Alms

Alms Artist: re:
Label: Constellation
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 666561003227
EAN: 0666561003227
ASIN: B0002X6G44


Release Date: 2004-10-26

Alms


Related Categories:

General General
Categories | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
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Tracks:

  1. Golem
  2. Orientalism As A Humanism
  3. On Golden Pond
  4. Radio Free Ramadi
  5. Lasers, Tracers, Radar Drones
  6. Pawk
  7. Home Security

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  1. Remnant
  2. Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars DARKNESS, DARKNESS.......2005-12-02

Somewhere sometime not so long ago the notion of contrast was set aside in favor of gapless, strictly homogenous and opaque masses of sound, standing or collapsing on interior detail and an absolute devotion to formlessness. Is this a reaction against capital "M" music? Is it a failure of imagination? Infatuation with sound? Whatever drives this aesthetic, the quality of the results -- surprise! -- are often mixed. re: sees and hears beyond this. They prove to be an exception to an angry yet often impotent wall of sound. The music of their second CD, "Alms", rediscovers the efficacy of contrast and deploys it with overwhleming force. Derived from field recordings and an extensive line-up of instruments, processing, cutting and pasting, "Alms" displays the kind of anguish that can only come from periods of great cultural and social displacement. That the liner notes tell us the music was "Assembled in the homeland during the war on terror, 2001-2004" is more than enough to let us know things will not be going swimmingly. Yet giving voice -- instrumental voice -- to the daily disgust we experience as witnesses of unapologetic, bottomless corporate and governmental blindness, cruelty, hypocrisy and greed requires a high degree of articulation to be effective or affecting. The music here is both. While the context may or may not be metaphorical, the sound is often taken, twisted and reshaped into new and monstrously contorted forms. This level of manipulation may also be at work in the service of metaphor. Or maybe it's that "Alms" is telling us that nothing can remain as it is, any longer. This is music, finding itself next to a distant piano phrase or the softness of some unidentifiable whisper, that takes on monumental significance by responding to the horrors delivered fresh to our doors each morning.

4 out of 5 stars

Music Album:

  1. Tennis ~ Chris Rea
  2. Mythos
  3. East Of Rampart Street ~ Brian Stoltz
  4. Red Card ~ Streetwalkers
  5. Turn Up the Death ~ The Juliet Dagger
  6. The Best of Both Worlds ~ Marillion
  7. What Becomes Before ~ Billy Mahonie
  8. Raw ~ Chris Murray
  9. Stiff, Stiffer, Stiffest: A Stiff Records Collection ~ Various Artists
  10. Mystical Path of the Number Eighty Six ~ Davis Redford Triad

Music Album

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The Is ~ CKW Trio

Big Band Instrumentals: 16 Most Requested Songs ~ Various Artists

Psychonavigation 3 ~ Pete Namlook & Bill Laswell

Al Bard ~ Ali Abdul Sattar

A Onda Que Se Ergueu No Mar ~ Various Artists

Spring: Start on a Journey ~ Chihiro Yokekura