marantz@null.DEC (Josh HL01-1/S09 DTN 225-4394) (05/03/85)
I saw Birdsongs of the Mesazoic at Brattle Theater in Harvard Square last Wednsday, so here are my impressions. I had never heard them before, though I'd read and heard quite a bit about them. If it means anything to anybody, the group grew out of the now-defunct Mission of Burma. They have one record out, which I do not own, called Magnetic Flip. They will be coming out with another shortly (or so they said). Their lineup is somewhat peculiar: Piano/Percussion, Organ/Percussion, Synthesizer/Rhythm-Machine/Percussion, and Guitar/Percussion. Almost reminds me of Gentle Giant, except GG also had a Drums/Percussion (and GG did vocals). The piano was actually a Yamaha electric keyboard that sounded like a piano most of the time, except when the pianist wanted it to sound different. The concert was divided into two sets of about an hour each, with roughly a half-hour of animated films between the sets (Brattle Theater is more often a movie theatre than a concert hall). As I expected, the music was very complex, rhythmically and harmonically, and was at times very interesting. Sometimes they reminded me of Soft Machine. At other times they reminded me of King Crimson, particularly the second side of Three of a Perfect Pair. They also had a knack for changing tempo and rhythm very suddenly. Technically, they were very good. Compositionally, I thought they needed some work. They seemed to explore different themes and motifs without any direction or development. The highlight of the concert (for me) was without a doubt their "cover" of Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring. The piece worked well with the rock instruments, and the full power really came through. But it really exposed the weakness of the their compositions by contrasting them to a magnificent work such as ROS. The original works were as complex as ROS, but they didn't go anywhere; there wasn't as much substance. I actually liked and enjoyed many of their songs, but when I heard the same musicians do ROS, there was just no comparison. It was so good to hear themes being developed and explored and tensions and dissonances being introduced and resolved. There were technical things that bothered me as well, such as their use of a rhythm machine. It just didn't seem to fit in well with the rest of the sound. It's kind of hard to pin down, but I think they would have done better with a human drummer. What's Bruford doing nowadays? Well, I'm happy to have gone. It was only $5, and I might have paid that just to see the animated films shown during the intermission, some of which, especially "Dinosaurs", were very good. I enjoyed most of the concert, and I'll probably get the album just to see if repeated listenings do anything to my perception of their compositions, and because Rite of Spring is on it. Is anybody out there into Birdsongs of the Mesazoic? I'd be interested in hearing what you have to say. "What can this strange device be? It beeps when I hit control-G!" -Joshua Marantz DEC NULL::MARANTZ USENET ucbvax!decwrl!rhea!null!marantz ARPA marantz@dec-hudson