source file: mills3.txt Date: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 16:54:16 +0100 Subject: Record review From: Steven Rezsutek What happens when you make a garden that combines native and exotic plants? What happens when you cook up a dish with spices from around the world, but tie it all together in an integrated synthesis of a meal? What happens when you extract musical essences from diverse earthly cultures and then colonize a new world? Acoustic Stick. Don't get me wrong. This isn't a "world music" album, with its monotonous, throbbing beat and obligatory digeridoo. Neil and company obviously *understand* the musics that influence them, and what you get is that understanding transformed through the hearts, minds and hands of some great musicians, with some unique elements you won't hear anywhere else. When you first throw on the disc, your initial reaction may be [it does say 19 and 34 tone guitars, after all] "What's so un...Oooh! Wow!" There's almost a steel-drum quality to the afro-cuban jazzy first cut, and it's really catchy, with hints and glimpses of those exotic plants in the garden. And there's some really smoking, more "straight" jazz, and some blues with a great twist, and even something that will please the Julian Bream fans out there. Of course it doesn't stop there. As the tour continues, the landscape changes, with Neil eventually leading you through the back gate to explore the native flora of his wonderful world. Play this album for a group of friends, and I'd be suprised if there weren't at least one person in the room playing air guitar along with Neil by the second bar of Birdwalk! I can't quite think of how to describe the other pieces. They evoke impressions of Pharoah Sanders meets Shankar in a middle eastern cafe, but that doesn't begin to describe it. You'll just have to listen for yourself. Of course, this being a tuning list, I have to have the obligatory tuning related content. :-) Well, as far as the tunings themselves, they are as integral to the music as the timbres of the instruments themselves. There are no academic experiments here, and the effect is one of a melding of two worlds, more than the colonization of one by the other. If you want to, you might be able to nail your feet to the floor to keep them from tapping, tie your hands to the chair to stave off any form of rhythmic air-instrumentation, don your best Mr. Spock immitation and sit and count the number of notes -- if you _really_ want to. Good luck trying. The music is just too good, and I can't imagine anyone not finding something that captures their mind and moves their soul on this album. If you like music, you need this album. If you, or anyone you know, is a guitar fanatic, you and they need this album. Actually, I think everyone needs this album. If there's any fault at all to be found with this album, it's that it's too short. I played it for a bunch of folks last night, and after it ended, the universal response was "Is that all? There's got to be more. Play it again." I, for one, anxiously await the "more". SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: Steven Rezsutek Subject: Re: 19, 22, 29, 41, 53 : 12 and multiples PostedDate: 23-12-97 18:11:50 SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu $MessageStorage: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH RouteTimes: 23-12-97 18:09:35-23-12-97 18:09:36,23-12-97 18:09:06-23-12-97 18:09:07 DeliveredDate: 23-12-97 18:09:07 Categories: $Revisions: Received: from ns.ezh.nl ([137.174.112.59]) by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA SMTP v4.6 (462.2 9-3-1997)) with SMTP id C1256576.005E41B1; Tue, 23 Dec 1997 18:11:28 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA24543; Tue, 23 Dec 1997 18:11:50 +0100 Date: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 18:11:50 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA21933 Received: (qmail 18930 invoked from network); 23 Dec 1997 09:11:44 -0800 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 23 Dec 1997 09:11:44 -0800 Message-Id: <199712231710.MAA21461@doghouse.hq.nasa.gov> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu