On Friday, August 15, 2003, at 12:30 AM, Irene McC wrote:
quoted 2 lines Yesterday I saw the UNKLE video for their upcoming single "Eye for an
> Yesterday I saw the UNKLE video for their upcoming single "Eye for an
> Eye" for the first time, directed by Shynola. Wow - very impressive.
Interesting. Cool. The transformation of happy nipple sucker people
into chattering quasi-fly people vaguely reminds me of something out of
Silent Hill 3 (ps2 game), which I have been playing lately. Here's a
direct link to the video (quicktime):
http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~shivo/eye.mov
quoted 4 lines
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> http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~shivo/unkle77/antiwar.html
>
> Any word on the album? Marvellous / good / bad / disappointing ?
Standing on its own, It's good. Compared to 'Psyence Fiction', it's
marvelous. But then, I really didn't like PF. 'Never Never Land' is, as
James Lavelle has said in interviews, a more 'organic' album than
previous efforts. Many more acoustic sounds and layers, and the whole
things is somewhat vocal-heavy. He's got some interesting guests on
this one: Vocals by Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age on one
track (a good one), Brian Eno and Jarvis Cocker (from Pulp) collaborate
with him on others. Two members of the Stone Roses (Mani and Ian Brown)
are on a couple tracks. 3D from Massive Attack, and Joel Cadbury of
South are also present for one track each (for those unfamiliar with
South, UNKLE and South collaborated on much of the music on the 'Sexy
Beast' soundtrack, and most of South's albums have been put out by
Mo'Wax, Lavelle's label. They have a sound similar to the Stone Roses
I'd say, maybe a little folkier.)...
Here's a track by track. I basically skipped #2 (you can hear it in the
video above) and gave the most text to a few of my favorites:
#1 ('Back and Forth') Monologue by a guy about ups and downs of life
over piano/synth and a sample of Black Sabbath's 'Changes'. The guy
giving the monologue, I'm not sure who he is, but he reminds me of the
guy on Fink's track 'Ever Since I Was A Kid It Seemed I Collected
Something'. Two different people, but they both have that kind of
strange beat-down old New Yorker tone and cadence of voice.
#2 ('Eye for an Eye') You've heard this if you've watched the above
video. Sounds like it could be at home on Shadow's latest, 'The Private
Press'.
#3 ('In A State') opens with piano that reminds me of 'The Exorcist'
soundtrack, then leaves that behind and shifts into acoustic guitar and
a slightly menacing bassline over a trance-tempo 4/4 beat, all of it
backing male vocals. Ethereal female backing vocals swirl around in the
foreground around the 3:00 mark...These fade, along with the 4/4 beat,
giving the foreground back to the male vocals and the guitar, which are
soon joined by strings. The return of the 4/4 beat and bassline
follows, the strings swell, it all cuts for a second, then the piano
comes back in. Acoustic guitar follows, male choral voices, then the
beat and bassline kick back in, followed by some female choral voices,
then the beat/bassline fades and the song ends with the choral voices
and the piano. The overall effect is of walking down a long hallway at
dawn, near the end of a long sleepless night, opening a door to a
garage, getting into a car, and driving into the sunrise.
#4: ('Safe In Mind [Please Get This Sun Out From My Face]'). This is
the Josh Homme track. His vocals are pretty up front in the mix,
starting out over a low, chugging baseline. This eventually builds into
same baseline overlaid with urgent clattering drums for a bit over the
'chorus', then back down, then up again, subtle wailing guitar and
synth coming in and out here and there...Overall a pleasant ride with
some dark edges to it. (you'll find the whole album rather dark,
actually).
#5: ('I Need Something Stronger'). Brian Eno is in on this one. Mostly
ambient piece, altho there is a rather strong bassline present through
a good deal of the track, and some light percussion towards the end.
Interesting medibot samples: Computerized AI-type voices saying 'What's
wrong?', 'If you have a problem, don't hesitate to ask for
assistance!', and various other things. Synthlines reminiscent of the
opening of Blade Runner for a bit in the beginning, these eventually
fade into lush washes. This one is probably the favorite, I'd love to
hear a whole album in this vein.
Tracks #6-#9 lay down a sort of shoegazey feel. Not sure why, seeing as
#6 ('What Are You To Me?') is backed by a 4/4 beat, and the others are
laid down over fairly prominent, uptempo dance-oriented percussion as
well (#6 also has a happier feel than most shoegazer tracks I've
heard). Maybe it's the somewhat breathy, English-sounding male vocals
(not sure who's on #6 + #7 ['Panic Attack'], sounds like Joel Cadbury,
but I'm guessing. #8 ['Invasion'] is 3D from Massive, and #9 ['Reign']
is Ian Brown from Stone Roses). #6 has a nice chuggy analog synth
sounding bassline with a house-tempo 4/4 beat, and good, simple piano
lines and some guitar running through it. #7 has kind of a wacked out
electro feel to it, while still retaining some shoegazer elements. lots
of synth and a borderline d'n'b beat structure to it. #8 sounds like 3D
just got brought up on kiddie porn charges. Aha! Just joshin ya. It
pretty much sounds like a Massive Attack track. Mid-tempo breakbeat,
with more of an analog sounding bassline, and some low- and mid-range
strings thrown in. It's actually quite a good song, I think. The
strings on #9, combined with the skittery breakbeat mixed more upfront,
pull the sound away from shoegazey/mopey-land a bit, but then we end up
in ambient-folk-land...
#10 ('Glow'), with Cadbury (for sure), is an ambient folk tune, slow
vocals and acoustic guitar over ambient synth washes and similar soft
noises.
#11 ('Inside') brings you up from 10 just a little bit. Still sounds
very ambient folk (slow vocals, more acoustic guitar and ambient
synth), but there is more of an slow-chugging bass undertone, sort of
subtly insistent, accompanied by some gentle percussion mid-way in.
Strings also weave in and out, and feature prominently towards the end
of the track.
There's supposedly a #12 ('Awake the Unkind'), but it's not included
on the promo that I have.
And that is all. Any other opinions on this one? No it's not strictly
IDM, but oh well.
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