bond

The band bond is a wonderful string quartet that do an excellent job of taking classical and original music played on string instruments and recreating it in a modern feel while still performing it on string instruments. They represent the United Kingdom as well as the cousins from down under- of the four women, Gay-Yee Westerhoff is from England, Eos Chater is from Wales, and Tania Davis and Haylie Ecker are from Australia. Nearly all of their music is upbeat and motivating, making it excellent music to listen to while driving in fast-moving traffic. You can actually see and hear bond playing in the movie Johnny English, a film that is “complete rubbish but absolutely hilarious” according to someone I know who lives in England, and in the movie XXX: State of the Union, a film that I have not seen.

A few of my favorite bond songs:

• Viva
• Victory (Mike Batt Mix)
• Explosive
• Duel
• Fuego

I myself bought their latest release from 2004, “Explosive: The Best of bond”. It is a purchase I consider quite worthwhile, and I heartily recommend it to most anyone who enjoys both beautifully-played string instruments and music that makes you feel like jumping a sports car that is on fire over a blown-out bridge and into a crowd of violinists who are also on fire. The disc is actually double-sided, with one side holding the actual CD, and the other holding a DVD with a few videos, some pictures of the four ladies in limousines, and the tracks in surround sound. One drawback to this disc, however, is that older CD players such as the one in my car won't play it because it's a bit thicker than regular CDs due to its duality.