Anna Meredith
Varmints

Irina, in that dark and musty basement, was eagerly rummaging through her father Igor's old boxes. She always did this when she got bored between a game of Voorees in the backyard with the kids and a Physics exercise. She liked to investigate her parents' past life, mainly because she always found something interesting belonging to the old world. Sometimes even dusty CDs or ancient collections from the pre-digital world. In some cases, she even discovered some of those obsolete USB drives containing early 2000s classical music. That very day, she surprisingly found one of those cherished USBs that she had never listened to. She connected it to the neural network and began to listen...

Yes, because this review will discuss classical music from the early 2000s. This first LP by Anna Meredith is, for me, the most concrete example of how, with ups and downs, classical and electronic music can be effectively mixed. Just as in the '60s-'70s, the great composers of Prog Rock (including Italians, remembering "Concerto Grosso" by the New Trolls) succeeded, Meredith has hit the mark with this work as well. Before listening to "Nautilus", the opening track, I had never heard of her, but with this "first" album, she managed to produce a fine experimental work without falling into the stereotype of making noise without logic*. In fact, some songs, especially the sung pieces, have a Pop background accessible to everyone, in my opinion.

The tracks "Nautilus", "The Vapours", "Honeyed Words", and "Blackfriars" are key examples of how, in my opinion, an electronic/classical music composer should behave from now on to leave a mark in these seemingly musically empty decades. Synthesizers, tubas, cellos, percussion, and string instruments doing what they should: playing well together. Special mention for "Taken" which, although not a memorable song, reminded me a lot of the vocal lines of the Gentle Giant intersecting with the choruses of Yes. When an artist reminds me of these two sacred monsters, I can only applaud. The rest of the tracks are a whirlwind of Pop, '80s Synth, and ambient music, and, even with some exaggerated lengths and somewhat dead moments, every song has a soul and it's felt.

Finally, I would like to make a somewhat romantic and somewhat rhetorical consideration (so much so that it almost makes me disgusted with myself), but it's albums like these that, amidst a jumble of far too similar works, will keep me constantly searching for new musical offerings and give me hope for a bright future for Music with guts**

*Technical term
**Also a Technical term