Alter Ego

First, the performances: Alter Ego has changed the instrumentation of such early Glass masterpieces as "Contrary Motion" from analogue keyboards and amplified winds, to a more traditional, unplugged acoustic arrangment. In addition, the ensemble plays the pieces with a softer, less angular rhythmic attack than on the classic recordings. These two factors make the pieces warmer and more accessible; but purists will probably still prefer the electric and more bracing sound of the classic recordings. The playing on all the works is superb, but it must be noted that the sonic texture of these performances is quite different in feel from the classic recordings. (Compare the almost lilting, classical violin performance of "Strung Out" on this recording to the hard-edged, much longer, amplified electric violin recording on CP2 records.) So cheers to Alter Ego for bringing some new works to the public in their first performances ever ("Music in the Shape of a Square", "How Now", and "600 Lines"); but by all means seek out the original recordings of the other works to compare and contrast with the presentation here.

Second, a comment on the Orange Mountain label: the works on this disc are reissues of two CDs originally put out on the Italian Stradivarius label, so the Orange Mountain Label deserves credit for re-releasing them so they can find a wider audience. Still, while the label has made public several critical Glass works, it continues to release too many minor Glass works (like the "Undertow" soundtrack, "Orion") to the detriment of much more important unreleased works like Glass's Doris Lessing-based operas,Robert Wilson collaborations like "Monsters of Grace" and "White Raven"; and many more of his still unreleased early works (most prominently, the music he wrote over a ten year period for the Mabou Mines.)

Not to be confused with the Italian Alter Ego who collaborated with Philip Jeck and Gavin Bryars on the recent reinterpretation of Bryars' classic The Sinking Of The Titanic, although come to think of it, it might be pretty amazing to hear THESE guys interpret Bryars' super somber epic.

This Alter Ego is from Germany, and they tend to mine similar ground as folks like Justice and Daft Punk, that sort of high energy, dance floor destroying good time techno, lots of heavy buzzy synths, swooping squiggly melodies, bouncing infectious rhythms, fun and funny, goofy and a bit wild. Super playful and funky, but also pretty weird.

The opener sounds like a Basement Jaxx instrumental, super fuzzy and groovy, synths snarling all over the place, some awesome fuzzy melodies, but then out of nowhere the track breaks down into this weird stumbling percussive sounding rhythmic stutter, all strange pizzicato strings and arpeggiated beats, hard to explain, completely interrupts the flow, but sounds so perfect anyway, the band effortlessly slip back into it, only to drop out and do that weird confusional breakdown a few more times. Which is precisely what makes this disc, and these guys so appealing.

All of the tracks begin with a similar template. Block rockin beats, fuzzy throbbing synths, woozy melodies, bits of dubstep, dancehall and techno, all wound up weirdly tangled electro / techno hybrids, but then things get all wonky, in a very good way, some tracks get all epic and majestic, the synths swelling into huge grandiose melodies, others fall apart into angular new wave freakouts, some sound like experimental synth jams, others end up super minimal, like some squiggly slightly tweaked take on the Kompakt sound.

On the surface, this stuff will totally hit the spot for anyone into any of the above-mentioned bands, folks who want to just hit the dancefloor and get totally lost. But for those of us with an aversion to the dancefloor, but who still dig dance music, this stuff is thick and heavy, layered and off kilter, weird and cool and just a bit f----d, without ever losing its groove.

Both CDs are continuous mix CDs. The first disc is absolutely amazing. It contains a number of classic old skool electro tracks as well as some fantastic gems I had never heard before. The mix is not repetitive and many of the songs do include vocals. The type of vocal that is most prominent is that sing-song rap style that was popular before Run DMC dropped (think Rapper's Delight, Cold Crush Bros., etc.).

If you are down with Diplo's Fabric CD, you should definitely like both cds.

Btw, another reviewer mentions that some tracks on these discs are not technically "electro." That is true. However, all the songs are great, the mix is great, they all sound good together, so I am not bothered by the genre blending at all.

The first CD is a lot of really dated old skool electro. Not really my kinda thing. The second cd is a bit better, but since when were 'Dooms night' and old deep house cuts by deep dish (Casa de X) considered electro. There's some good old techno tracks too, the standout being Acid Jesus. In all a very average 'listen once or twice and then archive' CD.

I am picky about techno music, but ALTER-EGO practically blew my mind. They are sophisticated, beautiful and cutting-edge. There is nobody out there (except KRAFTWERK, if that counts) who has Alter-ego's super-natural, genious techno skills. Alter-ego makes famous English techno DJ's sound terribly mediocre. Alter-ego is the future of electronic dance music. Every track on this CD sounds incredibly influential. Just listen to "Rocker" you'll be blown away!! 5 stars across the board. No questions asked.