Critic's Review
Brian Olewnick, All Music Guide
The Italian sextet known as Brake Drum Percussion chose two intriguing works for their debut recording. Xenakis' well-known "Pleiades" is set in four movements, three of which utilize specific families of percussion, the other combining all forces. Composed in 1978, the piece has some affinities with works of minimalists like Steve Reich, but Xenakis' focus was on the subtle dividing lines between rhythmic order and chaos. Often, the instruments begin in near-unison, only to gradually crumble into off-kilter cadences and eventually into arrhythmic percolations, coalescing here and there into unexpected kernels of rhythm as the work progresses. The percussion is divided into tuned drums, tuned metal, and vibraphones, all of which provide dazzling sonic colors in addition to expressing the composer's more theoretical concerns, making for a rich dish indeed. If anything's lacking, it's possibly a sense of rigor and urgency heard in other recordings. Here there's more of a relaxed feeling, which has its own rewards but seems a bit at cross purposes with Xenakis' generally severe bent. As its title implies, Ahira Nishimura's "Ketiak" is based on "Kecak," the Ramayana monkey chant memorably captured on the Nonesuch recording Music From the Morning of the World. Arranged for a variety of percussion and including chanted vocal accompaniment, the piece succeeds in spreading the intricate Indonesian rhythms throughout the ensemble in enticing, wavelike forms, but also sacrifices the rough, ecstatic aspect of the source performance, resulting in a composition that feels comparatively bloodless. The disc is worthwhile for Xenakis fans wishing to hear an alternative rendition of "Pleiades."
