Jeff Mills ‎– Blue Potential (Live With Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra)

What sounded like an interesting experiment unfortunately turned out to be something like an up and down affair that only partially succeeded. The more melodic the original material is, the better and more inspired the orchestral interpretation sounds. The rework of "Gamma Player" thus is one of the highlights and has a nice mystical feel. The version of "Sonic Destroyer", placed at the end of the CD, completely fails to put a climax. It sounds as if the musicians drag behind the rhythm and gives me an impression of them not being into the track, so that it does not show even a bit of the energy of the original. The Williams Fairey Brass band did much better on the "Acid Brass" project quite a few years before and they seemed to have much more fun doing it, even if it was probably just as unusual for them to play such repetitive stuff.

Don't expect perfect synchronity between a classical orchestra and a 909 when listening to this. Good musicians aren't sequencers. An orchestra works because all musicians involved constantly adjust their tempo and listen to each other. Although the conductor sets the tempo, he is a silent element. Mills' 909 however isn't, and given the fact that even a very skilled drummer won't be able to play a constant beat without varying between 10-20 bpm, the orchestra plays incredibly tight.

The title fits this project - this is about showing potential, not perfection. In other words, this is as Techno as it gets - new music unlike anything you ever heard before, pushing boundaries, irritating and fascinating the listener. Listening to this in one go definitely will help you to get adjusted to the special musical setting behind this record.

Mills could have simply let the orchestra play his pieces on its own. He and the orchestra deserve huge respect for having the guts to take the road less travelled. The result is mindblowing.

"Sonic Destroyer" is for me, the most Mills-directed composition on this CD. Other tracks were more of the French classical music composer.

If you want to have another version of "Sonic Destroyer," then this release is for you. Only "Sonic Destroyer" is definitely worth the whole purchase.

Detroit son Jeff Mills furthers his adventures in Sound, with this truly spellbinding musical experience. Being a massive fan of the orchestra & the ever changing palette that is music, I find myself listening to this many times recently. Amazing how this must have been conceived in the first place. Placing some of Jeff Mills' back catalogue classics into orchestrated music form. Brilliant!
To a new listener, this could be a great soundtrack to an emotional wallop of a film with overtones of techno underscoring an overwhelming, technologically progressed society & it's story of it's inhabitants battling the evil forces of it's opressors. My personal highlights are; 'Gamma Player'-always a classic either way, now injected with powerful orchestral strings, brass & woodwind instruments..check this out at least, it's truly hair-raising! 'Imagine' seems to suggest a hope & a god given right to move forward to do great things. Soaring orchestral solos like 'Medium C' & 'Daylight' etc without Mills' involvement hold your attention all the way.
'The March', with it's pounding bassline complimented with bass drums & slightly melancholic strings, truly suggest it's artist's intentions, as he notes to the crowd. 'The Bells' opens well with Bell Chimes & the orchestra really have all the cards here & rightfully so, holding it all together,Mills adding the undercurrent hi-hats & beats. There maybe moments when the synchronisation falls apart slightly in parts of this album, but that i feel adds to it. This is an artistic demonstration of how music boundaries can be blurred, imaginations fired & entertained as well as quash genre types. I hope we hear more artists like this engage in more of these projects. I must give utmost respect to the Orchestrator Thomas Roussel who had the hard work of projecting this to the orchestra & it's varying elements, as well as the Conductor Alain Altinoglu, keeping it in time as best he can. Soaring, imaginative & compelling.