MC Maguire’s moniker sounds like that of a rapper, and there is indeed a sampler’s mind-set at work in the Canadian postmodernist’s brainy mishmashes. The composer’s mission statement, per his website, is to save art from extinction via “reevaluation of high-art aesthetics in the light of popular culture’s ubiquitous, formulaic infectiousness.” The tone of the opening track on MC Maguire’s latest, Trash of Civilizations, mirrors Girl Talk’s ADHD cutting-and-pasting but replaces the whimsy with kaffiyeh-wearing grad-student pretension and moody video-game scores.
The premise of “Spawn of Abe” unquestionably compels: A klezmer clarinet and a mizmar-like oboe traverse a soundscape of dusty Cairo streets, crowded Tel Aviv bars and chaotic battle scenes (all field recordings here). But early-’90s synth work renders several segments near-comic. Incantations of mullahs simply lose their potency when interlaced with electronica more appropriate on an Enigma album. A bin Laden vocal clip isn’t enough to lift this otherwise thoughtful exploration of Middle East hostilities out of the heavy-handed and into the profound.
Maguire is not to be dismissed, however. If “Abe” plays like a shroom-induced nightmare trek through the streets of Bethlehem, the album’s second and final track, “Narcissus auf Bali,” retains the composer’s maximalist approach while remaining far more structurally coherent. Japanese pop lines feud with Balinese monkey vocalizations in this epic battle, which eloquently integrates solo vibraphone and marimba into a turbulent mix of East and West.
It’s not clear if, like the gaudy cover art, these half-hour pieces are intentionally ironic or just ambitious attempts by an overeager designer. We need to hear this music live to make up our minds.
- Doyle Armbrust
published in Time Out Chicago on February 10th, 2010