It's surprising how little attention has been drawn to the parallelsthat exist between electronic music and lounge/exotica music. Musiciansworking in both genres often focus on creating a mood rather than onwriting songs. Much electronic music also shares the bouncy, cartoonishquality of lounge music. While many modern electronic albums could becalled "percussion" albums, it is rare that an artist actually makes adirect reference to the percussion albums that were so popular in thelate 1950's and 1960's that they actually comprised a genre of theirown. Rather than sounding as if he has raided dollar bins at thriftstores to find cool records to sample from, Percussionsshows that Charles Peirce (End) is a true enthusiast of exotica andlounge music. These 12 short tracks (each of the six titles refers totwo consecutive tracks) fuse samples of all kinds of percussioninstruments (and some brass instruments and voices) with digitalmanipulation. The effects are usually used subtly and enhance thepercussion, bringing the lounge music genre up to date. This isespecially effective during "Go", in which bongo rolls have only aslight digital edge to their sound. Rather than manipulating the sourcesounds beyond recognition, Peirce has made familiar sounds seemslightly askew. Percussions features the intricate beatprogramming that is integral to Peirce's sound, but juxtaposes it withxylophone, harp, and various drums. Although mock-1960's cover art hastruly been overused, this is one case in which that style of artworkactually complements the music. It's a lot more appropriate here thanwhen The Smithereens used a "Living Stereo" logo on a CD from 1994. Percussionssounds more like a tribute to an era than an exploitation of it. One ofits main strengths is that it reminds us that electronic music can befun. While many electronic producers take themselves too seriously,Peirce is not afraid to make fun of the genre and of himself, asevidenced by the vocal sample "Well, let's all get together and stealeach others songs" heard in "Music By Numbers." Percussionshighlights the similarities between lounge music and modern electronicmusic, while not sounding like a stylish genre exercise. While loungemusic samples were one aspect of his 2004 Ipecac CD The Sounds of Disaster, it's nice to hear Peirce fully realize a project focusing on this aspect of his sound. Read More
