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Bond: Classified

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Decca Music
Released: 2004.06.15
Time:
 47:44
Category: Pop
Producer(s): Mel Bush
Rating: **........ (2/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.bondquartet.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2013
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Explosive - 3:10
[2] Samba - 3:34
[3] Midnight Garden - 4:07
[4] Fly Robin Fly - 3:09
[5] Scorchio - 3:30
[6] Lullaby - 3:48
[7] Hungarian - 3:00
[8] I'll Fly Away - 3:09
[9] Dream Star - 4:38
[10] Highly Strung - 3:29
[11] Barber: Adagio For Strings - 4:23
[12] Señorita - 4:27
[13] Explosive (Orion & Ed Leal Production) - 3:10

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Haylie Ecker - 1st Violin
Eos Carter - 2nd Violin
Gay-Yee Westerhoff - Cello, Double Bass
Tania Davies - Viola

A&R: Jennifer Allan, Jacky Schroer
Arranged: Matt Dunkley (tracks: 2 to 4, 6 to 10, 12), Tania Davis (tracks: 11)
Arranged: Matt Dunkley (tracks: 2 to 4, 6 to 10 to 12)
Art Direction: Paul Chessell
Bass: Peter Huntington (tracks: 10)
Conductor: Matt Dunkley (tracks: 2 to 4, 6 to 12)
Drums: Damir Somen (tracks: 1)
Engineer: Gary Langan (tracks: 5)
Engineer [Assistant]: Tom Webster (tracks: 5)
Engineer [Protools], Edited By: Gareth Jones (tracks: 2 to 4, 6 to 12)
Executive-Producer: Mel Bush
Flute: Ivica Murat (tracks: 1)
Goblet Drum [Darbouka], Percussion [Middle Eastern]: Rony Barrak (tracks: 7)
Guitar: Nikolaj Juel (tracks: 9), Niksa Bratos* (tracks: 1), Peter Huntington (tracks: 4)
Keyboards: Tim Bran (tracks: 2 to 4, 6 to 12)
Management: Andy Stephens (2), Jon Fowler
Mastering: Peter Mew
Mixing: Clive Goddard (tracks: 2 to 4, 6 to 12), Gary Langan (tracks: 5), Ian Wherry (tracks: 5), Niksa Bratos* (tracks: 1)
Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (tracks: 2 to 4, 6 to 12)
Percussion: Fergus Gerrand (tracks: 5), Peter Huntington (tracks: 2 to 4, 7 to 12)
Photography: Kristian Schuller
Producer: Eduard Botric (tracks: 1), Ed Leal (tracks: 2 to 4, 6 to 12), Gary Langan (tracks: 5), Ian Wherry (tracks: 5), Niksa Bratos (tracks: 1), Orion (13) (tracks: 2 to 4, 6 to 12), Pete Lazonby (tracks: 6), Tonci Huljic (tracks: 1)
Programmed: Adam Pickard (tracks: 6), Ed Leal (tracks: 6), Ian Wherry (tracks: 5), Pete Lazonby (tracks: 6)
Programmed, Keyboards: Adam Pickard (tracks: 2 to 4, 7 to 12), Eduard Botric* (tracks: 1), Ed Leal* (tracks: 2 to 4, 7 to 12), Peter Huntington (tracks: 2 to 4, 7 to 12)
Recorded: Adam Brown (tracks: 1 to 4, 6 to 12), Clive Goddard (tracks: 1 to 4, 6 to 12)
Vocals: Eos (tracks: 3, 5), Gay-Yee Westerhoff (tracks: 5), Lynda Richardson (tracks: 4)

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2004 CD Decca LC 00171


Classified is the third studio album and fourth overall album released through Decca Records by the classical crossover string quartet Bond. Lead single "Explosive" was released as a double A-side with a different version of "Highly Strung." This updated version featured on the special edition of "Classified." Popular worldwide, Classified found success in Australia where it went double platinum. "Explosive" was also picked to be the Australian theme for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. "Explosive" is also used regularly during New York Rangers ice hockey games at Madison Square Garden as the intermission music prior to a shootout, should the game reach that phase. In Japan, a Special Edition with different artwork was released. It features three bonus tracks (Caravan, Carmina & Sugarplum) which were later feature on their greatest hits album Explosive: The Best of Bond.



Bond is a string quartet made up of four good-looking women, two from Australia, two from Great Britain. Their training is in purely classical music, which this CD certainly is not. Their previous CD was banned from the UK classical charts, presumably because of the overly insistent use of beats and other intrusions, and this CD too contains African, electro, Latin and hip-hop beats. Bond will be the first to acknowledge that they're heavily influenced by the club scene and pop culture from London to Bangkok. Here they are joined by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the sound is enormous: there's level upon level of overdubbing. Some of the tracks have, as their basis, classical works: Pachelbel's Canon, snippets of Swan Lake, the Nutcracker, Carmen's Habanera, Brahms' Hungarian Dance no. 5, Barber's Adagio for Stings. But the sound we get is lush, beat-heavy, club-ish, full of excitement and basic rhythms, and the "classical" connection--aside from the melodies from the above-mentioned pieces--must be taken on faith. The women's solo playing, if there is any, is not audible. The over-riding feel is disco; this is for dancing and for creating a mood of excitement.

Robert Levine - Amazon.com



It's telling that Bond decided to cover the flutter disco classic "Fly Robin Fly" for Classified, its third official album. An irresistibly flaky studio confection of chirping strings and lighthearted beats, "Fly" was essentially a 1975 blueprint for the Bond girls' 21st century sound. Naturally, they handle it with professional charm. Backed by capable beats and processed guitar, violinists Eos Chater and Haylie Ecker, violist Tania Davis, and cellist Gay-Yee Westerhoff reproduce the track perfectly, right down to the vocal interjections (handled by Chater and Westerhoff). Yes, it's fluff. But so was the original, and it was a worldwide smash. Like the sweet violins cascading through the disco era, or Welsh whelp Charlotte Church transposing her soprano over show tunes and pop, Bond's classical skills are just arrows in their quivers as macro-pop interpreters on the world stage. Classified's set list of softballs and wide-angle international flair bears this out. The keening strings and pulsing beats of "Explosive" and the likely named "Samba" are lit with a Latin flame; "Hungarian" amplifies its gypsy qualities with relentless electronic rhythms; and "Lullaby" crosses the familiar sway of Pachelbel's Canon in D with cut-up pop resembling Madonna's "Don't Tell Me." The support of London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on many of these tracks is a nice connector to the classical world, but Classified is still dominated by slick pop production and clicky drum machines, often rendering even Bond's playing as part of the overall scenery. There's filler here, too, where Bond's recombinant formula takes things too far. "Highly Strung," for example, tries to marry Khachaturian's manic Sabre Dance to spy movie guitar and chattering electronics, the result being more garishly cartoonish than interpretive. Still, as their cover of "Fly Robin Fly" suggests, Bond is just trying to have some widely accessible fun. Classified doesn't have purist appeal, but who needs those sourpusses, anyway?

Johnny Loftus - AllMusic.com
 

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