Various Artists - Made To Measure Vol. 1 CD
SKU
28-MMSU1.2
“Crammed's legendary MADE TO MEASURE Series of New Music was described at the time as the aural equivalent of a collection of art books. Charting a map of some of the most interesting instrumental music of the era, thirty-five albums came out between 1983 and 1995. The loose idea behind the title of the series was: this is music which has been or could have been "made to measure" as a soundtrack for other media (film, theatre, dance, video).
Several years ago the label discreetly started reactivating the Made To Measure series, and released several new albums on MTM. MTM 1 features 15 works by Minimal Compact, Benjamin Lew, Aksak Maboul and Tuxedomoon.”
“Made to Measure Vol.1 was an excellent showcase of Crammed Discs' roster, with several of their key early 80's artists providing with career highlights. Opening with a number of Minimal Compact contributions, who are at their most experimental here, "Bat-Yam" was an abstract tapestry of gothic-rock, jazz-rock, electronic and ethnic flavours, with "Too Many Of Them" adding funk and the litany wail to their assimilated influences, while "Immer Vorbei" added the ghostly symphonic waltz and the incantation to their canvas. This series of tracks could well be Minimal Compact's masterpiece.
Benjamin Lew's sole contribution, the ghostly impressionist symphonic ambient "A La Recherche De B." was just as appealing. Aksak Maboul then took over, starting with the ambient ethnic chamber "Scratch Holiday" which wasn't far removed from what had gone on before, while "Odessa" went for the marching ceremonial symphonic piece.These tracks displayed a smoother Aksak Maboul, when compared to their previous work, but the angst-ridden piano piece "Retour Chez Les Futuristes" revisited their rock-in-opposition background.
The same applied for "Lili Danse", that nodded towards Art Zoyd’s fluid paroxysmal chamber environments (of Phase IV in particular) and Tuxedomoon's feverish Divine. "Mort De Velimir" was further proof that Aksak Maboul have moved from the world of the dadaist collage to that of classical music.
Tuxedomoon's contribution was equally seductive, they too tackling the lush symphonic burlesque theme with "Fanfare", before raising the stakes with the enticing industrial vortex "No One Expects The Spanish Inquisition" (one of their most violent pieces), while finally "Driving To Verdun" was one of their typical futurist symphonic dance-themes.”-RYM
- LabelCrammed / Made To Measure
- UPC876623008279