Innovator

Amazon.com
Thanks to legendary singles like "Strings of Life" and "Nude Photo," Derrick May is universally regarded as the definitive techno producer; by hijacking the rhythmic sensibilities of house and adding the intelligence of European electronica and the spirit of Motown, he single-handedly defined and articulated the sound of Detroit. But despite (or perhaps because of) his status as a "legend," nary a bleep had emerged from his studio since 1990 before the release of Innovator, a collection of his past work. This double CD contains the aforementioned "Strings" and "Nude Photo" singles as well as other classics like "It Is What It Is," "Salsa Life," and "The Beginning," all of which have been available only in vinyl form on May's own Transmat label. Until he reemerges from a self-imposed musical hiatus, your course in the spirit of Detroit begins and ends here. --Matthew Corwine

Tracks:

"rest"
Strings Of The Strings Of Life
Another Chaos Beyond Chaos
Freestyle
Feel Surreal Begins
Beyond Kaos
Another "rest"
The Dance
A Little Spaced Out
Daymares
It Is What It Is
Beyond The Dance (Cult Mix)
Original Feel Surreal
r-Theme

Tracks:

To Be Or Not To Be
Icon (Montage Mix)
Montage
A Relic Mix
Kaotic Harmony
More Phantom
Salsa Life
Nude Photo
The Beginning
Another Relic From the Relic
Drama
"Strings"- The Original Mix
Wiggin-Juan Atkins Mix

Amazon.com

Thanks to legendary singles like "Strings of Life" and "Nude Photo," Derrick May is universally regarded as the definitive techno producer; by hijacking the rhythmic sensibilities of house and adding the intelligence of European electronica and the spirit of Motown, he single-handedly defined and articulated the sound of Detroit. But despite (or perhaps because of) his status as a "legend," nary a bleep had emerged from his studio since 1990 before the release of Innovator, a collection of his past work. This double CD contains the aforementioned "Strings" and "Nude Photo" singles as well as other classics like "It Is What It Is," "Salsa Life," and "The Beginning," all of which have been available only in vinyl form on May's own Transmat label. Until he reemerges from a self-imposed musical hiatus, your course in the spirit of Detroit begins and ends here. --Matthew Corwine

Customer Reviews:

Excellent CD for those who don't know the history.......2007-02-03

This CD compilation is a very nice to own item for those who didn't collect 12inch versions of the Transmat releases, and also for those who want a more compact and mobile way of hearing the sound of detroit,The guys from detroit ar very innovative and set something in motion good that has long been distorted and mis-interpreted, so stuff like this sets the record straight, as for the reviewer "lawrence" negative comment below, I believe his distaste for the sound stems from the results of being exposed to the distorted version of techno, your mind has to be open and take into consideration that these were tracks produced over 20 years ago by three young black teens with not much money at all but a lot of heart,soul,and vision, not some rich kids with a lot of tech gear but no funk, and detroit techno is special because it has that flavor.

couple classics in there.......2004-06-25

The first disk is excellent. There are at least 4 tracks in there that are absolute classics. You need this one, honest.

Powerful compilation.......2001-08-03

I really enjoyed this double disc. May delivers a powerful dark sound with all of detroit's signiture noise. It's definitely worth what amazon is asking for it. I only gave it a four because the transitioning could use some work. If you are meaning to really get in touch with the sound of detroit, this disc is for you. But if you are looking for something poppy and trancy and girly, look elsewhere.

Soulful Techno at its Finest........2000-11-20

These tracks are classics. This is beautiful melodic intelligent soulful techno at a level of quality that has been very rarely matched. Go back to your roots. By the way, heard him spin here not too long ago, excellent as well. Awesome to hear a techno dj who is really in touch with the crowd, and knows how to let the music take them places.

Essential for techno nerds!.......2000-10-20

This CD contains a number of tracks from the late 80s that could be regarded as 'definitive classics' of Techno music, and are generally regarded as massive influences on the dance music genre.

Tracks like 'Strings of Life' and 'Nude Photo' for example had a massive impact on the early UK rave scene and subsequently on dance prodcuers from around the world. Fans of Acid House, Hardcore and Techno (and the Drum&Bass, Trance and Big Beat offshoots...) will undoubtedly connect with this record in some way.

Most of these tracks are still more "innovative" than the mountains of drivel coming out of the mainstream scene today. Hence the title is appropriate! There are some intermittent 'filler' pieces but as a whole this is outweighed by the quality.

Tracks:

Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
Reasonance
I Mean You
The Nearness Of you
But Not For Me
Mood Indigo
Five
Wondering Why?
Mother, Daughter, Sister, Friend
Punta D'Blues
Dedication
Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me

Discover America: The American Romantic, The American Virtuoso, the American Innovator (A Sampler)

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Discover America: The American Romantic, The American Virtuoso, the American Innovator (A Sampler)

ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000RJSQ7S

29 Pieces for the Microtonal Guitar Live at Knitti

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29 Pieces for the Microtonal Guitar Live at Knitti

Manufacturer: G-Wow
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000CAAJPY
Release Date: 2003-02-11

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Eternity Check

Manufacturer: G-Wow
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000CAABSO
Release Date: 2003-02-11

Tracks:

Five Days
Number Four
Krux
Eternity Check

Product Description

Acclaimed NYC electric guitar virtuoso Sten Hostfalt's 2002 Paul Bley initiated CD debute as a leader Eternity Check, casts a 1992 american quartet and a 2001 scandinavian trio session back to back. Featuring trumpet player Takuya Nakamura, accordionist Magnus Lindh and drummers Lise-Lotte Norelius and Blake Lindberg. As well as notably electric bass guitar virtuoso and Down Beat Magazine critics poll-winner Matthew Garrison, here heard in one of his very first recordings.

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A nice concept, not always consistently carried out, but an enjoyable survey nonetheless
Tasty little survey

The American Innovator

Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Tangos | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Etudes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Preludes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00000E55N
Release Date: 1993-10-12

Customer Reviews:

A nice concept, not always consistently carried out, but an enjoyable survey nonetheless.......2007-06-07

"The American Innovator", mind you, and not "innovators", as if, beyond a haphazard and motley collection of individuals, there was a particularly American compositional strain in favor of innovation - and maybe there is. The sheer geographical distance from Europe possibly made it easier for American composers (such as Cowell and Cage) to reject the weight of European tradition, and the widespread sentiment, arising after World War I, that the United States was a new major power that stood on its own and owed nothing to its European ancestors, worked in the same direction.

Of course one is always tempted to discuss the contents of such a collection, both for what it includes and for what it leaves aside. Young George Antheil and George Crumb - two essential American innovators, I think - are absent. But then to include Griffes' Debussysms is far-fetched - unless you consider that anything that strayed from the Salon romanticism of an Amy Beach or a Horatio Parker is "innovative". What then is an "American innovator"? Is it, as the notes put it, one of those "outsiders who consciously shun the dominant European-oriented culture" and are "isolated from the mainstream"? But Ives, the unquestionable epitome of the American Innovator, could dynamite the European traditional only because he was so deeply steeped in it, through the teachings of his professor Horatio Parker at Yale. And the American serialists, such as Babbitt, far from shuning the European model, took on the compositional "system" invented by Schoenberg and applied by Webern and pushed it to its limits. So maybe an American Innovator is just an innovator that happens to be American, or just an American that happens to be featured on this disc (part of a tryptich that includes American Virtuoso and The American Romantic), offering an enjoyable selection of rarely performed and recorded 20th century piano pieces.

It is an amusing test to try and forget the track listing and even the composers' names, and try and recognize them from their compositions. Ornstein is easy; once you've heard his "A la Chinoise" from circa 1918 (for instance by Marthanne Verbit on Valentines or by Marc-André Hamelin on Piano Music: Suicide on an Airplane / La Chinoise), you can hardly forget it. Feinberg plays it excellently, with dynamism and kaleidoscopic colors.

2. Clockwork repetitive chime-like piano over child-like, dreamy harmonies? No other than John Adams (China Gates, 1977). From Ornstein to Adams, apparently the American Innovator is inspired by China.

3. Muscular and angry short etude with strong off-beat accents, rising from the depths to the heights of the keyboard and back? Ruth Crawford's Piano Study in Mixed Accents (1930).

4. Mesmerisingly nostalgic and dreamy strummed strings: Cowell evidently (Aeolian Harp, circa 1923).

5. Pointillistic serial piano with pointillistic tape sounds spaced-out stereophonically, sounding like a cliché of contemporary music from the sixties (but quite fascinating nonetheless). Would that be Babbitt? Ooops! Sorry, it was already 1970, it was Davidovsky (a Babbitt pupil, nonetheless), it was his Synchronisms No. 6, and it would possibly make a good sonic counterpoint to some Jackson Pollocks drips (or do you prefer Mondrian's abstract canvasses?).

6. A tango. I know Astor Piazzola is not on this disc. Ah, yes, Harbison, "Tango Seen from Ground Level" (1991). Not very significant, I must say, and so much the liner notes admit, but reveal that it was written for the birth of Alan Feinberg's son - "and birth is always an innovation".

7. Debussy dreaminess? Sure, Griffes: "White Peacock" from the Three Roman Sketches (1915). There is more American and more innovative, I should think - even in Griffes' own Piano Sonata.

8. Another pointillistic serial post-Webern "clonk-clonk", without tape this time: is it now Babbitt? Well, yes it is (Playing for Time, quite remarkable for its serial radicalism, as it was written as early as 1938, when the composer was 22).

9. A Simple folk-like tune of Celtic tinge over sweet-sounding clustered chords: here's another Cowell (Exultation - 1919).

10. Jagged rhythms and frenetic counterpoint, sounding like a boogie-woogie on cocaine or a player piano gone berserk? Unmistakably Nancarrow (his Prelude from 1935).

11. And again another pointillistic serial "clonk-clonk" - you'd think someone was trying to monkey the animated variation from Webern's Opus 27. Now who other than Babbitt among the American serialists was represented on the disc? Ah ah, good ear! It is another Babbitt, and a Serial Tango to boot (It Takes Twelve to Tango, 1984).

12. Now comes something like "dissonant counterpoint" in stern mood. Is Ruggles represented on the disc? Nope, a check indicates that it is "Vestiges", one of Cowell's "non-celtic" compositions, from 1920 - but I wasn't so far out: as Carol Oja indicates in her seminal book on the American modernists in the 1920s (Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s), there were strong stylistic as well as personal ties between Cowell; Ruggles and Dane Rudhyard, another American Innovator not represented here.

13. Machinistic rhythms, prepared piano sounding like a mixture between Balinese ritual music and a crazy array of struck boxes, cans, metal rods, and a possible sonic accompaniment to a sculpture of Jean Tinguely? Cage's prepared piano of course (Bachanale, his first composition for prepared piano, from 1940).

14. Massive chordal writing in polyrhythms and polytonality, leading to zany ragtimes and demented take offs from American popular tunes (including Dixie)? Ives naturally (Etude # 20 probably from 1908).

15. More Debussy watery ripples: Griffes' "The Fountain of Acqua Paola" (1916), another Roman Sketch.

16. Brutal onslaught in jagged rhythms. Nancarrow without the playfulness. I pass on this one. No wonder, it was Ralph Shapey's "Seven" (1963), hardly a staple of the piano literature, even for modernist aficionados such as myself. By the way, it is supposed to be for piano four hands, but we are not told whose are the two additional hands playing on the disc: presumably Feinberg's own in re-recording.

17. Cool Jazz in a smoked-up Club around 11 pm. Thelonious Monk, "an odd bedfellow with Babbitt and Davidovsky" indeed, to quote again the notes. But for Jazz, it is somewhat innovative, I guess.

Tasty little survey.......2004-12-19

Alan Feinberg is one of the finest pianists interpreting contemporary music today. Anything he does deserves a listen. This album is a little survey of mostly mid to late 20th Century piano music. And it is a delight. It covers a variety of styles from jazz age through serialism and even a little minimalism. Many pieces recorded here are not to be found elsewhere. It is a shame that this has gone out of print. Get a used copy if you can you will not regret it. Perhaps some visionary record company can re-release it. Do you hear me New World Records, Naxos?

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My Life
Jared Michael Hobgood
Manufacturer: Mercy
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000CAJSVA
Release Date: 2004-11-09

Tracks:

Bottle of Rum
Mother Courage
I Am Not Afraid
Mercy
Been a Long Time
My Life
I Think of You
Solo Starlight Night
Ghost Called Isabel
Heroes of the Dawn
Letters to Home
Dead Man's Room
Parting Glass

Average customer rating:

Dub Obsession

Manufacturer: Island King
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | International | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000CA7542
Release Date: 2004-12-28

Average customer rating:

Superior by Design
Lace
Manufacturer: VUTAG
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Electronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Tracks:

Beyond the horizon
Tendency
Digital Infinity
Charity
Spanish banks
The underground rescue channel
Hope
Golbal Gutter
Beef jerky
1 800 fix my shit
The goose
Moi aussi

Album Description

A compelling journey into the mind of one of the most innovative live pa artist on the west coast. Skillfully written, and produced by the master himself, let youself be taken by this wonderful collection of electronic soulful beats.