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D-Machine wrote:Were you pissed when you bought it Funky? Sorry...stupid question.
Nah, I'd only had one beer. Was wandering round looking for a particular CD (which HMV didn't have), spotted the Amorphous album and the green and yellow Harvest logo called out to me: "Buyyyy meeee! I am the symbol of prog rock goooodness! You are obliged to buy meeee! Remember all those Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett albums? That was meeeee! Buy meeeee! Seventeen quid isn't that much really, is it? Nooooo! And you've got a long train journey ahead – buy meeee and mong out to my over-produced swooshiness and sitars on the way hooooome!"
So I did.
Funky Dung
"People say that alcohol's a drug. It's not a drug, it's a drink."
purlieu wrote:In The Summertime Of Consciousness - Interesting introduction: eastern flutes, jazzy saxophone, really dry vocals from Gaz (no excessive FX this time!)... this is really fucking weird. The melody is downright odd and a bit uneasy, some lo-fi drums come in. No, there's not really any way I can accurately describe this song, as it's gone into some electric piano with distorted vocals now. I love this, simply because I don't understand it. At all..
If you're still wondering where this style of song has come from, it's a direct rip-off of Syd Barrett's solo stuff. Exactly the same kind of production, exactly the same kind of effects on the voice (double-tracked, with one almost doing spoken-word in a very deep, dry voice; the other a distant, echoey high-pitched scream), similar abstract melody...
And the lyrics try rather embarrassingly to sound like Syd Barrett, but only end up sounding awkwardly lame. If you're going to try and copy a song by Syd, you've got to take a hell of a lot more acid than that before you start writing your lyrics!
Nice song though. Just thought I'd let ya know.
Funky Dung
"People say that alcohol's a drug. It's not a drug, it's a drink."
Hmm. I agree with the melody, but the actual production on the track is completely different to any of Barrett's stuff. His records are really stripped down, whereas this has a lot of completely random instruments. Barrett's solo stuff always really disappointed me in a way because of how normal it actually sounds, even though it's still bizarre at its core, whereas this is just downright odd to listen to.
Been listening to this album more recently, and I really like it a lot. It's kinda like a tribute to prog rock, using loads of common arrangements, instruments, harmonies, production techniques and so on to make a wash of prog rock-like noises and tunes.
There are much better modern-day "prog rock"-style albums coming out though, if you know what I mean. Bands that are ACTUALLY making something really inventive and psychedelic, rather than merely making nice music that references classic psych-rock. The recent Mars Volta album, for example. That's got your head spinning at 1,000 RPM within 30 seconds of the CD starting, it's so unusual.
By the way, with the Syd Barrett thing I was just talking about the vocal production and singing style, not the backing tune. The Barrett solo albums have the most straightforward production because the man was practically vegetated by the time he recorded them, and doing anything clever with the production would have been a nightmare – witness the few tunes on Barrett where they've tried to record a band to match up with his original tapes.
Funky Dung
"People say that alcohol's a drug. It's not a drug, it's a drink."
I think that's why I like it, though. I can't say I like much - if any - prog, really, it's far too wanky for me. Alice In Ultraland is just a fun 'take' on prog really, for me. For instance, I find the new Mars Volta album utterly painful dross to listen to, whereas Alice I find really enjoyable because it doesn't take itself so seriously.
And yeah, I see what you mean about the Barrett thing now. It's still the musical arrangement that baffles me most about the song.
I'm with ya – the latest Mars Volta album stands out as being truly proggy and experimental and conceptual and all that, but it's really hard work to listen to (as is much of the best prog rock). Ultraland works because it's very pleasant to listen to, and it's lovely to have all these elements that remind you of favourite songs and albums from the 60s and 70s. Gives it a nice, dreamy feel.
Funky Dung
"People say that alcohol's a drug. It's not a drug, it's a drink."
I hated the Isness so much I got a refund, but I thought I'd give another AA release a go, and I haven't been disappopinted.
Opener 'The Emptiness of Nothingness' is my favourite along with 'Wichfinder' and 'Another Fairy Tale Ending'. The eastern-inspired loops and lush production make this a fascinating modern bitch offspring of all the 1970s prog-rock bands.
