Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Blast — Stringy Rugs
(Cuneiform Rune 95, 1997, CD)

Stringy Rugs Cover art

OK, let me try to put this into terms almost any prog listener can understand. Take the most wildly chaotic piece of music you've ever heard from King Crimson. "Thrakk"? One of the '74 improvs? That stuff is about as atonal and complicated as The Archies compared to Blast. Eschewing any semblance of traditional harmony, this Dutch ensemble of guitar and vocal (only on two tracks and typically sounding like beat poetry), drums, saxes, and bass (which also doubles on saxes) instead veers into territories of total musical anarchy. This is not for neo-prog fans and, while not my personal cup of tea, I can appreciate the difficulty and quality of what went onto this disc. One listening won't do the trick with these guys or even ten if you're not paying close attention. Blast is really creating modern chamber music for rock band and occasional accompaniment (brass instruments usually) that is firmly rooted in the late 20th Century school of harmony. That is, they take all the traditionally classical rules and chuck 'em out the window. At times, it seems the music is chaotic for the sake of being chaotic but one must remember that, most of the time, this music is designed to be this way. These arrangements are fairly staggering in their complexity and while a certain sameness creeps through many of these pieces, each still has much to offer the patient listener. My favorites were "O.A.L.I." with its juicy bass and drums over disjointed guitar and sax that paints broad shades of dementia, and "Communifade"'s explorations of light and dark via melancholy and atonal reed lines. Recommended for very adventurous listeners.

by Paul Hightower, Published 1997-10-01

The heir apparent to Henry Cow, the Dutch group Blast seem to be one of the few remaining groups that owe a serious debt to the original RIO groups. Both Henry Cow and Etron Fou Leloublan are obviously large influences, much of this music seems to have a feel similar to Legend or Unrest with very staggered and angular written pieces of music with a fair share of improvisation to go along with the whole. The whole could be likened to Tipographica with that see-where-the-beat-lands type of structure and the plethora of trombones, trumpets, and tubas. There are ten tracks, yet they all seem to run together in my mind, and after a few listens its still hard to pick out a memorable track. Music like this has a way of showing its subtleties after many listens, so I'll reserve judgement until I've played it thoroughly. Meanwhile fans of the three bands I just mentioned owe it to themselves to check this out, it’s RIO defined (and check out the presence of 5uu's drummer Dave Kerman also).

by Mike McLatchey, Published 1997-10-01

With a basic lineup of guitar, drums, multi-saxes and bass — and numerous guests playing everything from marimba to tuba — Blast makes some of the most amazing and completely insane chamber rock of the day. Forget scales, these guys play in about five different keys at once, in about as many different time signatures simultaneously. Quick starts and stops, twists and turns, and just when you think you've figured out where it's going next... surprise! Plenty of atonal noisy fun too, and like so many of Zappa's meanderings, much of the material here sounds too free to be composed, yet too cohesive to be improvised. For those familiar with Blast's two previous efforts Puristsirup and Wire Stitched Ears, this is their biggest step forward to date. For those not familiar, comparisons with Henry Cow and Tipographica wouldn't be out of order, but wouldn't give the whole story either, as Blast definitely has their own way of attacking the same musical turf, probably due more to their choice of instrumentation than anything else. David Kerman is now the band's regular drummer, at least until the 5uu's reactivate again. In all, there's a lot of good and insanely complex music here, although one might find themselves wishing for a little melodic relief or more than three or four beats without changing meter. Still, there's plenty here to sink your teeth into.

by Peter Thelen, Published 1997-10-01

Filed under: New releases, Issue 13, 1997 releases

Related artist(s): Dave Kerman, Blast / Blast4tet, Frank Crijns, Dirk Bruinsma

More info
http://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/stringy-rugs

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.