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Sometimes it works - notably with Gorecki's and Ravel's work - but it frequently misses the mark, with his reinterpretation of Handel's 'Xerxes' sounding something like incidental muzak from a low-budget US soap.
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From any conceivable angle, it is an indulgence...
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His pieces are mostly drawn from moderns such as Cage, Gorecki, Barber, Satie and Ravel, and work best when mined for their luxuriant melancholy...
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No matter whose music he was reformulating, however, Orbit worked gently, creating an album that, if it technically belonged beside Wendy Carlos' Switched-On Bach, actually was more reminiscent of Brian Eno's Discreet Music.
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the more you listen to Pieces in a Modern Style, the more warmth and affection you hear... They're not meant for classical purists; they're charming little curios for anyone who's interested in the process of reinvention -- or in just chilling out.
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Personal project or not, the pretty Pieces In A Modern Style isn't much more than a Hooked On... collection for a digital age.
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The most memorable tracks on Pieces in a Modern Style feel like high-brow Puff Daddy songs...
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But if attempting to dress ancient monuments in radical, avant-garde clothing was always going to be a hit-and-miss project, he's still succeeded for the most part in making a richly ambient, evocative record from apparently staid and stale old material.
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Intermittently successful...[t]oo often, his faithfulness turns into meticulousness, resulting in an album that's as formally impressive but as snooze-inducingly detailed as a special-effects-addled blockbuster.
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Rather than reinventing these centuries-old compositions, Orbit's snoozy-listening remakes only serve to surgically remove their innate drama.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 8
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Mixed: 0 out of 8
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Negative: 1 out of 8
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yaroslavmDec 31, 2002Simply the best
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JonM.Sep 10, 2001Pure brilliance.