Archive for the ‘Orbital’ Category

Techno Bagpipe Style

Sunday, October 6th, 2019

I know I said that I was going to post some Canadian disco, but in a decision that will disappoint absolutely no one, I changed my mind and will instead share some rare Orbital remixes.

Orbital
Bagpipe Style
New Style
Old Style
I actually found a 12″ single in Japan! This is a rare feat, believe me. Sure, there are plenty of stores that sell 12″ singles of obscure disco and funk here, and there are loads of 12″ singles of ultra-obscure house, trance, and such. But finding a 12″ single by an act that people have actually heard of doesn’t happen all that much here. I don’t know what the deal is with that. Maybe 12″ singles for pop acts never really took off in Japan? I certainly have an easier time finding CD singles, so maybe that format had a stronger foothold back in the day, and that contributed to 12″ singles not being as prominent. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just talking out of my ass. I’m good at that.

I found this single in Tower Records’ new(ish) used vinyl store in Shinjuku. Someone had apparently unloaded all their 90s UK singles, because in the same bin were singles by other UK acts like Primal Scream, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, The Stone Roses and so on. If you’re wondering why I didn’t purchase those, it was because I either had (and shared) all of them already, or they cost upwards of $20 or more.

Since no one here actually sells 12″ singles worth a damn, whenever they do come in, they tend to go for a bit more, which is a bummer.

For the longest time the focus of my collection was 12″ singles, and the focus of this blog was the remixes that I found on said 12″ singles. So, whenever I do stumble across a 12″ single in Japan that I do want, that has songs I can share online, I get a little nostalgic. Blogging like it’s 2009 up in this bitch!

The original version of “Style,” which is a banger and totally worth having, is on the album Middle Of Nowhere. In America, these remixes were available on the 2CD edition of The Altogether. That version of album appears to be out-of-print on physical and digital formats for some reason, so I got no qualms about sharing them here tonight.

All versions of “Style” are rad as hell (dope stylophone use – hence the track name) but my favorite will always be “Bagpipe Style.” The world needed and continues to need more bagpipes in dance music. The world needs more bagpipes overall. That’s what’s wrong with the world today, a lack of bagpipes in modern music.

I mean, there’s a lot of other things wrong with the world today too, obviously, but a lack of bagpipes in pop music is definitely in the top 100.

More Orbital next time. Maybe. I got a lot of weird shit I need to share. I know, shocking, right?

Posted in Orbital, remixes | 1 Comment »

Random Electronic Music Post

Friday, May 11th, 2012

I’m on Instagram now! I don’t know how to link to my Instragram account from here, but if you follow me on Twitter you’ll get my Instragram updates. So now instead of me just talking about what I’m listening to on Twitter, you can SEE what I’m listening to on Instragram! Sure, it’s kind of pointless and stupid, but most fun things are, so don’t complain.

Moby
Porcelain (Clubbed To Death Version by Rob Dougan)
Porcelain (Futureshock Remix)
Porcelain (Futureshock Instrumental)
Porcelain (Futureshock Beats)
Porcelain (Live At Glastonbury 2003)
I’ve lost track of how many Moby cuts I’ve posted over the years. It’s a lot. I’ll probably post more. I’m a fan.

The original version of “Porcelain” is a beautiful song, but not one that I would have ever thought would lend itself to remixing. However, these excellent mixes prove me wrong. Each of them transform the track into something else entirely, while still retaining just enough of the original for them to keep the song’s beauty in tact. Meanwhile, the live version is a shockingly faithful rendition, with the biggest difference being that the back-up vocals are live instead of sampled.

The remixes are all taken from the “Porcelain” 12″ single or the CD single, while the live version is a rip from the DVD that came with some editions of Moby’s album 18.

Goldie 
Kemistry (V.I.P. Mix)
 Still Life (V.I.P. Mix) (The Latino Dego In Me)
 Just a couple days ago I was talking about Godley And Creme’s The History Mix Volume 1, and how confusing it is that there are three different versions of that record floating around. Well, the multitude of versions of Goldie’s seminal 1995 album Timeless are even more confusing. The album was originally released as a 2CD set that had 12 tracks in total. However, a single CD version was also made available. That version featured only eight songs, including “Sensual,” which is not on the 2xCD edition. Confused yet? Wait, there’s more.

There was also a 2LP vinyl version released. And while that version also had eight songs, they weren’t the same eight that were on the single CD version, it doesn’t even have the 2o-minute title track. What it does have are the two tracks above, which have never been released on any other version of the album, not even when the album was re-released a few years back with bonus cuts.

And in case you’re wondering a “V.I.P. Mix” is a remix done by the original artist. I guess it’s pretty pretentious to call you own mix the “Very Important Person” mix, but I think that’s actually less pretentious then putting your own name behind a remix of your own song.

Orbital
Belfast (Sasha vs The Light Remix)
Nothing Left (Les Rhythmes Digitales Remix)
Nothing Left (Breeder Remix)
 Nothing Left (Pariah Remix)
 Now, I could be wrong (I”m wrong a lot) but isn’t “Belfast” in itself a remix of “Nothing Left?” I mean, don’t they both have the trippy vocals by Allison (worst person I’ve ever interviewed in my entire life) Goldfrapp? If that’s the case, then wouldn’t that make this remix by Sasha a remix of a remix? We’re through the looking glass people!

Yeah, I was wrong and made a mistake because I mislabeled the tracks. What I said about Allison Goldfrapp is true though.

Posted in Goldie, Moby, Orbital, rant, remixes | 8 Comments »

Selections From Wipeout 2097 – The Soundtrack (With A Quick Mass Effect 3 Rant)

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

I’ve been annoyed by something over the past few weeks, and I’ve continually debated with myself if it’s something I wanted to bring up on this blog. But since I’m posting a video game soundtrack tonight, I figure that’s enough of an excuse for me to go on a video game related rant of sorts.

Fucking Mass Effect 3.

If you follow gaming news at all, you know what I’m going to talk about now. If not, a quick summary.

Mass Effect 3 is a video game made by BioWare and distributed by Electronic Arts. As a whole, the Mass Effect series has been widely acclaimed for its amazing story. The characters are nuanced and detailed (with the women actually being characters and not sex objects to be ogled), the conflicts between alien races are fascinating, and the overall themes the games touch on are grand and bold, with some of the greatest dialogue ever to grace video games holding it all together.

The series is also lauded for its high degree of interactivity when it comes to the story. You can choose how to interact with people, how to solve quests, and in some cases who lives and who dies. What’s even more impressive is that the choices you make in one game carry over to the next. So the people and situations I experience in ME3 will vary widely from those experienced by another player depending on how they played the other games in the series.

So you can see how gamers would develop an attachment to the world of the game and its characters, which made playing through the third game all the more painful for them (and me).

Long story short, BioWare fucked up in some pretty major ways when the time came to make ME3, the biggest of which being the ending. Simply put, almost nothing you did actually ends up mattering. The characters you saved/killed, the choices you made, the alliances you forged, none of it really matters. With rare exception, the only difference between the game’s endings is what color explosions you see.

Needless to say, fans were pissed, and since the game’s release, more and more have been sending angry tweets to developers, organizing protests and even filing complaints with the FTC over false advertising. The overall theme of their efforts has been constant: “fix the ending.”

Well, today it paid off when BioWare announced they will be releasing upcoming DLC (downloadable content) that will help to provide “more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey.”

That’s good right? I sure thought so! The fans spoke out and the developers listened!

But I guess it’s bad? I mean, that’s if the gaming media is to be believed.

I follow a lot of gaming journalists on Twitter, and their overwhelming reaction has been one of extreme displeasure. Their basic argument is that BioWare “caved” to fan pressure, and that they’re compromising their “artistic vision” in order to offer what many consider to be fan service and nothing more. Some have even gone as far to claim that this not only sets a dangerous precedent for storytelling in games, but that it also shows that games are somehow a “lesser” form of art.

While some writers have been able to express their distaste in BioWare’s decision with a modicum of class and respect to the gamers who are so passionate about the game, many have simply responded with whiny troll comments, insulting Mass Effect fans’ intelligence. Because we all know that the best way to get someone to agree with you is to insult and belittle them.

Furthermore, I find it curious that the games media is against BioWare for modifying (not CHANGING) the ending of the game, but they seem to have almost no problem with BioWare stripping out content to make overpriced day-one DLC or the fact that you almost need to play multiplayer to get the experience needed to earn the game’s “best” ending.

So, decisions that sour the storytelling experience so BioWare can make more money, those don’t invalidate games as art, but somehow listening to your fans and responding accordingly does? How does that make sense?

As for this setting a “dangerous precedent,” people are giving this instance way too much credit, as if it’s never happened before. Games have had their endings changed with DLC before, Bethesda did it with Fallout 3, and I’m pretty sure that BioWare’s even done it with their games in the past.

Shit, it’s not even unique to video games. Fan reaction often changes the narrative of fiction. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle only “resurrected” Sherlock Holmes after his fans complained to him. Dallas made an entire season of their show a dream to undo the damage they caused (and they retconned the series finale with reunion specials). The makers of the anime Neon Genesis: Evangelion even released an alternate ending to the series to help answer the fans’ questions regarding the show’s bizarre climax. Musicians regularly compromise their artistic vision to sell more records. You can’t just ignore these examples and insist this is something new. Well, I guess you can, but then that just makes you a dick, which is kind of my point.

I wish someone in the gaming press would actually talk about the positive aspects of this, and the positive trends that I hope it might help spread, such as the idea that BioWare and every other video game developer out there should care more about their story and less about figuring out how to squeak out more money from the players. And that when you cut out parts of your story for DLC and skim on the narrative to make us play a boring multiplayer mode, we’re going to take notice and we’re going to call out on it. And when you make bold claims that turn out to be boldfaced lies, we’re going to call you out on that too. You can’t just go around and make shit up and expect it to be okay anymore.

But hey, whatever. It’s just a video game, and I’m sure even the most condescending of people I’ve been arguing with on Twitter aren’t bad people, they just like to get a reaction out of people, and that’s something I’ve certainly been guilty of in the past.

But you know what games don’t need stories? Racing games. Let’s talk about an awesome one of those.

Wipeout XL/2097 – The Album (Selections)


The first Wipeout was released in 1995 for the Sony Playstation, with Saturn and PC ports coming soon after. It’s a futuristic racing game where racers drive not cars, but high speed ships that hover just inches off the ground. It was one of the first games for the PS1 that I played, and I remember it blowing my 16-year-old mind away. It was just so fast! Holy crap! Looking at it now, it seems quaint, but at the time I was just in awe of it.

Wipeout XL (Wipeout 2097 in other Europe) was released a year later. This sequel took everything that was great about the first game and ramped it up to eleven, including the speed. This game was flippin’ fast. Your vehicle would shoot across the track at such high speeds that I remember it was hard to even focus on what was going on sometimes.

In addition to the amazing sense of speed and it’s awesome sleek, futuristic look, each game in the series is also known for it’s excellent electronic soundtrack. Prodigy, The Future Sound of London, Photek, The Propellerheads and many other amazing electronic artists of the era were featuring in Wipeout games, and served for me as an excellent introduction to electronic music past what I was hearing on MTV.

Now that I come to think of it, I think a good deal of my musical tastes were shaped by the soundtracks to the Wipeout games. Without them I certainly would not have discovered electronic music when I did, meaning they probably saved me from a life of late-90s post grunge and indie bullshit. So I was very happy to find a vinyl copy of the soundtrack last week. Since most of the songs on the Wipeout XL/2097 soundtrack were liscened tracks, many of them are available today on CD and digital download. I’m only featuring the ones that are not, enjoy.

Prodigy
Firestarter (Instrumental) 
Don’t worry, it still has the “Hey hey hey!” part.

Future Sound of London
We Have Explosive (Herd Killing)
I never heard of FSOL before Wipeout, and I associate them (and this song) with the game so much that I can never think about one without immediately thinking about the other. I’ve been waiting for a chance to put up a version of “We Have Explosive” for years now, but every other version I own has seen a digital release on Amazon or iTunes. This “Herd Killing” variation, however, has never been released outside of the Wipeout soundtracks from what I can tell. And if it has, any album/single that has it is long out of print.

Orbital
Petrol
A different version of the song than the one that’s included on Orbital’s In Sides album.

The Chemical Brothers
Leave Home (Underworld Mix I) (Edit)
Another alternate version that’s exclusive to this soundtrack, this one clocks in at about three minutes shorter than the one on the leave home single. Great tune, Underworld really put their stamp on it with this remix.

Photek
Titan
The Third Sequence
I could be wrong (I’m wrong a lot after all) but I’m fairly certain that these two tracks by Photek were made exclusively for Wipeout XL. Aside from a 12″ single, I don’t think they ever got any other official release. That’s especially odd considering that “Titan” doesn’t even appear in the game itself, just the soundtrack CD. If you like 90s DnB then you should seriously dig on these tunes, they’re great.

Source Direct
2097
Another track that’s on the CD/LP but not actually in the game itself.  A great tune none the less, very reminiscent of Photek.

Fluke
Atom Bomb
V Six
Hey, two songs that were actually in the game! This version of “Atom Bomb” clocks in at a whopping eight minutes, and is different than the version that would later appear on a Fluke album. “V Six” is a straight up exclusive to this soundtrack, and never saw a release on any Fluke record as far as I know. It’s not as great as “Atom Bomb” (few things are) but it’s a great hard-driving electronic tune, the kind of thing you want to listen to while driving a hovership at 200 miles per hour.

Leftfield
Afro Ride
I want to ride on a giant afro. That would be awesome. This was also the b-side to “Afro Left.”

Posted in Fluke, Future Sound Of London, Leftfield, Orbital, Photek, Prodigy, soundtrack, The Chemical Brothers | 10 Comments »

Bad Girls (Run The World)

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

No more grunge for at least a month. I loved writing about that fiasco and it got me a lot of hits, but goddamn it bummed me out.

Let’s dance.

Orbital
One Perfect Sunrise  (Phil Hartnoll Mix)
One Perfect Sunrise (Stereo-8 Remix)
Acid Pants (JDS Mix)
Orbootal
“One Perfect Sunrise” is a song that sounds like its title; beautiful and awe-inspiring, and these two remixes are almost just as great. The Phil Hartnoll mix works pretty well because it isn’t that different than the original, which makes sense considering that Phil is half of Orbital. The Stereo-8 mix is great as well, but it does make the pretty egregious mistake of burying the beautiful vocals away for the first half of the mix. When you have something that hauntingly beautiful, that’s your lead god dammit.

The “Acid Pants” mix is just like the original version of “Acid Pants,” in that it’s incredibly stupid. However, it makes the same mistake as the Stereo-8 mix, it buries the part of the song that makes it interesting: the crazy acid sound doesn’t show up until the song is halfway over. Still, it has the guys from Sparks saying something stupid over and over again, so it’s worth something.

“Orbootal” is a bootleg white-label remix of “Impact” which is a song I have not heard in years, so I really can’t comment on how it’s different. I like it though.

DJ Rap
Everyday Girl (Sneaky Vocal Experience Mix)
Everyday Girl (Rae & Christian Remix)
Bad Girl (Hybrid Remix)
Bad Girl (Num Club Girl Remix)
Bad Girl (Friburn n Urik Remix)
 DJ Rap is an accomplished drum n bass and house DJ. She’s a singer, songwriter, producer, model and actress. She is by far the most successful woman in electronic music. Not only is she a genius, but she’s also tough-as-nails for managing to thrive and succeed in a genre of music that is notoriously known as a boys’ club. Now if someone could just tell me why her name is DJ Rap. I just don’t get that.

“Everyday Girl” is a very good song, but “Bad Girl” is the one I’m going to talk about. Damn, what a track. Not only is it an amazing example of progressive trance (and the Hybrid remix is a must-hear) but it also has some amazing lyrics about sexism and double-standards. How many dance tracks drop the phrase “glass ceiling?” Shit is deep.

Enjoy the enlightenment via trance music. I’ll see you all again before the week is over.

Posted in DJ Rap, Orbital, remixes | No Comments »

I Ran Out of Ways to Combine the names Orb and Orbital

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

I will stop posting combinations of Orb/William Orbit/Orbital when I stop finding Orb/William Orbit/Orbital singles.

The Orb
Blue Room
Blue Room (Radio 7)
Blue Room (Excerpt 605)
Towers of Dub (Mad Professor Remix)
That first version of “Blue Room” is indeed the full uncut version. For those of you who may not know, that means it’s 39 minutes and 58 seconds long.

The Orb made a 39 minute and 58 second long song because that was the longest a song could be in the UK ans still count as a single. I wonder how long a song can be on iTunes and still count as a single? Since I often see 10 or even eight minutes songs on iTunes limited to “album only” purchases, I’m going to assume it’s a lot less than 40 minutes.

I posted these tracks long ago, after I found them on another blog. However, that blog was only hosting 192 kbps versions. These rips, taken from my recently acquired 2CD Blue Room single that I found at Amoeba, are encoded at 256 kbps; which is why the uncut version is 73.2 MB big. Don’t be a dick and download it repeatedly. Unlike most MP3 blogs, I actually pay for bandwidth.

Orbital
Funny Break (One Is Enough) (Layo & Bushwacka! Up Remix)
Funny Break (One Is Enough) (Layo & Bushwacka! Down Remix)
What’s so funny about it?

Okay, so I’ve listened to these two remixes about twenty times now. I love both of them, but I oddly have absolutely nothing to say about them. If you like them I suggest you check out Bushwacka’s remixes of Depeche Mode’s “Dream On.” They both feature great basslines.

More 90s/early 00s electronic music next post, which may be tomorrow! Or it may be next week. Who knows, I sure as hell don’t.

Posted in Orbital, remixes, The Orb | 4 Comments »

Orbtastic? Is that taken?

Monday, February 21st, 2011

I need this record. I need this record. I need this record.

I NEED THIS RECORD.

For those of you who don’t click on random links without knowing what they are. I am referring to a special, limited edition Dreamcast white vinyl record with songs from various Dreamcast games. It’s pretty. And apparently very hard to find. It’s a pre-order bonus in parts of Europe and Australia for the upcoming Dreamcast Collection. If any of my European or Australian readers want to make a deal, send me an email please. Seriously. I will pay money for this. I want that record.

The Shamen
Make It Mine (Manhattan Mix)
Make It Mine (Moby’s Dub Mix)
Make It Mine (Deep Mix)
Make It Mine (Club Vocal)
Make It Mine (V 2.1 Make It Minimal)
Make It Mine (V 2.4 Micro Minimal)
Make It Mine (Pro-Gress I Vox)
Make It Mine (Pro-Gress I Instrumental)
Make It Mine (V 1.1 Lenny D )

I think he wants to make it his.

Okay, I’m going to be honest; I know jackshit about The Shamen. I touched on this last week. I was bored. It was a slow week at the record store, and someone must have recently sold their entire Shamen collection. I bought the records because I noticed some of the remix artists. Now I have three hours and twenty minutes of Shamen remixes on my hard drive. Thank God they’re mostly good! That would have been embarrassing otherwise.  These remixes are from two separate Make It Minesingles. I’ll have even more Shamen later in the week hopefully.

Orbital
Chime (Extended Version)
Chime Crime
Chime (Joey Bel Tram/Program 2 Mix)
Open Mind
Open Mind (Funky Alternatives Mix)
So there’s The Orb, mostly-forgotten late-90s rock band Orbit, William Orbit, and Orbital. Am I missing anyone in the vast variances of Orb-derivative band names? All these bands started around the same time too, you think they would have gotten together and worked out it out. Did any of them ever work together? Anyone have any Orb/ital mash-up? Maybe a mix of “Blue Room” and “Halcyon + On + On?“ That would be dope, and probably like 80 minutes long, but whatever, I’d listen to it.

Anyways, these tracks are from a 12″ promo single I picked up last week. If you’re wondering which track is the best, the answer is all of them.

Posted in B-sides, Orbital, remixes, The Shamen | 7 Comments »

Orbital and such. Look, It’s 1:30 AM and I had a shitty weekend, I don’t always need to give you a witty title.

Monday, September 27th, 2010

You know what sucks? Many many things.

Oh, you want something specific? Okay, iTunes 10. I had to upgrade to that abomination when I got my new Shuffle, but holy fuck and a half, it’s a disgusting looking resource hog that makes navigating my freakishly huge music collection very difficult. Shit snags all the time. So don’t get that shit unless you have to. And even then, try to avoid it.

Orbital
Nothing Left (Tsunami One Remix)
Nothing Left (Way Out West Remix)
Much Ado About Nothing Left
Nothing Left Out
These four remixes feature Allison Goldfrapp. I interviewed her once for a magazine article – and that’s all I’m going to say about her. These are from a 12” promo single

Band Of The Hand Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Someone who is a glutten for bad Bob Dylan asked for this to be re-upped. Good luck with this one man.

Lori Carson
Fall In The Light
From the soundtrack to Strange Days. Another repost. I’m trying to up my karma. Maybe that’s what I need.

Posted in Orbital, soundtrack | 3 Comments »