Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 11:18:12 -0400 From: GuerillaG2-G4 Subject: Re: Pram At 01:57 AM 9/4/98 PDT, gordon wrote: >Whilst on the subject of versions/remixes - can anyone comment on >the Chinese Whispers remix CD? (Apologies if this has been discussed >or mentioned before.) ---------8<------------------------------------------------ not really a compilation - more of a remix-relay. _Chinese Whispers_ (Sprawl Imprint UK; SP-027) introduces a unique spin in that there IS no 'initial track' - only an unmarked DAT, secretly supplied by Stereolab and filled with their odds n' sods - which was passed on to Sons of Silence. SOS are the first to make an actual 'track' from the 'lab's fragments; their "mix" is then handed off to Ultramarine, who's "mix" of SOS' "mix" is "remixed" by Mike Paradinas. ad infinitum, ad nauseum; ad Stereolabeum. the game plays out thusly: (original samples (STEREOLAB)) ---> SONS OF SILENCE ---> ULTRAMARINE ---> MIKE PARADINAS ---> FREEFORM ---> SLANG ---> BEDOUIN ASCENT ---> SI BEGG ---> SUBTROPIC ---> TPOWER ---> STEREOLAB. Stereolab's final track pulls together bits from their own DAT and from all of the previous remixes (via TPower's rather manic synopsis). a more detailed breakdown: CHINESE WHISPERS Sprawl SP-027 In Chinese Whispers, Douglas Benford's Sprawl imprint may have the ultimate comment on the lunacy of the remix craze. The prolific Benford (si-{cut}.db, Radial Blend, Media Form) isn't the only element surprisingly absent from this solid and celebrity-studded collection. An inversion of Dot's infinite remix-relay, Endlessnessism, the mania heard on Chinese Whispers has no definite starting-point. It's essentially a scientific curio, an aberration of physics - an overwhelming response without a corresponding stimulus! Uncredited fragments from the Stereolab set the disc's perpetual-remotion engine into action, providing the bare-bones fuel for ten concentric recreations of an untitled piece which never actually existed! Sons of Silence generate their mix, a technofied rubberband-digidub which catalyzes all subsequent "mixes." Ultramarine impart a skewed metallic-funk edge to the bubbling electronics, and Mike Paradinas hones its serrations with the scouring diamond-bit fungle breaks of his "Unbutton My Coat" mix. Glorious new melodies and arachnoid glitches emerge in Freeform's treatment; Simon Pyke also blunts the puncture-points of Paradinas' prickly breakbeats, clearing the field for Slang's curry-and-pepper seasoning of piquant junglized hiphop. Bedouin Ascent picks up the Asian flavor of this mix and resculpts the rhythmic bedrock into a tabla tableau buoyed by wafting flutelike strains. "Ancient Ocean IV?" Multitalented Si Begg may be one of the least predictable rhythm-wranglers working the circuits today. His "Kojak" mix here wiggles between the lean techno-funk of Cabbageboy and Buckfunk3000's characteristic jags of exaggerated beat activity. Subtropic accentuates the former and supplements Begg's leaner lines with spasmodic synth scribbles. All of which suits TPower just fine, and Mark Royal treats the "A Hamster Is Not Just For Life" mix, a wow-and-flutterfest whose barely tempered [ac/de]celeratations correspond to the whims of some truly whacked internal clock and sublimate pitch-dives which transform these film noir incidentals for a Mr. Moto mystery into a lost relic from his own _Waveform_ album. Stereolab, who are technically to blame for the whole exercise, chime in with a brief ending track. Their overstuffed tamale collates the original source-sample input with the output of Chinese Whispers' well-worked mix machinery. Bits of the previous mixes reappear - chittering breakbeats, languid loungeisms, melodies as light as mountain air. Stereolab simply offer a synopsis for those who have arrived late at the Sprawl's soiree. As Chinese Whispers arose without an explanation, so it ends as well. Not as pointless as it could have been, but what could possibly be next from the self-consciously self-reflexive mixological community - a remix project which cuts out the remixers?! - GG Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 21:49:18 -0500 From: lucid Subject: Re: 4AD-L Digest - 4 Sep 1998 to 5 Sep 1998 Antonio P Arrigotti wrote: > > >I'm under the impression that there is a cd OUT entitled Chinese > Dreams....which contains various remixes of Stereolab songs???? Is > anybody familar with such a project er knows who did the remixing??? It's called Chinese Whispers and it's very disappointing. The initial track is some noises and bleeps that came from Stereolab (it's not very interesting at all). This track is then remixed by Ultramarine, then their remix is remixed, etc., etc., ending with a "Stereolab mix". In my opinion, it's not worth the money (I've listened to it once). It's not a CD for Stereolab fans (my opinion only though). Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 16:56:08 +0200 From: Irene McC Subject: chinese whispers On 8 Sep 98, Antonio P Arrigotti wrote re: Re: 4AD-L Digest - 4 Sep 1998 to 5 : > >I'm under the impression that there is a cd OUT entitled Chinese > Dreams....which contains various remixes of Stereolab songs???? Is > anybody familar with such a project er knows who did the > remixing??? >From the CD cover: CHINESE WHISPERS. The Sprawl Imprint / 1998 Original samples STEREOLAB - trax in chronological order: Sons of Silence Ultramarine Mike Paradinas Freeform Slang Bedouin Ascent Si Begg Subtropic T Power Stereolab Pretty disappointing - personal faves T. Power & Kinsuk Biswas (as Bedouin Ascent). Similar in concept to Swedish label Dot's EXCELLENT "Endlessnessism" - also a remix project, passing one mix on to the next remixer, and so on down the line.