Pieces in A Modern Style

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After twiddling the knobs in a dancefloor direction on Madonna’s 1998 beat parade Ray Of Light, William Orbit suddenly became the hipster producer of the moment. Naturally, we’d expect his first solo effort to be tricked out with forward-thinking electronica and cameos from all his famous friends. Instead, for Pieces, Orbit turns an array of synthesizers towards 11 classical composers ranging from old-school bigwigs (Beethoven, Vivaldi) to avant-garde freaks (John Cage, Erik Satie). So is it any good? Depends on your stomach for this kind of stuff. Some of the pieces are simply too good to louse up: Orbit could’ve hummed Samuel Barber’s “Adagio For Strings” on a dimestore kazoo and it would still have sounded passionate and forlorn. Fans of downbeat film scores and French cigarettes will probably dig the mood Orbit conjures; we’ll take our AC/DC and a coupla beers, thank you.