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Track 1;
A Short History of Lounge 2005 (25 mins) for Piano (David Swan) and CPU.
Excerpt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsOxFN4ksGA
PDF Score A Short History of Lounge
PDF Program Notes A Short History of Lounge
Track 2:
Got that Crazy, Latin/Metal Feelin’ 2006 (28mins) for Electric Guitar (John Gzowski) and CPU.
PDF Score Got that Crazy, Latin/Metal feelin’
PDF Program Notes Got That Crazy, Latin/Metal feelin’
Two Paintings titled ‘Meta-Conspiracy’ by Laurent Judge, inspired by Meta-Conspiracy
Reviews:
- May 2013 Monsieur Delire Quebec
Another item from my FIMAV 2013 haul. I feel privilegied to have had the opportunity to hear the music of this great composer in a live setting. I had (and reviewed) his two CDs released on Innova, but this one, released by Tzadik in 2007, had escaped me. Two worls: “A Short History of Lounge” for piano (David Swan) and CPU, and “Got That Crazy, Latin/Metal Feelin’” for electric guitar (John Gzowski) and CPU. 24 and 28 minutes long. The piano piece tinkers with ideas of lounge music. The piano part requires virtuosic abilities. However, unlike other Maguire pieces, the sound materials run in circles – it feels like the piece runs out of ideas. That is definitely not the case in “Got That Crazy, Latin/Metal Feelin’,. whose contrasting/opposite resources seem endless. However, the solo part is less impressive, and maybe that is why Maguire chose “Lounge” as one of the two works performed at FIMAV 2013.
- January 2011 Hartford Advocate USA
Maguire’s music is dense, heavily manipulated samples grabbed from pop, lounge music, jazz, and heavy metal. “A Short History of Lounge,” a 25-minute electronic composition from a 2007 release called Meta-Conspiracy, for example, starts with a heavy blast of harmony, reminiscent of the industrial/metal of fellow Canadian Devin Townsend. But things turn jaunty. Bits of jazz piano mingle with Zappa-esque vibraphones, walking bass riffs, and Junior Wells harmonica licks. The amount of material that passes at any given moment can be challenging, even overwhelming, but you’ve got to appreciate that Maguire hardly ever offers a dull moment. You can definitely hear why percussionists dig Maguire: his music’s rife with sounds of things being banged on. And although the textures may sound kinda kitchen-sink at times, with repeated listenings there are recognizable formal strategies at work, even across the longer time spans. ..and which at times can be stark and serious.
- March 2009 Phrygien. Music blog Quebec
….it is an astonishing, mind-blowing work. It brushes away the dust from all classical music,
- July 2008 X-Ray Barbeque Blog USA
If you like maximalist, layered type of dense composition, I’ve got another name for you (and it’s another Canadian): MC Maguire. Check out his disc Meta-Conspiracy. It’s on Tzadik, but don’t let that scare you off… for once the obi hype is justified!
- June 2008 All Music Guide .com USA
Lively, Aggressive, Passionate, Ambitious, Searching, Dramatic, Theatrical, Eccentric,Uncompromising Elaborate Literate
MC Maguire has been commissioned by dance companies to compose music, and in the case of Meta-Conspiracy, it could have easily been done for experimental films. What he creates on this daring recording can easily be pegged 21st century contemporary electronic music, but it is so much more than that. Moreover, Maguire’s concept is to toss all elements in a blender set on high speed, and listen to the different styles and genres playfully bounce off each other knowing they will not necessarily mix or match and turn into brown goop. The music, which at times incorporates up to 400 separate tracks from a CPU through layering, sonic sampling and the usage of live improvising instrumentalists, is a fascinating study on how to make new music through digital techniques, written scores and the wide world of sound. Two nearly half-hour compositions are included, and the dizzying heights the music achieves is astounding by any criteria. “A Short History Of Lounge” — not all that short — explores a legitimate jazz stance glued to a faux-concerto/quasi-rondo, taking normal circumstance and day-to-day living, stacking it on high in mass plus-plus-plus algebraic run-on sentences, and using pianist David Swan as the control factor. A spoken word warning and industrial sounds inform the pianist’s role as an informant, not a prevaricator. The music is dense and requires close listening as you hear this epic of variations and ethnomusicology in super high definition, drama and duress. A blues harmonica, symphonic notions, a vocal chorus, and a calmed piano repast enter the fray briefly. It’s like Frederic Rzewski meets Steve Reich meets The Residents on acid playing laptops. The concept is loosely based on “A Brief History Of The Universe.” The second piece “Got That Crazy Latin/Metal Feeling” is based on a 49 chord harmonic progression that moves backward, then forward, although it is not that readily discernable. Mathematics, Brazilian pop, perhaps Captain Beefheart’s jazzier side, Claude Debussy, and the influence of Euro-electro pioneer Michael Schenker of The Scorpions and UFO are acknowledged. The dynamic range goes up and down with death rock and metal sounds of electric guitarist John Gzowski as the focal point. The music, as peculiar as it might seem, is never crowded or constipated. At times symphonic, manic and accented by a trio of vocalists including Maguire, whether noodling, rigid or plain ridiculous, the music has a certain warm substance within its obvious schizophrenia. The medication has been taken, it is absorbed and efficient, yet there’s an underlying turbulence that cannot be denied. This is a wonderful project, hopefully spawning other similar efforts, and marks Maguire as a unique figure in any genre of contemporary modern music you choose.
- Dec. 2007 http://www.argumentmachine.com (USA)
DJ Clems top 10 2007
10, Sleeytime Gorilla In Glorious Times
9, Nels Clines Singers Draw Breath
8, MIA Kala:
7. People Misbegotten Man
6. Blotted Science The Machinations of Dimentia
5. Pamella Kurstin Thinking out loud
4.Keith Rowe The Room
3. Behold …the Arctopus! Skullgrid:
2.Nels Vline and Elliott Sharp Duo Milano
1. Hans Fjellestad Snails R Sexy
DJ Clems top pick for 2007
MC Maguire Meta-Conspiracy: This CD satisfies mine craving for information overload. Two long concertos–one for electric guitar, one for piano–that replace the backing ‘orchestra’ with densely layered samples. Think ‘Plunderphonics’ ramped up to the nth degree, then add virtuosic notated scores for guitar and piano. Unlike Plunderphonics, Maguire warps the sampled material to the unrecognizable point, stretching pitches and shifting tempi until a wash of semi-discernable sound is created, enveloping (and sometimes obscuring) the solo passages. At the end of Maguire’s pieces, thine brain just kind of…hums.DO WANT.
- April 2008 ArtsJournal.com
Paul Dolden, whose music is parallel to M.C. Maguire’s in that it hits you with an overload of hundreds of tracks running at once. Just between the two of them, Maguire and Dolden pull the geographic center of North American hair-raising crazy-mad fanatical sonic complexity up to somewhere around Fargo.
- Dec. 2007 Http://www.cowboysfringants.com (France)
Top Ten 2007
1. To Live and Shave in L.A.: Les Tricoteuses
2. Nondor Nevaï: <<DMT Rok>> exécuté par _ (“Undrskor”)
3. The Flying Luttenbachers: Incarcerated by Abstraction
4. Nondor Nevaï: Wooden Machine Music/2001
5. Foetus: Vein
6. Haswell/Hecker: Blackest Ever Black
7. Ergo Phizmiz: Nose points in different directions
8. RLW avec rm74: Pirouetten
9. MC Maguire: Meta-Conspiracy
10. To Live and Shave in L.A. 2: The 300 Dollar Silk Shirt
- Dec. 2007 Http://syro0.twoday.net (Germany)
BEST OF 2007, Top 10
10. Radiohead: In Rainbows
9. Natasha Bedingfield: N. B.
8. Feist: The Reminder
7. Patti Smith: Twelve
6. Björk: Volta
5. M.C. Maguire: Meta-Conspiracy two totally crazy compositions with dozens of tracks for CPU accompanied by live instruments piano and electric guitar
4. Rene Jacobs: Don Giovanni
3. Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson sings Peter Lieberson: Neruda Songs
2. Lucinda Williams
1. Lil Wayne
- Dec. 2007 Apple Itunes .com
Phenomenal. Nothing else like it.*****A constantly morphing collage of, well everything. If this doesn’t help you make sense of the modern world, nothing will.
- Dec. 2007 LOW MP3 DOWNLOAD .com
Meta Conspiracy is the most important Avant Garde Release of 2007-everyone must hear it!
- Dec. 2007 Circuit Music Magazine (France/Quebec)
…in the case of M.C. Maguire, we can bluntly speak about violence, violence like ‘ The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”….the composer explains his music as a quirky synthesis of musical styles—what he does not say is they all play simultaneously!! ..combining the energy of rock with the sound textures of Xenakis. However if the first listening might trigger a headache, the subsequent one allows us to pass through the fog covering the music. The piano brightens. We cross a symphony orchestra to what seems like some Bruckner fragment.
After a while we can distinguish the mind-blowing design of the structure assembled from the multitude of tracks where diverse electronic sounds/samples are woven. Finally, the sensation of listening simultaneously to 12 radio stations diminishes and allows the courageous listener to appreciate the composer’s multi-layered vision.
- Sept. 2007 Exclaim Magazine Canada
…it begins as an accelerating, percussion-happy absorption of musical themes, both naturalistic and digitised, heroically accompanied by Swan’s piano. The piece slows to regroup in several spots over its duration before swelling again into massed but always musical layers, not unlike a thick sandwich of Zappa’s mid-’80s Synclavier experiments ..it somewhat resembles a more frenetic, serial version of label boss John Zorn’s Naked City band pieces. That is good fun for those who like music that resembles rollercoasters…..
- Sept 2007 Whole Note Magazine –Canada
Editor’s Choice —The music of Toronto based composer MC Maguire, on his disc ‘Meta-Conspiracy’ starts with full throttle and almost never lets up. There are brief moments of respite, but the overall impression is one of manic activity. After a cryptic warning on the computer voice of a Mac error message about an overload of midi information, we are off and running full speed ahead. A Short History of Lounge is a 25 minute quasi-concerto in which local piano wizard David Swan is pitted against a computer which provides a virtual orchestra of synthetic sounds and samples. Rumba rhythms, pop and classical quotations layered upon layer which ritard and accelerate until a final tempo of a quarter note =900(!) is achieved. Got that Crazy, Latin/Metal Feelin’ provides electric guitatist John Gzowski with a similar backdrop, a”wall of sound” such as Phil Spector could only have imagined in his wildest dreams. With John Zorn as executive producer, the disc was released as part of the Composer Series on the Tzadik Label. The notes describe the music as”confrontational, extreme and packed with drama and excitement”. I couldn’t say it any better.
- Sept 2007 Beautiful Feet Blog
If You’re Under 30 and You Know It, Clap Your Hands…Ok, here’s some new music for the non-seniors in the bloggership: actually, MC Maguire can’t be pigeonholed. He has done such eclectic work that his appeal may be very wide. ‘Course, coming from Eastman (and more), he is bound to be well-rounded…..
- August 2007 Classical-Drone Blog
I see a strong parallel between Nancarrow pieces and a recent Tzadik release by MC Maguire, Meta-Conspiracy.. I listened to small excerpts, then bought the CD when it came out a few months ago. When I listen to the whole CD, Meta-Conspiracy is just as busy as Nancarrow pieces… A Short History of Lounge for piano and computer every bit the wild ride …..
- August2007 Wire Magazine– UK
…achieves the kind of maddening detail which can barely be grasped even after repeated listenings…..incredibly complex and elaborate musical structures….Maguire’s obvious irreverence makes this academic difficulty of the work less forbidding.
- July 2007 Sonotone/24Hours–Switzerland
… It starts like the Apocalypse, with enormous waves of ear-splitting chaos. From the incredible entanglement of this maelstrom, an overwhelming enchantment emerges. grinds together rock, jazz, blues, a Bruckner symphony, minimalism, and hundreds of fragments borrowed from the chronology of all music. .As the Master of Ceremonies, in this staggering and excessive ritual of black incantation, the Canadian has a ridiculously long CV in all that is very classical: studying ,degrees, awards and offical commissions….nothing to prepare the listener for this madcap music, kinetic and energetic like no other. Because of the strength of its’ ideas, it destroys all the accepted ideas about Aesthetics, Beauty in Art, and other hubris using the same old terminology. Timid ears, stay away!
- July 2007 Sonotone/24Hours–Switzerland
… yet another one of the thugs at IRCAM preventing us from listening to Maguire in France
- June2007 Squid’s Ear/ Squidco—USA
…the Village Voice proclaimed him ‘the most irritating and spellbinding composer since Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach.” The latter is an apt comparison, as Maguire tends to work in a melange of styles that blends and mashes compositional elements in coherent but bewildering ways….. the results are enjoyable, if a bit mind-boggling.…….Genres are absorbed, chewed and regurgitated at an impressive rate; it would be difficult to characterize the work in any particular way, except to say that it embraces whatever it encounters, is sometimes frenetic, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, and often resolves to something beautiful.……. Maguire understands the need for dynamics, and gives the listener a chance to catch his breath before diving into another intriguing and engrossing section.…… Maguire’s studio skills are impressive, and the recording benefits from a variety of aural tricks.……A massive and amazing modern compositional work.
- May 2007 Arts Journal.com
…The Maguire CD is amazing…The recording is rich… it sculpts the contours of music… it is very sensual…funny… witty… There is a constant challenging dialog between music and the listener.”Got that Crazy…” is terribly strong. It is impressive, monumental like a cranky black diamond ….always surprising and leaving us without respite. We are gasping, always forced to discover a new breach, crossing or outlet…. It ‘s constant elevation. In ‘the Short Hiistory’, we are smack in the middle of our own dramatic fight for life… perturbed, shaken, put in a whirl of violence and joy…totally reeled and dazed. But suddenly, a wit stings and we are surprised to smile, sharing the irony… Then, strangely, we find this Short History is intimate and even tender because of the secrets that it reveals…
- May 2007 Arts Journal.com/Post-Classic–USA
…resplendently recorded.…Compared to Maguire, Berg was a doodling improviser…. these are stunningly complex works, built along the lines of astonishingly intricate tempo and tonal systems that govern most of the details.…….. fragments of pop song weave in and out, and rock-style guitar riffs, and computer-voice messages, and everything but samples of the kitchen sink.……..it’s one of the most astonishing CDs I’ve ever heard, not intended for the faint-hearted, and if you listen often and closely, you’ll hear tempo and collage effects you’ve never heard before
- May 2007 Arts Journal.com
…Listening to MC Maguire’s stuff is awesome, but it is so dense and complex that I’ll have to pick up a CD to really get a better grasp of all that is going on…some of the more original music I’ve heard recently…
- May 2007 Arts Journal.com
…..Finally it’s here. Awesome. I’m completely ready to sit back, relax and have my ears blown away… again. I It is strange to hear so many contexts and sound worlds colliding and interchanging at such lightning speed. Definitely shouldn’t drink too much coffee before consuming!
- May 2007 Arts Journal.com
….certainly is very original and engaging music. I think it does share some aspects of the Paul Dolden / John Oswald / Alex Trebek general Canuck aesthetic, but without a doubt, it is it’s own living thing, with a more genuine electicism than Dolden, more complexity than Oswald, and more erudition than Trebek.
- May 2007 Arts Journal.com
…Internet criticism works! This announcement was the first thing I read in quite a while that made me rush out and get the disc – and I wasn’t disappointed.
- March 2007 Arts Journal.com
heh. quarter note = 900. my middle school students will love this, since they’re always cranking up the tempo to 300+…
- March 2007 Arts Journal.com
zowie! that “Alert! Alert!” sequence at about -1:45 to go had me apple-tabbing frantically to find which program was going nuts…
- March 2007 Arts Journal.com
I don’t know–Schafer’s pretty crazy (in a good way). But this stuff is great. I can’t wait for the CD.
- March 2007 nonpopmusic.com
Wow! I’m absolutely loving MC Maguire. Such an imagination. Something new around every corner. What a creative genius.
- March 2007 Arts Journal.com USA
…..Roll Over, Claude Vivier…… I first became aware of him via a torrential sound continuum called ‘Seven Years ‘on the 1989 Bang on a Can marathon, and I’ve been trying to figure him out ever since. Because his music-wild, noisy, intense, relentlessly high enery-is nearly opposite in style to most of the music I like, but it is nothing at all like most modernist music characterized by those qualities, and I always have to admire fanaticism. Most of his pieces are what he calls “concertos,” by which he means pieces for solo instrument accompanied/obliterated by tape or electronic soundfile layered with from 200 to 400 tracks. The noise periodically parts for pop references and quotations: lightly-altered pop songs, the scherzo from Bruckner’s Eighth, Brazilian pop, heavy metal, all cascading by like someone trying to find his favorite radio station during a hurricane. ….he had to alter some of the quotations to avoid copyright infringement. He claims that he replaced the vocal parts with vocalists singing software manuals in Portugese, but Mike’s humor is so dry that it’s hard to discern where reality ends and satire begins-probably somewhere within his music.It turns out, though, that beneath all the wildness runs a detailed sense of proportion and structure as obsessive as that of the Berg Chamber Concerto or the middle studies of Nancarrow. Got That Crazy Latin/Metal Feelin’ is based on 49 tonalities that alternately rise and descend by thirds….., the piece ascends to chord 7, returns to 1, slogs its way up to 14, returns to 1, and so on until it finally climbs the mountain of 49. The central tonality is the E power chord of the guitar solo, and you can sometimes hear the music dramatically return to it via a circle of fourths – though Maguire’s moments of repose and respite start about where Mahler’s climaxes end. Short History of Lounge, its title notwithstanding, is – at least on paper – a conventional three-movement concerto form, though enlivened by background quotations and sections that greatly accelerate and decelerate. The finale runs through an incredible gradual deceleration from quarter note = 900 to quarter note = 4. The magnitude of such gestures leaves you exhausted. In retrospect, though, I should have figured that his sense of form was knitted together by obsessively detailed structure, because it would be extremely difficult to make music of such rich complexity without a plan to generate all the various moments: the musical analogue of Bruno’s Theater of memory. ….I can see why Zorn likes the music – perhaps a rare point at which our tastes overlap. Maguire’s not completely isolated in Canadian music, for his friend Paul Dolden also makes take pieces of mammothly superimposed hundreds of tracks, and has gained a little more attention for doing so. But with his peculiar blend of postmodern style juxtapositions, pop appropriations, and fanatical intellectual structure, I think Maguire’s the most original Canadian composer since R. Murray Schafer – and I don’t know Schafer’s music well enough to be certain the qualifier is necessary.
