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2010 CD Review, and a BD Apology


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Okay, so I spent this weekend closely listening to the 2010 CD's. I know I'm... slightly... late on the timing, but hey, better late than never! I used my isolation headphones, cranked up the volume, closed my eyes and concentrated on both the big and detail sounds the corps were presenting.

(And these were an amazing job by both the corps and DCI sound-wise. Amps made the little pit effects audible and DCI's recordings keep everything crystal clear. I mean it - these recordings had a *ton* more depth and detail than I'm used to hearing from corps audio. Bravo.)

So the point of this first post - I listened to the Blue Devils, then relistened, then relistened. And I owe them a kind of huge apology.

First off, I have to admit - I only made it through the show a couple of times last year. Once from the preseason recording, once from the standstill recording. Both times it turned me off immediately. At the end of the day, I felt that no matter how well they played it, or how faithful to the source material it is, it's just not appealing music. I spent several posts on here detailing that argument as well.

This time through, I forced myself, devoid of distraction, to really *listen* to what they were doing. And surprisingly, I found that the show itself really has a rock-solid internal logic to it - you can pretty easily follow where it's coming from and where it's going, especially after the big brass hit in Laura (4:32 into the recording) to the end. From then on, it's pretty much a musical spinning top, getting faster and faster to the climax. It's a more twisted version of the '91 show (Kenton's Commencement and Don Sebesky's Bela and Bird in Bb), with a lot of sounds layered on each other, but a lot of the chord structure, key changes, mood, etc. don't feel out of place at all.

The one thing that keeps this from shooting back up into my pantheon of all-time greats - seriously - is that from 1:54 to 4:32 of the field recording, the show drives off a freakin' cliff. 1:54 is the end of the "La Suerte" tag in the intro, and 4:32 is the beginning of the brass crescendo into the Laura theme. In between is dead air, drum hacks, stab chords, tension chords with no release, and not one of those things follows directly into the other. I've never seen a video about this show, nor read any explanatory materials - I cannot figure out why this 2.5 minute section is in there. (For the record, the 2009 show did the exact same thing after Happy Days, but for almost 4.5 minutes.) It's almost like the musical equivalent of watching an Evil Knieval jump - he roars up to the jump, soars quietly through the air with nothing much going on, then lands and the roar starts up again.

But even that's kind of a minor issue. Overall, the point is that I admit I was way too hard on the show. Especially if you like Kenton's Adventures in Time, there's a *lot* of familiar-sounding material to latch on to.

I will post more thoughts on the various corps, but I kind of felt I owed a total post to BD by way of saying, "okay, I was wrong."

Mike

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Okay, so I spent this weekend closely listening to the 2010 CD's. I know I'm... slightly... late on the timing, but hey, better late than never! I used my isolation headphones, cranked up the volume, closed my eyes and concentrated on both the big and detail sounds the corps were presenting.

(And these were an amazing job by both the corps and DCI sound-wise. Amps made the little pit effects audible and DCI's recordings keep everything crystal clear. I mean it - these recordings had a *ton* more depth and detail than I'm used to hearing from corps audio. Bravo.)

So the point of this first post - I listened to the Blue Devils, then relistened, then relistened. And I owe them a kind of huge apology.

First off, I have to admit - I only made it through the show a couple of times last year. Once from the preseason recording, once from the standstill recording. Both times it turned me off immediately. At the end of the day, I felt that no matter how well they played it, or how faithful to the source material it is, it's just not appealing music. I spent several posts on here detailing that argument as well.

This time through, I forced myself, devoid of distraction, to really *listen* to what they were doing. And surprisingly, I found that the show itself really has a rock-solid internal logic to it - you can pretty easily follow where it's coming from and where it's going, especially after the big brass hit in Laura (4:32 into the recording) to the end. From then on, it's pretty much a musical spinning top, getting faster and faster to the climax. It's a more twisted version of the '91 show (Kenton's Commencement and Don Sebesky's Bela and Bird in Bb), with a lot of sounds layered on each other, but a lot of the chord structure, key changes, mood, etc. don't feel out of place at all.

The one thing that keeps this from shooting back up into my pantheon of all-time greats - seriously - is that from 1:54 to 4:32 of the field recording, the show drives off a freakin' cliff. 1:54 is the end of the "La Suerte" tag in the intro, and 4:32 is the beginning of the brass crescendo into the Laura theme. In between is dead air, drum hacks, stab chords, tension chords with no release, and not one of those things follows directly into the other. I've never seen a video about this show, nor read any explanatory materials - I cannot figure out why this 2.5 minute section is in there. (For the record, the 2009 show did the exact same thing after Happy Days, but for almost 4.5 minutes.) It's almost like the musical equivalent of watching an Evil Knieval jump - he roars up to the jump, soars quietly through the air with nothing much going on, then lands and the roar starts up again.

But even that's kind of a minor issue. Overall, the point is that I admit I was way too hard on the show. Especially if you like Kenton's Adventures in Time, there's a *lot* of familiar-sounding material to latch on to.

I will post more thoughts on the various corps, but I kind of felt I owed a total post to BD by way of saying, "okay, I was wrong."

Mike

Nice...... many of us BD honks wish that others would take the time you did, to see the depth of this remarkable musical production.

Now let me try to address that "one thing" you mentioned on the recording from 1:54 to 4.:32. The best way to understand the musical painting is to understand the visual at the same time. More than any show I can recall, BD10 attaches critical links to the visual....in short, they are BOTH saying the same thing together. Separated, they lack clarity. So.....for me, this section is the most inspired of the entire production (save perhaps the big Laura hit and reprise at the closer), this section sets the tone for the entire production.....a musical and visual "fly-by" to BD Past. What's critical about BD10 is the musical memory of the listener/viewer (but particularly, the listener). This production is a look back at some of BD's best music, not a regurgitation, but a sort of a glance through a worm hole of time, distorted and even fading. In that way, little phrases of BD classics appear and disappear like brief (very brief) reflections. Now this is the biggest point, and what is mostly missed by listeners........it is designed to be disconcerting and even a bit aggrevating musically. Like musical foreplay that takes you to a point, and leaves you with........well, the term young men use after a date that isn't consumated :tongue: . And under it.....is the always musical fragrance of "Laura" used to ground us so we don't go mad! Constant hints of Laura, then back to the dissonance and false resolve......it's very muscially troubling ...and designed to be so. All the while, the MM's are playing with their reflections in the mirrors or reflective MM's pretending to be mirrors....it's really exquisite visually, and impossible to see completely....again, mental overload is the goal. This section also features little percussive explosions like twitches during REM sleep. Some BD enthusiasts even suggest Scojo hides little fractions of past memorable percussion hits. Finally, the magnificent high brass screamers and Laura hit ......OMG!! You see Mike, without the musical meandering and teasing, this moment would lack it's extreme emotional release. It's wonderful and settling.

One final note to give a perspective to this "playing with resolve" thing....during the closer, following the musical and visual madness and chaos leading into the big arch, the resolve to Laura is again heard....but quickly is overtaking by the building power of the charge at the audience. This final hint of Laura was not in the original score, but added by John Meehan during the tour....and it shows how important the "grounding" for Laura was to this entire production. Go back and listen with this persective and I think you'll understand more clearly.

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(And these were an amazing job by both the corps and DCI sound-wise. Amps made the little pit effects audible and DCI's recordings keep everything crystal clear. I mean it - these recordings had a *ton* more depth and detail than I'm used to hearing from corps audio. Bravo.)

Agreed! It's a fantastic recording all around.

The one thing that keeps this from shooting back up into my pantheon of all-time greats - seriously - is that from 1:54 to 4:32 of the field recording, the show drives off a freakin' cliff. 1:54 is the end of the "La Suerte" tag in the intro, and 4:32 is the beginning of the brass crescendo into the Laura theme. In between is dead air, drum hacks, stab chords, tension chords with no release, and not one of those things follows directly into the other.

I agree with Plan9 that the visuals are very important to this section, but that said, even without the visuals, this is the part of the show (1:54 up through 5:32 or so) that I like the most. As soon as Laura ends at 5:32, and especially after 7:15, they lose me, musically and visually. At about 8:30 and beyond I feel like they are just trying to #### people off. Maybe that was the goal, as Plan9 says.

This show works much better for me musically than it does as drum corps. I can listen to the show and enjoy much of it, but I don't enjoy watching it past the halfway point, and I can't bring myself to sit through it at all with anyone else around.

Thanks for the thoughts, it's interesting to hear how other people are reacting to these things! :thumbup:

Edited by skywhopper
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Second, of course, was the Cavaliers and Mad World. I was already very familiar with the show - watched it probably a dozen times in various incarnations on FN throughout the season - but I had never heard it with high-quality audio.

What stood out immediately was the drop in volume between BD and Cavaliers. Cavs had an admirably aggressive horn book, but it didn't translate to peel-your-face-back volume. Especially as compared to the opening Mad World samples and electronic effects, the opening brass hits didn't carry the same oomph. I noticed that especially the low end of the brass sound either got lost in the dome, wasn't pointed at the mics, or something... but something was definitely lacking.

The main problem with listening to the Cavaliers show is that often, if you're not watching the Cavaliers show at the same time, a great deal of the music effect is lost. In the opener most particularly, after the opening statement (starting at 3:28) there are a lot of dead spaces between musical effects filled with pit or sectional runs that don't really have a flow to it unless you pair it with the drill moving from form to form. The opener, while I feel the weakest link musically, is also relatively brief (3:28 to 4:27 on the recording).

The second number, whose title escapes me at the moment, is clearly the centerpiece of the show, with the mylar drum solo, "this is my rifle," etc. My absolute favorite part of the show is the electric guitar / tuba riffs - it's just a groovy little beat that sticks in your head long after hearing it. That said, there's still a lot of "we are doing this section... now we're doing this section..." feel to it that makes things very episodic, and slightly ADD.

Smile, however, is a classic drum corps ballad that musically is pulled off just fine. The pit solo isn't as impressive listening as viewing as you can't tell that it's the same performers pulling off both melody and accompaniment, but overall, it's both a well conceived and well performed ballad.

The closer feels like a tale of two songs to me, in that there's this really strange bright cheery part to begin, with a long build around a major key that feels totally out of place against the rest of the show. I liken it to the third Matrix movie, when the ship comes flying up out of the clouds for a moment, seeing blue sky and sun, before descending back into the madness below. It's just... odd. Especially as the big major key build is right into a restatement of Mad World. The final half of the closer is typical Cavaliers, especially after adding the melody back from the drum feature.

Overall, it's a solid show, but honestly, I'd have to revise my previous opinion and say that on its own, it's not a championship-sounding musical production. This is definitely a show where the visual and the music cannot be parted. If you have the DVD's, it's well worth watching and one of the most striking shows the Cavaliers have done in recent years. Audio only... um... go get the DVD's.

Mike

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A couple notes that I was dissapointed with. The melo frack at their entrance at about 6:04 was less than exciting. I had seen a video of them rehearsing this spot and the same mistake was made. I may be incorrect but there's definately some fuzziness at this entrance. Granted a high G isn't the easiest note to come in on after a minute or so of not playing.

For the Cavies there's a second or third trumpet who fracks at about :49 and it is OBVIOUS

Bluecoats win the award for cleanest trumpet feature. That section in their second movement is SMOKING!

Is it just me or do the Cadets sound bright at a couple of moments. I counted three different times where I thought it was the end of their show and I was surprised that it kept going. Maybe this was their intention but I don't know.

More thoughts to come as I'm just getting around to listening to a friend's CD.

Edited by GlassmenBtone
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