Yummy World
for Orchestra and CPU
Vocals: MC Maguire
CPU: MC Maguire
Program Notes:
‘Yummy World’ is a 23 minute orchestra/electronic theme and variation based on Justin Bieber’s hit, ‘Yummy’.Although much maligned for its innocuousness , the song has a Mozartian delicacy and transparency which perfectly reflects an innocence, adolescent love. Also , its’ lightness becomes the perfect ironic foil to the dark, germanic, gravitas-soaked machinations of its electro-acoustic spawn.
The melodic structure of ‘Yummy World’ revolves around Bieber’s various melodic fragments, which are broken up into 12 motivs, each one having a different ethno/cultural accompaniment (thus the title ‘Yummy World’). The result is a backdrop of etho/jazz fusion while in the foreground, the instruments generally follows the contours of the original melody.
The form is a 7 movement variation structure, each movement’s tempo changes in double time or half time increments, depending on if it’s becoming gradually faster or slower over the length of the movement. The clock tempo of each movement is always a dotted note division of the previous tempo. The last movement recapitulates the tonic tempo, as well as the central theme. Also, buried in the structure is a kind of piano fantasia that contrastingly mirrors the material.
Finally, probably the biggest influence for the piece was covid/lockdown/YouTube viewing, whereas one can’t help but absorb the hyper- condensed, collage-like scores from 40/50s film noir (not too dissimilar to Warner Bros and MGM cartoon music)
Yummy World Score Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUxDfDjUq4s&t=1301s
Yummy World Score
Yummy World Promo Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoZ5_SiUza0
Another Lucid Dream
for Orchestra and CPU
Vocals: MC Maguire
CPU: MC Maguire
Program Notes:
‘Another Lucid Dream’ is 27 minute orchestral/electronic work based on Juice Wrld’s haunting song, ‘Lucid Dream’. The lyrics and music by the deceased hip hop artist not only reflect upon a painful breakup but also is a kind of memorial to his tragic, short life. (It was only much later I discovered ‘Lucid Dream’ was based on a sample of Sting’s ‘Shape of my Heart’).
The song clearly touched a chord with the general populace and became a kind of depressive anthem of the time. My intent was to tap into the ‘structural sadness’ of the song, using the song’s material as the ‘ursatz’, or deep design. It became the mathematical blueprint for all aspects of the piece, then expanding the source material into one large harmonic, melodic and rhythmic grid.
Also, there’s a strong musical/historical connection with Purcell’s Dido’s Lament (and 17th C. arias in general) in its use of a descending, passacaglia over brief emotive, melodic fragments. This piece is also centred around this recurring bass passacaglia, which I looped 93 times (a recurring lucid dream) over 8 movements, stretching and contracting the length of the passacaglia. Needless to say, the movements end up in either duple or triplet grooves, often in weird contradictions to the steady 84=quarter note.
As fas as pitch and harmony, the evocative melody is very centred around a very limited, 5 note Phrygian mode, emphasizing the anguished flat 2. The over-all contour of the melody tends to dwell momentarily around the various five pitches quite democratically, being a generator for contrasting harmonic pitch sets within each section of the work
Another Lucid Dream Score Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDY6qwJhvfg
Another Lucid Dream Score
Another Lucid Dream Promo Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TKraJn6uMU
Reviews:
Take Effect (USA) October 2024
10/10
The always fascinating composer MC Maguire delivers a pair of in depth pieces here that surrounds the rapid breakdown of society and stacks melody on top of metal, jazz, pop and countless other ideas. “Yummy World” opens the listen with bright textures, wordless vocals and swirling melodies that take nods to Justin Bieber’s “Yummy”, and flows via exciting and imaginative electronic nods for 23+ minutes. The back half belongs to the highly eclectic “Another Lucid Dream”, where waves of orchestral and metallic ideas collide with profound attention to detail and mood that’s as fascinating as it is inventive. Maguire’s vision might remind you of Phillip Glass or Canada’s R. Murray Schafer, and yet another post-modern hybrid, sampled and edited journey from the Canadian keeps us hanging on every second of this gripping body of work.
Wholenote Magazine (Canada) June 2024
The other day when I heard my neighbour’s pounding bass (something pop, disco or otherwise annoying) I responded by turning Dystophilia, M.C. Maguire’s new release, up to 11; the battle ended soon after. He offers sound-pressure supremacy that out-cools whatever tired torch song or clichéd show tune my neighbour enjoys. As a pacifist I don’t relish these battles, and only engage when the next-door volume is too high for my peaceful soul, but Maguire’s Yummy World (track one, followed by Another Lucid Dream) provides sonic delight as well as fire-power. That said, I caution against the all-out assault: this is rich and textured music, so while high-volume might be your thing, you’ll possibly miss some of the depths if you indulge in your kink too much. You do you, though, no judgement.
Gone are the days, I think, when record executives would target sound thieves in their war on audio crime (aka creativity). There’s just way too much borrowing or sampling today. They all make a mint on streaming platforms, anyway, enjoying profits from the Justin Biebers of the industry. How can they prevent Robin Hoodlums like Maguire from using a tune like Yummy to generate the mind-blowing soundscape presented here?Do I hear the Beebs? Arguable. What I definitely hear is pop-mageddon, a kind of hyper-layered riff on every aspect of the aesthetic.
One reviewer references (or steals, I think) John Oswald’s term “plunderphonics;” Oswald got in trouble with another Michael, the late King of pop. I’d be disappointed to learn either that Maguire had received warning shots across his bow, or worse, had bowed to the power of Big Music’s money managers and received permission to extrapolate the stuff he uses/sends up/ improves. Anyway, the result is exciting, even if not used in battle.
MusicWeb International (UK) May 2024
Here’s another slice of whimsy from the ceaselessly innovative, increasingly influential Neuma label. MC (Mike) Maguire is a Toronto-based composer, studio whizz and (I have it on good authority) purveyor of fine bread. Over the years I’ve encountered the occasional insightful and literate music review on Amazon contributed by someone called Mike Maguire; given his musical preoccupations I very strongly suspect it’s the same person. In what seems to be a continuing theme amongst the reviews I have filed most recently, both substantial works on the present issue have been directly inspired by contemporary pop sources; Yummy World is a set of variations on the 2020 hit song Yummy by Maguire’s compatriot Justin Bieber, whilst the coupling, Another Lucid Dream is a kind of threnody built upon a hip-hop track, the 2018 hit Lucid Dreams by one Jarad Anthony Higgins, better known as Juice Wrld (sic) a Chicago born rapper who died the following year aged just 21. Whilst my catholic tastes incorporate a good deal of material one would certainly categorise as ‘rock and roll’, I have to admit that the work (if not the names) of both Justin Bieber and Juice Wrld has hitherto passed well beneath my radar, although as part of my prep for this review I have familiarised myself with each of Maguire’s sources.
It will be noticed that I have provided little information in the header regarding the performing forces involved in this disc. I contacted the Neuma boss Phillip Blackburn for a bit of clarification and I don’t think he will mind if I quote directly from the information he and Mike Maguire helpfully submitted. I am grateful to them both.
Firstly, Blackburn told me that:“(Maguire) would love for his works to be performed by a human orchestra (and his scores are perfectly clear and doable) but until that day, he uses his skills in the studio to make a MIDI orchestra do the job (while not sounding too mechanical).”Soon afterwards the composer himself provided a bit more detail: “The ‘orchestra’ (full winds, brass, percussion, strings) in these two pieces use state of the art sample libraries in a multitrack (up to 300 track) digital work station. I’ve worked many years trying to recreate an orchestral ‘sound’ within the context of electro-acoustic music. There are very few actual samples in these pieces – all parts are written. The orchestra is synced to the electronic part via clicktrack via conductor.” I regret that this critic is somewhat technophobic but I’m sure many MWI readers will have at least some comprehension of the processes Maguire is describing.
So what of the music itself? The original Justin Bieber song Yummy (its colourful and rather likeable promo is accessible via YouTube for readers who may be interested) is based entirely upon a repeated progression of two descending chords. This sequence (or a version of it) is what hears at first, along with a processed vocal of the song’s one word title. What then transpires is a complex, dark, sinister deconstruction and rebuild. The blend of purely electronic sounds with the MIDI samples is seamless. Maguire seems to submit to a wide range of cultural stimuli in this vast, multi-layered collage – American musicals, advertisement jingles, Hollywood film scores, several different genres of popular music seem to crop up in fragmented form but pulsing underneath these paradoxically cluttered and glittering surfaces is a nightmarish disorientation which seems to go way beyond irony. Yummy World comprises seven sections which play without a break and are demarcated by brazen tempo changes. At each of these points, and regardless of whether the flow speeds up or slows down the listener’s sense of disconnection is exponentially deepened. The rapid procession of fresh aural information almost paralyses the listener – textures, motifs and beats tumble repeatedly over each other and at first inundate one’s ability to unravel the detail and disentangle the purpose of the piece. The reprise in the final bars of a whiff of Bieber’s original chorus comes as something of a relief. If words like disconnection and paralysis suggest some kind of awful experience, it’s certainly not that. Yummy World only settles with familiarity, but when it does it’s oddly counter-intuitive to discover new shapes, timbres and moods which seem to appear afresh. I find the piece to be frustratingly addictive – it’s sufficiently invigorating and novel to make one really want to ‘get’ it – but it’s absolutely not for the faint-hearted. It would certainly be fascinating to hear it performed at some point by an actual orchestra – I wonder if Gil Rose and his splendid Boston Modern Orchestra Project could perhaps be tempted.
As for the coupling, the video of Juice Wrld’s original Lucid Dream is clearly a popular watch on YouTube (it’s approaching one billion hits). It’s a melancholy number ostensibly about romantic disappointment and the lyric seemingly incorporates several uncanny premonitions of this artist’s sad and untimely demise. At first the pulse of the original is the most obvious guide for the listener striving to appreciate the weave of Maguire’s piece – but in his booklet note the composer refers to Purcell’s famous descending bass line from Dido’s lament (in Dido and Aeneas). At times there’s bit more space surrounding the events in Another Lucid Dream than there is in the comparatively frenetic Yummy World, but this can suddenly be undermined by aural non-sequiturs which seem to fit neither the logic nor the mood of the piece. A sequence from about 8:30 is especially disconcerting – a befuddling psychedelic harmonic ascent underpins the material Maguire has layered on top – it projects the shocking impact that the coda of the Beatles’ immortal Day in the Lifemust have had upon listeners experiencing it for the first time. One episode in the middle of Another Lucid Dream is especially calm, focused and seems to reach for beauty, but it’s somewhat short-lived. The ear at this point briefly registers a selection of colourful instrumental timbres seemingly drawn from non-western traditions. Just beyond the work’s halfway point the sounds converge into a convoluted mulch of texture, colour and contradiction. At its core is a sprawling yet alluring guitar solo. By now the original source seems to be a distant memory and at 18 minutes the piece seems to have almost worn itself out. The episode which follows is fragmentary and elusive, as textures thicken and present further challenge for the listener. The complex din which ensues is intermittently leavened by softer content, but I have to admit that I’d now reached the point of no return; the sheer mass of information in the piece proved utterly overwhelming to my ears (and brain). At 23 minutes Yummy Worldis digestible. At 27 minutes (and after three rather frustrating attempts on my part) the extra four minutes of Another Lucid Dreamseem to take it beyond saturation point.
Accordingly I have found my first experience of MC Maguire’s music to be extremely bracing, but in his favour he’s making precisely the kind of tough, unorthodox, confrontational music that I’ve spent much of my life trying to get inside. Maguire’s aesthetic on the strength of these two examples seems to occupy an (imaginary) terrain where the legendary Scottish shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine cover some of Elliott Carter’s complex orchestral scores from the 1960s. In my imagination that actually doesn’t sound like too bad a place to hang out….
A note on the Neuma website states the following:” Maguire has been dubbed “the most irritating and spellbinding composer since Philip Glass” and “the most original Canadian composer since R. Murray Schafer.” I couldn’t possibly comment. Adventurous listeners are encouraged to find out for themselves.
Fanfare Magazine (USA) April 2024
I’m not sure if the word “trippy” has gone the way of the 1960s or is simply lying low, but the Toronto-based composer MC Maguire marches under a banner with the word emblazoned on it. His use of multi-layered electronica creates an orchestra of one with as many voices as a symphony orchestra, and its standard mode is screaming excitement that is mostly unrelenting. Maguire has titled this album Dystophilia, defined as “a fascination with societal decline.” Whether the music is a comment on decline or a sign of it, a listener facing an avalanche of what sounds like fifty Cassio keyboards and a handful of Wurlitzer organs must either submit or flee.
As in his previous album, reviewed by Colin Clarke in Fanfare 46:3, Maguire takes pop music as the seed for his wild inventiveness. Here, Yummy World is based on Justin Bieber’s pop single, “Yummy,” while Another Lucid Dream derives from a melancholy breakup song, “Lucid Dream,” by the late rapper Juice Wrld, who died of a drug overdose at only 21. Readers who have gotten this far might feel alienated—the generation gap suddenly feels a mile wide—but Clarke’s review was a rave. He has provided a description that I can’t improve upon. “Maguire has a stated penchant for ‘taking Pop hits, deconstructing them, and then reassembling the data into massive, abstract canvasses.’”
This reassembling is complex (the CPU that Maguire works with is capable of some 300 layers of sound), but it is also carefully structured. Yummy World is a theme and variations about which the composer says, “The form is a 7-movement variation structure; each movement’s tempo changes in double time or half time increments, depending on if it’s becoming gradually faster or slower over the length of the movement.” The past becomes relevant in surprising ways. About Another Lucid Dream Maguire writes, “My intent was to tap into the ‘structural sadness’ of the song, using the song’s material as the ‘ursatz,’ or deep design.” That brings up a parallel with the descending bass line of Dido’s Lament from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. As Maguire informs us, “This piece is also centered around a recurring bass passacaglia, which I looped 93 times (a recurring lucid dream) over eight movements.”
Clarke provides another telling description when he writes that Maguire’s idiom is “a vibrantly colorful, even psychedelic, mashup.” You can’t help but react personally to music that feels like an adrenaline rush, with the proviso that it is someone else’s adrenaline rush unless you decide to jump in. My preference is decidedly for Another Lucid Dream, because its sections offer more ingenious, unexpected, and arresting changes than Yummy World, which sounds stoned on uppers.
To stave off bewilderment, I should add that both pieces are accessible and do not feel at all chaotic. There is often a core of tonal chords somewhere in the mix, and voices can be heard here and there. (Some sound choral, but I assume that the original songs are being electronically massaged.) Without a doubt we are far from “I am the egg man, I am the walrus,” but despite Maguire’s theme of dystopia, his music sounds, in its massive, crushing way, as cheerfully creative as the Beatles.
Art and Culture Maven (USA) March 2024
Pop/Jazz/Art Music Clash
Toronto-based composer/producer MC Maguire has a quirky sensibility that’s captured in two large works for orchestra and CPU on his recent release Dystophilia on the Neuma label.
Dystophilia is defined, according to the liner notes, as “a fascination with the rate of social decline”. It seems appropriate that the pieces are a kind of densely layered sonic assemblage that is both kinetic and seamless in its flow.
Yummy World begins with a riff on Justin Bieber’s Yummy, as seen through a lens that blends contemporary jazz and art music, and then… put through a blender.
He adds elements of cinematic music, circus (or perhaps it’s video game) music, maybe a bit of prog rock, and more. The album notes tell us he binged on films noirs during the pandemic, and it’s easy to hear their influence.
It’s inventive, and dare I say, entertaining.
Another Lucid Dream, the second track, takes Juice Wrlds’ song Lucid Dream, interweaving it with elements of hard metal and 16th century Renaissance music, and other flotsam and jetsam.
The piece has an airy feel, passages with high strings singing over chord changes. Beginning as orchestral music, the electronic elements gradually insert themselves into the increasingly complex texture of the wwork.
It’s music that should satisfy your intellect as well as your senses.
CD HotList (USA) March 2024
In equal parts thrilling and exhausting, these two works by MC Maguire don’t exactly blur the lines between art music and pop music — instead, they throw elements of pop and classical music onto a huge pile and them set them aflame. On Yummy World, Maguire takes Justin Bieber’s hit song “Yummy” and incorporates elements of it into a madcap musical pastiche that also involves orchestral passages, jazz rhythms, unidentifiable samples, and breakbeats. Imagine someone making a smoothie out of virtually every musical gesture made in the past 100 years — now imagine being thrown into the blender with it. That’s what Yummy World sounds like. Another Lucid Dream takes a conceptually similar approach with quite different results. Blending 17th-century classical music, heavy metal, and “Lucid Dream” by the late rapper Juice Wrld, Lucid Dream is less frantic than Yummy World but every bit as dense and complex. If Edgard Varèse had had access to a sampler and an effectively limitless amount of digital cultural content, he likely would have made music like this.
Stickingittou (US) February 2024
“MC is historically one of my fave sound/collage artists. What he creates here is a kinda sensory overload through sound and music. Seriously dense and awesome. Listen!”
Pan M 360 (Canada) February 2024
(Very) commercial pop music culture meets contemporary high culture. Wow. And it is with the most improbable source of inspiration for an avant-garde approach that this album was launched: Justin Bieber. Toronto MC Maguire’s Yummy World (of course based on Bieber’s 2020 hit Yummy) is an epic electro-orchestral piece lasting some 23 minutes constructed like a frenetic Theme and Variations. On a few melodic fragments of the original song, Maguire redistributes 12 motifs which he interweaves and juxtaposes in a continuous maelstrom of thematic and textural back and forth. The result is a sort of post-minimalist agitation aggregated with forceful loops and sometimes surprising harmonic shifts. You’ve probably never wanted to listen to something associated with Justin Bieber so much.
The second and last piece of the program is another river of sound, even longer than the first with almost 30 minutes of duration. Another Lucid Dream is a tribute to Juice Wrld’s song Lucid Dreams, but more. The composer identifies the sadness linked to this piece, knowing that it has become a hip hop anthem to the tragedy that was the life of the artist, who died very young. MC Maguire goes even further by discovering, through the harmonic progression of the song, links with the music of the English baroque composer Henry Purcell. I’ll let him explain his approach himself:
There is a strong musical/historical connection to Purcell’s Dido’s Lament (and 17th century arias in general) in the use of a descending bass over brief, emotive melodic fragments. This piece also focuses on a basso continuo in passacaglia form, which I looped 93 times (like “a recurring lucid dream”) over 8 movements, stretching the length of the passacaglia. Needless to say, the movements end in binary or ternary grooves, often in astonishing contradictions to the regular quarter note = 84. –MC Maguire
The result, surprisingly, is quite light, although busy, and above all more clear and luminous than the concept suggests. Another Lucid Dream transports us, in a stratospheric and remarkably fluid flight, undulating and absorbing. A very beautiful tribute.
Here is a refined album that knows how to transcend its base material, without ever suggesting that this improves it, but rather that it is an approach based entirely on respect and inspiration, and on the absence of prejudices against commercial culture. We can keep some of them, of course, but, certainly, never again doubt that even in the most capitalist and superficial aspects of the extreme commodification of musical art, that sublime art can be actualized, as long as a creative human spirit decides to embrace it.”
Jazz Weekly (US) January 2024
Pop and Urban Musical Inspirations
When you think of experimentations with electronics, names like Wendy Carlos, Brian Eno or Morton Subotnick first come to mind. However, composer/producer MC Maguire has taken inspiration from the disparate sources of pop star Justin Bieber and rapper Juice Wrld for the two songs that he’s orchestrated with exciting results.
Based on Bieber’s teen charter “Yummy” the 23 minute “Yummy World” is a 7 movement concept of exciting dynamics, featuring ideas and pastings of dramatic swirls, rock textures and waxings of jazz fusions. “Another Lucid Dream” takes the urban outfitter’s tune and hammers out some metallic mayhem with an avalanche of rhythm the has layers of volcanic heat and underground magma. Each opus has melodies and themes that veer by like passing cars on the turnpike, with hairpin turns requiring some white knuckled steering to keep from spinning out. Hold on tight!
Recording Artist Guild (US) January 2024
Wild and Genius Release from MC Maguire
A fresh release from MC Maguire brings something quite new to the table by creating a wondrous and eclectic world and electronica approach and creating a massively orchestrated tonality which includes different variations based on Justin Bieber’s “Yummy” along with so much more to soak in.
The Dystophilia EP is bountiful and full-bodied with Incredible instrumentation that feels like they’re mending together and clashing with each other at the same time and the whole thing has such an intensity to it at times that you need to snap yourself back into reality.
Just when you think you get used to a certain arrangement or pattern, the track progresses and changes into something only to come back to that original pattern again here and there but what’s really impressive about this whole thing is the way everything is built and put together because the instruments across this record are both natural and digital so to have those two things come together in such a wild approach is impressive.
There are indeed things like strings, piano, synths, keys, loads of percussion, and an almost glitch-like element to how everything comes through where you get tiny pieces of other segments here and there.
There’s something fluent about these tracks but there’s also something that hits an edgier and more avant-garde approach as instruments pop in and out and intensities build.
What blows my mind about this is how connected but not connected the songs are at the same time because these are massive pieces of music standing around 25 minutes each and at certain points of their playthrough they can feel maddening.
Sometimes there’s an overwhelming number of notes and music happening from different instruments at once and it sends you off into a tailspin of sorts.
Of course, this comes back together at certain points as well and there is something progressive about how these are put together and also something that feels almost theatrical about it all.
To me, it hits a certain way where it affects my emotional state at times, and I think in part it has to do with how clever it all is but also how frantic it can all feel.
This is very unique and very off the wall but it’s also borderline genius because there’s so much happening and so many intricacies. So much attention to detail had to happen to put this together and make it work.
Having said that, there’s also something natural about it and it has a certain element of class strangely but I think what grabs you is that these songs managed to have character and almost persona so you do have something to hold on to through these massive musical works.
To me, this is not for the faint of heart because these are lengthy tracks that fly around through the air that surrounds you and they do that at fast speeds in terms of notes, changes, progressions, and composition.
This was very cool, very different, and again, has an element of genius to it but they’re also so massive and so crazy at times that you may need to take a little breaks.
Either way, enjoy the ride
Am:plified Magazine (Germany) January 2024
Apocalyptic soundscapes reflecting genres
In “Dystophilia” MC Maguire takes us into a world of artistic chaos. With a fascinating look at social decline, he fuses post-modern classical, pop, jazz and electronic sounds into a unique album. Immerse yourself in a dystopian future where melodies collide and genres flow seamlessly into one another.
MC Maguire’s “Dystophilia” is a sonic roller coaster where social decadence meets musical innovation. The two electronic orchestral works, “Yummy World” and “Another Lucid Dream”, present boldly transformed tracks from Justin Bieber and Juice Wrld, infused with world music, jazz and metal. Culturally non-conformist, densely layered and turned up to eleven, the album displays an irritating but captivating originality.
Maguire, described as “the most irritating and fascinating composer since Philip Glass”, once again delivers a fascinating mix of beauty and excitement. The apocalyptic soundscapes are not only for lovers of experimental music, but also for those looking for freshness and vitality. With five out of ten points, the rating reflects the immediate impact and expressiveness of Maguire’s music.
The album may be culturally daring and layered, but it captivates and unfolds in an expression of genius. “Dystophilia” is classical music for a cross-generational audience who wants to break away from conventional boundaries.
