Search - Alarm Will Sound, Alan Pierson :: Alarm Will Sound Performs Aphex Twin: Acoustica

An Aphex Twin fan's perspective.

mrgypsum | Boston, Ma USA | 07/28/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I am a fan of Richard D James the Aphex Twin. I am also a fan of classical music, and of composed music. You can imagine my excitement when I heard about this album. :). I have never heard of Alarm Will Sound or of Steve Reich however, but they do a fantastic job at converting James's music to classical arrangements.



But...I think the other reviewer is correct in saying that people who do not the music of Aphex probably won't like most of the tracks on this album. But if you are open minded about music, and would like something totally different, I would recommend this. It's not that it was bound to be a great release - in fact there are some tracks on this that AWS just turn into lifeless Aphex rip-offs.



Meltphace 6, which is a great Aphex track - is utterly ruined. Aphex's Melt is a fluid master piece, flows well, and is just a beautiful track. AWS Melt - is piece-meal at best, the bass is just wrong - it's very twangy, and I just don't think that the performers pull it off. Another miss is Jynweythek Ylow, it's too slow, and the original blows it out of the water. Finally Prep Gwarlek 38 is an utter failure; they just couldn't pull it off. I won't even mention the two remixes at the end, just skip them.



Not only do they totally drop the ball on some tracks, they really only mention Richard James ONCE! Now if you ask me, his name should appear more than that - not even a thank you! This is his music, his productions - that they are performing here, give credit where credit it due.



Well that's the bad - I didn't give this a 4 star rating for nothing. Also it's not like AWS SHOULD HAVE copied exactly what Aphex did, they do a good job at making their own. AWS's version of Omgyjya Switch7 is beautiful! They took one of Aphex's best and made it just as good. The ending of this track is the cream of the crop, they pull off the insane percussion and 'raking' that is in the original. Another hit, Logon Rock Witch, which is not one of my favs of Aphex, is made into a beautiful melancholy performance. They really turned it into something here. Finally Gwely Mernens - they got down the timing so perfectly, this is such a great track on here, I am ashamed to admit that I like it better than the original.



Most of the other tracks are great - if you are new to Aphex and you find yourself loving this, you should check out the rest of his stuff. I myself am going to look into the percussionists on here; they did the best job at capturing the essence of Aphex's music.

"

One of my favorite discs lately

M. Davignon | Oakland, CA USA | 10/20/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I love this cd, and it's definitely worth the more than standard price. Those expecting to hear more stuff like the Philip Glass orchestration of "Icct Hedral" that came out a couple years ago will be pleasantly surprised - this is a much more enthusiastic endeavor. Firstly, there's a much wider range of instruments used, including bassoons, english horns and trumpets in addition to the strings and wide array of percussion. There really needs to be more bassoons in the world in general. Many of the songs chosen are on the more complex side of Aphex Twin's repetoire, and the acoustic versions match every skip and hiccup of the originals. Most of the tracks here are from "Druqks", which was one of my least favorite Aphex releases. (I thought it was a case of Richard James following trends rather than creating them.) However, listening to this let me go back to it and appreciate it from a compositional perspective. The other tracks seem to be split between the Richard D. James album and Selected Ambient Works 2.



This ensemble worked very hard to try to match the sounds used in the original songs, at times using found objects to replace the sounds of heavily-processed drum machines. There are some most beautiful/ingenious examples too: in "Meltphace 6", a blaring piccolo fills the role of what was originally squealing feedback, and in "4", an english horn occasionally tugs the lead line away from the strings.



I only have 1 small complaint: 2 electronic "remix" tracks are included as a bonus, which disrupt the mood presented by the rest of the tracks."

Wonderful for the right people

Daniel A. Blessing | Grand Rapids, MI USA | 07/16/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you are not a fan or never heard of Aphex Twin you probably do not want this album. for classical fans, it is performed very well but very hard to follow the style (get down with). but if you know and love Aphex Twin you will find your self loving this album, the way certain Aphex Twin tracks are done will probably make you laugh at first then find yourself geting lost in it all. I guess all that exsperimental Drum and Bass can be acheived with out a computer!"