Street Testimony
General
| Sep 2003
Reviews
Mandy Khoshnevisan
Reviewed 2004-02-09
Reviewed 2004-02-09
The Detroit Illharmonic Symphony: Street Testimony
10-piece orchestra with a DJ. Dark, city-hip-hop influenced pieces with about equal balance between acoustic instruments, electric instruments, and samples/scratches/beats/etc. Also some world music influences mixed in, and some political stuff. A lot of the titles are directly evocative of the city and its moods. The titles are very descriptive of the tracks. Play any and all of them.
*1. (2:42) wandering, dark strings and grooving bass, w/harsh, echoing vocal samples and a beat.
*2. (3:25) piano, scratches, acoustic guitar, busy percussion (ratchet, etc); layers add.
3. (0:30) Carnivalistic, expectant; with sampled voice from an animal documentary
4. (2:22) Noisy, busy, scratchy, voices repeating It’s all over with El Presidente (and some Bush samples)
5. (3:10) Loungy funky soul, with spacey echoes and falsetto vocals; piano
6. (1:00) Slow eerie waltz, with harsh synth strings (fittingly called UFOs in the Park)
7. (1:29) FCC!—”motherfucker.” Slinky strings, with sudden harsh percussion and Black Panther speech samples
*8. (2:43) Asian influenced, with heavy scratches (instrumental)
*9. (2:28) Middle-Eastern—Jewish meets Arabic. Midtempo but wild; short rapped refrain calling for peace in the middle east!
*10. (1:32) Loungy funky, with cool laidback xylophone melody. Ends suddenly
11. (0:42) A light 6/8 busy piano tune—indeed snowy sounding and wistful
*12. (1:28) quacks prominently featured. awright. A satire of hip hop? Funny but groovin’ too.
*13. (1:58) Three movements in under 2 minutes! Eerie, metallic, pretty, string-heavy, nostalgic, pieces about ghosts
14. (1:21) An orchestra satire? Ponderous piano with birdcalls and funny percussion
*15. (3:00) Ominously bumpin. Scratches, heavy low piano, chimes, rappin’ about the revolution and dissin’ Bush. “you make me wanna throw a brick at you.”
*16. (2:39) loud percussion and vocal samples with obliviously warm string quartet
*17. (2:14) Slinky dark strings, jungle percussion and handclaps
—reviewed by mandy (la chanteuse)
10-piece orchestra with a DJ. Dark, city-hip-hop influenced pieces with about equal balance between acoustic instruments, electric instruments, and samples/scratches/beats/etc. Also some world music influences mixed in, and some political stuff. A lot of the titles are directly evocative of the city and its moods. The titles are very descriptive of the tracks. Play any and all of them.
*1. (2:42) wandering, dark strings and grooving bass, w/harsh, echoing vocal samples and a beat.
*2. (3:25) piano, scratches, acoustic guitar, busy percussion (ratchet, etc); layers add.
3. (0:30) Carnivalistic, expectant; with sampled voice from an animal documentary
4. (2:22) Noisy, busy, scratchy, voices repeating It’s all over with El Presidente (and some Bush samples)
5. (3:10) Loungy funky soul, with spacey echoes and falsetto vocals; piano
6. (1:00) Slow eerie waltz, with harsh synth strings (fittingly called UFOs in the Park)
7. (1:29) FCC!—”motherfucker.” Slinky strings, with sudden harsh percussion and Black Panther speech samples
*8. (2:43) Asian influenced, with heavy scratches (instrumental)
*9. (2:28) Middle-Eastern—Jewish meets Arabic. Midtempo but wild; short rapped refrain calling for peace in the middle east!
*10. (1:32) Loungy funky, with cool laidback xylophone melody. Ends suddenly
11. (0:42) A light 6/8 busy piano tune—indeed snowy sounding and wistful
*12. (1:28) quacks prominently featured. awright. A satire of hip hop? Funny but groovin’ too.
*13. (1:58) Three movements in under 2 minutes! Eerie, metallic, pretty, string-heavy, nostalgic, pieces about ghosts
14. (1:21) An orchestra satire? Ponderous piano with birdcalls and funny percussion
*15. (3:00) Ominously bumpin. Scratches, heavy low piano, chimes, rappin’ about the revolution and dissin’ Bush. “you make me wanna throw a brick at you.”
*16. (2:39) loud percussion and vocal samples with obliviously warm string quartet
*17. (2:14) Slinky dark strings, jungle percussion and handclaps
—reviewed by mandy (la chanteuse)
Recent airplay
Shalaam, Return to the South Bronx
Not Storytime — Aug 30, 2006
I Don't Have to Believe It I
SubbingForBaptism — Jul 07, 2005
Return to the South Bronx
Storytime! — Dec 14, 2004
Rainy Park Avenue Evening
Storytime! — Oct 19, 2004
Galerie Des Fantomes
Storytime! — Oct 12, 2004
The Revolution Will Be Bumpi
Not the City Council! — Oct 11, 2004
Charting
2004-02-16 — 2004-04-19
| Week Ending | Airplays |
|---|---|
| Apr 11 | 1 |
| Apr 4 | 2 |
| Mar 28 | 2 |
| Mar 21 | 1 |
| Mar 14 | 1 |
| Mar 7 | 2 |
| Feb 29 | 4 |
| Feb 22 | 3 |
Track listing
| 1. | Street Testimony | ||
| 2. | Return to the South Bronx | ||
| 3. | Another Moment Has Come | ||
| 4. | It's All Over for El Preside | ||
| 5. | Hey You | ||
| 6. | Ufos in the Park | ||
| 7. | Panther | ||
| 8. | Laughing Tiger | ||
| 9. | Shalaam | ||
| 10. | Rainy Park Avenue Evening | ||
| 11. | Snowy Downtown Afternoon | ||
| 12. | Santa's Got a Brand New Cadi | ||
| 13. | Galerie Des Fantomes | ||
| 14. | Melody for Piano and Creatur | ||
| 15. | The Revolution Will Be Bumpi | ||
| 16. | I Don't Have to Believe It I | ||
| 17. | Black Mamba |