Reich Revisited

Some art pieces to get us through the holidays. Also good stuff to try on visiting relatives that demand to hear something soft, something 'classical'... I came upon these Steve Reich CDs the other day, spent some hours with them and thought they'd be interesting to post.

Start with the seminal ECM classic 'Music For 18 Musicians' back from 1978, here ripped from the 1998 Nonesuch repress - a vibrating, minimalistic, organic monster, its movements' varying moods ranging from the heavenly beautiful to the otherwordly and spooky, full of emotions and totally cerebral at the same time. A MUST HAVE, for everyone, and it'll be for the next hundred years or so.

Then, there's a compilation of remixes by various UK and US artists, reworking Reich's back catalogue. I have very mixed feelings on this one; trying to meddle with classics like these, unsurpassed in most occasions and with such an impact in the music world, can be challenging - yet really, really difficult. Being a late '90s NY project, many of the remixers characteristically moved towards the 'breaks' direction, be it post hip-hop (illbient.?.) or d'n'b. Still, the 'chill-out grooves' mood prevailed... Exceptions to the above (and the reason I'm posting this one) I consider to be the contributions by Howie B, Ken Ishii, Nobukazu Takemura, Andrea Parker and Coldcut.
To my ears, the more recent M.VonOswald & C.Craig's reworks of Ravel and Mussorgsky sound closer to the Reich spirit.


Steve Reich - 1978 Music For 18 Musicians
Info here and here.



Steve Reich - 1999 Reich Remixed
Info here and here.

P.S.

Steve Reich - 2006 Reich Remixed 2006
Info here and here.
Big thanx to Taco, go to the 'HereGoesTheRollercoaster' blog for the link.