Blaine L. Reininger:
Commissions:
Les Disques du Crepuscule:
Out Now:
★★★★
A double CD package that brings together numerous musical contributions by the Tuxedomoon musician and lynchpin written for stage-dance and theatre productions. With the exception of the Antigone segment, most of this twin-set has seen the light of day before via Reininger's own channels, although this hardly detracts from the enjoyable variety on offer.
Rather than sticking solely to one genre, the violinist and composer treads a broad path on Commissions - the Electric Girl portion marries electronica, glitch, some frenetic fiddling and atmospherics, the kind which have filled a few recent John Foxx albums. 'Aliens' and 'Body Electric' are particular absorbing, as is much of the more recent work Antigone which takes up most of the first disc. 'House Of Usher' sounds like Portishead doing their sci-fi thing without the beats, while 'Chopstick Bounce' reminds this listener of Elliot Sharp's pulsating oeuvre.
Disc two has previously appeared as Music for Dance and Theatre and includes some of BLR's finest instrumental moments, certainly reminiscent and on a par with his earlier Crepuscule work and his band contributions of yore. 'Circulation' wouldn't sound out of place on a psychological horror film soundtrack, 'Shadow Waltz' represents Reininger's more typical string-driven thing and 'Attribue a Bernie H' has an air of the John Barry about it (or should that be Monty Norman...).
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the vocal pieces on here - Blaine's baritone is normally a thing to behold but the country hillbilly tune 'Floatin' Billy' or untouchable slinky retro-pop 'Wondrous Place', the Billy Fury classic, don't quite work for me. But minor quibbles aside, if you enjoyed his 'Night Air 2' and 'Instrumentals' collections, or his recent collaboration with Tuxedomate Steven Brown and Maxime Bodson (Clear Tears on Crammed Disc, reviewed here) you'll find that Commissions is crammed with compositions borne out of a fertile imagination.
Commissions:
Les Disques du Crepuscule:
Out Now:
★★★★
Rather than sticking solely to one genre, the violinist and composer treads a broad path on Commissions - the Electric Girl portion marries electronica, glitch, some frenetic fiddling and atmospherics, the kind which have filled a few recent John Foxx albums. 'Aliens' and 'Body Electric' are particular absorbing, as is much of the more recent work Antigone which takes up most of the first disc. 'House Of Usher' sounds like Portishead doing their sci-fi thing without the beats, while 'Chopstick Bounce' reminds this listener of Elliot Sharp's pulsating oeuvre.
Disc two has previously appeared as Music for Dance and Theatre and includes some of BLR's finest instrumental moments, certainly reminiscent and on a par with his earlier Crepuscule work and his band contributions of yore. 'Circulation' wouldn't sound out of place on a psychological horror film soundtrack, 'Shadow Waltz' represents Reininger's more typical string-driven thing and 'Attribue a Bernie H' has an air of the John Barry about it (or should that be Monty Norman...).
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the vocal pieces on here - Blaine's baritone is normally a thing to behold but the country hillbilly tune 'Floatin' Billy' or untouchable slinky retro-pop 'Wondrous Place', the Billy Fury classic, don't quite work for me. But minor quibbles aside, if you enjoyed his 'Night Air 2' and 'Instrumentals' collections, or his recent collaboration with Tuxedomate Steven Brown and Maxime Bodson (Clear Tears on Crammed Disc, reviewed here) you'll find that Commissions is crammed with compositions borne out of a fertile imagination.