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Underground > Radio & Music >

steve reich anyone?

20:06 / 15.02.02

i heard alot about this guy. Could any fans recommend his most interesting, well known etc. work?

The Return Of Rothkoid

20:12 / 15.02.02

Drumming is probably the most accessible. Either that, or there's a remix album called Reich Remixed, I think, that might well be a better introduction, as it's halfway between him and other people.

Personally, I find some of his mallet-work stuff can really get on my tits fast, so you may want to take it easy. Expressionless has been listening to a fair whack of his stuff, so he can probably point you out a little more...

07:41 / 16.02.02

Reports of expressionless' Reich knowledge have been exaggerated...

I second the Drumming recommendation. It's a blinding record, and does exactly what it says on the tin (only without the drum riser spinning and spouting fire, with stick twirls, sweat flying everywhere, and a bored audience). Immersive, hypnotic and ecstatic.

The only other extended piece I've got is Different Trains performed by the Kronos Quartet, which is completely different but also excellent. Lots of sampling along with the strings, very rhythmic, and incorporates snatches of voices. It's about the contrast in journeys to Auschwitz, before, during and after the War.

I've also got Pendulum Music as performed by Sonic Youth. It's a great piece - I wish it had gone on longer, I get the impression that what I've got is only an edited version of something much larger. The idea is to swing microphones past the sound source, the shortening distance in the length of the swings providing the process which moves the piece along. One you can try in your own home, kiddies!

07:41 / 16.02.02

Music for 18 Musicians.

There is no substitute.

Though my experience of Reich isn't broad, this is one motherfuckingly brilliant album.

m.

Matthew Fluxington

12:53 / 16.02.02

I'm going to recommend Music For 18 Musicians as well... I've heard nearly all of Reich's work, mostly through having studied it in a class about 20th century avant composers...

I think the best purchase you could make would be the record Early Music, which contains four of his early notable compositions ("It's Gonna Rain", "Come Out", "Piano Phase" (my favorite) and "Clapping Music"). Like most of his work, it's all about taking non-musical samples, and then taking the sounds in and out of phase with each other.

Music For 18 Musicians is a very accomplished piece, it's another phase piece but on a larger scale. Drumming is pretty good too, and he's very famous for it, but I'm personally not too crazy about it.

You can't lose with Early Music, though.

If yr interested in Reich, I would encourage you to look up John Cage, Terry Riley, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Philip Glass, and if yr really out there, La Monte Young... Most good libraries have these recordings on hand for you to either check out or listen to there - I would recommend investigating this music that way, it makes a lot more sense than spending a lot of money on it, because even if you like it a whole lot, it's unlikely you will be moved to listen to it very frequently.

Most of this music is readily available on Audiogalaxy et al as well...

[ 16-02-2002: Message edited by: Flux = Rad ]

15:13 / 16.02.02

I'd like to second Different Trains. It's marvellous. Tape-loops and strings, long before sampling... very effective, and yet not too unlistenable, like some Reich-a-like stuff.

16:20 / 16.02.02

the inputs been really helpful. Flux= rad i'll look up the other composers later on tonight. cheers all.

17:31 / 16.02.02

I'd certain agree about Drumming and particularly would cheer for Different Trains, which is grrrreat! The addition of the spoken pieces gives it another layer of depth.

But the first Reich I ever knowingly heard, by chance while listening to the radio of the walkman en route home from work one night, was a piece called Six Marimbas performed in that instance by the deaf British percusssionist Evelyn Glennie. I liked it immediately and enough to excite further enquiry.

20:09 / 16.02.02

quote:Originally posted by Paleface:
I'd like to second Different Trains. It's marvellous. Tape-loops and strings, long before sampling... very effective, and yet not too unlistenable, like some Reich-a-like stuff.

So basically, thats a piece of music by Reich that sounds like work done by people who sound like Reich. Nice one...

I've only heard It's Gonna Rain (thank you Flux) and it makes my parents heads hurt. Which is always an advantage.