Ask a Local: Graham Reynolds

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme After spending 2007 listening to Duke Ellington, I skipped a few decades in my jazz listening and rediscovered John Coltrane, who I hadn't really focused on since high-school. Out of the 20 or so albums I studied, A Love Supreme is the one that kept bringing me back. Coltrane was at his best in his transitional albums, first Giant Steps brought his hard-bop stage to a close as he headed into modalism, then a few years later A Love Supreme caught him at the end of his modal phase and the beginning of his free-jazz period. With minimal materials but strong motivic and melodic content, Coltrane and his famous quartet constructed an album that captures the tight-but-loose ideal perhaps more than any album before or since. Bands were in many ways the signature ensemble of the twentieth century and this recording presents one of the greatest at the height of their creative powers. You can see why I had a hard time picking this year's best albums. When this is the competition it's just not fair.

Gabriel Prokofiev - String Quartet No. 1, String Quartet No. 2. (Two CDs, both featuring the Elysian Quartet and several remixers.) Peter and I have been doing the indie-classical thing here in Austin for a while now and sometimes it feels a bit lonely. 2008 was an encouraging year as evidence of a broader national and international scene developed. Gabriel Prokofiev leads the charge in London, mixing composed music, DJ techniques and performance, and a club atmosphere. His Nonclassical label has released two CDs of his music that balanced his distinct approaches, each is a complete four-movement string quartet followed by a series of remixes of the same. The acoustic versions are compact and driving with complex but compelling melodic and rhythmic structures. The processed versions range in approach, most adding beats that make the music more approachable to a contemporary audience while a few abstract the pieces into rich soundscapes. I've listened over and over again to both, some days preferring the remixes, other times I've been more satisfied by the Elysian Quartet's virtuosic renditions. Either way, Gabriel Prokofiev was my composer discovery of the year and both he and the quartet are coming to SXSW and I can't wait to hear them live. In fact, I couldn't wait so we've added my favorite movement to our Golden Hornet Project concert with Tosca String Quartet early this coming March. Gabriel's grandfather, the incredible Sergei Prokofiev, would be proud to hear his grandson step into territory that is distinctly and powerfully his own.

Timbaland - (Assorted singles) - 2008 was actually not a great year for Timbaland. After several years of non-stop hits and consistently expanding creative boundaries, his recent output has felt stale and uninspired. Fortunately, my listening wasn't restricted to 2008 and I happily explored and studied Timbaland's vast discography. While I've always been interested in production techniques, they become more and more important as I spend more and more time recording and mixing in my home studio. The collage styles born of the age of loops and samples are intriguing and no one is better at it than Timbaland. While I have yet to come across a full album from him that remains compelling throughout, his amazing string of hit singles are rich in ideas, pulling from a full range of sources, from Indian percussion to beatboxers to retro-synths. Much more than most rock or acoustic recording, this heavily-produced, beat-focused style uses a remarkable range of colors for drum sounds, each tune having it's own distinct snare and bass drums. The chorus may have one snare sample, the verse another, and breaks and fills yet another. This has gone far beyond replacing live musicians; these sounds are not really a substitute for anything. While his work with Missy Elliot and Justin Timberlake set in stone his pop credentials, his Bjork collaboration demonstrated just how much further he might be able to go. I only hope that 2008 was just an off year.

Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard - The Dark Knight (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Reflecting back on the soundtracks of 2008, Dark Knight came back to mind quickest and strongest. Of course the film is hard to forget, especially after seeing it on a towering Imax screen with superior surround sound quality. Hands down my favorite part of this soundtrack is the partially processed solo violin drone that serves as the films closest thing to a theme. The tone begins almost inaudibly, then slowly emerges and changes texture as other elements are added. Zimmer's studio is a factory of sorts with all the portions of soundtrack creation assigned to various members of the teams of sound designers, and composers. One of those teams develops Zimmer's personal sound, sample, and loop library so who knows which person actually came up with this particular sound, it's unlikely that Zimmer did it himself, but the texture is distinct and immediately recognizable with no melodic or rhythmic content whatsoever. It's a Hollywood blockbuster score and much of the rest of the music leans towards the melodramatic, including some questionable heavy metal guitars. However sometimes those big budgets allow artists to do what no one else can and the combination of orchestral and electronic elements has been given more room to develop and breath in soundtrack work than anywhere else. Zimmer and his partner Howard took full advantage here.