Box Of Seven [7CD]

Steve Maclean - Box Of Seven [7CD]

"To encourage you, here are seven CDs for the price of two: Frog, Bug, Guitar, Computer (featuring what it says in the title); Prime; GPS (Steve MacLean Ensemble's final CD), Year of the Dragon, (featuring Chris Cutler); Bridges (double CD) and Ordinary Objects and Other Distractions (musical manipulations of toys and everyday objects) -- PLUS the great-and-long-out-of-print Radial Circuit (polyrhythmic instrumental band compositions) -- in a sturdy box. Steve MacLean is a musician, composer, producer, and engineer known for his work with music technology, particularly in the early 1980s. He is also a professor in the Electronic Production and Design department at Berklee College of Music (retired). Early in his career, MacLean gained experience with early digital audio and music production tools like the Fairlight CMI, DX-7, Linn Drum, and automated mixing consoles in a NYC recording studio. He has been actively performing and composing for over 30 years. Briefly a member of Nick Didkovsky's Dr Nerve, MacLean then co-founded the Portland Experimental Music Collective, formed his own quartet (with Tim Inman on keyboards, Jim McGirr on bass, and Dave Fields on drums) and released the all-instrumental album The Opposite of War (ReR, 1999). The lively chamber jazz-rock music of Windows Pt 2 and Windows Pt 1 is modulated by a frenzy of tempo shifts, with more than a hint of Frank Zappa's influence. The other tracks, notably 'Branches,' walk a fine line between lounge music, minimalist repetition, neoclassical passages, and exotic rhythms. The double-CD Bridges (2007) compiles works spanning two decades and several styles, from the mechanic ballet No Jazz (1989) to the King Crimsonian prog rock of One Little Life (2001). Its second disc, devoted to electronic experiments, runs the gamut from ambient music to musique concrete."