I have a bit of a bias against orchestral music. Classical music in particular is heralded as the most technically proficient, the most intellectually stimulating and aurally arousing genre in the history of mankind. Many use it as the yardstick with which to measure every other composed work.
In truth, it’s simply the preserve of the well off, highly educated and quite often snobbish sections of society. Like fine champagne, its only real value lies in its scarcity; its esoteric rules out of reach to most, with access granted only to a certain privileged elite of society. In short, orchestral music is bourgeois.
The problem is, high cultural biases aside, orchestral music seems to capture an almost physically tangible epicness. Producers have many times over tried to capture this and imprint it onto their own work. Usually the results feel forced and uncomfortable. All the classical composition clichés are wheeled out in a cringe worthy effort to make the latest electronic hit serious and intellectual. The classical crew don’t do much better either when they repackage their sound with a sexy mega babe and cinematic video in an attempt to make it edgy and cool and get da yoofs listenin’ to BBC Radio 3 yo.
That’s why Hybrid’s Finished Symphony is so perfectly unique. Recorded in Moscow with the Russian Federal Orchestra, it succeeds because the orchestral and electronic are arranged in such a way as to build on individual strengths and compliment, not to bask in reflected glory.
Hybrid - Finished Symphony by dcp84
Hybrid – Finished Symphony
[Distinct'ive Records : DISNST52]
(1999)
Discogs: £7.23
In truth, it’s simply the preserve of the well off, highly educated and quite often snobbish sections of society. Like fine champagne, its only real value lies in its scarcity; its esoteric rules out of reach to most, with access granted only to a certain privileged elite of society. In short, orchestral music is bourgeois.
The problem is, high cultural biases aside, orchestral music seems to capture an almost physically tangible epicness. Producers have many times over tried to capture this and imprint it onto their own work. Usually the results feel forced and uncomfortable. All the classical composition clichés are wheeled out in a cringe worthy effort to make the latest electronic hit serious and intellectual. The classical crew don’t do much better either when they repackage their sound with a sexy mega babe and cinematic video in an attempt to make it edgy and cool and get da yoofs listenin’ to BBC Radio 3 yo.
That’s why Hybrid’s Finished Symphony is so perfectly unique. Recorded in Moscow with the Russian Federal Orchestra, it succeeds because the orchestral and electronic are arranged in such a way as to build on individual strengths and compliment, not to bask in reflected glory.
Hybrid - Finished Symphony by dcp84
Hybrid – Finished Symphony
[Distinct'ive Records : DISNST52]
(1999)
Discogs: £7.23
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