Search - John Oswald :: Plexure

Takes a while to get used to

Mark Seemann | Copenhagen, Denmark | 02/28/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Imagine setting your radio to skip through stations 10 times a second. Imagine that it somehow ends up sounding like music.This is a paraphrase of the first description I saw of this CD, and I thought that it was an interesting idea, but was curious if it could actually be done.Hearing it for the first time, I was somewhat disspointed. Maybe I had expected some kind of synthesis - a revalatory experience where bits and pieces come together as something not only different from the parts themselves, but of a much higher order.In reality, of course, it doesn't really sound much like music the way we are used to think about it.Listening to the CD a couple of more times, however, got me to reassess my initial evaluation. Out of a quite complex sound picture crystalizes some rather fine, detailed pieces of music.Of course one would be tempted to call this type of music avant garde or experimental, and although it may belong in those categories as well, it seems to me to be a fine continuation of the modern composition tradition, in line with composers such as Ligeti.It really takes a while to get used to, but is rewarding if you give it a chance."

Highly recommended

xmw | Nashville, TN USA | 04/19/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Imagine playing "name that tune" at 5 times the speed of your ears' ability to recognize familiar sounds. This composition, made up entirely of pop music samples, deserves five stars because of its meticulous organization of disparate and familiar sounds into an exciting new composition, one that stands on its own whether or not the listener is familiar with each artist being "plundered." The piece never descends into disorganized noise, each sound is clearly placed where the composer intended. This is the mailbomb you want to send to pop culture.I had long been under the impression that this album was illegal in the States because of its use of unauthorized samples. I'm thrilled that it's available to a domestic audience.My only caveat: The running time of this disc is 22 minutes. But Mr. Oswald's ingenious use of these thousands of samples more than compensates for the album's brevity."

This CD belongs in every home, and I'm not kidding.

Mark Seemann | 09/29/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the most incredible listening experiences to be had anywhere. This kind of collage is of course easy to do if you have the right equipment, but to get a result such as what can be heard here requires an extremely acute musical sensitivity. This is beautiful, exciting, rewarding, exhilarating, mind-blowing, rejuvenating MUSIC. The tremendous force behind it will open up new perceptual horizons, causing you to rethink (no less) the way you listen to music. ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL."