It's tempting to look for an angle when ostensibly "traditional" artists re-interpret music originally conceived for an entirely different context. You wonder if they're making a statement first and thinking about the music second. It can seem as though the artist with a stronger connection to high culture is either extending a hand down to welcome the other half into the club. Or, perhaps they're just having a laugh. A string quartet is playing Metallica songs, see, because Metallica are actually interesting composers. See also Sebastian Cabot, Actor/Bob Dylan, Poet.
New music ensemble Alarm Will Sound decided to follow its album of Steve Reich compositions with a record of all-acoustic interpretations of pieces by the Aphex Twin, but nothing about the project suggests condescension. Based on the music and presentation this seems more like an ambitious collective on the hunt for challenging projects, and the idea of scoring and arranging pieces that have lived their entire lives inside a computer was too tempting to pass up. In a sense Richard D. James seems the natural choice for such a tribute, both because of his surpassing melodic sense and that he's already penetrated the serious world through collaboration with Philip Glass. A large assortment of hoses, whistles, shop hardware, and piano treatments were gathered for timbral approximations, after the tracks were selected (curiously, most are from most from Drukqs) and notated, and this is the result.
Though it never sounds to me like a gimmick, Acoustica remains oddly distant and difficult to inhabit. This music, often geared toward atmosphere and sound for sound's sake, is difficult to absorb when scored for traditional instruments and easily slips into the background. Generally, the better and more exciting the original track, the more the Alarm Will Sound version pales by comparison. On tracks like "Meltphace 6" where the distinctive rolling drums serve as the lead instrument, Alarm Will Sound sounds overly restrained, with its conservatory roots at the Eastman School of Music in full view. That they would even attempt to record something like "Cock/Ver 10" live with acoustic instruments is impressive, certainly, but the music itself doesn't quite survive the translation and loses its sense of purpose.
Better are the tracks that were in their initial form more open-ended. The short industrial percussion ditty "Prep Gwarlek 3B" finds new life with live instrumentation, and its unusual rhythm and texture easier becomes easier to digest. The digital gamelan "Jynweythek Ylow" loses a pang of longing without the sound of James's music box, but Alarm Will Sound find the melodic core at the piece's center. Still, though Acoustica is an interesting album and not unpleasant to listen to, but nowhere does it capture James's energy or musical wit. It reminds me of when Derrick May did an Invisible Jukebox session for the UK experimental music magazine The Wire and the interviewer played him a brass band version of "Strings of Life". His strong initial excitement quickly dissipated and he groaned, "Oh, I wish it were better."
