Customer Reviews

Signs of Life

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4 star:		(3)
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Who else but Penguin Cafe Orchestra can offer at once an aural treat of minimalist, acoustic, simple, eclectic, avant-garde, accessable, complex, curious, melodious, and beautiful instrumentals? Wonderfully and exuberantly played, this music is a must for anyone who enjoys Kronos Quartet, Glass, modern classical, world music, or even Talking Heads. Inventive composition, perfect arrangements, and beautiful instrumentation splashed across a modern, almost impressionist, landscape.

For anyone who is a public radio fan, you will recognize some of these compositions as the segways between stories on shows like All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Talk of the Nation, and especially Ira Glass's "This American Life." Track #9, "Perpetuum Mobile," is a notable standout.

I first became acquainted with the PCO through Perpetuum Mobile,a piece that has found its way into numerous tv commercials in the last 10-12 years.That catchy tune is not the only one on this album;there is also the appropriately titled 'Southern Jukebox Music','Beanfields' and the animal righters infuriating 'Swing the Cat'.The PCO's music is silly,fun and sometimes strangely beautiful(Perpetuum Mobile again).
Is the PCO light classical,pop or worldbeat?It may be an indefinable hodgepodge,but not in a dreary,pompous new age way.It is mostly airy,devil-may-care delight.I think the world could use a little more of that!

penguin cafe orchestra was the perfect music for the late 1980s intelligentsia. it combined world music, regional american sounds and pretty tunes together in such a way that every choreographer that heard wanted to make dances to it.

it still has that power to inspire and to entrance a listener. the most inspiring cuts are the irish/appalachian flavored 'swing the cat' and the lush 'oscar tango'.

Finally, the Penguins manage to pull of a good, all-around eclectic mix of light, airy pieces that lift the mood and stimulate the mind. Of course, there are still some boring (?) solos by Jeffes, but the entire disc works wonderfully. You can't beat "Dirt" or "Rosasolis" for sheer Joyfulness and free spirit. This and "Concert Program" are the best Penguin albums in my opinion.