There is an EP of unreleased Nine Inch Nails remixes scheduled for release next week. The music is from The Downward Spiral era. One of the tracks is the remix of Closer that was used in the credits for the movie Seven.
here we go...
With the new album coming out from Broken Bells, I decided
to look into what else they had put out for the first album. I found this
single in that search. I had already had the single as a free download and had
the album that the song came from on CD but was interested in getting the B
side as it was unique to the 7” record. There is an insert in the sleeve for a
free download of the two tracks but there was a time limit to getting that
download. I typed in the link on the sheet and found that the page didn’t exist
any longer. This was the lead single for the self titled album. The single was
released in late 2009. For what ever reason, it was listed in the UK as a
limited pressing of 500. I am not aware of that limitation here in the US. On
some copies there was a blue promo sticker that listed the band name and the
two members of the band, James Mercer and Danger Mouse, and the original
release date of the first album.
The A side of the record is for The High Road. The song is a
moderate rocker. The song has a very solid drum beat that has become Danger
Mouses’ signature style. I would love to emulate his style in my own music. It
is just so simple but complex at the same time.
The B side of the record is called An Easy Life(Instrumental). This is a song that I recognize because the original song is on
the Meyrin Fields EP. This is interesting to me because the EP was released
well after the self titled album was released. This produces sort of a quandary
for me because if the instrumental version was released before the EP then
should I have heard this version first and what type of a spin would that have
put on me as to how I would have received the EP. Either way it is a wash I
guess because I have heard the songs in the order that I heard them and cant
stop it now.
This is the first
release from Violens. It is also their first EP. It was released in 2009 on CD
and limited to 1000 copies. It is only four tracks long. This is a piece that
works tward filling out my collection of music from the group. I found out
about the group through the release of their second album, True, when it was
released on Slumberland Records. I liked what they put out so much that I
bought the supporting singles for True and vowed that I would get more music
from them in the future. This EP is the first piece that I have gotten from
before the release of True.
The first song is called Already Over. It start off with
acoustic guitar and drums. The song sounds more like Eggstone than anything off
of True. I like this track a lot because I like Eggstone so much and they
haven’t put anything out in over ten years. Although they [Eggstone] did
produce a song for April March on the album Triggers.
The second track is called Spectator & Pupil. This track
continues with the sound of Eggstone. The tracks here are not quite as well
produced as the Eggstone music but still gives me the warm feeling that
Eggstone did.
The third track is called Doom. This is actually a very
playful track and surprises me because of the name of the track. This track
still follows in that Eggstone styled sound that I like a lot. It almost digs
down into The Monkeys style of playful fun music.
The last track is called Violent Sensation Descends. This
track has an eerie note about it and gives a slight inkling about where the
band would be going in the future. It still retains elements of the Eggstone
sound that I like from this EP though.
This is the third album from The Prodigy. It was released in
1997. They are an electronic rock group and broke through to mainstream with
the release of this album and support of its singles. There was some
controversy with the third single regarding the title and chorus of the song.
The album is in the list of albums that comprise the book 1001 Albums You Must
Hear Before You Die. I am not sure where it lies in that list but it is there.
The first single from the album is called Firestarter. This
was the groups first number one single. The title and lyrics were subject of controversy
in the UK because of their violent nature. The music video further boosted
these controversies. The song was all over the radio I remember. I thought it
was cool but didn’t quite appeal to me. I tried to stay away from music that
was controversial just to be controversial, so I left it be until just
reciently.
The second single from the album is called Breathe. This
song had my interest more so than either of the other two singles. It had more
weight on the music than on the vocals and that was why I was more interested
in this track. It was difficult to understand what the lead singer was saying
so it became more of an instrument in my head. The vocals are very distorted in
an analog way and the distortion on the guitar sounded very cool next to the
vocals. The bass sounds like a synth keyboard with its own kind of distortion
on it. All this distortion just seems to work well together.
The last single released from the album is called Smack MyBitch Up. From Wikipedia, “The lyrics
"Change my pitch up / Smack my bitch up" are repeated through the
whole song. The band defended the song, saying that the lyrics were being
misinterpreted as misogynistic and the song actually meant "...doing
anything intensely..." The song led to a publicized disagreement at the
1998 Reading festival after the Beastie Boys asked the group not to play the
track. The vocals are sampled and altered from the Ultramagnetic MCs song
"Give the Drummer Some". The original lyrics, performed by rapper Kool
Keith, are: "Switch up change my pitch up" / "Smack my bitch up,
like a pimp,...".”
This is a great electronic album that should be heard as it
is incredibly interesting although heavily electronic.
That is all I have for this week...
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