Negativland Vocalese
...Bill | St. Paul, MN United States | 02/21/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Stop!
If you've never heard of Negativland and/or like your music simple, non-threatening and free of profanity skip this album. It's not for you.
If you like/love Negativland --or are a fan of Frank Zappa-- then continue...
In the strange world that is Negativland it's hard to be sure what's for real and what is not. This album IS for real and what it is advertised as. It IS as unique a tribute to Negativland as Negativland is to music in general.
The 180-Gs are an excellent "a cappella" vocal group reinterpreting a nearly full retrospective of the Negativland catalog from "Points" to "Dispepsi" with an "Over the Edge" piece thrown in for good measure. The more you know of the originals the more you'll appreciate the effort put into creating some of the most amusing and entertaining re-interpretations of the FULL original pieces --complete with the samples and sounds. The entire albums is an aural delight and all the humor of the original comes out fresh again --and "more accessible" (if you accept the originals were in the first place --or just ignore the lyrics entirely). The effect on some tracks turns these covers into something that would fit nicely into a Zappa album complete with all the biting wit and style.
Examples:
"Greatest Taste Around" from Dispepsi is converted into a "full chain gain dirge" (....huh.)
"Helter Stupid" is completely recreated including vocal recreations of the news theme and all of the TV ads, phone calls and found samples.
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (i.e., the controversal track from the "U2" single) is not re-interpreted (yet again) into a spiritual, but starts out with the notorious intro as if it were from a old 78 before setting all of Casey Kasem's diatribes (and swearing) to music.
"A Nice Piece To Live" (from "A Big 10-8 Place") is reinterpreted as if it was a gregorian chant with scored by Philip Glass.
In short, it's sounds as if the Nylons, Bobby McFarrin or the Manhattan Transfer (or other do-wop, vocalese, R&B, soul, gospel group) decided that experimental, collage music should be set not only to music, but full harmonies. It's hard to believe anyone would try it, but it works."
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1