Ian William Craig
Centres
Release Date: Jul 8, 2016
Genre(s): Electronic, Avant-Garde, Pop/Rock, Experimental Ambient, Experimental Electronic, Neo-Classical, Tape Music
Record label: Fat Cat
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Buy Centres from Amazon
Album Review: Centres by Ian William Craig
Excellent, Based on 6 Critics
Based on rating 4.5/5
“Let no one who is not a geometer enter,” Plato said. Yeah, right: would be quite a vicious republic full only of math adepts. No, of course we’re reading history wrong here. He meant, let’s say, that it’s all geometry — it all comes from geometry. Start there. On his first full-length ….
Based on rating 9/10
After two well-received albums on Sean McCann's Recital label, Canadian composer Ian William Craig moved up to FatCat Records' neo-classical imprint 130701 for the release of his most ambitious statement to date, Centres. As with his previous recordings, Craig employs obsolete, faulty tape machines, layering his operatic vocals in decaying static. Centres is significantly more polished, with some clearer sonic elements and a few compositions that push closer to traditional song structures (especially "A Single Hope," which even features drums), but it's still as otherworldly as his previous works.
Based on rating 8.2/10
Who is Ian William Craig? Nothing about the man, with his easily forgettable name, gently nerdy MFA-student look, and bio notes reading “operatically trained” and “Canadian,” hint at the vast ocean of beauty within his music. In a way, the banality of its presentation deepens the impact of his new album Centres, which might be one of the most beautiful, most strange, and most unique things you hear all year. Centres was released this month with minor fanfare, as part of the re-launch of FatCat’s largely post-classical imprint label 130701.
Based on rating 8/10
It’s something of a risk for composer Ian William Craig to go against his academic training. The classical trained opera singer has made a name of himself for constructing music pieces out of the mechanics of vintage technology. The terminology is supposed to sound technical and impenetrable, which can lead the music to lose some of its humanity. His work is akin to the likes of contemporaries like William Basinski, Max Richter, and James Leyland Kirby, artists who etch out sound sculptures out of analogue synthesizers, tape decks, and vintage recordings.
Based on rating 3/5
130701 is entering a purple period, reissuing material from their post-classical vault, licensing to Deutsche and releasing a great new comp (reviewed in this issue). It’s an excellent time to unleash their first (operatically trained) vocalist, but it’s unfortunate that the Canadian plays with fire by putting some of his vocals through effects, on the sort of event songs that RC scribes are pre-programmed to vomit upon hearing. Infrequent effects-soaked vocals never used to trigger this emetic feeling before the arrival of wall-to-wall Auto- Tune, and some critics suggest that they’re generating new innovations.
Opinion: Very Good
Ian William Craig — Centres (Fat Cat)<a href="http://ianwilliamcraig. bandcamp. com/album/centres">Centres by Ian William Craig</a>Though Ian William Craig has been making music for some time now, it was when the trained opera singer decided to bring his voice to the forefront that he started to really hit his stride.
'Centres'
is available now