Plectrasonics

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Plectrasonics album cover
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Total Tracks: 12   Total Length: 43:27

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Peter Blackstock

eMusic Contributor

04.22.11
Nashville Mandolin Ensemble, Plectrasonics
2001 | Label: digitalpressure / SoundArt Recordings

The brainchild of Butch Baldassari, known for his work with bluegrass act Lonesome Standard Time, the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble often seeks to take the instrument "Where No Mandolin Has Gone Before," to borrow the title of a track from this disc. Yes, it's an all-mandolin version of the Star Trek theme, and if it sounds ridiculous, in reality it's quite sublime. So is their version of the Beatles '"Because" and most everything on this refreshing collection.

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nice playing

kingbee

Well recorded, with some surprises...the tune "Orleans" was on David Crosby's solo album, "If I Could Only Remember My Name", acapella style, beautiful and haunting.

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Coolness!

glauber

What a tallented group of musicians! The arrangements and performances are first-rate. I downloaded the whole album, and i'm glad i did. When burning to CD, don't leave the default 2 seconds between tracks. There is enough spacing at the end of each track and track 6 is meant to follow 5 without interruption. I recommend downloading the whole album, but IMHO the highlights are 12, 7, 8, 9, 10, 2, 3 and 4. The must-have tracks are 12 (a faithful rendition of Bill Monroe's haunting "My Last Days on Earth") and 7 (a fantastic interpretation of the theme from the original Star Trek TV series).

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