>Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Music From the Penguin Cafe
>Chamber Pop
A half-orchestra, half band producing the equivalent of uncomfortably warm milk. It has the unfortunate similarities of commercial music, and its minimalism influences end up hurting more than helping. I guess that Zopf is what I dislike most about the album, a composition spanning 7 of its tracks, but single works like Chartered Flight and The Sound of Someone You Love are much more interesting as pieces of this album.
5/10
>Michael Nyman - Decay Music
>Minimalism, Microtonal(?)
1-100 is piano minimalism in the traditional cinematic sense, played at half the speed it was recorded. Adding the serene and stereotypical chords, you get the image of drops of water trickling off an edge of sorts, falling into a small pool. Perhaps too long, as 27 minutes, most people here will dislike this track for how stupidly simple it is. The mood shift is gradual, but not absent.
Bell Set No. 1 is a big fuck you to instruments used for meditation (gongs, cymbals, chimes). It begins like clockwork, but as the album's title implies, it decays, sorta? It doesn't really "decay" ala Disintegration Tapes.
Third track is 1-100 but with smaller time intervals.
Listen to this for the first track, switch to third if you don't like it.
5-/10
>Harold Budd - The Pavilion of Dreams
>Minimalism, Jazzy Ambient
I may be hypocritical for liking the echoing sax, glockenspiel and electric piano on the first track, given how cheesy the combination should be, but also having dislike for Penguin Cafe. I assume it's preference for atmosphere.
The second track evokes images of Noir, with a harp and opera lead saying "ah". The third steps back with a background choir and the addition of a Celesta and more piano. Very understated.
Juno is the most striking work, beginning and ending in dissonance, with the voices of the Obscure label's musicians (Eno, Bryars, White, and Nyman) audible halfway through.
7/10
