Having been a huge fan of instrumental music for quite some time, I found myself quite stirred by a short piece of music heard on my local PBS station very recently. Together with the eerily beautiful dream-like synthesized melody, (a tune I later established was called `Harmonic Voltage') I was captivated by the accompanying high tech computer-generated images. The way in which the catchy, electronic music was intricately and perfectly synchronized with the animated musical devices was breathtaking. Overwhelmed by the design of the very imaginative, abstract looking instruments, how they operated, moved with the music, and the intriguing brilliance of it all, I rushed to my computer to learn something of this strange new art form called `Animusic'.
I have viewed the DVD countless times in just a few days since its arrival from amazon.com. I now proudly confess to being a new Animusic addict and convert! I adore how composer/programmer/genius Wayne Lytle marries the rather nostalgic sounding MIDI music to cutting edge animation technology. I say `nostalgic' because many of the tracks on the album remind me completely of my days as a video-gamer back in the early to mid-nineties, when many of the games would be accompanied by music of a very similar sound to Lytle's compositions on this DVD. Indeed many of tunes could have been lifted straight from any number of later Super Nintendo games. I'm heartened that there is still a place for this kind of sound in the 21st Century. Lytle seems to magically breathe a totally new kind of life into it, thanks to the crisp, sharp graphics system that visualizes the music so fittingly. If like me, (a little ashamedly) you used to occasionally switch on your video games just to listen to the music tracks - this DVD will be like going to heaven.
It is also the painstaking and intelligently focused commitment to visual perfection and precision that makes this DVD album so great. Every sound, from the full on pounding synths, to the quietist high-hat is visualized in some way - nothing whatsoever is omitted. Lytle and his team go one step further, inventing instruments that despite their sometimes other-world appearance and design could almost be considered organic in light of how they seem to literally play themselves, with no human intervention. Like an optical illusion, your disbelief is suspended, and you find that your brain begins to accept the notion that these robotized contraptions ARE playing themselves and producing wonderfully beautiful electronica as a result. Jaw dropping moments abound as you delight in how even the tiniest nuances of the music are highlighted - the slap-bass notes in `Acoustic Curves' and the enchanting way in which the tiniest pipe on the organ in `Stick Figures' raises itself to reach just one more note, come to mind especially. It is exactly this kind of level of attention to detail that lies at the heart of this successful new formula.
Just to prove how broadly appealing Animusic really is, my cat loves it too and will paw the screen in an effort to play the instruments!
Finally, I just HAVE to comment that the `bass tower' on Harmonic Voltage is my absolute favorite animation of all. Lytle has brilliantly interpreted and visualized an abstract bass synth sound, cunningly using a pedal system that releases light and sound emitting radioactive grape juice. Surely the DVD is worth getting, just to find out what that's all about?!
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My baby’s new fave!
My baby is a music addict, and she particularly loves visual music productions...I am sooooo happy I stumbled across this because she went from fussy to chill the instant it started. Totally enamored. This is probably not leaving the DVD player for a month. I’m getting the second volume right now!
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The shopper
Mesmerising!!!! I love this!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 18, 2021
