Customer Reviews

Preludes Airs & Yodels

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

 

 

God bless my ex. He couldn't carry a tune if you elmer glued it to his vocal chords but he turned me on to this wonderful group about a month after we first started dating. As an uptight college student, I used to put on the first two Penquin Cafe Orchestra albums (vinyl no less) to study. I figure if I were going to be tortured by masturbatory French semiotic theorists, the least I could do is have this wonderful music to keep me sane. I am a long way from tearing my hair out over Derridoo, I mean Derrida, but these wonderful Penquin Cafe Orchestra songs have traveled with me to four cities and countless apartments. I have always wanted to choreograph "Perpetuum Mobile" and "Steady Skate" for a pair of ice skaters (lord, what Torvil and Dean could do with those luscious long gliding cello lines), danced around my room to the extravagant silliness, driven uptight musicians crazy who won't admit that minimalism can be as mentally expansive as the pharmacological substances they imbibed in great quantities, marveled at how wonderful a spinet and ukelele could sound together (like an unexpectedly savory meal in a hole-in-the-wall restuarant)in "Giles Farnaby's Dream," consoled myself over bad times and celebrated the good ones with this wonderful music playing somewhere within earshot. I introduced my ex to hundreds of albums over the 8 years we were together before he died, but this is the ONLY music he ever introduced me to, and for that alone I am grateful to have met him. God bless you for that Mr T wherever you may be, and I hope you are happily humming along--offkey of course--to Air A Danser wherever ye may be.

This is a collection of the Penguin Café Orchestra's music, from the first album ('Music from the Penguin Café') to their last ('Union Café'), with extracts from a couple of deleted EPs, and two remixes of 'Music for a Found Harmonium', one by ambient techno artists The Orb the end.

As an introduction to the band it serves its purpose, although there's rather too much of the later, dull stuff, for the simple reason that there's more of it than the earlier, weird stuff.

For a proper 'best of' go out and buy 'Music from the Penguin Café' and 'Penguin Café Orchestra'.

What happens when you take some eccentrics trained in the Old School, - throw them in a room with cello, violin, synthesizer, piano, guitars, oboe, harmonium, bass, and gentle percussive devices? As compelling as an English Garden on a blustery day, you get the best of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, "Preludes, Airs & Yodels", a 1996 compilation covering the 70's and 80's. Not dated. Not classifiable. Very positive. Very wise. Good for musical snobs and derelicts alike.

This is a great CD, includes the final song (before the epilogue) from the great movie Napoleon Dynamite, "Music for a found Harmonium."

I first heard their sound in the movie "Mary and Max" Mary and Max [Blu-ray] (also great claymation movie) I believe the featured track I heard was the Pertetuum Mobile. It sparked a chord with me enough to search them out and find more of their stuff. It's great music to listen to and chill out.

I had heard "Music for a Found Harmonium" years ago-- a college dance troupe used it for a big finale company dance. I loved it then, and I love it now, too! The whole cd is great, but I'm still mostly captivated by "Music..." in its multiple versions. Love that driving rhythm! I work in a kitchen, and this cd is by far one of my favorites to listen to while doing prep work!!

I bought this after hearing a live performance of one of my favorite PCO pieces, mistakenly thinking this was a live album.

It's not, it's merely a collection from all of their works with a couple of live tracks included. I prefer hearing the studio tracks on the original albums, each of which has a unique set of instrumentation and atmosphere.

This is a purist's view. If you are looking for an introduction to the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, this wouldn't be a bad way to start.

As with all penguin cafe albums, the listening is easy! Some arrangements of tracks compared to those on other albums are a little dissapointing but still worth listening to. Still some spine-tingling moments to play, replay, and replay again!

I can't stand it, but my grandparents love it.