Blue Man Group – Audio (2000) [DVD-Audio + AUDIO-DVD]

Blue Man Group’s debut album, Audio, reflects over a decade’s worth of musical and theatrical innovation. While its whimsical, visually involving stage performances have been popular since the early ’90s, the group waited to make an album until it could find a recording space large enough to house its unique instruments, which include walls of drums, networks of plumbing pipe, and different lengths of vibrating fiberglass rods. Audio incorporates all of these instruments, along with baritone guitars, Hungarian cimbaloms (which are similar to dulcimers), and Chapman Sticks, into 14 eclectic instrumentals. These songs were written specifically for Audio and have never been performed at a Blue Man stage production. Though the spectacle of the group playing its sculptural, surreal-looking instruments is absent from the album, the complex, resonant sound of Audio is engaging enough on its own. In fact, the swooshing of the sword poles on “Utne Live Wire” and the fluttering angel poles on “Endless Column” sound even more alien without the visual accompaniment. Some of Audio’s pieces (“Drumbone,” “PVC IV”) spotlight a specific Blue Man-made instrument, while others (“TV Song,” “Club Nowhere”) display the group’s avant-garde pop sensibilities. “Rods and Cones,” “Cat Video,” and “Opening Mandelbrot” are other standout tracks from Audio, an album that proves the Blue Man Group is as innovative in the studio as it is onstage.

Tracklist:
01. Mandelgroove (05:49)
02. PVC IV (04:15)
03. TV Song (03:07)
04. Synaesthetic (05:31)
05. Utne (Wire Man) (03:47)
06. Rods And Cones (06:14)
07. Tension 2 (02:05)
08. Opening Mandelbrot (03:15)
09. Club Nowhere (05:01)
10. Drumbone (02:44)
11. Shadows (02:06)
12. Cat Video (02:18)
13. Klein Mandelbrot (08:02)
14. Endless Column (05:04)
15. Last Train To Transcentral (Bonus Track) (04:24)

video footage of interviews
still images (explaining the instruments of the Blue Man)
video from Cat Video

Personnel
Chris Bowen – Drums
David Coter – Zither
Christian Dyas – Bass, Guitar, Arranger, Zither, Guitar (12 String), Consultant
Bryon Estep – Guitar
Jens Fischer – Zither
Matt Goldman – Drums, Cimbalom
Larry Heinemann – Bass, Cuica, Chapman Stick, Guitar (Baritone)
Gary Hernandez – Insrument Design
John Kimbrough – Guitar
Elvis Loderer – Zither
Ian Pai – Percussion, Drums, Aronophonic
Todd Perlmutter – Percussion, Drums
Jeff Quay – Drums
Bradford Reed – Zither
Crag Rodriguez – Drums
Phil Stanton – Drums, Cimbalom, Bullroar, Tubulum
Clem Waldmann – Drums
Chris Wink – Drums, Cimbalom, Tubulum