Steve Reich - 1974 - Four Organs/Phase Patterns

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.5 out of 5

Either you like Steve Reich or you don't like music. There, I said it. Granted, I'm not really choosing his best work to make that assertion (for that head for "Music for 18 Musician" or "Electric Counterpoint" off the top of my head), but this is still damn fine stuff. At this point Reich was climbing out of his proto-sampling, pure phase music shell, and starting to make streamlined music with a melodic core. This is definitely a 'transition' work, but the oceans of sound waiting here are worth wading in. Jeez, I hope no one reads that last sentence out loud.

The first piece here is "Four Organs," wherein the four organ players each stick with one note at various lengths while a maracas player drones on. Apparently Philip Glass is one of these organ players, although a piece like this isn't a particularly good showcase for one's musical personality. This is more for sending your mind to Valhalla. "Phase Patterns" is definitely the more intimidating piece here. We get an organ phrase played at slightly different speeds so that in falls in and out of synch. Some bits are wildly beautiful, while others come across as mismatched hell. This one is for brainwashing yourself.

I'll admit that the first half of this gets played on my stereo far more than the second. These pieces do manage to take pure music theory and make something often visceral and always impressive out of it. Reich would later figure out how to combine his experiments into amazing, full-blooded works, but these building blocks are still worth your attention.

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Actually, this doesn't include either of the pieces reviewed here, but it's an awful lot of Reich bang for your Steve buck.
Steve Reich - Phases

Steve Reich - 1974, 1986 - Mallets

Quality: 5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 5 out of 5

I have to admit that this is probably my most listened to of Steve Reich's highly regarded body of minimalist works. While I'm often a sucker for lots of strange instrumentation, I feel like composers in this genre are often at their best when confined to a small selection of instruments. As the track titles explicitly tell you what you'll hear, this music fits that bill.

First off is "Six Marimbas." "Under My Thumb" is one of my favorite Stones songs, so it may be no surprise that I have an affinity for the marimba sound. The track has sort of a jungle-like, monkeys banging around sound. At first it may even seem like a new age song, but where that genre would start slathering on the cheeseball melodies, Reich plunges deeper into the jungle with the relentless marimba rhythms. I'm not quite as big a fan of the second track, but it is still top flight Reich work, with the mallet work once again taking center stage as the other instruments add a variety of color. As good as it is, this one more overtly recalls Reich's seminal Music For 18 Musicians (you should probably go here if you are new to Reich).

This is the kind of music that I can listen to all day. It is wonderful as background music, but really starts to shine brightly if you are willing to give your attention to the myriad of texture and tonal variety.

Steve Reich - 2001 - Triple Quartet

Quality: 4.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.5 out of 5

Steve Reich is an acknowledged master of modern classical music and his music has no lack of class, but if repetition is not your thing, if repetition is not your thing, if repetition is not your thing, then he may not be your cup of tea. Or his magical music powers may lull you into a trance and convince you that you do love repetition, you do love repetition, you do love repetition. Don't knock it until you've tried it.

This isn't so much a fully conceived album as an anthology of works contemporary to its release. I suppose the main event is the titular suite performed by the renown Kronos Quartet. The varying string parts work quite well on their own in the Reich mold. It's a very different flavor than what they achieve when working with Philip Glass, but no less important. My favorite performance here, however, is the relentless "Electric Guitar Phase." The modus operandi of a phase is that several players of the same instrument repeat the same phrase over and over at slightly different speeds, so that the phase eventually disintigrates, oscillates, and recombines in a myriad of different ways (of course recording overdubs make this far easier). Here we get that for 15 minutes with an absurdly rockin' guitar. At least I see that as a good thing. Following that is the "Music For Large Ensemble,' which on this album by far most recalls Reich's seminal Music For 18 Musicians with its more fleshed out, orchestrated sound. Capping things off is the "Tokyo-Vermont Counterpoint;" basically the same idea as "Electric Guitar Phase" but with marimbas or something like that.

This is a fine release, and probably the best introduction to the sonic world of Reich other than the aforementioned Music For 18 Musicians. If you're a Reich fan already, this one is candy for your Halloween pumpkin, and if you're not familiar with Reich, your musical sensibility requires that you at least give him a try. Those of you that don't like Reich can go to hell (wait,no - that's way too harsh).

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Steve Reich - 2001 - Triple Quartet