Customer Reviews

Mothertongue

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

 

 

At first listen this sounds like something a precocious youngster might come up with: "Let me at those instruments! Give me that Studio time! I'll show you!", and maybe that is the case. Mr. Muhly is young and no doubt somewhat precocious but there is something else at work here - a voice that carries its influences openly and securely. There is nothing here that other modern composers haven't been playing with for years but it is the confident individual voice on show that impresses. At times these works sound as if they are a marriage of old compositions and new; of old voices exploded into the contemporary world. This feeling is heightened in the final suite 'The Only Tune' when Sam Amidon's deconstructed and angular singing of 'The Two Sisters' and 'The Old Mill Pond' is accompanied by an arrangement that pushes several worlds and ages together to make a thoroughly engaging modern piece. When played as a whole the three suites that make up the album, 'Mothertongue','Wonders' and 'The Only Tune', carry the listener from an absolutely contemporary place to the past and vice versa, as if the music is collapsing on itself, with the old and the new passing each other in two directions until it resolves in a modern pastoral setting. A rich journey indeed and very satisfying.

This will be a short, general review based on 2 CD's. Muhly is new for me. I find some of his works intriguing; others less so. Some are sprightly - make me feel bouncy & cheerful; others seem too minimalist for my taste & annoy me a little. But then he suddenly changes course & I am "with him" again.

Overall: I think he is very worth while following & seeing how he develops. His is unquestionably a bright mind & spirit.

I'm not much of a reviewer, lacking both insights and the ability to express them eloquently. I hope others will review this marvellous album. In the meantime, search google for reviews, and listen to the samples!

As you frantically press 'next track' on your media player, hoping you weren't scammed and praying that not all of the tracks consist of some moron saying "nnn-TEEK! nn-TAKK! nnn-TOOK! guh-BOP guh-BEEP!" while discordant music dribbles along in the background, you'll be torn between admitting this is garbage and trying to save face by writing something pretentious about it being avant-garde and inventive. Choose the former option. Don't propagate the lie by suckering some other poor person in. Because this is junk. There are thousands of unsigned bands in the US alone who actually have talent and make music. Give any of them your attention instead. Or better yet buy an instrument - preferably one you do not know how to play - and record yourself hitting or coming near occasional notes while a two-year-old coos nonsense over it and thus create your own Nico-Muhly-esque scam.