COMPOSERS: Steve Reich
LABELS: Nonesuch ; Nonesuch
ALBUM TITLE: Phases: A Nonesuch Retrospective, Reich: Remixed 2006
WORKS: Various (Phases)
PERFORMER: Steve Reich, Michael Tilson Thomas etc (Phases)Steve Reich (Remixed)
CATALOGUE NO: 7559 799 622 (Reissue: 1985-2005) ; NS 006 T (Remix)
These – a retrospective box set
and a new ‘single’ – are released to
mark Steve Reich’s 70th birthday
on 3 October. To tidy things up for
collectors, despite a high content
overlap the Phases retrospective is not
exactly a rehash of the 1997 Works
boxed set, which was twice the size
of this rather more apprehensible
selection, and Reich: Remixed 2006
is an entirely different recording
from the original Reich: Remixed of
1999. Two out of the three pieces on
2006 were also remixed on the 1999
disc, but of course different mixes/
remixers produce different works,
so there’s no duplication. The 1999
remix disc still seems to be widely
findable, Works much less so.
All in all, then, Phases is now the
best option for anyone looking to
acquire an instant Steve Reich back
catalogue collection. In addition to
its availability and manageable size, it
happens to be a very well-conceived
package indeed, succeeding in
covering all the significant areas of
Reich’s career in a well-proportioned,
musically intelligent way. This has
been acheived partly by omitting a
few longer pieces such as The Four
Sections (not one of Reich’s best
works anyway, in my opinion), partly
by avoiding the inelegant excerpting
of large-scale compositions such as
The Cave by sensibly omitting them
altogether and partly by simply
stuffing a generous dollop of music
onto each of the five CDs. Given that
Reich’s music has become ever more
accessible over the years – the jazzy
melodies and key changes in You Are
(Variations) sound disconcertingly
normal to a diehard systems fan
– it might have been tempting to
quietly pass over the earlier, more
experimental period of Reich’s
career for a release of this nature.
Not a bit of it, though; we still get
the enigmatic phasing experiments
of Come Out and the original
Drumming as well as the big, popular
stuff such as Different Trains. Taken
overall, then, this is a well-assembled
set and a very attractive proposition
if you’re in the market for a sonically-impeccable
chunk of classic Reich,
or perhaps felt that Works was rather
more of him than you needed.
I’m less taken with the new
remixes disc, much as I liked the first.
Short, sparse and artlessly glitchy
in parts, it seems oddly inexpert in
comparison with the contributions
of (notably) DJ Spooky and Ken
Ishii to the first volume. The remix
of Drumming probably works best,
but I’d still rather listen to Four Tet’s
own Rounds CD. Roger Thomas