Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Lets turn each other on to some "new" tunes

John, I last heard DeBussy as a 19 year old college student who thought everything had to rock.

Considering the classical that I listen to now - mainly the Bach harpsichord concerti and Handel's Concerto Grosso No's 1,2,9,10 - I think the quieter music will probably be up my alley. I took Wagner out of the megachanger to make room for "Kids Classical Favorites" or something like that. Gettin' old, I guess.

Thanks for your help. I'll let you know how much play time these new discs are getting.

Art of Noise - The Seduction of Claude Debussy

I've totally loved the Art of Noise since I was a kid (they've been around since the very early 80s). This album is a very weird yet interesting look into the classic composer with a slightly newish electronic/smooth feel.

Big - quality is quite descent, I boght Holst, Chopin ( Argerich ) and after hearing those ordered whole bunch

I have a Chopin - don't care for it much. Occasionally beautiful piano melodies with long flurries of chaotic piano riffs. Seemed written for piano players rather than listeners.

You must have been listening to some Etudes, which Chopin composed as exercises. If that is the case, then your hunch is correct.

WOOHOO!! Thanks guys for all the classical recommendations. Since I've had my Axioms, I've slowly been trying to find a good list of classical cd's to try out. It's not like I haven't heard any of them before, but I just need to find the good recordings. Particularly, I know Rach(can't ever remember how to spell his name)'s concertos 1 - 3. I'd also like to find a few SACD's. I was listening to Porcupine Tree last week and the last track on In Absentia (Collapse the Light into Earth) has a huge string part that you can close your eyes and think you're in an huge concert hall; it's truly amazing. So I would like to see if there are a few classical recordings that have the same effect.

For the purpose of this thread, here's my list of good cd's. It's a mix of the styles I listen to so sorry if it's "out there".

Classical and Soundtracks:

Ray Sharp - Exaudio http://www.raysharp.com
Shine
Gatacca
K-Pax
Lord of the Rings

Jazz:

Scholohofo - OH!
Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hot
Jacques Loussier Trio - Baroque Favorites

Progressive Rock and others:

Nickel Creek (can't say enough about these kids)
Chroma Key
- Dead Air for Radios
- You Go Now
O.S.I. - Office of Strategic Influence
Transatlantic
- SMPTE
- Bridge Across Forever
Spock's Beard
- V
- Snow
Opeth - Damnation
Porcupine Tree
- In Absentia (DVD-A)
- Lightbulb Sun
- Stupid Dream
- Coma Divine (live)
Neal Morse
- Neal Morse
- Testimony
Iona
- Journey Into the Mourn
- Heaven's Bright Sun (live)
Pain of Salvation
- The Perfect Element
- 12:5
Dream Theater - Scenes From a Memory

That should be enough "new" stuff for you guys.

The best thing I can reccomend is Jurassic 5. This is a six member hip-hop group. My friend turned me onto them and since then i've found a whole new world of music, in particular, the label "Quannum Projects" www.quannum.com. Jurassic 5 and everyone in the Quannum crew, are a great example of how rap doesn't have to be about gangstas, pimps and big cars. This stuff is really thoughtful and delivered excellently. Highly reccomend you check them out even if you don't like rap. Also Joyo Velarde, part of the Quannum crew, but she's more of a soul singer. Her song "people like me" is a good example.

Jason, I'm not familiar with In Absentia, so I'm not sure which type of effect you found so attractive. If some of the performers were actually placed discretely in the surround channels, there's almost no classical DVD-As/SACDs that do that. If on the other hand you were referring to the ambience of reflected sound that comes from the sides and back in a concert hall being reproduced from the surround speakers, yes that's what you get, but the effect is rather subtle. In fact it isn't greatly different from using DPLII(or your NAD's own process)to extract the ambience from regular CDs(to the extent that the mix contains it)and steer it to the surrounds. Of course, spacial qualities aside, you've noticed that I'm happy to make classical suggestions to help those wanting to explore.

Anybody else buy CDs based on another member's recommendation? I picked up 5 of the classical cds JohnK recommended and I'll grab an Alison Krause, Joss Stone, and possibly Nickel Back (sp?) soon.

The classical recommendations were very good, John. Thank you. I normally buy "whatever" - whatever's cheapest, whatever's newest, whatever's got the prettiest cover - when it comes to classical.

The only one that was probably a mistake was the DeBussy. The lack of an easily recognizable melody makes it more difficult to appreciate. And it has long quiet periods punctuated by some REALLY, REALLY loud crescendos. Makes everybody jump (not good with a 10 mo old). I've only played it once, during dinner - and had it turned up so we could hear it - when it practically blew over the high chair. On the plus side, it is a great recording.

The Rachmaninov Concertos 1&3 is a fantastic disc: well recorded, beautiful romantic music with great melodies. It sometimes has strong Russian flavor, but I get the feeling that I am listening to something timeless and special there. The wife likes it a lot. 2&4 I haven't listened to all the way through yet, but it doesn't seem to have the appeal of #1, in particular.

The Strauss Waltzes CD is probably the worst recording of the 5, but it is still very good. No glaring problems, just a little tape hiss at times. The baby seems to really enjoy the Blue Danube Waltz.

The Holst CD is great. Very dramatic. Excellent recording. "Mars" is very powerful, but the "Jupiter" segment is my favorite at the moment. Reminds me at times of Copeland (whom I don't really like) and at times of Ravel's "Bolero". Like the Racmaninov disc above, it has some inexplicable "perfect" quality about it that makes me think, "It don't get any better than this."

The end of BigWill's Hillbilly Classical Review.

Whever I hear Bolero, I feel sorry for the snare player. The sheet music for the snare consists of only a couple bars, repeated ad nauseum. I like the piece, and all, but anybody's wrists would be worn out by that.