Rachel's - Systems/Layers (Quarterstick)
A beautiful mix of classical instruments and rock instruments (without the rock) making slow somber classical music with touches of music concrete and other organic sounds. This is modern chamber music that adds field recordings and sampled voices with an AMAZING affect! There is a mellow sound track sound on a handful of the tracks but it's kept from getting too sappy by the drums, which are just a rock drum kit played list like post-rock drums. This is their 5th album and was a collaboration with a NY theater company.

1. A nice drone with something I can't quit place making a pretty shimmering sound. Mostly strings.
2. Slowly building string based piece with drums. Eventually the drums and piano are in the forefront.
3. Mostly piano.
4. Sounds like sounds from a subway or train station to begin stays ambient.
5. Busier piano and strings.
6. Faster repetitive strings.
**7. Samples from a playground, birds, random conversations and a few strings towards the end.
8. More dynamic and some of the first brass and horns to go along with the strings.
**9. Solo string (violin or cello). Somber and short.
10. Slow and slightly discordant. Hints and building into something bigger but turns into a drone instead.
**11. Start with part of track 10 but quickly turns into pot-n-pan percussion with vocal samples over the top.
**12. Rumbling quiet piano to begin. Piano gets repetitive and sounds sampled, we get a small takes of a few “normal” piano chords and back to the repetitive piano and what sounds like samples from a train or subway station in the background.
13. Slow, somber piano male singing.
14. Slow jazz-y piano that starts to sound like a movie soundtrack.
15. Lyrical strings. Gets very quiet towards the end.
16.Starts with big drums. Acoustic down tempo? Sped up just a little it would make a great break beat.
17. Some electronic sounds and a slow bass (standup?). Violin does join in later.
**18. Drones, quiet strings, clanks, with a spoken vocal samples. Reminds me a LOT of older God Speed You Black Emperor.
19. Mostly piano that sounds like the title “NY Snow Globe”.
Excellent stuff -mph