From the Editor
November 8, 2010

This month’s issue of Music Media Monthly takes you deep into the past: the past of the World Wide Web (with Gene Hyde’s review of the rich musical resources available at the Internet Archive website) and the past of English and European liturgical music (with my own review of a lavish new boxed set tracing the musical history of the Protestant reformation and counter-reformation). Steve Dankner brings you word of a new music-related murder mystery, and Anne Shelley shares thoughts on a new documentary of the professional life of Andre Previn as well as a filmed performance of the Patrick Summers opera Little Women. And there’s more!  Check it out and enjoy.

– Rick Anderson

Sound Recordings
November 8, 2010

Remember Barenaked Ladies? The Toronto band exploded onto the music scene in the early 1990s with a gleefully childish and richly hook-filled debut called Gordon, then matured over the next decade and a half into a group that could be counted on for at least two or three brilliant (and often subtly sophisticated) pop songs per album. In recent years things have gotten complicated, and those complications eventually resulted in the departure of Steven Page, one half of the BNLs’ chief songwriting duo.  I read rumors of alcohol and drug abuse, which I wouldn’t bring up in the august e-pages of MMM except for the fact that if the guy responsible for Page One, Page’s first solo album since leaving BNL, is on any kind of drug, then it’s one I’d like my doctor to prescribe me, please.  Because if there’s a pill that helps people write songs this catchy, clever, and satisfying, I’d like to take it regularly so I can quit my day job.  I’d always suspected that Page was the one primarily responsible for BNLs’ hooks, and my suspicions have now been confirmed; on this album, Page sounds startlingly like Elvis Costello in his Imperial Bedroom period, with fewer French horns.  Page One offers a perfect balance of sweet, bitter, and crunchy, and should be at the top of every pop music lover’s Christmas wishlist.

Jumping back (way back) in time and several territories sideways in content (from sharply crafted pop music to politically risky liturgical music), the Ricercar label has released a stunning boxed set that uses both musical examples and an admirably readable historical essay to trace the political and religious path of the Protestant reformation and the subsequent counter-reformation across Britain and Europe. The eight CDs included in this box contain a blend of newly-recorded performances by the vocal ensemble Vox Luminis and previously-recorded selections from such groups as the Tallis Scholars, Collegium Vocale, Currende, Ensemble Clement Janequin, and many others; composers represented include the usual suspects (Tallis, Byrd, Palestrina, Schutz, Bach) and many lesser-known figures as well (Cazzati, Altenburg, Sebastiani, Tunder). The program follows a clear chronological progression and tends to provide selections from large works rather than entire masses and cantatas, but each disc still stands very nicely on its own as a pure listening experience, and the packaging is simultaneously sturdy, sumptuous and practical.  I don’t hesitate to call this one of the best classical releases of 2010.

Nyabinghi music is an indigenous Jamaican construct that is related to reggae largely by its Rastafarian lyrical themes; musically, however, it’s pretty much sui generis, blending lots of foreign and domestic elements into a sound that features rich harmonies and call-and-response song structures, accompanied only by darkly throbbing frame drums. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards discovered this music while visiting Jamaica in the 1970s, and eventually gathered some of its most accomplished musicians (notably including the ska and reggae legend Justin Hinds) into a recording studio. The result was a 1997 release titled Wingless Angels; long out of print, it was a gorgeous document that presented Nyabinghi music in nearly unvarnished simplicity (some tasteful bass, guitar, and violin parts were added, as was a puzzling but surprisingly effective layer of synthesized crickets). That album is now reissued as Wingless Angels Volumes I & II, with a second disc of new recordings in the same vein by many of the same musicians. The second disc is pleasant enough, but it is inferior to the first in just about every way; still, it makes a nice bonus to the brilliant original, whose return to market is the real story here.

A new Brian Eno album is always cause for excitement. Small Craft on a Milk Sea does a pretty good job of meeting expectations, though it also confounds them a bit. The first few tracks are ambient in the style of his earlier Music for Films and (especially) Apollo projects; others are a bit more abrasively funky in the style of Nerve Net. All are eminently listenable, and if the programming feels a bit random, the final result won’t be jarring enough to dislodge any members of his large international cult. Very nice.

– Rick Anderson