Browse by Artist: BLAST

Artist:	BLAST
Title:	A Sophisticated Face
Label:	CUNEIFORM
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	RUNE 125CD

"Blast is a Dutch band notable for compositionally complex music and brutally powerful performances. Since forming in 1989, the band has worked to develop a sound both dense and kaleidoscopic. A Sophisticated Face, the band's fourth release, is an exciting stylistic departure; normally working as a quartet, for this release the band are essentially a miniature orchestra consisting of guitar, trumpet, flugelhorn, soprano, alto and baritone saxes, alto clarinet, violin, cello, cymbalom [an Eastern European hammered dulcimer], bass and percussion. The music reflects that as well, as the sound is geared more towards modern 20th century classical composition than what is normally thought of as 'rock' music."

Artist:	BLAST
Title:	Altra Strata
Label:	RECOMMENDED (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RER BLAST1

"Blast are a Netherlands-based avant rock and jazz quartet notable for compositionally complex music. Since forming in 1989, the band has worked to develop a sound both dense and kaleidoscopic, which uses elements of both intense composition and free improvisation. On Altra Strata, they play like a heavy metal band who've discovered new instruments and new music. With the addition of new drummer Fabrizio Spera of the Italian improvising ensemble Ossatura, there's an even greater emphasis on improvisation here than in the past, and this should strongly appeal to the new brigade of appreciators of free-music in this post Sonic Youth world. Altra Strata is a vibrant combination of influences from 20th century classical, the Rock In Opposition bands of the 1970's and a violent approach to free and composed avant music."

Artist:	BLAST
Title:	Sift
Label:	RECOMMENDED (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RER BLAST2

"This is the second release, after a long wait, from this unique ensemble. Equally at home with the discipline of composition and the tightrope of improvisation Blast have evolved a fluid, pointillistic, unfathomable but transparent musical language that seamlessly integrates -- over very short durations -- highly complex writing and very free ranging improvisation, allowing the two languages to merge and combine into a new kind of logical exposition that makes sense but can't be reverse-engineered into its component parts. This is a music that lives through detail and exposition; neither resolving into composition, nor able properly to be understood as improvisation. In this respect Blast have solved a problem that has defeated many in the last 40 years. Founded in 1989, Blast's line up and musical focus have evolved considerably over the years, from complex, composed art-rock to a much more open style that combines elements of improvisation and austere contemporary composition."

Previous Page Index of Artists Next Page