Joyá-rible

The latest soundtrack by Cirque du Soleil (Source: Spotify)

I guess that Cirque du Soleil is past the point of caring about creating exquisite melodies and transportive works. Joyá is a clumsy and bombastic half-hour of music that we could've all done without, and will go in one ear and out the other whether you want it to or not.

This Spanglish (read: what white people think Mexican music sounds like) product is brought to you from the dinner show which performs at the Riviera Maya Resort in Mexico. From what I gather, the performance itself takes a backseat from the food - and it sounds like the music is an after-thought to even the background. 

The composition is very slap dash, nothing special and certainly doesn't 'feel' like a Cirque du Soleil score. There have been competitors knocking off Cirque for years with foreign sounding lyrics and 'zany' compositions, but it seems we've reached a full cycle where Cirque du Soleil is now imitating that exact style. There isn't really anything in terms of lyrics, and while there is a use of 'motifs' they are so basic it's like listening to a nursery rhyme on repeat.

One of the lines is 'Ai yi yi yi yi'. Guys, we get it, we're in Mexico.

The mix of instruments just doesn't work. The core instruments are guitar, keyboards/percussion and trumpet, with a female and sometimes male voice joining them. Even when the score tries to be upbeat, it sounds cheesy and low energy. The mixing of the CD is really bizarre too (instruments surge and pan between ears, weird effects on instruments), and there's also an unfortunately gross sounding synthesised strings plug-in that features prominently (and when it does it sounds ridiculous). The whole recording feels very lifeless.

If 'Comedy of Errors' had been in another show as a clown act, I would've commended the composers for finally making a cute, goofy and interesting cue. But it's not for a clown act - it's literally the only stand-out in the score for simply not being derivative, and even then it's not something you could listen to for an extended period of time. Nothing here is going to endure over time or become a proud hallmark of the company's musical catalog.

Even if you've been to the show, I can't think of a single reason why you'd want to listen to this boring mess. If you're a diehard Cirque fan and you need to own it, be prepared to go through some annoying lengths as the physical record is only available at the show. It's cheesy clichés galore and it sounds like hackneyed background noise at a family friendly themed restaurant - oh wait, that's *exactly* what the pitch is.

'Joyá' by Cirque du Soleil is available digitally on iTunes, Amazon.com and Spotify. Available on physical CD at Joya's Official Boutique onsite. .

Cirque du Soleil and Danny Elfman present Iris - Spectacular

The new, shitty cover.

I was NOT prepared for the brilliance of this soundtrack. I hoped on the bus and saw a link to the album, loaded it, and literally teared up. Enter a lamenting, entrancing and gorgeous piano introduction - listen as it builds, swelling with embellishments of a symphonic orchestra, into a flourishing waltz. All at once the piece is powerful and moving, yet subtle and magical. The new Iris soundtrack by Cirque du Soleil is just brilliant! Danny Elfman provides a style that is simply magical. It's incredible, a compelling and generous creation that draws upon ultra, neo-Romantic composing techniques combined with an eclectic mix of world influences all stamped with Elfman's incredible idiosyncratic pallet. There are beautiful piano melodies, exhilarating string arrangements and bold, brassy moments which render the album to be nothing short of phenomenal.

This is Elfman at his best. Working on this project for a solid two years, as opposed to the usual soundtrack deal of three months on a movie, the soundscape of this album is so varied and dynamic it's hard to comprehend the awesomeness on a first listen. A homage to the scores of movies, this soundtrack draws upon references and reinvents popular and stereotypical movie music styles. There are shout outs to jungle blockbusters like Indiana Jones and King Kong ('Snake Women', 'Patterns'), Gothic and magical scores such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands ('Silent Movie', 'The Twins'), the schmooze vibe tones of the trendy 20's ('Film Noir', 'Movie Studio'), and a tour-de-force homage to the syncopated beats of West Side Story ('Rooftops'). Despite their influences, all the tracks inherently original, and the experience is incredible. I'm actually running out of inventive words to use to describe it. The upbeat 'Kiriki' theme is a brilliant fusion of exhilarating rhymic strings with bows on fire in a distinctly circus and Gothic vibe, and 'Scarlett Balancing' is simply heartbreaking - the lyrics have the potential to be corny and pandering but in this case they come across as esoteric and nebulous combined with the luscious arrangement of the orchestra and the ethereal mixing of the choir.

The most coruscating moment on the album is the exquisite and flawless 'The Broom/Flying Scarlett' arrangement. Beginning with a reprise of the opening tune shared delicately between woodwinds and a solo violin while strings flourish softly behind, the piece is utterly stunning. It provokes this incredible but practically indescribable emotion that resembles something like yearning. It's an ephemeral and achingly beautiful piano waltz paired with this forlorn, angelic voice which fragments and harmonies itself, and slowly layers with chimes and glockenspiels which leads into the striking, driving and powerful orchestra accompaniment. The arrangement is sweeping. Fucking oath, I'm listening to this right now and I am covered in goosebumps -  it's just so good.

It's been way too long since a soundtrack, and a Cirque du Soleil one at that, has moved and resonated with me. It's been an absolute joy to discover this wonderful soundtrack. Danny Elfman has managed to bring his own style to Cirque du Soleil without alienating or messing up its typical world flavour, and the melodies and motifs he has crafted are some of the most beautiful I think I've ever heard in a soundtrack. Iris is simply stunning - to all Elfman fans, soundtrack aficionados, and music lovers, you will not regret listening to this. Check out the link below to get a listen to the album in full streaming. Simple worldclass quality - it's good to see that the Machine du Soleil can still produce magic with the right direction.

Cirque du Soleil's 'IRIS' is written by Danny Elfman, and will be available worldwide on November 22nd for $15 and can be pre-ordered on Amazon.com and the Cirque du Soleil Online Boutique. You can hear the entire album in full streaming at the Iris Official Website.

ETA (18/10/11): They've reverted to the new, shitty cover design. Gross. Way to cock up the CD again, Cirque.

Jorane Rocks My Socks

I always enjoy listening to beautiful and talented women.

Really, I bought Evapore by Jorane about 3 years back, and although I've loved it for some reason I never thought to branch out into her other stuff. I found 'Stay' on YouTube and listened to the original over 9000 times. This cover is great too. Watch and enjoy, people. Meanwhile, I want another Jorane CD asap.

House of Dancing Water Soundtrack - Review

If I based reviews on cover art, this would get 5/5.

The House of Dancing Water soundtrack was sneakily released in June to little fanfare, and since no one has written a review yet I thought I might as well.

I'd been eagerly waiting for The House of Dancing Water soundtrack since the shows opening last September. Directed by Franco Dragone, the multi-million dollar water show is dubbed the "worlds most spectacular extravaganza", but I was most enthusiastic to see that Benoît Jutras was once again collaborating with a show. Jutras' masterful method of composing music usually includes beautiful piano melodies, synthesised strings, samplings and usually a random erhu somewhere. This is pretty much the case with The House of Dancing Water but the soundtrack falls short on some of his previous offerings.

For this soundtrack, Jutras also seems to have taken influence from every single show he has ever written for, and just thrown it into here. The sound drips of Le Reve, Borderline, Francesco Il Musical, and every single score contribution to Cirque du Soleil. For his new material, parallels can lead to some Hollywood composers including Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer. This soundtrack is solid, but overall it's very generic background music, stamped with Jutras' typical minimalist vocals and piano, or heavily synthesised instruments that draw a lot of similarities between his previous work.

The pinnacle of the album is 'Swans', which is a vibrant and romantic paean of otherworldly beauty that swells between the simplicity of piano and guitar before culminating in a spine-tingling finale involving the choir and orchestra. 'Chandelier' subtly builds tension before developing into a harsh synthesised and rock tune with enough string arpeggios to make you dizzy. 'Boat' is a rhythmically driven mixture of dramatic male choir and epic string arraignments which gives a shout out to Pirates of the Caribbean, and the cheeky and flamboyant mixture of brass and pizzicato strings piece 'Fountain Dance' just screams Nightmare Before Christmas. 'Pyramids' is also worth a mention, the most original piece on the album, a waltz with a flurry of pizzicato strings which intersect each other and mix wonderfully with the male singer and his harmonies.

Beyond that the pieces are pretty boring, generic, and don't really develop at all. There seems to be a lot of Jutras' signature 'action' (read: chaotic and boring) music, which Jutras has taken the liberty of looping instruments endlessly before throwing in a motif here and there. Most of them ('Pagode', 'Flags', 'Journey', 'War') sound like inferior drafts that were thrown out from his other shows with similar scenes. Others are just stamped with his usual minimalist sound where nothing really happens ('Prisoners', 'Wabo' - by the way, who named these tracks? They're almost as bad as Sexy Web-). It leads you wanting to skip a significant portion of the album. The ending is a bizarre and surreal experience which basically sounds like it was ripped straight out of Nintendo's Mario Party.

My main issue with The House of Dancing Water is its main motif. The tune is beautiful, vibrant, and distinctly draws on Asian tonalities, and is memorable thanks to it making an appearance on half a dozen or more tracks in a variety of incarnations. However, the theme has already been included in three other Jutras albums, two of them commercially available. One is Robert Lepage's 2003 film The Far Side of the Moon, the other being the 2005 production Le Reve. I adore this melody, but its extremely disappointing that Jutras couldn't bother to come up with new material - the opening track 'Dancing Water' is actually a straight rip of 'Samurai' from the Le Reve album with some skittering percussion tacked on at the end - it's not even a new arrangement. Hopefully this is the last time it makes an appearance in any Jutras show.

Overall, I like the soundtrack but I don't love a huge amount of it. The score has its moments, most notably with the gorgeous 'Swans', and a few other pieces, but the whole album is just to blasé being generic background music, under the guise of Jutras' typical minimalist vocals and piano, or crazy chaotic work that I usually stay clear of when I listen to Jutras' work. The major disappointment here is the once again recycled main theme. If you're an avid Jutras fan, go ahead and make the purchase, you'll find things to like. But if you're not, I'd recommend you take a look at Le Reve or Quidam first so when you tackle this mess you can shift through and find the gold.

'The House of Dancing Water' soundtrack by Benoit Jutras was released June 10th, 2011. Australia can download the soundtrack from iTunes for $16.99.

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Bonus! Here was our initial reaction to the Mario Party like finale piece.

[talking about the finale track 'In Joy' ]
(14:40:05) lunawaif: #16 is....ugh.
(14:40:55) lunawaif: Christmas music? cheesy entertainment themes? marching band jazz improv?
(14:42:37) sfogviper: FUCKING CHRIST WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!​!!!!!!!
(14:42:45) sfogviper: #16 STARTED AND I THOUGHT iTUNES WNET IN RANDOM
(14:44:35) MSam: LOL
(14:44:42) MSam: AHHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
(14:45:45) sfogviper: WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA​AAAAAAAAAAAT
(14:45:50) sfogviper: NOW IT"S GONE TO THE CARRIBBEAN
(14:46:00) sfogviper: OMG IT DOES SOUND MARIO
(14:46:24) MSam: I KNOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
(14:46:40) lunawaif: I rest my case...whatever the fuck it was.
(14:47:49) sfogviper: DELETED

Polyphonic Trees by Érik Karol

I love this artwork.

The supremely talented Basque singer Érik Karol is probably best known for his affiliation as the original singer of Dralion, to which he created a new dimension of the company's music with his haunting, crystal-clear vocals. 'Polyphonic Trees' is just insane - there's no other word to describe it; Karol weaves a bizarre hybrid of electronic pop with obscure lyrics and percussive beats that's hard to put a specific label on. One thing for certain is that it's electric and undeniably eclectic - and it has some stellar moments.

The music initially is just a bombardment on your senses, but the mixing of styles with memorable melodies and a plethora of electronic influences, all topped with Karol's earth-shattering vocals, creates an extremely innovative music experience. The almost-title track, 'My Polyphonic Tree' is a hypnotic ballad drenched in electronic effects with an ambling piano accompaniment, which leads into the chorus of seductive and ethereal strings with their beauty being heightened by Karol's contrasting counter-tenor vocals. 'If Only' is glorious, a hard rock piece accompanied by harsh self-harmonies, a tremulous cello and a rocking drum beat propelled by the continuous alluring melody from the xylophone, and 'Between the Lines' is enchanting with its piano driven base and oozes beauty with its exhilarating beautiful interludes from the cello. 'Akasha' is like a dream, with strings and effects mixing with Karol's vocals in impeccable harmony, and 'Irréel' is a wonderful finish to the album, with a soft piano played over those ethereal strings with the wonderful chanting refrain.

The remaining pieces are all bold and daring attempts at aiming for innovation, but to be honest they're ferocious. There is a distinctly dark and twisted vibe in the music, along with a sense of ritualistic and religious drones. The music is inspiring in the way that feelings are induced while listening to the tracks. 'Forbidden Secrets' is downright terrifying, and 'El Roce de la Sombra' is so tedious I thought I was going to be mowed down by machine guns at some point. These tracks are great, not because they're melodic or nice to listen to, but because they manage to resonate an emotion with the audience.

Karol's pieces have a mixture of lyrics in English, French, Italian and some languages I can't decipher. The lyrics are obscure and indecipherable, but they're never dull. They're esoteric and written like cryptic poems that illustrate vivid images without being corny or sounding obnoxious.

Polyphonic Trees is an innovative and inspiring album. Érik Karol's offering evokes many different emotions in the listener and is has some beautiful, catchy, and rocking tracks. While the entire album isn't a delightful listen, Karol's hybridity of daring and bold electronic beats and effects combined with his poetic lyrics pushes the boundaries of alternative music forward, and leave you eagerly awaiting another offering.

 Polyphonic Trees by Érik Karol is available on iTunes Australia for $18.99.

BOND Play with their new image

BOND's new image. Note the absence of Haylie Ecker, the addition of Elpseth Hanson (left) and how small Eos' waist is...

In 2004 bond released 'Explosive', a track that rocketed them to world wide fame, and then they disappeared. Emerging seven years later, with a new member, new image, new sound, and a new recording label, bond are attempting with a new Middle-Eastern themed album to win their way back into the music scene. While the 'Play' is mostly a disappointment, there are a few great moments, and seeing as it's a new album from bond it seems like it's worth the investment.

Highlights of the CD include 'Diablo', coined by Magnus Fiennes who wrote their previous hits including 'Shine' and 'Victory'. The piece is a flurry of staccato strings, tedious and spontaneous, with a dark flare - all being accompanied by a rapper who questions prejudice and the fairness of existence and an introduction to the vocals of Eos Charter. They provide a much needed intervention amongst the noise, and her dreamy vocals are hypnotic and entrancing. Cellist Gay-Yee Westerhoff also provides a surprisingly funky tune with the Gypsy influenced 'Beatroot', an energetic dance piece which will make toes tap. Fiennes also produces magic with 'Elysium', a whirlwind sci-fi piece which sounds like a fusion of the Doctor Who theme and Muse's 'Uprising', creating up uplifting ethereal and transportive piece which is nothing short of awesome.

Most of the album is comprised of covers of other material, but some of them are quite good. The Slumdog Millionaire theme tune is here in a glitzy dance version of 'Jai Ho' which has some sweeping moments thanks to the cello and viola chord progressions, and the Black Eyed Pea's 'Pump It' is also included, however it's one of the better numbers on the album as it's adrenaline pumping, catchy, and has a distinct flare of Eastern tonality. The rendition of Bittersweet Symphony under the title 'Last Time' is pleasant, but out of place with the theme of the album, and the piece is just a glorified, souped up version that pales in comparison to other innovative arrangements such as the cover by the Vitamin String Quartet.

'Summer' and 'Winter' are equally out of place, and are equally terrible as bond has started to employ the use of a very tinny/electric string noise which many of their competitors started using over the years. bond already covered segments of Vivaldi's Winter movement in their piece 'Viva!', which could pass as a dance floor anthem, but apparently that wasn't enough because they've covered it again here with 'Winter'. The effort is passable compared to 'Summer', but also comes across as tacky, being drenched in over 9000+ effects. 'Summer' is a bombastic rendition of the second movement of Summer, which clearly tries to emulate the success of Vanessa Mae's 'Storm' - it even has rain and thunder sound effects at the end - and it falls on its face since it's just the original piece, but it's presented as some techno porn with all kinds of effects detracting from the music. There is way too much going on in the backing, and combined with that grating electric string noise it's almost distressing to listen to. The two movements try to fuse the avant-garde with pop music for the masses, but it just ends up feeling contrived.

The rest of the new material is nice, but not especially memorable. 'West With The Night' starts off promisingly with a dark mood before unintentionally morphing into some kind of RPG battle boss music. It's loud and powerful, but not moving or special. 'Apasionada' is essentially a redux of bond's old 'Gypsy Rhapsody', but 'Road to Samarkand' is punchy and distinctly Arabic, with a nice focus on strings with the right amount of percussive instruments backing conjuring up images of the Middle Eastern deserts.

The new mix of 'Victory', that is included as some kind of vague reference to the quartet being re-born and celebrating their tenth anniversary, is a total step backwards. The backing and mixing of this piece sounds dull and lifeless, and topped with the tinny strings this produces a rendition which is totally inferior to the charming original, and is miles behind the dance mix which propelled bond into their initial fame. 

This CD serves as a sort of reboot for bond. 'Play' has too many covers, and most of their new repertoire is not really that memorable. There are a few great tracks that sound perfect amongst bond's greatest tunes, but there are a couple of shockers too, and overall this material is not really up to the standard that bond left behind seven years ago. I'd recommend giving it a listen to, but don't expect it to be as good as their work with 'Shine' and 'Born'.

BOND's new album 'Play', is available in stores and online in Mexico now. Asia and Europe release dates are on September 13th, USA to be announced.