Greg Pagel – Plastic Machine Music

Plastic Machine Music has become one of my favourite albums – odd, eccentric and richly rewarding. Sure at first it sounds not unlike a hell populated by broken clock radios, dysfunctional children’s toys and some kind of machivellian beatbox. But after a while you hear some really clever writing and arranging and a fresh take on some jazz ideas.

It’s a jazz album for people who have a sense of humour.

Most important of all – the album sounds unique. In some ways today it is more important to sound different than to sound good. With professional recording quality becoming ever more affordable, the texture of the music becomes critical for any musician who wants to be distinctive.

That’s where I’ve found Plastic Machine Music quite inspirational. Part of my struggle over the past few years is that not having a large circle of live musicans to draw upon my music has become more sequenced and layered and structured. In this format, it is actually quite hard to peel and blend new sounds into the arrangement in seamless ways. What I most like about Plastic Machine Music is the way the synthesised and mangled sounds reflect the character of the music.

Greg Pagel has a blog (of course!) and a website, and you can buy the album through CDBaby.

[tags] Greg Pagel, Plastic Machine Music [/tags]