Minimalist in terms of facilities and functionality, The Vibe takes the ‘just what you need – and nothing more’ mantra to its logical extreme. It’s a functional aesthetic that mirrors its sonic priorities. Listen to The Vibe and it’s instantly apparent just how clean and uncluttered the musical presentation is. There’s nothing messy or unnecessary. Instead, the music is presented with an almost stark clarity, with bold shapes and emphatic dynamics, sure-footed rhythms and a natural sense of pace and tempo. This is music as message and content, rather than decoration. It’s all about expressive range and artistic intent, leaving little space for romance or fripperies.
Caroline Shaw’s Evergreen (Attacca Quartet, Nonesuch 075597913507) is difficult, angular music, full of sharp corners and dynamic and tonal contrasts. A musical kaleidoscope, it plays bait and switch with the listener, dangling a snatch of melody here, a tasty little rhythmic hook there – before deftly slipping them behind a new, emerging theme or foundation, only to have them emerge later, evolved or inverted, developed and fully realised. Play it through a line-stage like the VTL TL-5.5, with its overarching temporal grasp and sense of solid presence and the system maintains the shape of the piece but smooths off the corners and mutes the contrasts. Switch to The Vibe and you lose the rich textures and harmonic development of the all-tube VTL, but suddenly the music is bold and vibrant, all clashing facets and interlocking angles. The shape and structure is writ large and with both clarity and purpose, giving the performance a real sense of momentum and direction. The dynamic contrasts are stark, while the intensity of the sustained bowing by both viola and cello take on a sheet-like, almost flanged intensity. Shaw is an accomplished singer and often vocalises the parts for each instrument in rehearsal. You can hear those different voices and the drama in the dynamic and tonal contrasts that result. The path never meanders and the intent that comes from the stark shifts and contrasts, fragmented patterns and disjointed lines is a challenge to the musical integrity and coherence of any component – especially a line-stage – but it’s a test The Vibe aces, without ever compressing or limiting the music.
The intimate intertwining of string quartets – or other small-scale chamber works – depend on the system’s ability to retain and reproduce the relationship between the different players and their instruments. That’s the same whether it’s a piano trio or a string quintet, Haydn, Beethoven or Shostakovich. Caroline Shaw’s work might take the rhythmic, tonal and temporal demands to the edge, but what The Vibe does with Evergreen – or Orange – it does with those other classical pieces too. Play Shostokovich’s String Quartet No.10 (Fitzwilliam Quartet, L’Oiseau-Lyre DSLO 30) and the Second Movement Allegretto Furioso certainly lives up to its billing, full of focussed energy and dynamic tension. But the contrast with the following Adagio could hardly be greater, all poise and brooding pathos. It’s testament to the intimate relationship between the quartet’s members, their mutual familiarity and creative tension, the way their performance is both one of parts and a whole. It’s this ability to track not just the notes and dynamics of the music, but its sense and purpose, to shift with its mood that underpins the Vibe’s musical credentials.
Fat free diet…
In the same way that the combination of leading edge clarity and concentrated musical energy injects life and substance, purpose and direction into small scale ensemble pieces, it fuels the drive and impact of well-recorded rock and pop. Play The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds (Fiction FIX 004) and the Vibe’s pitch security and rhythmic articulation latches onto the inverted arrangements, the bass guitar so often carrying the melody, the lead playing simple rhythm. It captures the urgency in ‘A Forest’ and the off-beat languor of the title track, without ever letting the latter lag. Smith’s vocals are on point and perfectly intelligible, the way he works and varies his voice across the different songs clearly apparent. Tolhurst’s drumming is crisp, solid and perfectly paced, the drum kit a three-dimensional presence, separated laterally and in height, behind the lead vocal. And if it’s lead guitar you crave, Gilmour or Knopfler, Marr or Smith taking on that role for the Banshees, the carved from solid articulation and dynamic shaping delivered by The Vibe is just the ticket. Whether it’s the sheets of sound on ‘Head On The Door’, or Neil Young’s beautiful guitar break on ‘TransAm’, the riffs take on almost physical form, thrusting the air guitar towards you and daring you, just daring you…
