Part 2 of the Version Aversion mix kicks off with another ‘dictionaroake’ cover, of Ken Nordine’s ‘Flesh’ of all things! Go here for more of an explanation of this strange medium: http://www.dictionaraoke.com/ I’d always loved ‘The Man With The Golden Arm’ theme, hearing the Jet Harris version on a tape my dad had when I was a kid. What happens if you take three different versions and synch them up to play simultaneously, cutting back and forth frequently? Listen and find out. This strings and drums version of ’Strawberry Fields Forever’ was possibly taken from one of the Anthology compilations, chock full of interesting Beatles outtakes.
The Roy Meriwether Trio take on the Nina Simone’s ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free’ and then we get another excerpt from the Langley Schools Music Project album, this time with excerpts of a radio documentary interspersed telling the story of how it came to be. Bowie’s ’Space Oddity’ gets the treatment and again, the eerie oddness of not quite trained voices with strange arrangements gives it a unique quality. Monk Higgins provides Gang Starr with a sample on ‘Little Green Apples’ from his ‘Extra Soul Perception’ LP and ‘Brother’ John Rydgren pervs out over ‘Music To Watch Girls By’. Finally, a remix rather than a cover, Bill Laswell does the impossible and takes electric Miles Davis and makes something decent out of it from the Panthalassa remix project. This 1998 album is worth tracking down, Laswell gets given the masters to run riot with in the studio and creates four extended soundscapes, each ranging around the 15 minute mark from music written 1969-74. It’s respectful as he doesn’t attempt to contemporize the sounds, instead extended and dubbing them out into Orb-like epics, an hour of fusion-era Miles, reimagined 25 years later by a master.
Track list:
Ken Nordine – Flesh
Billy May & His Orchestra – The Man With The Golden Arm
Jet Harris – The Man With The Golden Arm
Jack Nitzche – The Man With The Golden Arm
The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 7)
Roy Meriwether Trio – Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
Langley Schools Music Project – Space Oddity
Monk Higgins – Little Green Apples
John Rydgren – Music to Watch Girls By
Miles Davis – Rated X /Billy Preston (Bill Laswell reconstruction)
Good mix. Liked your The The remix too, very on-it. We make tunes using grooveboxes and synths for playing only at free parties. There’s quite a few of us doing it now. It’s a hobbyist/non-commerce scene, done for the hell of it, no money or careers involved, no websites, no downloads, no merchandise, no names, done for fun and culture, a laugh and self-mocking. Thought you’d be the kind of DJ who’d like to know. Keep on and stick with it, man