First of all, there are several enthusiast and eulogistic reviews, which is pretty cool considering that we’re talking about an experimental jazz trio. Pitchfork call it “something totally unprecedented”; NPR considered that it’s “sounds like something completely different”; The New Yorker felt like “an hour flew by in what seemed like minutes”; The Guardian stated that “it sounds like nothing else right now”; The Los Angeles Times heard “a mysterious, vital sound with a pull all its own” while The Wall Street Journal describe it as “deep, entrancing soundscapes”. It’s all cool and honoring, but in my humble opinion Dawn Of Midi simply picking on the nowadays fancy, pattern based, some say soulless, computer based and programmed music, making (bitter) fun of it in a subtle, sober way. So, this is a jazz trio playing live a music which is basically – and murderously – minimal, monotonous and repetitive just like 99.9% of the contemporary and computer based “music”. They actually repeat the same note/chord till the very limit of supportability and just when you consider that you had enough, and only then, they change a note, introduce something wickedly cool. Pretty clever. It’s definitively a (modern) form of art, I actually pretty much enjoyed this album, consider it relaxing by it’s monotony and lack of interruptions and disturbances, but then again, this is much more a statement then revolutionary, unheard, strikingly bold and unthinkable new way of express yourself, express feelings or build-up music. Might be surprising for those who are actually believe that Michal Jackson was some musical genius, but never heard of Liszt…
Don’t get me wrong, I like Dawn Of Midi and I think this is a damn cool concept. This minimal-acoustic journey of the Brookliners Aakaash Israni – bass, Qasim Naqvi – drums and toys, respectively Amino Belyamani – piano, it’s an opportunity to meditate, to think and reconsider things, to sort of real and fake music and at the bottom of all, to feel the difference between midi and pattern based stuffs and real played music. But it’s also an opportunity to forget about everything and sit back to enjoy an hour of journey on the speed of sound. It was a pleasure for me, but for some might be a true torture throughout.
DAWN OF MIDI – DYSNOMIA from Dawn of Midi on Vimeo.
Dysnomia (Thirsty Ear)
Tracklist:
01 – Io
02 – Sinope
03 – Atlas
04 – Nix
05 – Moon
06 – Ymir
07 – Ijiraq
08 – Algol
09 – Dysnomia
