"As Cunningham explained, he has been recording train sounds from outside his U.K. apartment for ten years, and for this piece he replaced 90% of the Scott-Heron’s musical track with these train sounds and environmental recordings, pitch-shifting and harmonizing them to create a “musique concrete” version of the original composition"
Here is an article to tell you all about it. It's good to hear that Chris is using his considerable talents to bring us music as well as video nowadays, look forward to hearing more . . .
Here's a one screen version of what he premiered (the original had three), it's awesome. At the time of writing, it's taking ages to play so you might want to give it a while to load if you can't be arsed with the stuttering . . .
http://www.theonion.com/articles/yes-sweetie-mommys-heard-of-gil-scottheron,11141/
that's fucking amazing and makes me want to go out and record things. lots of vangelis in there. he's a clever boy, glad to see more from him.
ReplyDeletethe record's stuck, the record's stuck, the record's stuck. or perhaps...
ReplyDeletethe CD's skipping, the CD's skipping, the CD...
dare I say it but, touch of the emperor's new clothes here?
[ducks to avoid thrown projectiles]
i've listened to it a couple of times now, just to check, and maybe i'm missing something, but... the visuals are pretty good (if all a bit urban Powaqaatsi) but the tunes are a kinda whack... i much preferred the original!?
did like that onion article though :)
ReplyDeleteI prefer the original too Scobes, but I also really like this, he's doing some interesting things with those sounds, I think it really suits the worn out and alienated lyrics, overtones of the Blade Runner sountrack as Jim says . . it's darker, more ominous, quite chilling. Imagine standing on a dank subway platform at night feeling the cold on the back of your neck as an old homeless man mutters in your ear about how the city chewed him up and spat him out, if that helps at all. Try on these new pants the emperor lent me, they're snug as fuck . . .
ReplyDeleteAye fair enough. Leaves me wanting more of Gil, and slightly irritated by the skippingness of it all. Maybe that's the point. But then I like cities. Rural idylls are nice and all, but they're merely the occasional playground for my part-time pastoral pleasure-seeking in betweens whilst I slave to the grind for the Man in the Big Smoke. Nae milking coos or ploughing fields for me thanks. Bring on the urban alienation and the social dislocation of the metropolis. And repetitive train noise loops. Ah shite.
ReplyDelete