Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
In and Out of Focus [Original recording remastered] [Import]
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No.2 In D major, Op.43/Finlandia Op.26
Military Music From the Age of Reason
Hoggin' ( It's Alright) [Explicit Lyrics]
Moonlight in Vermont [Original recording remastered]
Henry Purcell: Airs & Instrumental Music
Amazon.com essential recording
Sounding more like a missing Talking Heads session than anything remotely like David Byrne's 1990s-era work, The Catherine Wheel is at root a display of funky, off-time rhythms and vamps with Byrne involved at every level. The music was composed and produced to accompany a Twyla Tharp-choreographed dance event, and for program music it's brilliant enough to stand alone. The 73 minutes are almost seamless, weaving ambient soundscapes with loopy percussion-backed bass runs with guitar strumming across the top. Byrne shows his command of dramatic scoring here, spreading his wings across a huge range of styles and doing so in a way that sounds both like his old band and entirely different from them. You can hear in The Catherine Wheel where Byrne was heading (i.e., heavily rhythmic music) years before the Heads were disbanded and he ventured into life as a Brazilian- and Latin-music impresario. It's the sound of a young genius having free reign, and as such it's exceptional. --Andrew Bartlett