If you are a captive of categories, you will not find this music to your liking. Turnage takes his subject for this work (the life and death of his chemically-addicted brother, Andrew) seriously. And in order to recreate the world his brother inhabited, he draws for inspiration on sources outside art music -- especially the more adventurous reaches of jazz. The result is tough stuff, indeed. For anybody familiar with his work, this should come as no surprise, however. Turnage is the sort of contemporary composer for whom the euphemism "uncompromising" was invented. My opinion, as one who cherishes music that dares to flirt with disaster, is that the extraordinary rhythmic vitality alone of Blood on the Floor is worth the price of admission.It's certain that, even more than most, this music is only as good as the performance of it, since improvisation by the soloists -- all world class jazz musicians on the CD -- is crucial to its effect. This performance truly is wonderful. Guitarist John Scofield is quoted in the CD booklet as speculating that "this really is the music of the future." The opinion is perhaps a trifle grandiose, but it seems likely that "trans-genre" composition by top-notch young composers like Turnage will become more common rather than less as the sort of summing-up and transfiguring that occurred in the arts at the beginning of the 20th Century occurs again in a significant way at this, the beginning of the 21st Century.At the very least, Blood on the Floor is a welcome addition to trans-genre composition, in the excellent company of Stravinsky's Ebony Concerto and Milhaud's La Creation du Monde, to name only two of the the century's award winners in this challenging category.