Frenchy’s Fracas

General Description

Artist/Band: Beck
Album Title: The Information
Year: 2006

It kinda grows on you..
 
How I Got Into This Music
Ah, read my review of his previous album, will ya? Just a bit more background info can be read here.

Google Search: Reviews of The Information | Review of this album at artistdirect.com | Album review at Answers.com | This artist at Last.fm

Tracks that got my attention:
Elevator Music
Strong links to his breakthrough single Loser, but I don’t mind. The keyboards for some mellowness and the guitars for acoustic and electric relaxation.

Think I’m in Love
Extreme melancholy but still kinda funny. Check out the music: it’s a big tip of the hat to movie mega-babe (now nutty far-right animal extremist) Brigitte Bardot’s Contact (have a YouTube experience, click here)

Cellphone’s Dead
It’s the weird combo of instruments that get to me: the 80’s retro-breaks combined with 70’s background vocals. The spooky synth bells-pattern reminded me of the Gorillaz’ DARE track, but maybe that’s just me..

Strange Apparition
With this track it’s easy: when he starts his vocals, I get a chill down my spine. And that piano gives us a great vibe, a kinda Neil Young thing, especially at the end.

Soldier Jane
Second friendly nod to Bardot’s Contact, but now with even more strong references. I like the lyrics on this one. The way the bass just drops by on this track is ultimate sweetness.

Nausea
Can’t quite put my finger on it - can’t remember what this song’s reminding of. Bass and strum guitars set a great pace, I love how he combines his samples with his instruments.

New Round
Lessons of the day
On a blackboard night
Seem to be erased
And the beacon has no light
Wow! There’s this sadness and warmth coming from this track, it tears your defenses down but also offers a nice warm blanket for protection.

Dark Star
Space age 70s drama, heavy on the string section. It took me some time to get used to it, but the harmonica sample helps a lot..

We Dance Alone
Not so impressive, still, a solid track.

No Complaints
Just love the synth-work on this song - that mellow spacey feeling!

1000BPM
Heavy fun-industrial-electro (new word? new genre?) music, another one that needed some time before I really started liking it.

Motorcade
Weird intro, love the sudden switch and the great low-low breakbeat. Listen to the beat during the chorus, frigging low! Another fantastic collage of sounds and beats (the whistle’s also very funny). And the stuff during the last 90 seconds - man-o-man! Retro feeling, taking you back to the breakdance, body-popping era.

Information
Chorus gets to me, every time.

Movie Theme
Yep, the title really fits the song. It’s taking you back to Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre (and more recently:Air) . Another space odessey track and I love it.

Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton
This track is so fucking (pardon my Frenchy!) weird. Listen to the gazillion different beats and samples happening on the background, foreground, in the middle, just everywhere! It’s collection of songs welded together to make this unbelievable construction. Steel guitar, easy rock guitar, weird breakbeats and samples, everything put together in a beautiful and weird way. With four minutes to go the track’s totally mellowed out and the last two minutes are just plain wacked out; not a lot of people will finish listening this one, but I enjoy it very much!

Conclusion
When I first started listening to this album somewhere in November 2006, I thought it was just like his Guero album: nice, but not really great. But I kept coming back to this album, something about it just clicked for me and if I’ve applied my limited writing talents correctly, the stuff I wrote before should give you an idea of just why it clicked).
The weird and haunting combined with the funny and mellow. The great collages of styles and sounds; my friend, you need to listen to this with headphones.
Believe it or not, this album’s one of my favorite albums of 2006.

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General Description
Artist/Band: Zero 7
Album Title: AnotherLateNight
Year: 2002

In The Mix..
 
How I Got Into This Music
Ah well, after discovering the first Zero 7 album, Simple Things, I was very eager to hear more of their stuff. And the ‘AnotherLateNight’ concept was similar to that of ‘Back To Mine’: get an interesting artist/band to select and even (re)mix their favorite (remixed) tracks. Sounds confusing, but it works perfectly!

Album credits at ArtistsDirect.com

Tracks that got my attention:
(well, all of them actually, but still..)

Sunrays ft. Yeasterday’s New Quintet
Just love the background beats and the laid-back mellowness.

Real Eyes ft Quasimoto
That’s what I like about this album concept: you hear artists that you’ve never encountered before. Love the vocals: the bass-low combined with the nasal voice sounds great.

Witness (Walworth Rd Rockers Dub) ft Roots Manuva
One of the most interesting British artists in years: Roots Manuva. Too bad this one’s a dub version so not a lot of RM’s vocals on display, but still a nice remix.


Jealousy ft Slum Village
Wow, incredible beats combined with the kinky keyboards (nice alliteration, right?).

Channel 1 Suite ft Cinematic Orchestra
Hmm.. Cinematic indeed, great track for a noire cop movie, but not always an interesting listen..

Christine Bonilla ft Joy Zipper
A cute little trippy track, sometimes great, sometimes not so great..

Ghost Ship In A Storm ft Jim O’Rourke
Never heard of this guy, Jim O’Rourke, but I simply fell in love with this track: the sweet 70s California mellowness with the great guitar licks and those lovely vocals!!

93 Til Infinity ft Souls Of Mischief
Excellent track from 90s hip-hop act Souls of Mischief. When you hear the track you immediately get that nineties rap feeling (if you know that feeling, that is..)

Pra Manha ft Da Lata
Wow!Wow!Wow! You have to be a corpse in a very developed state of decomposition not to want to dance to this track! It’s the ultimate “Lord, I love the summer beach” atmosphere track ever made..

Bonnie & Clyde (Herbert’s Fred & Ginger Mix) ft Serge Gainsbourg
Funny thing about this track - I found the original version and realized that the original music’s been sample by MC Solaar in ‘Le Nouveau Western’. Just love this track: the buildup of different dance tempos is incredible - first the instrumental intro, then the vocals followed by the heavy bass drum beat and that followed by a great lazy bass!! You cannot ignore this song, it’s just too catchy.. And can you imagine ex-sex kitten Brigitte Bardot singing? Well, it’s her vocals.

Happiness (Ashley Beedle’s West Coast Mix) ft Shawn Lee
Shawn Lee’s voice would tempt the angels to give up their wings..

You Can’t Turn Me Away ft Sylvia Striplin
This is one of my all-time favorite tracks! That crazy bass loop and miss Striplin’s unbelievably great voice. This song’s also been haunting me coz I couldn’t remember where I heard it being sampled. Long Live the Interwub: the track’s been sampled by Junior MAFIA in ‘Get Money’. Here’s a little list of other tracks sampling this song.

Loving You, Holding You ft Don Blackman
Ooooh.. the bass! The bass!! Ouchie! Love it, just forget about some of the lyrics.

Cool Out ft Leroy Hutson
Perfect closing song for a dance party..

Truth & Rights ft Zero 7
Mellow mellowdrama by the boys themselves..

People Make The World Go Round ft The Stylistics
Not bad..

Conclusion
Excellent album, mixing of styles and beats working just right for me. I always have this one on me mp3-player. Of course it’s not a Zero 7 album I’m actually reviewing, but it’s their selection of music they dig that I’m writing about. And that selection is very, very nice!
ATTENTION: their next studio album, The Garden will be somewhere in May 2006 - check it out!

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