Vlogcanic

Peter Hurford is one of the world’s foremost organ performers and since I have not paid much attention to his recordings (I go for Ton Koopman when I’m in the mood for Bach) I decided to listen to Bach: Toccata because its four tracks are among my favourite Bach organ works:

1. Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565.
2. Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, BWV 564.
3. Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582.
4. Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538.

What I liked.

Hurford’s BWV 538 has to be among the best I’ve ever heard. The playing, the tempo, the choice of registrations. It all fits together perfectly and is delightful to hear.

The fugue in BWV 565 is also very good in most aspects.

Overall, his playing is indeed very good. I’ve been missing something all this time.

What I didn’t like.

While the sound quality in this record is not awful, the recording levels are not the best I’ve ever heard. That goes for all the tracks but is particularly bothersome for the BWV 564 fugue, its sound level is so low that is hard to make out to actually hear the details unless you turn it up, which spoils the contrast of the upbeat fugue coming after the adagio.

I wasn’t crazy about the registration choice for the BWV 565 toccata either. I kind of acquired a taste for it after hearing a couple of extra runs, but it still seems a bit wrong for the piece. I guess it also refreshes it, but this was not among the good points for me.

I hated the way Hurford chooses to syncopate his toccatas in general. All three of them (the Dorian less than the others). He does it in a way that breaks the ideas instead of enhancing the counterpoints.

So?

It’s very clear that Hurford can play. He does it beautifully and I’ve been really missing something but this is probably not the best record to get introduced to him as the recording quality seems to go against –and cloud– is performance.

After listening to this record I think I’ll add BWV 538 and BWV 582 to my permanent playlist and keep looking for more of Hurford’s work in the hope I’ll find some stuff that makes his talent more transparent and easier to grasp.

I came across Fiction Plane’s latest album. For those of you who don’t know them –and I’m guessing it’s more than just a few– this is a british post-grunge trio that hasn’t taken off in full despite their seven years of presence in the London indie scene. On the other hand, no matter how obscure the band may be, it is bound to excite the curiosity of music aficionados because of their frontmant’s identity: Joe Sumner. Doesn’t ring a bell? Well, it’s the child of one Gordon M. Summner, better known by the name of Sting. But fair is fair and it must be said that the band has not tried to use the link to the Police’s singer to their advantage.

Any fans of Soda Stereo (the argentinian band which got started by somehow following the Police’s style) will find something familiar in Two Sisters which features a rhythmical guitar and harmony very reminiscent of Cuando Pase el Temblor –which can’t be an imitation as argentinian rock bands are not that well known in England. It’s probably the most digestible piece for listeners older than 25 –along with Drink, a song with no distorted guitars and a simple rhythm– but the harmony is maybe too complex to make it a sticky song.

All other songs in the record lean towards grungy distortions. The superficial textures kind of cover whatever may lay underneath. An influence by U2’s early style (say, October) can be heard in the guitar and the drums. There is not much in the way of melodic segments. Most of the instruments’ use is rhythmical, leaving Joe Sumner’s voice mostly alone in establishing the melodies. In the rare instances in which the guitar is not playing chords or arpegios –Cross the Line– it performs brief solo works echoing the main voice but used mainly to define cadence instead of harmony. Death Machine is the exception as it includes a wah guitar solo made up from three or four musical clichés while the drums knock themselves up.

Left Side of the Brain is cake made up from 80’s new wave batter with a grungier icing. That’s not a bad combination as far as I’m concerned, but it lacks flavor in this particular case. It’s even a bit stale as the grungyness makes not that much of a difference in the overall listening experience of getting the feeling to be listening some 20 year old outtakes.

A morbid but natural question is, of course: How much alike to Sting’s is Joe’s sound? It turns out that not that much. The voice inflexions are identical to me, specially when singing high notes or ejaculating energically. It’s otherwise clear that any likeness is pure genetics and not affectation because if there any obvious influence in Fiction Plane’s singer, it would be that of Bono.

I think that the band’s reluctance to make the link to Sting a marketing point is both brave and honest. But maybe they could learn a bit more music from him, and The Police.

This is not a bad record in technical terms. But it doesn’t touch any emotional fibers. Not even the dancing one. Whatever  presences by The Police, U2 and The Smashing Pumpkins can be heard in this record, they are merely cosmetic because they lack the essentials those three bands had in terms of linking their songs to some place in the listener’s heart. That very  characteristic is, maybe what makes the album’s name so suitable for its content: Left Side of the Brain.

In all, this is hardly a memorable record. It’s more in the vein of the stuff you’d like to talk about instead of actually hearing it.