Bt - This Binary Universe (W/Dvd) (Dts)
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CD Details
Artist: BtEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-08-29
Music Label: Digital Sound
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- All That Makes Us Human Continues
- Dynamic Symmetry
- The Internal Locus
- 1.618
- See You On The Other Side
- The Antikythera Mechanism
- Good Morning Kaia
- All That Makes Us Human Continues [Music Video]
- Dynamic Symmetry [Music Video]
- The Internal Locus [Music Video]
- 1.618 [Music Video]
- See You On The Other Side [Music Video]
- The Antikythera Mechanism [Music Video]
- Good Morning Kaia [Music Video]
Music reviews of This Binary Universe (W/Dvd) (Dts)
Music Review: In Depth Artistic Analysis
Rating: 4 Stars
NOTE: This is a very lengthy review. I spent the better part of an afternoon taking notes about each of the 7 tracks as I listened to them. It is likely you will not need to read my entire entry to get an idea of what to expect if you purchase this CD.
Overall Impressions:
From the first moment the seconds begin to count away on your CD player's display, it is obvious what you are listening to is a markedly different kind of BT.
In his latest attempt at audio construction, Transeau has created a CD that encompasses the full gamut of his musical influences and experiences. Far more reminiscent of artists like Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, and composers like Thomas Newman, This Binary Universe marks a new direction for the much loved club/trance artist. Like virtually all of the reviews posted here iterate, Binary is devoid of the techno thumps and break beats found in BT's previous work. I did not have the fortune of listening to the CD through a system that supports the 5.1 Dolby Digital format in which it was recorded so my review (more observational than critical) is based solely on the content.
Binary would be more accurately classified as a New Age composition than one of electronica (although of late that line is beginning to become increasingly blurry). Its pacing is measured and mood epic and intense much like Patrick O'Hearn's Beautiful World (2003). Like Beautiful, Binary requires a modicum of patience that allows each composition to roll across the audioscape like an approaching storm. Other works that come to mind are the score to American Beauty by Thomas Newman and the Passengers CD (the result of collaboration between Roxy Music's Brian Eno and U2). The familiar stutter edits or "BT Stutters" are still prevalent throughout the music but here are applied as calculated interruptions never allowing the listener the opportunity to become lulled by any one melody. Also new to Transeau's style are true breaks between tracks. The breaks serve much like the water sipped during wine tasting; cleansing the auditory pallet to allow an unadulterated experience of each piece of music. Each track has been given its own flavor even if they all share some of the common BT ingredients. Although over 70 minutes of music are provided, there are only 7 tracks so be prepared to invest some time into listening to each. For their length however, they offer an extremely dynamic array of experimental sound juxtapositions. Just as a particular musical theme becomes realized it is changed again (often times seamlessly) into something other. Binary, in the true New Age fashion, is a journey over a diverse and dramatic musical landscape. It is a heavily layered performance designed to reveal itself over the course of many playbacks.
Tracks In Detail:
1. All That Makes Us Human Continues
The opening track on the CD begins with a Kronos Quartet-like melody of reverberating chords. The tradition techno build is markedly absent offering no hint that tell tale BT break beats or techno thumps are destine to emerge. In fact, Transeau does not even introduce his signature stutter edits for a full four minutes into the piece. Using chimes in a Pink Floydish manner, the music swells into a discordant break that transforms into a more linear guitar driven melody. The guitar (echoing like the textural guitar O'Hearn so favors) is played over industrial samples similar to those found on BT's Mercury and Solace.
2. Dynamic Symmetry
Perhaps my favorite piece, Symmetry exemplifies the measured pace with which Transeau introduces each theme. The first 90 seconds of this track contains minimal audio not delivering a solid and coherent beat until a full 2 minutes into the music (and 10 minutes into the entire CD itself). The beat is a comp-styled staccato of acoustic percussion that pleasantly segues into a series of jazz piano chord progressions much like LTJ Bukem's Journey Inwards. To further this idea, BT converts the beat into a swing beat complete with a jazz ride cymbal. The source of Binary's inspiration makes her debut on Symmetry as samples of Transeau's daughter Kaia squealing with infantile joy are randomly inserted. The tune concludes with an up tempo layering of industrial/electronic audio before returning to the jazz theme once more.
3. Internal Locus
First the sound of rain then a moody piano chord progression that is not quite melancholy. Then again with Mercury and Solace's "bouncing ball bearings on glass" (used throughout Binary). Suddenly there is an abrupt change in the music as if Transeau gave up on the initial theme mid recording. What follows is an Asiatic imperial march constructed of a majestic string arrangement and oriental chimes conjuring images of a geisha's graceful dance. The crashing of a gong would not had been out of place had it been used. The final two minutes are ushered in by another drastic change into a techno bass theme driven by a funky beat that fades out to end with the rain once more.
4. 1.618
The fourth track begins with a full minute and twenty seconds of orchestral tuning that eventually blends into the same buzzing insects found on much of his Ima release. The insects give way to a modified acoustic guitar that collides with an emotionally charged and raunchy electronic tempo. This builds for a bit but rather than delivering with the hard beat you are sure it should, the track smoothes out once again reverting back to the guitar lead. Perhaps the most melodically satisfying composition on Binary, 1.618 ends with sequence of beautifully layered guitar and bass variations. This is certainly a piece that would have been enhanced with Dolby capable playback.
5. See You On The Other Side
A daunting 14:23 in length, See You, more than any other track on the CD, requires the patience I mentioned in the above. Our first sounds are those of nursery chimes with a slight overtone of something darker. But let us not forget; these are meant to be lullabies for Kaia and BT doesn't wait long before changing the color of the piece into something less sinister. What, after almost 4 minutes, begins to unveil itself is a determined guitar line with an underlying chord progression uncannily similar to the title track of Patrick O'Hearn's Beautiful World. Transeau masterfully blends the nursery chimes into a punchy yet hypnotic electronic percussion arrangement. The song's finale is dotted with dramatic guitar sustains that continue to echo O'Hearn's work. Ultimately things wind down with the chimes that carried us into the crescendo from the beginning.
6. Anhtkythera Mechanism
Anhtkythera offers a far more direct introduction than the other tracks. Rather than using a purely ambient lead-in, it opens with a series of melodic musings in the fashion of score composer Thomas Newman on what sounds like a toy piano. The first transition is marked by a Satellite-like acoustic guitar chord progression supported, by all things, a banjo. From there a more decidedly BT-esque feel is applied with the use of the traditional BT stutter and industrial sound prevalent throughout disc 2 of the Movement In Still Life import. But in true Binary fashion, the transition doesn't last long before changing once again into the imperial string arrangement introduced in Internal Locust applied this time with authoritative blasts to the audioscape.
7. Good Morning Kaia
In the farewell track, the work becomes its most linear and coherent. Once again the melody is introduced immediately (as was Anhtkythera Mechanism) and steadily builds. The addition of traditional rock styled percussion and electric guitar completes the emotionally charged essence of the piece. Think Coldplay. Kaia works well as the punctuation to what, by the end, is a remarkably well versed audio essay.
This Binary Universe may best be appreciated if it is allowed to seep in like an ointment. To listen to it in a purely cursory fashion would be like watching only the first five minutes of a movie and expecting to understand it. Listen to the work for what it is as opposed to what you expect it to be and you may discover you will enjoy it more. As a stand alone work, it contains true innovation and beauty. When I compare the ballad like work introduced on Movement In Still Life and Emotional Technology, the logic of the progression into the style of Binary becomes less of a surprise and more of a necessary conclusion.
Description of This Binary Universe (W/Dvd) (Dts)
BT's This Binary Universe is really a follow-up to his 2004 soundtrack to Monster, a brilliant work of cinematic moods and ambient Americana. It was unjustly ignored by both the Oscars and the Grammys, where it should have at least been nominated for Best Surround Sound Recording. None of that has stopped Brian Transeau from going further down this path of expansive ambient electronica that takes him out of the techno-pop and trance direction he had been pursuing. This Binary Universe taps into BT's classical side, with expansive arrangements and intricate, albeit minimalist, thematic development. From the opening of "All That Makes Us Human Continues," BT reveals himself as a master of Eno-esque melancholy, as simple melodies evolve through an electro-orchestral instrumental palette. Lounge jazz with solos in the key of abstract, plaintive arpeggiated guitars, electro marches, minimalist hymns, and pastoral dreamscapes drive an album that seeks out joy and redemption, but not without traveling through the dark. The last track, "Good Morning Kaia," is a paean to his newborn daughter, and the most purely anthemic track on the disc.I suspect the real raison d'être of This Binary Universe is the accompanying 5:1 surround DVD. BT creates an immersive space that's less sonic pinball and more audio sculpture, often revealing different aspects of his music than in the stereo mix. Each song on the DVD has a unique video that includes antique robots, surreal landscape drawings, live action fantasies, and abstract designs. It's the best way to experience this music, but whether you watch the DVD or tune into the stereo CD, This Binary Universe may be the first ambient symphony of the 21st century. --John DilibertoDance & DJ CDs
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