geekent's Buy Nothing Year

Verbal Remixes and Collaborations - A product of 6 years ago, before youtube and widespread high-bandwidth internet usage, this CD contains the "Verbal" video, an innocuous-seeming, Speed-Racer-esque high speed car rally through futuristic streets. The puling beats and blips and sounds compliment the mysterious MC Decimal R's unintelligibly distorted rhymes, each audible nuance in the song however is represented on the screen as light or colour. It's actually quite stunning, I get transfixed every time I see it. When I bought Tobin's source album from which the song comes, "Verbal" was immediately my standout favourite, and remains still one of my favourite electronic compositions, the video as well still among my all-time favourites. This misleading ep clocks in at over 45 minutes, making it longer than many artist's full lengths. Instead of just shopping out the usual assortment of three or four remixes to craft his ep, Tobin ventured for something different, collaborating with mega DJs like Kid Koala, Bonobo, and P-Love to create all-new tracks, and some genuinely intriguing ones at that. "Untitled" with Kid Koala patiently and silently builds into a melodic tropical rhythm, while "Ten Piece Metric Wrench Set" with Steinski is an industrially supercharged mix of robotic sounds and clanging reverberations. The collaboration, "Ownage" (with Doubleclick), plods tediously along for six-plus minutes, which segues into Prefuse 73 rather bland but thankfully short "Verbal" remix. Topo Gigio rescues us from boredom with a spacey and ethereally frenetic mix, followed by Kid 606's Rubicks Cube of sounds barely clinging on the Decimal R's verbals to even be considered a remix. Boom Bip goes downtempo with his mix, which works as a fitting close, brining the pace down nicely from 606's freneticness. The four Verbal remixes are by star talents but none measure up to the original and while it's interesting to hear the remixer's own nuances mix into one of Tobin's greatest tracks, the necessity of doing so isn't really there. A bit of fun, but for the most part non-essential.



Athens, Ohio - I was introduced to Solex via GAK, long before his radio-days when he'd mix a tape or CD solely for me. Ah, the freedom of youth. Solex, a Dutch record store owner, straddles the line between novelty act, pop, and avant garde. Blending her bizarre lyrics, sing-talking inflection and adorable Dutch accent with some live instruments, rhythm sequencers and loops her sound was - and remains - distinct. Athens, Ohio doesn't really provide a good glimpse at Solex, as like any musician who incorporates sampling, electronics and turntables into their music, she's prime for remixing. The title song is presented in original form, but the rest of the EP is given over to artists like Mount Florida and Kid 606 to make funky work of her unusual compositions. Odd best describes them all, and I'm not sure any of the remixers could consciously assemble a track that felt logical. Every track feels like the mixer is tinkering would sounds, working on a collage and hoping something understandable comes out in the end.



Rating (keep/sell/undecided): Sinking Hearts - keep
Verbal Remixes and Collaborations - keep
Athens, Ohio - sell

Where are they now?
The Organ - disbanded at the end of 2006 for "various reasons"
Amon Tobin - still truckin' along making inventive and engaging electronica, and venturing into video game and film scores
Solex - no album's since 2005, but she's still performing on occasion and appeared on the Go! Team's 2007 album.

BONUS RE-REVIEW: The Beta Band: The Three E.P.'s - This is where I fell in love with the Beta Band. I know I'm not the only one.

I've recounted my affection for the Beta Band numerous times... or at least I thought I did, but I can't seem to find any links to that effect... I did a side blog back in 2004/05 called 21 minutes which was, each week, a 21minute mini-disc mix of mp3s, and I know I did a smashing all-Beta Band mix with write-up that's now lost to the ether. Anywho... I loved the Beta Band (pronounced "bee-tah", not "bay-tuh"), still do. Three albums, plus the 3 E.P.s, a handful of singles and a 2-DVD set equals a glorious output from the English quartet.

I remember watching The Edge on MuchMusic, Friday nights in Y2K(& Y2K+1) with my best friend and seeing the video for "Inner Meet Me" and us both marveling at the curiousness of this band.



From the video we could tell they were obviously a bizarre troupe of musicians, roaming around in their layers of uncoordinated clothing, rolling backwards uphill in their sleeping bags. We were transfixed, although not entirely sure what to make of it. The song was hook-laden and yet was almost completely outside the traditional pop structure of songwriting. The rhythmic, repetitious nature of the guitars and the lyrics are what enticed me most, but the use of heavy percussion and abstract sounds, echo effects and psychedelic resonance all combined for an undeniably unique track. Neither one of us knew what to say about it at first, later expressing curiousness, although still perplexed. It was only after rewatching High Fidelity that we put 2 and 2 together and I was sold.

While I think the Beta Band's full-length output (including their maligned self-titled release, their epic Hot Shots II and their attempt at hit-making and ultimately their swan song[s]0, Heroes To Zeroes) is pretty fab, remaining strong and innovative years after they've left the scene, they still can't compare to the ingenuity and unencumbered creativity of The Three E.P.'s. The mix of avante garde, pop, sampling, found sound, humour, sequencing, psychedelic, and trance amongst others shouldn't really work and yet over four-times-three songs on the collected E.P.s, you get a journey unlike any other.

When creating an album, you tend to mix the songs in an order that has flow, or meaning, or both, but with The Three E.P.'s, the songs are presented as they were on the E.P.s ("Champion Versions", "The Patty Patty Sound" and "Los Amigos Del Beta Banditos"), in order, creating a disjointed mix, which only benefits the perception of experimentalism. There's little predicting the songs, even after hundreds of listens, it's hard to understand where they're going and the Beta Band doesn't like you know predict where you're going to wind up. The progression of their songs, though odd, flows organically to their bizarre or epic or surreal or calming ends.

With two-thirds of the songs bank in over the five minute length while the entire collection threatens to exceed the limits of cd recording at and hour and eighteen minutes, and with perhaps the exception of the near 16-minute droning experimentation that is "Monolith", it justifies it's running time. But even "Monolith" I have come to appreciate over the years, and no longer skip over when listening to the CD or it crops up on iTunes shuffle. 8 years after acquiring the album (and a decade after its release) and I can still listen to The 3 E.P.'s and sink myself deep into it, getting caught up in the triumphant chorus of Dry The Rain or find myself singing She's The One or Push It Out to myself hours after listening to it. These are such fantastic songs...

"Dry The Rain" starts out as a reserved, twangy folk half-parody of a folk song, and lulls you into it's sweet "Take me in and dry the rain" melody until it hits the 2-minute mark and the guitar strums double up and swell, the bass guitar kicking in and a tremendous jam session breaks out. Two minutes later the horns cry and the tone of the song turns epic. There's a reason Rob Gordon can so arrogantly claim to sell 5 albums as if it's a given... this song sells itself. I get tingles every time I listen to it, my head starts nodding, and I have to fight singing along to it in public. (or at work).

"I Know" is a downtempo melee of bass, sparse keyboards and guitar, jangly bells and hushed vocals. It's a calming presence after "Dry The Rain" and though not very engaging, it just wants you to chill.

"B+A" points to trip-hop and electronica for its inspiration, although its guitar, drums, cowbell and other backwards-played musical instruments are all original loops. They loops play in a quiet, head nodding, layered drone before the levees give way and a massive flood of sound breaks out, Liquid Liquid style. Heads will nod, feet will stomp, bodies will move. From it's meager opening, I always forget what power hides behind it.

"Dogs Got A Bone" - accordian, records scratches, bongos, acoustic guitars, electric guitar effects, beatboxing, harmonica, bass guitar, layered harmonies, pianos.. a crazy barrage of disparate instruments and techniques building to a grand sense of importance, even though the last 4 minutes the only lyrics uttered is the ambiguous refrain: "Listen and you will see, coming on into me/we are climbing". It's like Dylan clashing with the Beatles on a particularly fruitful acid trip.

"Inner Meet Me" takes the lessons from the four songs of the previous ep and reworks them into a whole new, fresh and delicious tune. The repetitive acoustic guitar strumming, the opening lyrical loop, the segue from spacey to poppy, nobody traverses that ground better than the Beta Band. This song reminds me much of (the underappreciated Californian band) Swell's song structure, heavily rhythmic in instrumentation and lyrics, hooky without being distastefully pop-focussed.

"The House Song" - "Put it in your pocket for a rainy day/Sing your song now you know you're wrong now" is put on a looped cycle, layered and cut up, with a whisper of a turntable mixing in the background, later transitioning into a disco/dancehall (erm, house) breakdown. Bizarre and infectious. Perhaps 90 seconds too long, but fun nonetheless.



"Monolith" is an epic journey of found sounds and sonic collage, mixing some sparse instrumentation in to keep it interesting. It's trippy, passive listening, but a voyage I quite like taking every time.

"She's The One" I consider to be one of the most sweeping, romantic songs, Jew's harp, squeaks and chipmunk singing included. When I started to really realize just how much I loved the woman who would later become my wife, this song, along with the Beta Band's other big romance song, "Wonderful" (from Heroes To Zeroes) were played on a non-stop rotation...not on my iPod, but in my brain. I know the lyrics of "She's The One" are a bit silly and the song itself isn't, you know, "mood setting" like Barry White or Marvin Gaye or BTO, but I be damned if this song's joyful affirmation that "She's the one for me" doesn't hit me somewhere in the love dispensers.

Push It Out begins, as many of the great BB songs do, with a slow, unassuming intro, this time jazz-style, a cymbal lightly tapped, the resonant hum of something else in the background, as a pair of the Betas hush out the words "Push it out/ Push it aaall out". The handclaps come in, a grinding whirl, a soft bass lick, a muted piano tune filling in the empty space without overwhelming the tranquility. You know as it all returns to just the cymbal and the voices are no longer hushed, a big kettle drum begins booming, that, like the dark clouds rolling in, the thundercrack's going to give way to a storm. But it's not a torrent, the last 90 seconds of this song is like that beautiful rainstorm, a slow, methodical release. Push it out. Push it aaall out.

"It's Over" is an absolute delight. An old upright bass lick and the playful strumming guitar give space for the freeform jazz sing-talked lyrics. At the halfway point everything drops, and it changes completely into a rootsy, quiet remorseful melody. Very unique and absolutely lovely.

"Dr. Baker" gives me chills. Unlike most Beta Band tracks, "Dr. Baker" reigns itself in from excess, an echoy chorus sing the lyrics while a piano plays a repetitive tune. It's haunting, and beautiful. A couple moments give way to freeform chaos, but the sparseness always returns, the chimes switch hitting for the piano as the chorus breaks. Absolutely chilling.

"Needles In My Eyes" is a perfect flipside bookend, paired with the CD's opener "Dry The Rain". Where as the opening track builds to a bombastic climax, the album's conclusion builds to an anti-climax, which is to say it never erupt. Even though it's well different from "Dry The Rain" there is a parallel mentality to the two songs, the Beta Band craftsmanship. If any two songs were the most marketable it would be these two. In fact, "Needles" is the most straightforward song here, an organ the feature instrument, creating a near-gospel out of the chorus singing "Needles in my eyes won't cripple me tonight, alright/Twisting up my mind please pull me through the light, alright". Equally uplifting and somber, a respectful farewell to the listener.

Over at hipster music blog stereogum this year they've been honoring the 10th anniversary of some landmark albums (REM's Automatic For The People, Bjork's Post, and Radiohead's OK Computer) with some flavour-of-the-day artists contributing covers to each of the albums tracks. The results are a mixed affair, but conceptually very enjoyable. 1999 marks The Three E.P.'s 10th, and it would be a brilliant candidate for the series.

Hats off to the Beta Band. You're still missed