Search - 101 Strings :: 30th Anniversary

A great start

Van Halen Kurtz | Twin Oaks | 02/11/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"One of the largest - and most perplexing - catalogs in recorded music, the 101 Strings cranked out lite covers of big hits for the great unwashed masses, simultaneously "padding" their LPs with in-house originals to get a piece of the publishing pie. Many of their "filler" tracks are out-and-out brilliant, even experimental, examples of modern music; hipsters from the post-rave lounge revival discovered the most outrageous of these in the 1990s. This is one of the very few 101 Strings CDs that features all original 101 Strings material. Although it seriously underrepresents Monty Kelly, who led 101 Strings into psychedelic terrain, much of the earlier, more conventional, repertoire featured on this disc is quite noteworthy. Included are: Don Costa's rock 'n ballroom "Headin' Home"; Les Baxter's bachelor-pad funk "A Taste of Soul"; Robert Lowden's exquisite nocturne "So Late"; and J.F. Kuhn's kitsch classic "Blues Pizzicato." Only a small sampling of a seriously underrated musical act (with two wildly differing audiences), 30th Anniversary Special at least marks a potential beginning.



I wrote the above at the beginning of '06. It's now the summer of '09. So much has changed. I'm fine with the review, though."