Blue Man Group
Audio (1999)

review by: Jason Thornberry
Date: 8/23/02

If you’ve never heard of ‘the Blue Man Group’, then the rock under which you’re currently residing probably doesn’t get cable. They’ve been on countless tv programs, with their brand of midriff-free, uh, World-Music. Which world? Good question…

They appear to be six gentlemen, who daub blue paint all over themselves, and play a disjointed, angular, un-predictable brand of pop. Very intensely. A bit like Tangerine Dream with 180 drummers. The Blue Man Group utilize the usual guitar/bass/drums/keyboards rock-instrumentation (there aren’t any vocals), along with a myriad of other, bizarre, home-made looking gadgets, all of which are fashioned out of PVC (plastic piping used nowadays for your plumbing system).

Ever heard of these implements? Air poles (which is like a giant rain-stick) the ‘pvc instrument’ (which is a percussive device played in a similar fashion as one would address the vibrophone), and appears to require at least three people to properly utilize it. A tubulum, which is again, percussive, and resembles long plastic organ chimes laid out horizontally. A smaller tubulum resting on a back-pack, the cimbalom, which also resembles the vibes, and is played by three freaks, the “big drum”, which is just a giant bass-drum, the drum wall, which is a flank of three percussionists, playing actual trap-sets, a zither, a dumpster (I’m serious), a chapman stick, the timpani, a pressaphonic’, (huh?), a ‘piano smasher’, a ribbon crasher, cabasa, shakers, doppler drums, djembe, shaker gong, a gyro shot, gary strips, shekere, utne drums, sword, wiper, and angel air poles, baritone guitar, the mini snare, lap steel, shaker gong, cuica, a ‘crasher’, a toy drum kit, an alto drum kit, an electric dog toy, quellium, aronophonic, doppler toms, upside-down bass, 12-string guitar, extension cord bull roar, and a tremelo bass. Phew!

All that comes together to make an instrumental whirlpool of sounds that are only recognizable after you’ve read the lengthy cd-booklet attached.Great album though. Only similar in my mind to maybe one of John Zorn’s more-unhinged-than-usual projects. At their most tame, the Blue Man Group remind me a tiny bit of Tangerine Dream. A compliment coming from this guy.