Disagree with Boolez. The All-Stars are taking so-called "new music" where it belongs—further into the 21st century—and demonstrating that they're one of the few "new music" ensembles that can tackle through-composed music (supplemented with *recorded samples,* no less) and make it sound consistently fresh and exciting. Marclay's "Fade to Slide" hits musique concrète, Ghys' "An Open Cage" follows Cage's own recorded voice into weird atonal melody and rhythm, and Gordon's "Gene Takes A Drink" cascades out of a waking dream. There's plenty more to discover here.

BOAC, like Uber Hipsters Quartet Kronos, used to be steller ambassadors of new music. This current record documents their slide to irrelivance. None of the pieces grab me as they all end up sounding the same. It's depressing hearing otherwise talented musicians get to this point. -Bz