J. Ralph, Various - Music to Mauzner By

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Free Music Notes for Music to Mauzner By

Free Music Review: One of the greatest modern albums of all time
Hit: 5 Stars

Few albums truly meet that category: The Avalanches' flawless "Since I Left You"; Aesop Rock's "Labor Days"; Basement Jaxx's "Rooty", Beck's "Sea Change", and albums by DJ Shadow, Mr. Lif, The Flaming Lips, Four Tet, and others coming up.

Yet, Spy's "Music to Mauzner By" is the best.

Period.

The albums is flawless for many reasons. The first is simple track-placement: the energy goes from high to low but the quality maintains throughout. The opener (and single) "Baby" is a piece of 80's heavy-metal fit for a 90's dance floor. The energy is relentless. Yet, the closing number, "Untitled 17" is very slow (and will be mentioned in a bit).

Yet, the fact that Spy (J.Ralph) covers almost EVERY GENRE in modern music. While he doesn't exactly bust a rhyme, hip-hop beats are heavy influences to his music. He does classical (the aforementioned "Untitled 17"), disco ("Mauzner Detroit"), dance-rock ("31 Seconds"), a spy-movie instrumental ("The Desert Suit Conspiracy"), jazz ("Goonies"), gospel ("Stay Away"), full-out pop ("Won't You Come Down"), shares a bit of country (the two-minute electric violin solo in "Fire It Up"), and even mariachi ("Leonard's Lounge"). And, oddly, he does all perfectly ("Leonard's Lounge" isn't a pop song with mariachi influences ... it's a mariachi song). It's amazing. Additionally, simply his layering is phenomenal (in "Desert Suit Conspriacy" - he uses four different sections that are completely different, then, at the end, plays them all over each other ... and it works fine).

While some parts may not be as appealing as others (the 70's rock-inspired "Wanderer"), the whole scope is epic. Again, the beautiful "Untitled 17" is absolutely beautiful, fit enough to pull tears from a film's climatic moment. It's heart-renderingly beautiful.

There are few albums as truly wonderful, touching, and flat-out perfect as this one. It's worth every cent, and stands as one of my favorite albums of all time, hands down. I just might be yours too :-)

(P.S. Now at the iTunes store, J.Ralph released his second album "The Illusionary Movements of Geraldine & Nazu". It's all classical-based (including "Untitled 17" and "One Million Miles Away") including a new opera he wrote ("M"), and other moving works. Well worth $8. Go J-man go.)

Music to Mauzner By Poster

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