They appear to mostly just be really rubbish, playing boring classical music of the unlistenable sort that makes everyone think they hate classical music.
From their myspace: "Basquiat Strings are a five piece string group with their own repertoire of originals (composed by cellist Ben Davis) and arrangements. Ben finds inspiration from the raucous, driving Hungarian string groups of Transylvania, the luxuriously rich Brahms sextets and the unruly compositions and workshop arrangements of Charles Mingus. Well, all that and people asking him to fix strings for their sessions... The players have all trained classically yet are "naturally bilingual....wholly imbued with jazz's improvisational facility." (Chris Parker) The group has been involved with various other live projects including that of Juliet Roberts and Andrew McCormack; and has recorded for Ty, Darren Emerson, Monica Vasconcelos (Nois 4) Border Crossing and the Ed Moto produced Jazzinho record. Basquiat Strings are touring in March to promote and launch their own record "Basquiat Strings with Seb Rochford" ..............PRESS:.............................................................................................. "Forceful Beast introduces Polar Bear drummer Seb Rochford's collaboration with Basquiat Strings, Faintly reminiscent of the Kronos Quartet but more beat driven and further off-planet." Chris May... All About Jazz 2005 F-ire : Works: Volume 2............................"Basquiat Strings shunt the mood again, as Ben Davis heads a classically trained quintet who are still profoundly influenced by the jazz experience" Martin Lonely... BBC Jazz Reviews 2004 F-ire: Works......................"Basquiat Strings track Double-Dares is a moody highlight " John Walters... The Guardian 2004 F-ire: Works......................"...Given extra emotional power by Ben Davis' Basquiat Strings" John Walters... The Guardian 2004 Nois 4: Gente......................."...A splendid string quintet" Robert Wyatt... The Times 2004 Nois 4: Gente............................."Basquiat Strings are that rare thing: a string group specialising in a unique combination with kit drums." Cheltenham Music Society... 2006"
I particularly like the last bit "that rare thing?!?!?!" I realise the classical world is a bit closed but ffs that is hardly new is it. Mentioning Yellowcard'd give them a heart attack, presumably.
Naturally bilingual, eh? What a load of arse. Given the number of strings musicians demonstrating you can make perfectly accessible AND technically brilliant music at the moment, there's really no need for that sort of pretentious arsefest which, bluntly, doesn't even demonstrate decent musicianship to me- it seems to be all over the place in a totally uncontrolled fashion (as opposed to for effect) and whether that's deliberate or not it sounds fucking rubbish. All their songs sound exactly the same to me, except that the first three on the myspace are slightly less listenable than the last, which almost achieves a degree of non-crapness for the first thirty seconds, at least.
It's so annoying when there are so many GOOD things to do with classical instruments but people like that are all "oh gosh look at those prostitutes writing brilliant pop songs with their classical training; we prefer to write utterly unlistenable tosh so that we and our friends can discuss how it pushes the boundaries of boredom the aesthetics in a way utter arseholes like us have been doing for centuries whilst sellouts like Tchaikovsky wrote slutty little concertos." DAMN THEM ALL, this is precisely why no one likes a violinist.
/hate
Bat For Lashes are supposed to be experimental I think. She is "alright," I would say, from the myspace. If she added me I would probably accept the add but I definitely wouldn't get excited about the whole thing.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: lord sukrat sez: MORE TOKENS PLZ
Date: 2007-07-17 01:38 pm (UTC)From their myspace: "Basquiat Strings are a five piece string group with their own repertoire of originals (composed by cellist Ben Davis) and arrangements. Ben finds inspiration from the raucous, driving Hungarian string groups of Transylvania, the luxuriously rich Brahms sextets and the unruly compositions and workshop arrangements of Charles Mingus. Well, all that and people asking him to fix strings for their sessions... The players have all trained classically yet are "naturally bilingual....wholly imbued with jazz's improvisational facility." (Chris Parker) The group has been involved with various other live projects including that of Juliet Roberts and Andrew McCormack; and has recorded for Ty, Darren Emerson, Monica Vasconcelos (Nois 4) Border Crossing and the Ed Moto produced Jazzinho record. Basquiat Strings are touring in March to promote and launch their own record "Basquiat Strings with Seb Rochford" ..............PRESS:.............................................................................................. "Forceful Beast introduces Polar Bear drummer Seb Rochford's collaboration with Basquiat Strings, Faintly reminiscent of the Kronos Quartet but more beat driven and further off-planet." Chris May... All About Jazz 2005 F-ire : Works: Volume 2............................"Basquiat Strings shunt the mood again, as Ben Davis heads a classically trained quintet who are still profoundly influenced by the jazz experience" Martin Lonely... BBC Jazz Reviews 2004 F-ire: Works......................"Basquiat Strings track Double-Dares is a moody highlight " John Walters... The Guardian 2004 F-ire: Works......................"...Given extra emotional power by Ben Davis' Basquiat Strings" John Walters... The Guardian 2004 Nois 4: Gente......................."...A splendid string quintet" Robert Wyatt... The Times 2004 Nois 4: Gente............................."Basquiat Strings are that rare thing: a string group specialising in a unique combination with kit drums." Cheltenham Music Society... 2006"
I particularly like the last bit "that rare thing?!?!?!" I realise the classical world is a bit closed but ffs that is hardly new is it. Mentioning Yellowcard'd give them a heart attack, presumably.
Naturally bilingual, eh? What a load of arse. Given the number of strings musicians demonstrating you can make perfectly accessible AND technically brilliant music at the moment, there's really no need for that sort of pretentious arsefest which, bluntly, doesn't even demonstrate decent musicianship to me- it seems to be all over the place in a totally uncontrolled fashion (as opposed to for effect) and whether that's deliberate or not it sounds fucking rubbish. All their songs sound exactly the same to me, except that the first three on the myspace are slightly less listenable than the last, which almost achieves a degree of non-crapness for the first thirty seconds, at least.
It's so annoying when there are so many GOOD things to do with classical instruments but people like that are all "oh gosh look at those prostitutes writing brilliant pop songs with their classical training; we prefer to write utterly unlistenable tosh so that we and our friends can discuss how it pushes the boundaries of
boredomthe aesthetics in a way utter arseholes like us have been doing for centuries whilst sellouts like Tchaikovsky wrote slutty little concertos." DAMN THEM ALL, this is precisely why no one likes a violinist./hate
Bat For Lashes are supposed to be experimental I think. She is "alright," I would say, from the myspace. If she added me I would probably accept the add but I definitely wouldn't get excited about the whole thing.