Worthy music, but yay, emusic's new pricing makes this jump from 8 to 12 credits just because one track is 20 seconds too long. Thanks for the idiotic pricing model, emusic. I bet New Amsterdam Records is quite happy seeing a new disincentive for buying their record.
The websites for the band and their label say it's from 2008, and this has landed on a bunch of best-of 08 lists, including allmusic's list of 12 best classical recordings in 08. I hate quoting other people's reviews, but Time Out New York says that NOW Ensemble re-defines chamber music for the 21st century, fusing "the formal elegance of chamber music with a pop-honed concision and rhythmic vitality." So I guess the concision and vitality push it into the Alternative realm. Ignore the labels. Listen. Download. Enjoy.
Judd Greenstein: "Folk Music" --- Patrick Burke: "Hypno-germ" --- Mark Dancigers: "Hanging There" --- Patrick Burke: "All Together Now" --- Nico Muhly: "How About Now" --- Mark Dancigers: "Cloudbank" --- Judd Greenstein: "Sing Along"
Label Profile: New Amsterdam Records Ask the founders of New Amsterdam records what they are about, and they fumble and equivocate charmingly. It's not normally a good sign when a label's masterminds have a hard time articulating its mission, but most labels aren't New Amsterdam: After all, how would you sum up the animating principle behind an output that includes William Britelle's dreamy, prog-rock besotted opus Television Landscape; Matt Marks's Christian-music-and-Bollywood pop fantasia The Little… more »
