these. The understanding of the interaction of the two styles might confuse others.

I have heard mainstream songs like this CD, but only for part of the song, like Ace of Base's "Happy Nation", opening part.

Similar artists are Era, Pilgrimage, and Adiemus. I like IM better because: it isolates the chants' free-flowing, reverberant, non-rhythmic style from the simultaneously heard techno beat, creating a great contrast; IM's lead vocals are almost always the chant, the others too often use other styles; IM never keeps the techno part "wimpy" just so it can "refuse to overwhelm" the chant sound; and IM has longer track times (only one under 6 minutes) so ideas can be fully developed.

IM does have some harmony in its chants-- I think it uses medieval fifths and twentieth-century major sevenths. This doesn't really take away the chant spirit, as these harmonies are usually used as a quick shock.

Effects are well used on the chant part. One is the "stuttering" on some syllables. It seems to accentuate the beauties of the Latin language. The most effects-modified chant part is on "Kyrie" but even there, the chant is still presented distinct from the techno.

There are funny moments, like the Latin rapper. Only complaint is that there are some long episodes of no chant where the techno tends to get boring.

I wouldn't mind a similar style album, but fusing techno and Eastern Orthodox Chant.

This CD really surprised me. It takes the gregorian chant idea that Enigma popularized and takes it several steps further. The heavy percussion and bass keep things very lively, and yet the techno isn't monotonous. It's timed just right. Excellent.

Remember that guy from the Maxell ad years ago? The one sitting in his easy chair listening to music who is now on every product they sell? Keep that image in mind.

I ran across Magnificat in the stacks back in 99. Knowing nothing about the group except that they had an interesting name I pulled it out to preview it. Listening on my headphones to the first track "Missa Pro Defunctis," I had to turn up the volume to hear it over the on air music. I was really getting into the ambient music thinking I had discovered a new Enigma. Then, a sudden crescendo into a loud explosion of a note nearly knocked me over.

Hence the reference to the Maxell man.

Five notes. Similar in impact and strength to the four notes that begin Beethoven's Fifth. Five notes like the steps of the Leviathan trodding a melody deep into the fabric of space and time. This is the primary musical theme of "Missa Pro Defunctis." Yet, it is so much more than that.

Magnificat is a splendid blend of medieval chants with modern industrial music. Imagine Enigma or Adiemus with a considerably harder edge. Other artists have attempted fusion of medieval and modern styles. Most though are a tenuous tennis match of the two styles. Industrial Monk goes all out in fusing the two styles is if they were meant to be together all along. Industrial Monk's alchemy plays with fire and ice, air and steel, masculine and feminine, human and machine.

Yo, check this out. Latin Rap. Yes, you read that correctly. Rap in Latin. And you though Latin was a dead language. Not so on "Requiem," Magnificat's second track.. Our rap master belts it out backed by a funk bass groove between choruses of chants and electric guitars. The rap style works very nicely in the structured mechanics of the Latin language.

"Puer Natus Est" is the emotional high of the album. The vocals and techno are mixed perfectly here. Male and female soloists sing separate but equally beautiful arias, their voices swirling around each other. Percussion and synthesizer lend accompaniment, intensifying on the chorus: stirring choral stylings with the same emotional impact as Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana." An achingly beautiful and intense song.

The title track, "Magnificat," uses the same instrumentation and singers as "Puer Natus Est" but is more subdued and contemplative. The Latin Rapper returns midway through with a suave extended rap. This song lingers a bit too long in the last half, but redeems itself in the last two minutes as the drums very gradual fade while pastoral strings swell into the foreground in turn fading into the distance. Nice ending.

Turning to a more hard rock sound is "Audi Dulcis Amica Mea." The chants are still here but not quite as prominent. Guitars are stronger as are the keyboards. Still a good song.

On the sixth track, "Jeremiah," the group creates an early 70's progressive rock style song, complete with Hammond organ. Still spirited and hard hitting, but listener fatigue is setting in as aside from the last two minutes of Magnificat, the pace has not slackened at all.

By the final track, "Kyrie," it seems that Industrial Monk has run out of ideas. They decide to end the album with a flurry of drums and guitars, as though sheer intensity can carry the day. There is very little of the choir in this track, which is mostly straight industrial, and average industrial at that. Sad to see an album that started with such promise end on such an uninspired note.

Magnificat will be most appreciated by those who are familiar with and enjoy both techno and classical music. (There are a few of us out there) It's definitely worth a listen, and the first four tracks are very fresh and original. Whether you buy it for the music, or the message, you will greatly enjoy and appreciate it.

the sounds on this CD are unique i have never heard these tipes of sounds, the melodies by the monks are very soft while you have the industrial music in the back it is a good buy for any music lover.

This CD is the incarnation of what sounds at first like a great idea: mix Gregorian chant and techno/industrial music. After all, there is that successful remix of "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana (so overplayed in the goth scene that I might spontaneously combust if I hear it again). However, this project boasts electronic musicmaking even less skillful than that which brought Orff's medieval-souding opera to new audiences. At times the techno veers off into thrashing instrumentals that last for a seeming eternity with no promise of balance from the soothing chants. What remains behind the chants when the techno isn't moshing itself to death is something that resembles what my stoner friends used to concoct on their Playstations on rainy Sunday afternoons. A similar project was undertaken by Deep Forest on their "Boheme" album, mixing traditional gypsy music with techno. That particular effort may seem a little New-Age-y to those who were attracted by the "industrial" part of this CD's title, but its technique could serve as an example to the makers of this album: don't allow long segments with no samples of the music you're supposedly "integrating", and make at least some effort to musically connect the background techno with the older form of music. This CD sounds sloppy and thrown-together and shows little understanding or respect for the music it samples. Please, someone out there, do this project better! It has such potential! (The two stars, by the way, are because there is some capable chanting sampled here.)

I have no need to type a thousand words. This CD is excellent. The (excuse me) boring drull of the chant is well mixed with the techno. Techno can get very boring quickly, but with this CD i pick it up and up again. If you like Gregorian Chant but want a change this is the music to go to. Is there more to say I think not!