Many would have it that Steve Reid's Dream Scapes is precisely what is wrong with music today and would wish the disc a horrible, fiery death. The diversionary smooth jazz on this disc is capped with escapist lyrics that attempt to bridge ancient myth with modern imagery. The result is a pseudo-spiritual hodgepodge for those whose might believe that Zen asceticism means losing all of one's money in a NASDAQ crash. To his credit, Reid's percussion can be entrancing and beautiful at times, but too often panders to a worldbeat ...
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Many would have it that Steve Reid's Dream Scapes is precisely what is wrong with music today and would wish the disc a horrible, fiery death. The diversionary smooth jazz on this disc is capped with escapist lyrics that attempt to bridge ancient myth with modern imagery. The result is a pseudo-spiritual hodgepodge for those whose might believe that Zen asceticism means losing all of one's money in a NASDAQ crash. To his credit, Reid's percussion can be entrancing and beautiful at times, but too often panders to a worldbeat exoticism somehow equated with authenticity. The music is the soundtrack to a multimedia show -- previews of which are available through the disc's enhanced features -- that combines choreography, light design, and colorful sets with the music of a live band. The smoke machine-filled images are capped with clichés about magic and discovery. The music itself too often relies on light jazz saxophones and bombastic drum fills and is literally made for a show to be performed at Disney World, where Reid's multimedia orgy was premiered in 2001. Though the former Supertramp percussionist was voted Jazziz's Percussionist of the Year three times, the music here does far more injustice to his craft than anything else. ~ Jesse Jarnow, Rovi
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