I was there! I hadn't heard the new album yet, so it was an interesting
introduction to the
new music. But the full band arrangement of Ultramarine sent chills down my
spine. When
I have a chance, I'm going to write a mini review for my blog, but so far you
can see two
utterly crappy photos I took with my cell phone:

http://www.thedorkreport.com/2006/07/18/michael-brook-joes-pub-new-york-city/

My only complaint is that I hate venues that serve food. The wait staff must
walked in front
of me and bumped into me an average of once a minute.

Here's another positive review from the Star Ledger:

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ledger/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-1/
1153377822254570.xml&coll=1

Oh, and one other thing. They were selling copies of the "Inconvenient Truth"
soundtrack,
which I don't think has been released in stores yet.





--- In breakdown@yahoogroups.com, "Fred Bruinenberg" <fred7691@...> wrote:
>
> Nice review!!
>
> http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/07/20/185525.php
>
> Renowned guitarist, producer, and composer Michael Brook has become a
> more visible figure during 2006 than he has been in years past. Most
> recently, he composed the soundtrack for Al Gore's acclaimed
> documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, which released back in May. And
> now we are treated to RockPaperScissors, which is his first solo
> album in over a decade.
>
> Brook has not been idle in the years since his previous solo album
> and instrumental epic Cobalt Blue in 1992. But his work as producer
> and songwriter, as well as guitarist and collaborator, has put him in
> a less public light. He first came to prominence with the album
> Hybrid, a collaboration in 1985 with himself, Daniel Lanois, and
> Brian Eno. Brook reportedly learned a great deal from both Lanois,
> whom he began assisting in the producer's studio, and Eno, in regard
> to an overall approach to songwriting and production sound, which he
> carried with him on to his later work.
>
> Musically, Cobalt Blue expanded on the music of Hybrid, and showcased
> the style of guitar work that had arisen from Brook and his
> compatriot musician friends, The Edge and Lanois. It was a shimmering
> reverb that found as much punch from controlled use of echo effects
> as in the strumming of strings. He followed up the album the next
> year with the ancillary release Live At The Aquarium. Although his
> fellow musicians took the sound on to more popular waters, Brook's
> stamp as a sound designer was unmistakable, especially as both Edge
> and Lanois used Brook's musical invention, the "Infinity Guitar" to
> help fashion much of their own sound and style.
>
> RockPaperScissors takes a different turn and showcases how Brook has
> been using his talents during these past few years. It finds its
> direction as a soundtrack through various landscapes of texture,
> light, and shadow. Brook's role becomes less a part of a performance
> showcase (although he still handless a good portion of the musical
> responsibilities) and more that of a composer and architect of sound.
> In fact, at its core, it works best as a passport through the
> different styles and mediums Brook conjures for his various other
> musical forms.
>
> The album opens with "Strange Procession," which begins with an
> aleatoric choral prelude from the Bulgarian Classical Choir before
> finally kicking into a more orchestral-driven guitar track. This, and
> later "Doges," are the two selections that tie most closely to
> Brook's previous solo outings, and feature him as more of the
> instrumental lead. Richard Evans collaborates with Brook as string
> and choral arranger for much of the album, forces that help to bring
> a more lush feeling to Brook's palette.
>
> As a whole, RockPaperScissors is very classically oriented. Every
> track features either strings or choir, or both. And not just string
> arrangements tacked on to existing songs, but music that is built
> from the ground up to be a symphonic journey. It's not disimilar in
> scope to Craig Armstrong, for a reference point. In the same way,
> Brook himself is bringing his considerable soundtrack and writing
> work over to his own releases, and incorporating everything together
> into a larger musical vision. It's not one or the other (although
> taken as a whole, Brook's guitar work does seem to take a back seat)
> but builds on top of both. Between this and Brook's previous
> collaborations on world music, which all seem to come together and
> bolster the short and sweet "Tangerine," not only is everything fair
> game, but everything is essential.
>
> But collaborations are what form the bulk of the record. "Want"
> features the vocals of Lisa Germano, and captures early on a slower
> and more restrained tenderness. Similar in tone, "Pond" is a
> collaboration with the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, where a world edge
> meets with glacial strings and light percussion to produce one of the
> more moving tracks on the record. On the complete other side of the
> specturum, with "Dark Room," Brook creates a musical backdrop for Sir
> Richard Burton's reading of the Dylan Thomas poem, "Under Milk Wood."
> It's an interesting mix, but one that drastically sticks out from the
> rest of the album.
>
> The title track, "RockPaperScissors," is a writing parnership between
> Brook and singer-songwriter Shira Myrow, as well as a performance
> collaboration with UK singer Paul Buchanan. It works reasonably well,
> but lyrically is a little convoluted, and has more of a standard
> pop/rock song setup to it than the rest of the record. Overall, "Dark
> Room" and "RockPaperScissors" jar the flow of the album considerably,
> and although fine on their own, are too isolated as musical thoughts
> to complement the rest of the album.
>
> Closing out the record is the two-part composition, "Pasadena." It
> begins with a slow and sparse vocal from Ben Christophers, and then
> over the course of fourteen minutes, a slow epic of loss from the
> Bulgarian Studio Orchestra gradually recedes and fades into nothing.
>
> RockPaperScissors is a very creative and enjoyable album that
> stretches how we generally view two of the more dominant forms of
> western music: classical and rock. By balancing all these varying,
> and often disparate, strains of musical thought, Michael Brook has
> succeeded in crafting a sumptuous feast of a record. Although
> containing instances of jarring inconsistency (as mentioned with
> tracks four and five), the broader scope of the music wins out. As a
> soundtrack with no particular movie in mind, consider the soundtrack
> your own.
>
> Fred
>
> ps. anyone been to the cd release party at Joe's Pub NY last tuesday?
>