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Voices and Choices

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Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra

 
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Voices and Choices
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Avg: 4.0 (81 ratings)

  • We Say...

    Review by Amelia Raitt

    Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra is, mostly, the work of Shawn Lee — the talented multi-instrumentalist known for his work in compiling the Planet of the Breaks series and creating music (more than 100 hours of it) for the video game Bully. Lee’s interest with the Voices and Choices album was to create a collection of tracks that sounded like library music (i.e. the things you hear soundtracking car chases, love montages, and the like). He’s succeeded brilliantly. “Kiss the Sky,” tastefully sung by label mate Nino Moschella, wouldn’t be out of place playing during the opening credits to a Connery-era Bond film, while “Francoise Hardy” sees Pierre D mining the spirit of Gainsbourg at his funkiest. In fact, when considering the state of some of today’s turgid scores, you might be better off turning movies on mute and giving Voices and Choices a chance. (I hear it syncs well with Wizard of Oz, for one.)

  • They Say...

    Review by Marisa Brown, All Music Guide

    Though it's not part of the made-for-soundtrack Strings and Things: Ubiquity Studio Sessions three-part series that Shawn Lee and his "Ping Pong Orchestra" issued, there's still a lot about Voices and Choices that resembles a film score, from the Mission Impossible bass-and-vocal line of "Changing Times" to the blaxpoitation keyboard in "Tense Bossa" to the Ennio Morricone chord changes of "JW." Lee is a gifted composer and musician, playing everything on the record except the woodwinds and horns, sapient of what it takes to create a successful piece, layering guitar and keyboard lines expertly, giving space for the occasional flute or trumpet riff to break through; nothing is ostentatious, but because it's all produced very cleanly, the instruments certainly make their presence known. But more than in the electric riffs and contemplative lounge progressions, Lee's true talents lie in the rhythm section. With understated drums and a prominent bass, he makes beats that enhance the other instruments while still holding them in place. This grounding allows for a kind of looseness to develop in the tracks' overall feel, even though they're tightly composed, which not only adds to the effectiveness of the music as, in the case of film, a plot developer, it also means that it works well with lyrics. Three of the songs on Voices and Choices feature guest vocalists (not to mention those on which Lee himself sings, though this varies from subtle harmonies to the more vocalese-type work on "Bobulski"), and although each is fairly different stylistically -- Nino Moschella uses a funk falsetto on "Kiss the Sky," Ohmega Watts raps on "The Hour Glass Effect," and Pierre D sounds a bit like Jacques Brel on the excellent "Françoise Hardy," -- the accompaniment is perfect, spotlighting the singers while also lauding itself. Lee is clearly influenced by other great composers (for example, "A Song for David" is an obvious allusion, both lexical and musical, to David Axelrod), but he also has his own distinctive style that mixes subtle electronic elements with live instrumentation and keeps everything neat and focused, reflective yet celebratory, and makes Voices and Choices an excellent release.

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