Ensemble // Excerpts

Let’s cut to the chase; this is a dull record. Which is a shame because I think that the song writing in and of itself is perfectly fine, but the arrangements and interpretations of them have been overegged and probably over thought, turning them into bloated and uninspiring versions of what they could have been. The life has been sucked out of them and no amount of ‘avant garde’ strings (they’re that kind of normalised version of avant garde that’s now as shocking as a butterfly on a summer’s day) can rescue them from their fate. I wanted to like this album, as Ensemble (aka Olivier Alary) has some fine musical credentials having worked with the likes of Bjork on her stunning Medulla album, and he clearly knows his way around an orchestra, but Excerpts just never manages to hit the spot. It’s forgettable, and in my opinion that’s worse than if it were a terrible record because at least you get a strong reaction and lasting impression of truly awful music. This is a ‘pleasant’ album, perhaps something the formal dinner party crowd might put on during post desert digestifs – something that’s not going to offend guests but may impress the less inspired amongst them.