Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Andrew McIntosh - Little Jimmy [Kairos Music - 2022]

Little Jimmy is a modern composition-focused release that features elements of clunking-to-felt piano, percussion, sine tones and woodland field recordings. It’s a release that very much shifts between jarring and edgy, and meditative and slightly uneasy.

The CD release appears on Austria’s Kairos- with the disc being presented in the labels house style digipak- this features a thirty-page stuck on a glossy booklet on its inside, featuring English and German texts, pictures of the composer/ players, and photos of where the field recordings where captured.

Andrew McIntosh is a California-based composer and violinist who has been releasing his own work since the early 2010s. His sonic interests take in historical performance practice, improvisation, microtonal tuning systems, long-form works, and the 20th-century avant-garde in general.

The CD features three pieces/ eight tracks with these date from between the years 2019 and 2021. The release opens with the wonderfully entitled “I have a lot to learn” this is for solo paino, and the just under five-minute track seesaws between clunking ‘n’ crude and felt 'n' moody. All making for a great unbalancing opener.

Next, we have just over thirteen minutes of “Leaning” here we find hazy, at times tensely hovering blend of vibe-bound percussion, woodland field recordings, and lightly simmering sine tones. The whole piece has a rather odd dream-like quality to it, which is both (sort of) soothing, yet a little uneasy too- much like if you are out for a sunshine-licked woodland walk on your own, and from time to time you get the feeling you are been watched.

Finally, we have "Little Jimmy"- this six-track piece is for two pianos and two percussionists, and runs just over twenty-three minutes. The piece shifts from jingling and clunking evenness, onto drifting to lightly seared haziness which is edged with moments of bird song field recordings, and sudden darting/ nervy jangling key/percussive runs.

On Little Jimmy McIntosh use of sonic elements is both hazed and emotional, but also jarring. And it's this yin/yang that makes the whole thing so engaging and rewarding. I, believe, this is my first taster of Mr McIntosh work- but it certainly won’t be my last!.

Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

Roger Batty
Latest Reviews

Andrew McIntosh - Little Jimmy
Little Jimmy is a modern composition-focused release that features elements of clunking-to-felt piano, percussion, sine tones and woodland field recordings. ...
240425   Eclipse - Eclipse ( Blu Ray)
240425   The Cat - The Cat( Blu Ray)
240425   Impact - Impact( Blu Ray & DVD)
230425   Disfuneral - In Horror, Reborn
220425   W.A.S.P. - The 7 Savage 1984-...
220425   The Mill Killers - The Mill K...
220425   The Wolf House - The Wolf Hou...
210425   Changeling - Changeling
210425   The Eel - The Eel( Blu Ray)
200425   Harakiri for the Sky - Scorc...
Latest Articles

Dead, Dead Swans interview - Midw...
Dead, Dead Swans (aka Milwaukee, Wisconsin's John E Swan) play a blend of raw and world-weary American folk music, with some real tuneful edges. I first beca...
150425   Dead, Dead Swans interview - ...
110325   Sebastian Tomb - Walls of unb...
040225   Alien Sex Fiend - Possessed B...
231224   Best Of 2024 - Music, Sound &...
191224   Splintered - Somewhere Betwee...
031224   Shane Ryan-Reid - Coerced and...
221024   Whore’s Breath - life’s h...
011024   David Kerekes Interview - Int...
030924   Tim Ritter Interview - Shot O...
100724   Radiance Films Interview - Le...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2025. Twenty four years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom