GregRadiohead's Full Review: Audio by Blue Man Group
I'm sure the masses first met the Blue Man Group when they began starring in the commercials for Intel's Pentium 3 processor. But it turns out they've been around much longer, as they started out in the early 90s as a theater act of sorts, gaining notoriety for their bizarre appearance and self made/self played instruments.
These instruments serve as the focal points for this album; instruments made mainly out of tubing (called PVC tubing) and other weird things, like the sticks they swing in the air to make the 'swoosh' noises. The actual sound of the album is a mixture of techno-ish drum beats and synth sounds, rocking guitar solos or rhytms, and the Blue Man Group's unique instruments. Even without the strange textures these instruments bring to the album, it would still come out as a decent techno/rock mix; but with the addition of them it becomes an entirely different creature. Some of it sounds so simple (like the opening track, 'TV Song', with its "hey I could do that!" swoosh sticks) but keeping all the instruments tracked together in such a way that it doesn't sound so easy to put together in your head.
I can't explain why, but to me the guitars on tracks like 'Cat Video' remind me of some of the songs off of Tortoise's 'Millions Now Living Will Never Die', because they sound so easy to do but they make more sense in the context of the rest of the music than some ripping guitar solo or complex riff sequence. The only problem here is that sometimes the guitars and drum beats take over the album, and you start to forget you're even listening to Blue Man Group. Or maybe I'm just mistaken and all the drums I hear are really part of the Blue Man Group's 'Drum Wall' or the cleverly named 'Big Drum.' But in any case, portions of the album start to sound similar; whether this is due to the limitations of the Blue Man Group's instruments or simply how they chose to use them on this album is unknown.
In the end, if you can't ever catch a Blue Man Group show (and I never have) then this album will still provide a decent idea of the Blue Man Group experience.
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