Subscribe
now to receive all the new
music
New Amsterdam Records releases,
including
38 back-catalog items,
delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android.
You’ll also get access to
subscriber-only
exclusives.
Learn more.
Build is the eponymous debut release of composer/violinist Matt McBane’s quintet, Build. McBane notes that the album represents a synthesis of “many of the divergent types of music that have been floating around in my head and fingers for years … infused with a sense of open space, light, and motion on one hand, and interior emotions on the other.” The album’s compositions take inspiration from sources as disparate as bluegrass fiddle music in “Magnet” to Reichian minimalism in “Drivin’,” yet together form a cohesive journey through a “surreal wonderland” that is “endlessly fascinating and often gorgeous.” (Seattle Sound Magazine).
Build was heralded by Blogcritics shortly after its release, who comparing the ensemble to the 1970′s unclassifiable Penguin Cafe Orchestra, wrote that the album “proves that you can make interesting and exciting contemporary music without torturing your listeners… [Build] could change the way you think about contemporary composition.” Soon after, like-minded critics praised McBane’s genre-defying, “fantastic intuitive sense” (Sequenza 21), and his pieces that are “challenging … but aren’t complicated for the sake of being complicated” (Grey Flannel Suit).
Might be one of my favorite albums. The vocals and percussions make for something which sounds at the same time very new and very ancient and I love it. Joanna Foliveli
Very complex neo-classical music. This has lots of layers to it, and sounds at times discordant, but I like it more with each listen. This band requires some patience, but I think you get rewarded for that patience. Found in Ed Buckley's collection. Roy Meerkamper
These almost heartbreakingly gentle felted piano compositions have the delicacy and loveliness of slow-falling snow. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 30, 2023
Argentine composer and guitarist Francisco del Pino achieves a stunning art-song hybrid on the first album to be released under his own name. Bandcamp Album of the Day May 19, 2021
This album is already worth because of the song titles, but if you think "Oh no good Sir, words alone won´t make me arrange any business", than you might want to go for a walk into a percussionistic jungle where everything jingles, clinks, tingles and rings.
Just make sure you don´t get mauled to death from behind by an aggressive metallophone - you can´t stop here, it´s bell country.
Also do not feed the chimes, they might get sick. Wisdoms End