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This pretentiously titled collection purports to "trace the music of those who have, since the beginning of the recording era, pushed the envelope of musical technology," thereby "chronicling the beginnings of the electronic music scene." Put together by
Wired's music editor (who knew they had one?), the single disc falls far short of its goal--the selections are alternately intriguing and clueless and tend to segue rather jarringly. No distinction is made between the creative use of technological invention in the service of genre-bending music (Brian Eno, Can, Laurie Anderson,
Steve Reich) versus those who just have some cool toys to play with yet achieve little beyond novelty with them (Todd Rundgren, Tangerine Dream, DJ Spooky, Ben Neill). That said, about half of the disc
does feature superlative material, notably Can's funk-prog classic "Spoon," Sonic Youth's detuned-pop masterpiece "Schizophrenia," and Eno's insanely pretty, proto-ambient tape-loop work "2/1."
Music Futurists is not a
bad mix CD, just a misguided, poorly presented one.
--Mike McGonigal