The Monthly Music Trading Post

OctaneHugo · 05-11-2010, 09:18 PM

From James' heart to my doorstep:

As someone who loves Beck's music, this piqued my interest: a collection of B-sides that were released ONLY in Japan. Only 70,000 copies of this album were made. Beck is a talented guy so I was expecting good stuff.

The first tack, "Totally Confused", is hypnotizing and shuffling. It's got a driving drum roll base with some cool tom hits and a nice bass rhythm, a cool acoustic guitar and there's some excellent female backup on Beck's singing. There's a violin solo here, too, and all in all it's a very nice song.

The next one is called "Halo of Gold", and it's definitely strange. It's got a very ethereal guitar(?) and some really neat keyboard and sitar stuff going on, with more drum-and-bass combination and the return of the female background vocals. It sounds quite a bit like a Beatles song (to me) at a couple of points. It gets pretty heavy sometimes, but still remains very chilled out. Interesting. It finishes up with weird horn noises. Good song.

The next track is "Burro", which is apparently a Spanish remake of "Jack-Ass" from Odelay. It's got an acoustic guitar and a heavy emphasis on Latin sounding horns and some strings tossed in. It's pretty decent, but got on my nerves after a while.

The fourth song here is "Brother". It's very quiet, with a guitar (again acoustic) and a piano, with some other random noises in there as well. Very peaceful.

And then there's "Lemonade" and I nearly shat myself when it started. I was falling asleep by the end of "Brother" and then I get distorted drum smashes and Beck screaming at me about belly blades and monster power. There's some serene acoustic guitar and a quiet vocal, then back to first verse style. I'M AWAKE NOW, YOU CAN STOP. It's a great song, though, love the contrast between the guitar (and later, piano) sections that are fast but quiet and the distorted, almost industrial-sounding parts otherwise.

"Electric Music and Summer People" starts off like a techno song and features some Galaga-era arcade noises before some high-pitched, far away vocals and a woman moaning off in the distance. The electronic beat keeps up with some distorted guitar noises and Beck's singing, along with the woman. This really does sound like electric music and summer people; it's definitely great. There's tambourines and claps and some bangin' chick singing here, and a filthy outro that lasts a minute and a half.

"Clock" starts with a pretty funky beat going down with some drums, bass, guitar and more techno noises. Beck sings through a prison loudspeaker and all I can think of is driving down the road in a convertible at around 18:30 in July wearing a pair of sunglasses and nodding my head as my left arm hangs on the door and I drive lazily with my right. There's some orchestral stuff that goes down about midway through layered over the beat and it turns out to do some really cool stuff and segues into a guitar solo which is pretty hot. Gets pretty harsh for a while, then resumes the only cool beat portion for the outro, including a distorted guitar solo thing. After a fadeout, the finale starts.

The album finishes up with "Feather in Your Cap", which opens very slowly with your typical bass-drums-acoustic guitar combo, keeping up the beat when the vocals kick in. Then some cool stuff starts going on with a keyboard, and the acoustic guitar starts doing some neat stuff along with the drums. It's a nice closer, shuffling like "Totally Confused" though definitely not as catchy or memorable. I like the piano that kicks in around 2:45.

Overall, I think this is a really cool album that has some legitimately awesome Beck tunes on it. It's a shame this wasn't more widely distributed, because I really like it.

At least, I managed to listen to it 3 times through to write all this and still enjoy myself.

~~James~~ · 05-12-2010, 03:12 AM

^Glad you enjoyed it
I'll have to do my review tomorrow night if that's okay.

CanwllCorfe · 05-12-2010, 09:52 AM

I'm up for the next one!

The Fascinating Turnip · 05-12-2010, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bulldog

From the vaults of Mr. Unchained Ballad...

The Psychedelic Scene

I'm neither here nor there with psychedelia to be perfectly honest. More because I don't really dig around that era of music as habitually as I do with others than anything else, as I do love me some Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, 13th Foor Elevators and so on. The Nuggets compilations are easily as popular as they deserve to be but, apart from those, I hadn't really had another good psychedelic compilation to call my own, so I was pretty enthusiastic when this one was offered up to me (even if it did take me this long to review it

).

It also helped that, Small Faces and Moody Blues aside, there were no names I recognised among the tracklisting, so I was all over this idea. As I say I'm not exactly a huge fan of psychedelia, so a few of the tracks didn't really grab me as such, but there were plenty of perfectly trippy, spaced-out and sunny numbers to make up for it. On the whole, I prefer my psychedelia when it sounds a bit like the Amboy Dukes' version of Baby Please Don't Go, ie when it has a real kick to it, be it in the shape of the rhythm, organ, piano or whatever. The Felius Andromeda and Societie tracks probably made the best impression of the lot of them on me then, and the Virgin Sleep song is now officially one of my favourite songs.

That's not to say there isn't any other merit to this album - there is. Those were the tunes I remember the most though, and I'm sure more will emerge with repeated listens (and the temptation's there, which is another reason I liked this album). So, yeah, thanks for this Mr. Ballad sir

Well, I'm thrilled you liked the compilation.
I like it quite a lot myself, and have specific periods in which I obsess about one or two songs in it.

Cheers mate! (and thanks for the 3rd volume

)

Bulldog · 05-12-2010, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unchained Ballad

Well, I'm thrilled you liked the compilation.
I like it quite a lot myself, and have specific periods in which I obsess about one or two songs in it.

Cheers mate! (and thanks for the 3rd volume

)

You're welcome sir

I'm gonna say we should start the next trade on Sunday at the earliest, depending how many more reviews pop up here in the near(ish) future. Just to recap, here's who's up for the next one;

+81
Abdullah424
Anteater
Bulldog
James44754
NumberNineDream
OctaneHugo
Unchained Ballad
Unrelenting

Also, a reminder that the theme for the next one is giving your swap partner an album well outside of his/her/its musical comfort zone - anything but the kinda music they usually listen to then.

If anyone else is up for it, just let me know here.

+81 · 05-12-2010, 02:35 PM

Review coming soon.

Bulldog · 05-12-2010, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by +81

Review coming soon.

Nice one. I'm not really that fussed as to when the next one starts, so don't feel rushed or anything

~~James~~ · 05-12-2010, 03:10 PM

I'm in for the next one review up tomorrow night.

Bulldog · 05-12-2010, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by james44754

I'm in for the next one review up tomorrow night.

Good stuff Jim

I'll edit you into the list.

Who else wants to join the party? A few more names would be cool so, come on, don't be shy!

gotjuice · 05-12-2010, 11:15 PM

I'm in.

05-11-2010, 09:18 PM	#1331 (permalink)
OctaneHugo Goes back & does it again Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: philadelphia Posts: 807	From James' heart to my doorstep: As someone who loves Beck's music, this piqued my interest: a collection of B-sides that were released ONLY in Japan. Only 70,000 copies of this album were made. Beck is a talented guy so I was expecting good stuff. The first tack, "Totally Confused", is hypnotizing and shuffling. It's got a driving drum roll base with some cool tom hits and a nice bass rhythm, a cool acoustic guitar and there's some excellent female backup on Beck's singing. There's a violin solo here, too, and all in all it's a very nice song. The next one is called "Halo of Gold", and it's definitely strange. It's got a very ethereal guitar(?) and some really neat keyboard and sitar stuff going on, with more drum-and-bass combination and the return of the female background vocals. It sounds quite a bit like a Beatles song (to me) at a couple of points. It gets pretty heavy sometimes, but still remains very chilled out. Interesting. It finishes up with weird horn noises. Good song. The next track is "Burro", which is apparently a Spanish remake of "Jack-Ass" from Odelay. It's got an acoustic guitar and a heavy emphasis on Latin sounding horns and some strings tossed in. It's pretty decent, but got on my nerves after a while. The fourth song here is "Brother". It's very quiet, with a guitar (again acoustic) and a piano, with some other random noises in there as well. Very peaceful. And then there's "Lemonade" and I nearly shat myself when it started. I was falling asleep by the end of "Brother" and then I get distorted drum smashes and Beck screaming at me about belly blades and monster power. There's some serene acoustic guitar and a quiet vocal, then back to first verse style. I'M AWAKE NOW, YOU CAN STOP. It's a great song, though, love the contrast between the guitar (and later, piano) sections that are fast but quiet and the distorted, almost industrial-sounding parts otherwise. "Electric Music and Summer People" starts off like a techno song and features some Galaga-era arcade noises before some high-pitched, far away vocals and a woman moaning off in the distance. The electronic beat keeps up with some distorted guitar noises and Beck's singing, along with the woman. This really does sound like electric music and summer people; it's definitely great. There's tambourines and claps and some bangin' chick singing here, and a filthy outro that lasts a minute and a half. "Clock" starts with a pretty funky beat going down with some drums, bass, guitar and more techno noises. Beck sings through a prison loudspeaker and all I can think of is driving down the road in a convertible at around 18:30 in July wearing a pair of sunglasses and nodding my head as my left arm hangs on the door and I drive lazily with my right. There's some orchestral stuff that goes down about midway through layered over the beat and it turns out to do some really cool stuff and segues into a guitar solo which is pretty hot. Gets pretty harsh for a while, then resumes the only cool beat portion for the outro, including a distorted guitar solo thing. After a fadeout, the finale starts. The album finishes up with "Feather in Your Cap", which opens very slowly with your typical bass-drums-acoustic guitar combo, keeping up the beat when the vocals kick in. Then some cool stuff starts going on with a keyboard, and the acoustic guitar starts doing some neat stuff along with the drums. It's a nice closer, shuffling like "Totally Confused" though definitely not as catchy or memorable. I like the piano that kicks in around 2:45. Overall, I think this is a really cool album that has some legitimately awesome Beck tunes on it. It's a shame this wasn't more widely distributed, because I really like it. At least, I managed to listen to it 3 times through to write all this and still enjoy myself. __________________ If Any Major Dude Has Yet To Tell You, Click Here Last edited by OctaneHugo; 05-11-2010 at 09:23 PM.

05-12-2010, 09:52 AM	#1333 (permalink)
CanwllCorfe Quiet Man in the Corner Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Pocono Mountains Posts: 2,480	I'm up for the next one! __________________ Your eyes were never yet let in to see the majesty and riches of the mind, but dwell in darkness; for your God is blind.

05-12-2010, 02:35 PM	#1336 (permalink)
+81 Rats off to ya! Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: House of the Ju-Ju Queen Posts: 1,609	Review coming soon. __________________ My Music on: Facebook Last.fm My Last.fm My Poor Ol' Neglected Journal

05-12-2010, 11:15 PM	#1340 (permalink)
gotjuice Rose City til I die! Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Boise, ID Posts: 366	I'm in. __________________ I used to be carried in the arms of cheerleaders...

05-12-2010, 03:12 AM	#1332 (permalink)
~~James~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Scotland Posts: 4,483	^Glad you enjoyed it I'll have to do my review tomorrow night if that's okay.

05-12-2010, 03:10 PM	#1338 (permalink)
~~James~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Scotland Posts: 4,483	I'm in for the next one review up tomorrow night.