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William Basinski, "Variations: A Movement in Chrome Primitive"
Old compositions from when an artist first began recording music aren'talways of musical interest. It may be nice to have a document of acomposer's work from a particular period, but this double CD release ofsome of William Basinski's earliest compositions is hard to justify asa whole. Basinski's music seems to be perpetually painted in thefeeling of melancholy; these eight pieces are, at times, painfully sadand emotive of only the deepest and most excruciating reflections.Durtro/Die Stadt
Various piano loops are layered and layered upon each other until newmusical phenomenon emerges and echoes over the original loops.Sometimes the pieces are arranged such that the original loops are hardto distinguish and other times a solo piano part will roll through amess of muddy and claustrophobic production before being submerged innew melodies and effects. The problem with this recording isn't thatthe pieces aren't always entertaining, but that there's just too muchmusic to sit through. After the first CD is over with, much of thesecond CD sounds too redundant to be worthwhile and the crushingemptiness of these depressing sonatas becomes all-encompassing. I enjoyseveral of these tracks enough to be glad that they were released, butto unload eight pieces as heavy as these into one release is overkill.One listen to the first half of Variations...is enough to reveal a monotony that is hard to look past; listening tothe second CD only reveals the shortcomings of that monotony to agreater degree. The production is amateur at best, which isn't bad inand of itself, but the same production values appear on each track andreveal an obsession with pianos more so than a real attempt at craftinga listenable album. As a musical artifact these two collections revealthe origins of Basinski's work with loops and emphasize the emotionalweight his recordings always demonstrate. As a double album it failsdue to an actual lack of appealing variation and serious compositionalconsideration. Too much of the same thing can be ruinous and thisrelease is illustrative of that fact. One or two of these tracks wasenough to get the point across; I don't need eight to get the picture.
Various piano loops are layered and layered upon each other until newmusical phenomenon emerges and echoes over the original loops.Sometimes the pieces are arranged such that the original loops are hardto distinguish and other times a solo piano part will roll through amess of muddy and claustrophobic production before being submerged innew melodies and effects. The problem with this recording isn't thatthe pieces aren't always entertaining, but that there's just too muchmusic to sit through. After the first CD is over with, much of thesecond CD sounds too redundant to be worthwhile and the crushingemptiness of these depressing sonatas becomes all-encompassing. I enjoyseveral of these tracks enough to be glad that they were released, butto unload eight pieces as heavy as these into one release is overkill.One listen to the first half of Variations...is enough to reveal a monotony that is hard to look past; listening tothe second CD only reveals the shortcomings of that monotony to agreater degree. The production is amateur at best, which isn't bad inand of itself, but the same production values appear on each track andreveal an obsession with pianos more so than a real attempt at craftinga listenable album. As a musical artifact these two collections revealthe origins of Basinski's work with loops and emphasize the emotionalweight his recordings always demonstrate. As a double album it failsdue to an actual lack of appealing variation and serious compositionalconsideration. Too much of the same thing can be ruinous and thisrelease is illustrative of that fact. One or two of these tracks wasenough to get the point across; I don't need eight to get the picture.
