Animusic CD

Track List:

1. Future Retro
2. Stick Figures
3. Aqua Harp
4. Drum Machine
5. Seventh Alloy (bonus track)
6. Pipe Dream
7. Acoustic Curves
8. A Slight Delay (bonus track)
9. The Harvester (bonus track)
10. Harmonic Voltage

This audio CD contains all seven pieces from the DVD, plus three additional tracks. The music was re-mixed and re-mastered for optimal CD sound. In particular, each piece has a fixed stereo image, rather than parts dynamically panning to correlate with the visuals.

Animusic the CD contains not only the seven pieces that formed the soundtrack to the Animusic DVD’s incredible animations, but an additional three tracks of electronic music that, in the words of creator Wayne Lytle, have “not been animated yet”.

This music is just as enchanting and exciting as a CD as it is performing its duties as soundtrack for the Animusic animations. Ranging from delicate wistful melodies to hard-charging electronic beats to quirky percussive rhythms, Animusic provides a marvelous background for parties or an intense experience for serious listening.

Remixed and remastered for optimal CD sound, each piece has been given a fixed stereo image to replace the dynamic panning necessary to correlate with the visuals on the DVD soundtrack.

The Video Album Soundtrack

For anyone who has seen the “Animusic: Special Edition” DVD, the idea of putting out a soundtrack album for this amazing blend of music and animation might seem a bit odd. Some will certainly wonder why anyone would bother. I know this is true because frankly, I was wondering myself.

I found out why.

The problem with this revolutionary set of music videos is that the animation is so original, so interesting, so off-beat and totally fresh, that in truth, the music simply gets lost. Once one is finished experiencing “Animusic,” one has been so thoroughly immersed in the combining of the one with the other that bothering with either as separate entities seems pointless. Luckily for those of us who like a good, solid ambient album. someone thought to make the point.

Of course, the first difference is that three extra tracks have been added, each of them longer than the majority of the original tracks. And, although “longer” doesn’t necessarily imply better, or even good, it turns out that these new tracks are terrific and they bring a wider range to what is found musically on the DVD, giving the entire package much more of an old time “album feel.”

Yes, three pieces of left-over music could have been found and simply wedged in somewhere. but that is clearl not the case here. These new pieces bring a certain freshness to the original seven that makes quite a difference. Indeed, there is a certain Alan Parsons feel to “Animusic” now, a slick smoothness of style which has given the original music a terrific boost.

Put all this together with the fact that the original pieces were all re-mixed and souped-up for their CD debut, and “Animusic” makes a nice little package. Or, in other words, if you only have the money for one purchase, you should get the DVD and enjov one of the most unique video efforts of the last quarter century. But. if vou can afford them both… yeah go ahead.

C.J. Henderson
Author of “The Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction Movies”