Raleigh Ringers, the / More
Album: More   Collection:General
Artist:Raleigh Ringers, the   Added:May 2004
Label:Independent  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2004-08-09 Pull Date: 2004-10-11 Charts: Classical/Experimental
Week Ending: Oct 3 Sep 19 Aug 15
Airplays: 3 1 4

Recent Airplay
1. Jun 26, 2009: Emphysema For Emphasis
We Are the Champions
4. Sep 30, 2004: Baptism of Solitude at the Circus
Pinball Wizard
2. May 13, 2009: Signal to Noise
We Are the Champions
5. Sep 26, 2004: Late Night
Nova
3. Oct 02, 2004: music that doesn't hurt dogs and ponies
We Are the Champions
6. Sep 16, 2004: Hello Kitten
Pinball Wizard

Album Review
Kathryn Todd
Reviewed 2004-07-25
Large handbell ensemble. Sounds not unlike many windchimes. Big volume variations might make many tracks challenging to play on air. The tracks tend to include a lot of silence at the end (on the order of several seconds). If you feel smug about how ridiculous these people are, you haven't spend enough time in middle America. They think you're weird.

Disc 1

Track 1: Tinkly intro like wind chimes far away gets louder. Very quiet pulsing bass stuff. Minor key melody. Sort of renaissance-ish. Seems Christmas-y, though not meant to. Gets major and uptempo about halfway through. Bass section introduces return to minor-ness. Edward Scissorhands, anyone? Ceremonial conclusion. Recommended.
Track 2: Modern-ish. Enya with handbells. Alternates between quiet benedictory sections and strident celebration.
Track 3: Very quiet intro. High and tinkly. Steady rhythm throughout. Little variation in the placid hymnic tone. Should accompany a cheesy Olympic figure-skating routine.
Track 4: Loud strident intro. Quiet and creeping starting at 0:30. Slow and loud again at 1:30. Big volume variations even by the album’s standards.
Track 5: Quiet rhythmic creeping. Trebly. This Rachmaninoff prelude is powerful and ominous, and this is not entirely obscured by the handbell rendition. Recommended.
Track 6: Modern. Composed for handbells. Bass as well as treble components. Cute, in a bad kind of way.
Track 7: Placid, pensive. Corny. Little bass. Repetitive.
Track 8: Celebratory. Not too loud or quiet. Gets quieter at about 1:20. Minor in the middle. Celebratory again at the end. Loud. Brassy.
Track 9: School whistle at beginning! As the title would indicate, circus-y.
Track 10: Quiet intro. Placid. Trebly. Hymnic.

Disc 2
Track 1: Slow not too quiet portentous intro. Tempo quickens; gets upbeat. Not exclusively trebly. Some volume variation but not too bad. Sounds as tempestuous as windchimes can be, with happy intervals.
Track 2: Placid. Rhythmic. Has the tone of a church organ (without the organ part). Volume drops at lot at 1:55 (counting backwards). Gets more trebly. Then back to sop. Key change with 1 minute to go. Nice counterrhythms with 30 seconds to go.
Track 3: Quiet intro. Almost jazzy percussion. Short respite from near-constant treble bells at about 1:30 (backwards). Tinkly music box ending.
Track 4: Thickly textured treble opening. Kind of annoying, truth be told. At 5:00 gets bassy, sneaky-sounding rhythms. Dramatic pause at 3:45. Gets very quiet for about 15 seconds. Placid for a long time. Silence again at 1:20. Things get ominous, fast and trebly. Insistent ending.
Track 5: Delicate and happy. Not too much volume variation. Originally written for organ, and you can tell. Bad volume dip at 3:27. Things stay sneaky like mice for a while. Things get stridently celebratory at various points near the end. The end goes on for about 1.5 minutes.
Track 6: Patriotic. Sousa. Will give you bad flashbacks to middle school marching band. Funny.
Track 7: Here begins the "Rockin' Raleigh Ringers" portion of the set. Eerie. Not perhaps the desired effect. ("give me that old time rock 'n roll music / any old way you choose it") Lots of not strictly necessary little flourishes. Not too trebly. Some nice bare percussion at about 0:30.
Track 8: "carry on, my wayward son / something something you are gone / blah blah / don't you cry no more" The intro is recognizable, but I don't know if the rest is. Percussion at about 1:30 sounds like a ticking bomb. Seems to go on forever.
Track 9: I imagine this and the next track will get comparatively lots of airplay for their irony value. Plus at 3-ish minutes each, neither is too long. The intro is very placid and trebly. Sort of like Queen in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Could get most of the good out of the song by playing about the first 1 1/2 minutes.
Track 10: Tommy! With handbells! Quiet intro. Does a scarily good job of replicating the famous guitar power chords near the beginning. Play this track.
Track 11: Music box-ish intro. Kind of slow and boring. Very long. Cymbal near the end (at about 0:30) followed by the rest of the track of self-indulgent silence.

-Kathryn

Track Listing
1. Farandole   11. Tempest
2. Nova   12. All Glorious Above
3. Prayer for Healing   13. Aria
4. Russian Sailor's Dance   14. Pinnacle
5. Prelude in C# Minor   15. Finale
6. Puer Natus Est   16. The Stars and Stripes Foreve
7. Nocturne NO.2   17. Old Time Rock and Roll
8. Carillon   18. Carry On, Wayward Son
9. Barnum and Bailey's Favorite   19. We Are the Champions
10. Come, Thou Almighty King   20. Pinball Wizard
  21. Nights in a White Satin