Time Warped

There's something about the music on this CD which conjures up visions of the American heartland and simpler times - the days and tunes of Duane Eddy ("the twang's the thang"), Santo and Johnny's "Sleepwalk," Les Paul, Chet Atkins, a touch of the Ventures and surf-rocker Dick Dale, and when guitarist C.W. Vrtacek cranks up the reverb on his vintage Fender Telecaster, perhaps a hint of Link Wray. The early Grateful Dead even emerges as a touchstone from time to time, as other trio members John Roulat (drums) and Jack Vees (bass/second guitar) slip into a funky blues shuffle beat, and Vrtacek stretches out and rides the groove like a young Jerry Garcia…

Call it postminimalist, totalist, or maximalist, the orchestral music of Bang on a Can co-founder Michael Gordon is big, loud, frenzied, and assertive, jam-packed with stylistic references, dense with inventive orchestration, and overflowing with virtuoso activity. Dystopia, performed by David Robertson and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is a kaleidoscopic portrait of the city of Los Angeles, created in collaboration with filmmaker Bill Morrison. This live recording of the work's premiere at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, January 12, 2008, captures the energy and spontaneity of the music, which at times is quite reminiscent of the hubbub of the Shrovetide Fair in Stravinsky's Petrushka, though one must imagine that the listening experience with the film was overwhelming. In contrast, Rewriting Beethoven's Seventh Symphony is not so much a wall of sound as a multi-layered gloss on its original material, an echo of Beethoven's music warped and reshaped through glissandi, microtones, clusters, montage, and other modern techniques.

In the half-century since he began his reign as King of the Surf Guitar, Dick Dale has remained one of rock’s most innovative and influential axemen. A bold pioneer in the use of speed, volume and sonic texture, the charismatic Dale invented surf music, and in the process permanently altered the role of the electric guitar in rock ’n’ roll. Of all the surf guitarists who would follow in Dale’s wake, none could match his prodigious technique, his fierce showmanship or his restless inventiveness…