Peter Vermeersch's
Flat Earth Society is often transformed into a bunch of swingin' jazz cats on the
Minoes soundtrack album -- and appropriately so, since the Minoes film, a 2002 kids' flick and box office hit in the Netherlands, is about a woman who is transformed into a cat after drinking a mysterious potion. The 17-piece big band is lithe and slinky as befitting the feline subject matter, occasionally striking a retro lounge pose with small ensemble groupings and
Tom Wouters' vibes prominent in the mix. Given its thematic consistency,
Minoes hangs together better than
the Flat Earth Society's striking
Bonk from 2001, in which
Vermeersch and company seemed intent on proving (successfully, one hastens to add) that they could do practically anything: brass band fanfare, manic funk riffing, Middle Eastern groovefest, twisted waltz, "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music, a
Residents cover or two.
Minoes somehow comes off as a bit more coherent if less ambitious; the listener feels the band heard at the CD's start is the same outfit playing on the last track. Yet with 41 tracks adding up to only 36 minutes of music, most of the cues are less than a minute long, hardly giving some of Belgium's finest musicians an opportunity to get started before they must come to an abrupt halt. Still,
Vermeersch is able to squeeze his typically inventive arrangements, including tight full-band charts and touches of electronics and sampling, into these tiny packages. Fans of this always intriguing composer/bandleader should find much to enjoy with
Minoes.