Vol.2 Episode 38

Radiohead - Give Up The Ghost RMX/Codex RMX/Little By LittleRMX

It occurred to me after I put up my last post that I did not do a review of the fourth issue of the Radiohead remix series. This is now out of order. Not that it matters to you but it does to me. Well, I guess it is not that big of a deal but it is just a little bit annoying to me that I did not keep these in order. It is too late now though. Anyway, the first track on this triple A-side record is remixed by Thriller Houseghost. This one has a really nice melody that uses a slightly distorted sign wave. The song later uses the same type of tone an octave hgher to flow with the vocals of Thom Yorke. Yorke’s vocals have a nice sounding echo giving the vocals a ghosted effect fitting with the remix title. The next track is remixed by Illum Sphere. This track uses a repetitive tone surrounded by tones in the associated chord. It is one of the slower songs and makes me feel kind of sleepy. This track also makes use of an echo on York’s vocals. It is not has heavy but just enough to make me feel tired. This may also be because of the repetitive tone that runs through the whole song. It is a good remix but it is also a tiring one. The last remix for this record was remixed by Shed. This one starts out with a very annoying sound that for some reason reminds me of the noise makers that were used in the latest Harry Potter movie to keep the dragon inside Gringots at bay. I found that noise just as annoying. On the up side to this the noise is not that bad when I listen to the track on my stereo. The other good thing is that the noise fades a little bit after the first minute. I really like the first two tracks off this one but the last one leaves something to be desired with that noise on the first part of the song. The song gets a little bit better but not by much after the noise dies off. I am sure that I have said this in the past but if I haven’t then here it is. This whole series will be released on CD in October. If you have any interest in hearing any of these songs or owning any of them wait to get the two CD set.

U2 – Achtung Baby

This is the seventh release from U2. It was released in 1991. I hated this album and the songs released from it when it came out. My girlfriend, at the time, loved it. I did not get it. I don’t think that I understood what U2 was all about either at the time. I probably still don’t get them to this date. It has taken twenty years for me to com back to this album enough to say that I like the music that was put out during this time period from the group. I think that it helps that Brian Eno was taped to help produce this album. This still doesn’t answer why I did not like the album when it came out though. Maybe it is that I did not like what Brian Eno was doing or had done in the past in 1991. I mean, it wasn’t until last year (2010) that I started getting into David Bowie music. Anyway, this was the first in a series that would include sounds from alternative, industrial, and electronic dance music. Inspiration would come from the reunification of Germany. There were five singles released from this album. The first is called The Fly. Bono ended up making a character out of the song that he took on the tour for the album. The song has an interesting sound. The guitar has a nice tube sounding distortion that became popular with the alternative scene in the next couple years. Bono used the falsetto in the vocals that would be used more frequently on later albums. The next single from this album is called Mysterious Ways. This is one of two tracks that I remember hearing on the radio in the US. It uses a psychedelic sounding distorted guitar. I think that this is a brilliant sound with the guitar. I remember the video used a strange effect as bono sang in the video. To me it looked like he was filmed on a reflection of some sort of plastic reflective material. I say this because the image would warp strangely. I think that I had distaste for this video and song because of this. This may be where my dislike for the band came from as this video was really my first introduction to U2. The third single from this album is called One. This is the first ballad released from the album. It is supposedly a view point of a fracturing interpersonal relationship. It has been interpreted in other lights as well but this is how most people view the song. He next single is called Even Better Than The Real Thing. Bono has said this about the song, “It was reflective of the times [the band] were living in, when people were no longer looking for the truth, [they] were all looking for instant gratification.” It is a good song that uses some interesting effects on the guitar, a DigiTech Wammy pedal, for example, that creates a double octave sweeping sound. The last single released from the album is called Whose Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses. This is one of the hardest songs that the band has written. It is not that it is hard to play but that it is hard to capture the spirit of the song. As such the band hardly ever has played the song live. When they tried to record the song they ended up with at least twelve different mixes of the song. They finally went back and re-recorded it to match as closely to the original demo of the song. This is really a good album with interesting and new ideas, at the time, for U2. If you haven’t given it a chance, like myself, I think that 20 years later is a good point to do so.

Run DMC – Tougher Than Leather

This is the fourth album from the rap group. It was released in 1988. I was taken aback when I found a nonscratched copy of this album on vinyl a few weeks ago. This would have been a DJs dream back in the late 80s. The thing that I thought was ridiculous about this vinyl copy was that it was super thin. It is currently all the rage to press vinyl at 180 grams making the record more sturdy and less likely to warp. This record had to be like 120 grams. It is so thin I could probably see light through the record if I held it up to the light and it is solid black. I grew up with this album in middle school on a copied cassette. I recorded the album from a friend’s cassette. I loved this album because it was rap at its best in my eyes. There is no swearing on this album. This is probably part of the reason that my parents did not take it away from me actually. My parents hated anything that was too heavy or was not the “normal” kind of music to listen to. They kind of had to let that last bit go since I loved all kinds of music. There were three singles released off this album. The first was Run’s House. This song samples the song Funky Drummer by James Brown. The music, other than the sample, behind the vocalists is basically a drum machine and record scratching. It is really that simple. It is these simplistic ideas that brought me to enjoy the old skool rap (the late 80s rap for sure). It was after the 80s that rap became the horrible east coast west coast sound wars. This was one of the fun rap albums that came out. The next single that was released fro this album is called Mary, Mary. This song used a sample from the song Mary, Mary from The Monkeys. The sample makes the song sound so good. The group made great choices with the samples that they used. The last single from this album is called I’m Not Going Out Like That. There were no music samples that were used on this track but there was a political sample that was used. I am not sure what the sample is from though. For me this album is a great piece of nostalgia. I still consider myself lucky to have even found a copy of it, let alone that it was found on vinyl.

Michael Jackson – Off The Wall

This is the fifth studio album from Michael Jackson. It was released in 1979. Quincy Jones and worked with Jackson on this album. Jackson also collaborated on the writing of this album with the likes of Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Rod Temperton. There were five singles released from this album. The first single released is called Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough. This is a great disco inspired track with the inclusion of the string section pushing it into that disco feel. There was a video created for this song as well. The next single from this album is called Rock With You. This was the track that was written by Rod Temperton. This is probably the most recognizable song from this album. This is the one that I remember when I was a child of about four years old. Like I have said in previous posts, my mother listened to the top 40 radio station of the day. This song is also heavily influenced by disco. I don’t have a problem with disco. I love disco and would buy a box set of singles if I ran across one. I am not going to go out of my way to hunt down a disco singles box set but if I happen to find one I would probably buy it on the spot. The third single from this album is called Off The Wall, the title track from the album. This track is also written by Rod Temperton. The song is about getting over the small problems in your life, letting loose a little and having fun in life. The fourth single from this album is called She’s Out Of My Mind. This song was written by Tom Bahler. This single is the ballad single from the album in the classic Michael Jackson style ballad song. For me it falls flat and is not all that interesting musically speaking. The song has been covered many times by many artists. I am not sure if this is also a cover or if this is the first time that the song was recorded though. The last single from the album is called Girlfriend. This song was written by Paul McCartney. McCartney had recorded this song in 1978 with his band Wings. This song was written for Jackson though. It is an interesting turn of events. McCartney wrote the song for Jackson. Then recorded it before Jackson had a chance to record it himself first. Thus, Jackson covered the song that was written for him. This isn’t his greatest effort but it is still good for an artist striking it out on his own finally. Jackson had full creative control over this album and it shows.

 That is all I have for now...