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Music from the Cube: What Am I Listening To Today?
Dance music, set to classical violins. You'd think this would be a taste of awesome, right?
You'd be wrong.
As always, sample MP3 downloads and picture of the CD under the cut.
Bond, Born Rating=$$
[Support the Artist]
How I Got This CD: Free demo from my Bordersverse daze.
The good news: This is an awesome CD to have around if you're creating mixes and need a dance-fusion-world beat-classical tune to sneak into the tracks. Most of the tunes have a movie score feel to them (something that may have been deliberate)
The bad news: Listening to the entire CD with back-to-back tracks will bore you to tears. So, it makes it great background music for the cube, but not really great background music for anything else.
Oh, what's a music hound like me to do?
Well, for one thing, I'm not going to dump the CD. I've already used two tracks off this CD in two different mixes ("Alexander the Great" and "Duel"), and no doubt I'll probably use more tracks as the need arises. That said, I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it.
The CD is mostly instrumental (there's some minor vocal work on some of the tracks). The stringed quartet of Bond are undeniably talented classical musicians (although classical music enthusiasts may disagree with my take), and I think the CD may be an interesting entry point to draw non-traditional or new audiences into the classical music world. Certainly, Bond has the germ of something good here, and Born is one of their older CDs. Later works might show a vast improvement over this 2000 release.
Below are some solid tracks that are worth the listen, if nothing else.
"Quixote," the first MP3 download, definitely has that mid-movie soundtrack feel. You know the point I mean. The part where the hero or heroine is running his or her ass off through southern Spain with the supah-sekrit payload in their backpack while all manner of bad guys (and gals) are chasing him or her to get their hands on the goods.
"Victory," the second download, does make me giggle. Remember "A Fifth of Beethoven" from the Saturday Night Fever movie soundtrack? This is on the same, although with half the bombast and twice the disco beat.
"Kismet," the third download, is back to that whole movie soundtrack feel. There's something Casablanca-ish (the movie, not the music) about it. I'm not sure what to make about this one. The violin work is sweet and ethereal. I could've done without the electronica, though.
"Korbushko," the final download, has that Russian sound that I love in my violins. Even better? No electronica. If you only download one track, this is the track to snag.
Sample Song Downloads: Quixote, Victory, Kismet, Korobushko
You can download all files from the project page by clicking here.
***
To find previous thumbnail reviews, go to the Review Index.
After the download links expire, you can listen to streaming MP3 files linked with reviews at my Vox shadow blog for media.
***
Rating system:
None = Avoid at all cost. Worth cutting your ears off to avoid if someone threatens to play it for you. When faced with even the threat of its cellophane-wrapped presence, your best option is to RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!
$= If you stumble across it for cheap in a used bin, it might, maybe, perhaps could be worth the buy, but only if you need a cheap coaster for your cold drinks or a cool-looking frisbee.
$$= You might want to give this CD/artist a try, but only if the sample track tickles your fancy. Don't bother buying this one new because the good tunes you'd get out of this one ain't worth that kind of money.
$$$ = Worth looking for on a casual basis and maybe even buying new, but no big rush.
$$$$ = Definitely worth having in the ol' CD collection and definitely worth buying new, but don't re-arrange your personal "must have" list to get your hands on it.
$$$$$ = Why haven't you bought this CD yet? Go. This is a "Want. Take. Have." situation because you so want this.
Now Playing:
You'd be wrong.
As always, sample MP3 downloads and picture of the CD under the cut.
Bond, Born Rating=$$
[Support the Artist]
How I Got This CD: Free demo from my Bordersverse daze.
The good news: This is an awesome CD to have around if you're creating mixes and need a dance-fusion-world beat-classical tune to sneak into the tracks. Most of the tunes have a movie score feel to them (something that may have been deliberate)
The bad news: Listening to the entire CD with back-to-back tracks will bore you to tears. So, it makes it great background music for the cube, but not really great background music for anything else.
Oh, what's a music hound like me to do?
Well, for one thing, I'm not going to dump the CD. I've already used two tracks off this CD in two different mixes ("Alexander the Great" and "Duel"), and no doubt I'll probably use more tracks as the need arises. That said, I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it.
The CD is mostly instrumental (there's some minor vocal work on some of the tracks). The stringed quartet of Bond are undeniably talented classical musicians (although classical music enthusiasts may disagree with my take), and I think the CD may be an interesting entry point to draw non-traditional or new audiences into the classical music world. Certainly, Bond has the germ of something good here, and Born is one of their older CDs. Later works might show a vast improvement over this 2000 release.
Below are some solid tracks that are worth the listen, if nothing else.
"Quixote," the first MP3 download, definitely has that mid-movie soundtrack feel. You know the point I mean. The part where the hero or heroine is running his or her ass off through southern Spain with the supah-sekrit payload in their backpack while all manner of bad guys (and gals) are chasing him or her to get their hands on the goods.
"Victory," the second download, does make me giggle. Remember "A Fifth of Beethoven" from the Saturday Night Fever movie soundtrack? This is on the same, although with half the bombast and twice the disco beat.
"Kismet," the third download, is back to that whole movie soundtrack feel. There's something Casablanca-ish (the movie, not the music) about it. I'm not sure what to make about this one. The violin work is sweet and ethereal. I could've done without the electronica, though.
"Korbushko," the final download, has that Russian sound that I love in my violins. Even better? No electronica. If you only download one track, this is the track to snag.
Sample Song Downloads: Quixote, Victory, Kismet, Korobushko
You can download all files from the project page by clicking here.
To find previous thumbnail reviews, go to the Review Index.
After the download links expire, you can listen to streaming MP3 files linked with reviews at my Vox shadow blog for media.
Rating system:
None = Avoid at all cost. Worth cutting your ears off to avoid if someone threatens to play it for you. When faced with even the threat of its cellophane-wrapped presence, your best option is to RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!
$= If you stumble across it for cheap in a used bin, it might, maybe, perhaps could be worth the buy, but only if you need a cheap coaster for your cold drinks or a cool-looking frisbee.
$$= You might want to give this CD/artist a try, but only if the sample track tickles your fancy. Don't bother buying this one new because the good tunes you'd get out of this one ain't worth that kind of money.
$$$ = Worth looking for on a casual basis and maybe even buying new, but no big rush.
$$$$ = Definitely worth having in the ol' CD collection and definitely worth buying new, but don't re-arrange your personal "must have" list to get your hands on it.
$$$$$ = Why haven't you bought this CD yet? Go. This is a "Want. Take. Have." situation because you so want this.
Now Playing:
no subject
no subject
It's a great "get" if you like pulling together mixes for people because a lot of their tracks can fit into multiple configurations and can be used to good effect. So, yeah, I'm with you. The individual tracks are fun and interesting.
When all those tracks are heard back to back...Bond kind of loses its flavor pretty quickly.
no subject
no subject
All I have now is a scattering of MP3s here and there from it. There are some recognizable tunes, and some that sound not at all familiar. My favorite version, I confess, is the New York soundtrack (another cassette that went missing).
no subject
Have you hit the sale at Deep Discount DVDs yet? They're running another 20% off sale.
no subject
But, yeah, there was a definite list to the male side of humanity among Bond's fans back in my Bordersverse days.
They're undeniably talented, and good in small doses, but I'm not in love with the idea of hearing them for 47 minutes straight.