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MUSIC BOX: ‘Together’ at last
Phil and Paul Hartnoll, two brothers collectively known as The Orbital, have been churning out wide varieties of electronic music since the early 90s. With their latest record, The Altogether, the duo has once again set the standard of diverse, dark and hypnotic jams that defy category and reinforce the notion that theirs is a sound, truly unique.
Released as a double album abroad, the local distributors (read pirates) seemed to have ‘unfortunately’ lost the second disc before it reached these shores, whereas in most stores, the album title itself is misspelled. Praise thy lord for thy Net! These small aberrations notwithstanding, the music is a brilliant, cerebral adventure in its own self.
Tension, the album opener is aptly named. There is so much going on that one is truly confused. As the layers of technical ecstasy overlap, the temperature begins to rise. Funny Break is classic Orbital all the way. A well placed female vocal sample meshes nicely with the clean beats. Oi’s tribal, hip-hop feel is accentuated by a backup of some funky horns. But the comparison is short lived as it quickly transforms into a salute to the 80s, showcasing some very Yaz-like keyboard lines and percussion. Tootled is a total monster of a track. Sampling the prog metal band, Tool’s song Sober from the Undertow record, it will have metal heads frothing at the mouth. Adam Jones molten riffs melt into the computer beats like melted iron. The keyboard line from Doctor? was conspicuously sounding like some 60’s throwback; you just couldn’t put your finger on it. The smashing track is in fact a redux of the Dr. Who TV show theme. Waving Not Drowning is a total curve ball; its hearty guitar strumming seems out of place in this digital diaspora. But the beats and whining samples come to the rescue and suddenly the old six string, sounds right at home. Whereas most of the tunes on this record have a certain postmillennial urgency to them, Illuminate is pure stoned out chill. Oddly enough, these princes of dark electronics employ the vocal talents of neo-folkie David Gray on this track.
In the meathead, corny world of commercial techno and the increasingly irritating realm of dumb trance, this will prove to be a rhythm-induced, energetic kick in the rear for all those brave enough to venture into this world of maddening samples, apocalyptic beats and pseudo spiritual atmosphere. Rave unto the light indeed.—Qasim Abdallah Moini
‘Buster’ passes away
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Veteran tap dancer, choreographer and teacher James ‘Buster’ Brown has died recently. He was 88.Brown, a man that the Calgary Herald described in 1996 as “the small, wiry dancer with the thin moustache and two-tone tap shoes,” was born in Baltimore on May 17, 1913, and learned tap on the streets.
Buster was known for his smooth skills. “He never showed any effort,” remembered tap historian Leonard Reed after his death. “Sometimes he looked like he wasn’t dancing at all, just floating in the air. He danced like silk.”
As a solo tap artist, ‘Buster’ toured widely with Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and others, but it was his stint with Duke Ellington, that Buster regarded as the highlight of his career. “It was like going to heaven,” he said in a 1999 interview in the New York Amsterdam News. “He was the greatest musician to have ever lived. He played very elegantly and I looked up to him.”
Savion Glover, current tap phenomenon, paid tribute to Brown’s influence in a major solo in his 1995 Broadway musical Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk, and Brown himself, appeared in Los Angeles with Glover in Foot Notes — the Concert.
Sohl-Donnell, director at the Los Angeles-based Rhapsody in Taps company said, “He was an inspiration and a very dear friend and supporter to tap dancers of all ages. He was also a gracious and very positive human being, besides being a fabulous tap dancer.”
To the end, Brown relished being an elder statesman of tap. “Dancing has taken me all over the place,” he told National Public Radio in 1999, “and I appreciate it and I respect tap dancing ... I tell most of the kids that are coming up, I say, ‘If you love something, you must respect it. Don’t do anything to put any smudges in it, you know?.’”—Dawn/Los Angeles Times
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