Treader

Treader

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Plenty of groups blend lounge and movie-soundtrack elements with contemporary beats to create sophisticated, kitschy party music. On Treader, Spring Heel Jack also display a fondness for such things. But the British outfit places strings, horns, and tinkling melodic percussion next to hyperkinetic drums, gulping bass, and other slippery sounds, creating a warped album that has nothing to do with ironic nostalgia. "Outerlude," for example, might recall a movie score that has mutated into a bizarre sonic artifact. The disc sounds like some staggering juggernaut: it's as if drum & bass were giving a fractured orchestra the ride of its life. Treader's two bonus tracks are "covers" of "My Favorite Things" and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," two songs from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. Spring Heel Jack reconfigure these classics into seriously bent versions. The original tunesmiths never would have imagined these oddly beautiful tracks in their worst nightmares. --Fred Cisterna

Tracks:

Three Places In New England: The 'St. Gaudens' in Boston Common
Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut
The Housatonic at Stockbridge
Orchestral set no.2: An Elegy to our Forefathers
The Rockstrewn Hills Join in the People's Outdoor Meeting
From Hanover Square North....
Sun-treader
Men
Lilacs
Marching Mountains
Andante for strings

Amazon.com

You'll probably find this filed under Charles Ives, since his Three Places in New England leads off the disc. However, while that's enough to recommend the disc, it's the music of Ruggles and Seeger that deserve our attention here. Ruggles (1876-1971) was a contemporary of Charles Ives and as much of an experimenter. He pursed atonality more directly than Ives, as in Sun-Treader (1935), much to his credit. Seeger (mother of Pete Seeger) is also a much-neglected American Modernist, and her Andante for Strings just isn't enough here. I highly recommend all this music. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews:

American Iconoclasts.......2002-10-04

This is a wonderful CD with powerful, committed performances of works by some of the most forward thinking composers this country has ever produced. And while there is alot of competition for the Ives Orchestral sets on the disc, the Ruggles and Crawford Seeger are relative rarities and make this a disc to treasure.

The ives Orchestral Sets lead off the disc, and they are great performances. Of the two, the First Set is the more familiar. St. Gaudens is a lovely study in atmospherics, in Ives typical blend of Imressionism, quotation, polytonatlity and shimmeringly atonal chords. Putnam's Camp is one of Ives' cacaphonous marches, littered with quotes from patriotic songs and the effects of several bands playing at once. This piece in particular seems almost a study for the stunning 2nd movement of the 4th symphony. The Set concluded with the justly celebrated Housatonic at Stockbridge. Slowly, out of the dense polyphony of the opening, a hymn tune gradually emerges in a blazing glory. Ives proves a master of impressionistic sound painting, but you never confuse him with his French counterparts...or even those like Griffeths or Delius, who are influenced by the French so highly. Ives take Impressionist gestures and makes them his own.

The Second Set is less well known, but equally striking. The Elegy to our Forefathers is dominated by beautiful and unusual instrumental timbres, including the harpsichord. It is a lovely, well shaped work. The Rockstrewn Hills is another of Ives' Camp Meeting pieces. Similar in ways to General Putnam, but this time using American Revival Hymns, the work is powerful and individual. The work finishes with Hanover Squart North, which features a significant choral part in the misdst of Ives' typical murky textures. The work undulates through these mists before it finally shines forth in a glorious brass band climax before it recedes again into murk.

Carl Ruggles has been severly neglected by the CD era. In the early 80s, Michael Tilson Thomas put out a double LP containing all of the work of this cranky yet brilliant composer, but this recording has been lost in the rush to CD technology. As a result, there are only a handful of Ruggles pieces to found in the catalogue. Luckily, one is the Sun Treader, which is probably Ruggles greatest piece of music. The work is tightly constructed around a strong repeated timpani stoke, and built of hard lines in uncompromising dissonant counterpoint. Ruggles music is like granite, chiseled and hard, yet strangely moving. The Sun Treader is only 14 minutes long, and yet it packs more in those 14 minutes than many composers pack into entire symphonies.

Men and Mountains is a slightly earlier piece. It shares the same strong, chiseled quality, but the counterpoint is not quite as highly developed. Lilacs in particular is a wonderful movement. Quiet and written for strings alone, this movement builds a tense chorale like texture, that increases in tension without exploding. The effect is stunning.

The Crawford Seeger Andante for Strings is also an undiscovered masterpiece. Crawford Seeger was one of the most radical composers of her generation, embracing the logic and atonality of the 2nd Viennese school during the time most Americans were under the spell of Boulanger and Stravinsky. This small work is a great introduction to this negelcted composer.

The Cleveland Orchestra under Dohnanyi is marevelous in this material, rivalling the Tilson Thomas Set with the BSO. This CD gets a slight edge for me, because of Men and Mountains and the Seeger Andante. It is outstanding.

The suntreader rages........1999-10-11

This is an amazing work, powerful and burning. Everyone should get a chance to listen to Ruggles' greatest work.

Average customer rating:

Worth the price, just for "Pipe"
One of my favorite things...
Mammoth
Spring Heel Jack are closer than they appear
Lacking Music with Promise

Treader
Spring Heel Jack
Manufacturer: Thirsty Ear
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Drum & Bass | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Techno | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Electronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Dance & DJ | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Electronica | Dance & DJ | Indie Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Disappeared
68 Million Shades
Busy Curious Thirsty
Amassed

ASIN: B00004RJ1E
Release Date: 2000-03-21

Tracks:

Is
Winter
Blackwater
Treader
Eyepa
More Stuff No One Saw
Outerlude
Toledo
Pipe
1st Piece For La Monte Young
My Favourite Things
Climb Ev'ry Mountain

Amazon.com

Plenty of groups blend lounge and movie-soundtrack elements with contemporary beats to create sophisticated, kitschy party music. On Treader, Spring Heel Jack also display a fondness for such things. But the British outfit places strings, horns, and tinkling melodic percussion next to hyperkinetic drums, gulping bass, and other slippery sounds, creating a warped album that has nothing to do with ironic nostalgia. "Outerlude," for example, might recall a movie score that has mutated into a bizarre sonic artifact. The disc sounds like some staggering juggernaut: it's as if drum & bass were giving a fractured orchestra the ride of its life. Treader's two bonus tracks are "covers" of "My Favorite Things" and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," two songs from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. Spring Heel Jack reconfigure these classics into seriously bent versions. The original tunesmiths never would have imagined these oddly beautiful tracks in their worst nightmares. --Fred Cisterna

Customer Reviews:

Worth the price, just for "Pipe".......2006-07-18

This album is by far one of the best 'Jungle' albums ever. Pipe has to be one of my all time favorite tracks (though many may over look this track as deeply complex in the way it builds). I can not express how much joy just this track has given.

One of my favorite things..........2003-11-28

Some groups stay the same, some evolve. Very few evolve as dramatically as Spring Heel Jack between 'There are Strings' and, say, 'Masses'.

Spring Heel Jack are now the darlings of the avant-garde free-jazz crowd, but about when this was released they were still in the process of discarding the label of "Everything But The Girl"'s favorite 'jungle' remixer. And, since I come from a pop/dance-sensibility myself, this is a stupendous point to find them at.

There's enough imagination and musical ambition to keep you riveted, but the emphasis is still firmly on an accessible and compelling beat structure. Put in my terms - it's still a dance album and you could dance to it, even with your brain disengaged.

But it commands a little more attention than that: Black Water and Eyepa are *outstanding* examples of heavy 4-4 action boasting resonant atmospherics. In particular, there is a bass throb in Eyepa that could blow the doors off your house. Joyfully.

Eleswhere, there's satisfying surprises in the instrumentation of Winter and in general, horns, strings and bleeps rubbing shoulders like a moshpit crowd. Exhilirating, if slightly moody, stuff.

However, like most dance albums, 'Treader' fails to sustain its momentum to the end, with a couple too many inconsequential filler tracks - though you could argue this was the direction Coxon et al pursued later to it's logical (?) end.

Finally, I'm luke-warm about the piecemeal addition of the Hammerstein tributes (they seem to belong to the SHJ of a later era). Still. One of my favorite things.

Mammoth.......2003-10-22

There's something immense, relentless, and unstoppable about the music on "Treader". While the surface of this music is pretty easy to analyze, with it's big repetitive beats overlaid with quirky, sideways, fractured, instrumental insertions, it's much more difficult to understand the staggering sonic force that results, a feature which, of all the SHJ catalog, appears most forcefully on "Treader". This recording stands alone on its own merits as a dauntingly compelling synthesis of massive driving rhythms and unpredictable, idiosyncratic sonic inventiveness. That's the core of this music - it's whole compositional focus. It's that unremitting and resolutely quirky synthesis of unstoppable beats with relentlessly off-center instrumental embellishments that motivates, drives, compels, and otherwise so forcefully invigorates this music. And when there's a momentary cessation in the juggernaut of beats, it's only a strategic pause to reaccelerate the listener into some new and brazen invention of oblong sound. Even the "1st Piece for La Monte Young" investigates sound and then leads the listener into the shredded, compounded, de-and-reconstructed intoxication of SHJ's take on two great Rogers & Hammerstein melodies, made new and darkly revealing by way of these strange intersections of textured, distorted, tinkling, groaning, leaning, sauntering, menacing, propulsive sounds.

It's great stuff if your brain grooves on this kind of symbolism, and it's a kind of massive edifice and statement of where these guys had evolved to (because their recordings do record an evolution in the strict sense, where change has no moral connotation, is not better or worse, but is just where it is, and what it is, when it is). Spring Heel Jack had reached the point, with "Treader", where their music was a virtual force of nature: the beats are unstoppable, the groove as thick as tar, and the bold contrasts of sound and noisy fury sharp and fuzzy all at the same time. And now, of course, they've evolved yet again to another very cool place, and let's be thankful that these restless innovators even take the time to put their current musical mentalities on record to infuse and reorganize our brain chemistry.

A mammoth and unique recording.

Spring Heel Jack are closer than they appear.......2002-12-18

Confined to my quaint Oregon suburb, my undying quest to find inspiring electronic music is carried out mostly on the computer, where I purchase CDs (sometimes by artists I haven't heard before, like Spring Heel Jack-) based on comparisons to other artists and reviews.
In my research of SHJ the logical first album to buy was 68 Million Shades, seeing as how the in-depth reviews of all the other albums mention it as "... the bomb", "... in full effect", "...off the hook", ect. Unforunatly it's hard to find online (if you don't have a credit card) and impossible to find where I live. So I opted for Treader based on the cover art. Yes you're right, that is stupid.
Drill & bass is my preference, but I was neither hoping for or expecting it on the purchase of this album (based on the cover art), so my review will not be biased... hopefully.
Spring Heel Jack is serious music. There is not one "cheesy" track on this. Whether that is good or bad depends on you. For me, it depends on the state of my mind. If it's earrrrly in the morning and my brain hasn't warmed up yet, hearing the monsterous brass & bass combo can be quite alarming, if not enlightening. On the other hand, I'm fully awake, it takes something with more gadgetry to break my total lack-of-concentraction than a good repeating beat with your choice of a woodwinds, brass, or synth orchestra behind it. And that's essentially what Treader is. Spring Heel Jack fans who read this think: it's so much more than that! And it is, but sound cannot be described in words, which is why the best way to review music is to decribe yourself and then say whether you liked it or not. Do I like it? Yes. Is it in my top 7? No. Will I buy more Spring Heel Jack releases? Definantly.

Lacking Music with Promise.......2002-04-13

When I listened to the first song on this album, I was very impressed. I was prepared to write a great review about how creative and interesting this band is, but then I listened to the second song, and then the third, and the fourth, and so on.

The first piece on the album is called "Is", and it starts out with an orchestral/noise atmosphere at the beginning. Then, a funky guitar riff with a trip hop rhythm comes in with the strange, but intriguing, atmospheric effects in the background. The song is very ingenious, and I would give it 5 stars.

Unfortunately, the song is immersed in the boring, repetitive songs on the rest of the album. They practically all have the same standard two step rhythm, and the musical accompaniment is mediocre and too repetitive. Songs such as the eight minute long "More Stuff No One Saw" and the six minute long "Eyepa" are insufferable. They might have been tolerable if they were shorter or had more variation, but sadly, they do not. Then, there are songs like "Outerlude", which sound very promising at first, but eventually return to the standard two step rhythm that plagues this album. There are a few gems on this album: Is, Treader, and 1st Piece for La Monte Young. However, these songs alone are not enough to make this album a good one.

Tracks:

Three Places In New England (An Orchestral Set): I. The 'St. Gaudens' In Boston Common (Col. Shaw And His Colored Regiment)
Three Places In New England (An Orchestral Set): II. Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut
Three Places In New England (An Orchestral Set): III. The Housatonic At Stockbridge
Sun-treader: (Beat) = 69 Poco accelerando (Bar - Takt - Measure 1)
Sun-treader: Tempo (Beat) = 126 (Bar 51a)
Sun-treader: Lento (Bar 119)
Sun-treader: A Tempo (Bar 138a)
Sun-treader: (Beat) = 69 Poco accelerando (Bar 169)
Sun-treader: Serene, But With Great Expression (Bar 191)
Symphony No. 2: Moderato
Symphony No. 2: Adagio
Symphony No. 2: Allegro

Amazon.com

Originally recorded in 1970, this is a welcome reissue of superb performances by the young Michael Tilson Thomas in his Boston Symphony days. The Ives is one of his best-known pieces and the crack orchestra plays it to the hilt. Ruggles's Suntreader is the work of another American loner, full of stark contrasts and uninhibited sound explorations--with a brass and percussion opening that'll make you sit up. Piston is often written off as an academic craftsman but his Second Symphony, like most of his works, makes such stereotyping patently absurd. He may not have been as idiosyncratic as Ruggles or Ives, but he was a creative composer whose poised, warmly gracious music should be better known. The three-movement Second Symphony is typical Piston in its classic framework, well-molded melodies and orchestration, and the way it slides effortlessly between the lyrical and the dramatic. It's hard to imagine better performances of these important American works. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

Quintessential Ives, Ruggles, Piston, and MTT.......2004-08-09

I must confess a bit of biographical prejudice in reviewing this disc. It was the original DG LP incarnation of the Ives included here--"Three Places..."--and its Ruggles discmate "Sun Treader" that opened my eyes to both composers back in high school. That worn library copy, with its glorious DG sonics captured in Boston Symphony Hall in the early '70's, was returned overdue more than a few times. I'd investigated it hot on the heels of seeing MTT conduct the Ives on one of the New York Philharmonic's "Young People's Concerts" televised by CBS, a series which Thomas took over from the departing Leonard Bernstein. Hearing MTT and the BSO on the LP confirmed what I'd learned from the television presentation, and the Ruggles companion piece gave me yet another foothold in 20th century American music.

While MTT doesn't really enjoy the comparisons, it would be less than truthful to say that not a little of Lenny's knack with American symphonic writing, as well as the barely-controlled histrionics of Gustav Mahler, rubbed off on him during their professional association in the '60's and '70's. And, even today, you can see it with Thomas's growing cycle of Mahler symphony performances with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Ives' and Mahler's contemporary popularity owe more than a little to Bernstein's advocacy, and it's this tradition that MTT falls into. Likewise, one must admit that he often surpasses his mentor.

While Ives was often quite specific in his musical notation and verbal playing instructions, he also encouraged performers to explore the implied "possibilities" of the piece. To understand Ives is to understand musical Americana. Charles Ives, growing up in Danbury, CT, in the late Victorian era under the tutelage and example of his bandmaster-father George Ives, absorbed several American music traditions: traditional hymnody and choral music, small-town brass bands with their often-times less than perfect pitch and ensemble, and the omnipresent European-based symphony orchestra with its established expressive vocabulary. These traditions, focused and remolded under the spell of New England Transcendentalism as expressed in the writings of Emerson and others, become the key ingredients of the Yankee musical "stew" which is quintessential Ives. Therein lies his genius, something which MTT understands deeply.

The turgid, brooding orchestral color of "The 'St. Gaudens' in Boston Common," the incredible mix of Fourth of July pomp and a schoolboy's daydreaming that make up "Putnam's Camp," and the wistful yet powerful evocation of the newlywed Ives couple's walk along "The Housatonic at Stockbridge," all receive their due here in a performance that I return to again and again with pleasure. The added bonus, of course, is the recorded sound, coming as it does from a vintage period of recordings made by DG at Boston Symphony Hall, the acoustic of which can become an ambient swamp if not as successfully managed as it is here. Contrary to an earlier reviewer's remarks, MTT truly "gets" Ives; one only has to hear that moment in "Housatonic" when the swirling string textures give way to the introduction of the "Contented River" theme, one of the most magical moments in all of American symphonic literature. I've never heard another performance match it.

The Ruggles "Sun Treader," as thorny and imposing an opus as one can find, offers equal rewards in MTT's hands, again with the BSO's performance on its home turf yielding major dividends. Ruggles was strongly championed by Thomas, an effort which resulted in a multi-disc LP set of Ruggles' complete works recorded with the Buffalo Philharmonic by CBS/Sony which has yet to see the light of day on CD, a travesty both for collectors and fans of this important American voice. "Sun Treader," the title of which is drawn from Robert Browning's tribute to Percy Shelley, draws its inspiration not from the latter (Ruggles had absolutely no interest in Shelley), but from Browning's verbal imagery...think of a titan's thunderous striding--tympany strokes--across a landscape of barely-contained orchestral movement. Browning, like Emerson, was also an interest of Charles Ives; perhaps a new recording by MTT and the San Francisco Symphony of "Sun Treader," coupled with the Ives "Robert Browning Overture," might by suggested by the A&R folks at BMG/RCA? Sometimes these things just suggest themselves.

Coming at the close of the present disc, the Piston Symphony #2 represents a somewhat less craggy musical lineage. Maine native Walter Piston achieved an almost Italianate elegance in his marriage of New England economy and French musical training. Within the symphony there is warmth, heart, reason, civility, all energetically presented by MTT in the present performance. A fitting finale, then, to a wonderful reissue by DG of spendid readings of 20th century American masterpieces.

win some, lose some.......2003-03-24

Tilson Thomas has done a fine job in rendering the demanding music of Ruggles and his reading of the Piston is well done. His Ives, however, is lacking. The orchestra, a superb orchestra as any, plays this music as if they just don't get it. Is it some notes, wanting to be free of the page or is it the job at hand? Who knows? The pacing, tempi and *feel* of the work in the second movement is hurried. Compare this to the later versions recorded by the conductor's mentor, L. Bernstein and FEEL the difference; the pacing, the ensemble sound, the sense of narrative and imagination. I can only wonder also of the difficulty and choices in recording this ensemble for the Ives as well; I suspect that a more unorthodox solution was needed and no one figured it out! This is why recording orchestras is such a challenge for anyone attempting such. For the Ives, I recommend Bernstein if not another version for this piece. I rate this 4 stars only for the Piston and Ruggles, which are better rendered and good examples of their work.

Average customer rating:

lael is the man!

Quest of the Wanton Treader
Various Artists
Manufacturer: The Orchard
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Compilations | Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00003L9J1
Release Date: 2000-04-19

Tracks:

Lunatic - Supermodel Stalker
Under The Sun - Supermodel Stalker
Down The Road - Swampbelly
Only - Swampbelly
Big Girl - Sycamore Seed
No Life - Sycamore Seed

Customer Reviews:

lael is the man!.......2000-06-13

good variety of sounds, not bad for a first cd. supermodel stalker, and its hard working front man are going to go somewhere! these kids got talent. keep your eye out for their upcoming cd

Average customer rating:

Abbey Road Duos
Evan Parker
Manufacturer: Treader
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000S0H1AO
Release Date: 2007-07-30

Carl Ruggles: Sun-treader; Schuman: Violin Concerto; Piston: Symphony No. 2

Average customer rating:

Unparalleled performances of 20th century masterworks

Carl Ruggles: Sun-treader; Schuman: Violin Concerto; Piston: Symphony No. 2

Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00000E4IH
Release Date: 1991-02-08

Customer Reviews:

Unparalleled performances of 20th century masterworks.......2005-04-12

Why write a review about a CD that's no longer in print? A couple reasons come to mind: to remind us of what we've lost; and to talk about the way the music industry changes.

In recent years, Peter Quint has recorded the Schuman concerto for Naxos and Gerard Schwarz conducted the Seattle Symphony in a recording of the Piston Symphony 2, also on Naxos. Both recordings received plentiful critical acclaim.

However, neither is up to the standard set on this recording, in my opinion. The Penguin Guide continues to show this recording as a "key" recording in both conductor's listings while praising the newer recordings.

In particular, the comparisons between MTT's Boston recording of the Piston and Schwarz's Seattle version are essentially the difference between black & white and color TV, or analog and digital recording. The older recording features a better orchestra, better playing, a more dramatic approach and, oddly, a better recording. The trenchant Boston makes the Seattle recording sound white by comparison.

When it comes to the Schuman concerto, Quint plays the 1950 premiere version very well on the Naxos disk. Paul Zukofsky recorded the 1959 version in 1970 with MTT and the Boston Symphony. Zukofsky's reading of the concerto is spikier, more dramatic and, in my opinion, more attuned to 20th century American music than the more suave version of Quint and the Bournemouth Symphony.

Why are there differences musically? Could be my imagination or it could be the version Zukofsky recorded was different than the one Quint recorded 30 years later. There is a lot written about William Schuman that discusses his revisions of the concerto.

The addition of Carl Ruggles' dramatic and rarely recorded "Suntreader" gives a big edge to the now, unfortuntely, out of print issue. This made it one of the best full price CDs available with rarely recorded 20th century masterworks.

I owned the LP of the Schuman and Piston when it came out in 1970 and still give it an occasional spin on the turntable. What changed most between the LP and CD verions? I think the sound on the LP was more vibrant and had a better frequency response than the CD. In addition, the notes and packaging to the issue were quite a bit different.

Back in 1970 Michael Tilson Thomas was still a relative newbie in classical music. He was a rising young star whose reputation ate up almost all the space in the notes to the LP release, which talked about how he came to prominence replacing Leonard Bernstein one night. Bernstein was one of the world's hottest musical properties in 1970, of course, making the appearance by this ingenue something very important indeed.

In addition, the front cover featured a photo of young MTT conducting the Boston Symphony and Zukofsky playing the concerto during rehearsal (I assume it was rehearsal since they were dressed casually) with microphones all over the place.

I think if DG had released this with the same packaging as in 1970 it may have created a bit more interest. The copy I have has a gold cover with nothing more than a line listing of the three pieces. Hell, I made a better cover than that at home when I made a CD of my old record!

Average customer rating:

Treader
Spring Heel Jack
Manufacturer: Tugb
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Drum & Bass | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Dance & DJ | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00000JOLH
Release Date: 1999-05-14

Tracks:

Is
Winter
Blackwater
Treader
Eyepa
More Stuff No One Saw
Outerlude
Toledo
Pipe
1st Piece for la Monte Young
My Favorite Things [*]
Climb Ev'ry Mountain [*]

Average customer rating:

Dawn Treader
Son of Adam
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000FTANIK
Release Date: 2005-12-13

Music Review:

Music Review

music review