Flaming Lips, "The Time Has Come to Shoot You Down ... What a Sound"

Like most fans who grew up adoring the Stone Roses' debut album, I was prepared to hate this track-by-track 2013 remake by Flaming Lips and a motley crew of guest collaborators.  But instead I found it a charming, even mildly ambitious take on the original album.   All hints of the swagger and arrogance of the Roses have disappeared, buried under layers of bleepy electronica and blissed out dream pop.  That could be viewed as a positive depending on your views of the Roses.  Arrogance can be easily construed as a negative, even in the context of rock and roll.  I prefer to frame it as belief.  Bands that emerge fully formed on their debut albums exude a tangible belief in the concept and vision for the band, despite their reluctance (or even failure) to conform to the norms of their time.  The Velvet Underground had it on their debut album, Joy Division had it, Guns N Roses had it.  Anyway, all of that is missing on the Flaming Lips versions.  But the melodies, if anything, shine through even stronger, and the sound palate is far wider. 

It's the Flaming Lips, so of course there are silly, unnecessary excesses.  "Waterfall" doesn't need to switch moods and vocalists midway through, shifting from pretty bedroom pop into screechy noise.  "She Bangs The Drums" is progressing just fine before devolving into an embarrassing space movie electronic squelch-fest.  On the other hand, "Bye Bye Badman" was the throwaway track on the Roses album, but FL transform it into an echo-laden, shimmering, sun-drenched anthem.  "Sugar Spun Sister" unexpectedly turns into a minor epic thanks to a gorgeous ambient shoegaze intro leading into a wonderfully hazy mess that's straight out of "Lovelee Sweet Darlene"-era MBV.  "Shoot You Down", one of the weaker tracks on the original album, turns into a storming 80's synth pop.  Beneath the huge gated drums sound and the twinkly looping synths, you can almost believe it was meant to be a love song.  

Romantic Revolution - Bruckner Unlimited

 I was intrigued by this album after hearing excerpts on a Spotify playlist ("Classical meets electronica -- classical pieces reworked by contemporary electronic musicians).  The collection is the results of a remix contest promoted by the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin.  Henrik Schwarz was a patron of the competition and served on the judging committee.  The entrants were given the task of remixing a DSO recording of the fourth movement of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony ("Romantic"), and the results form an eclectic collection of styles ranging from fuzzy ambient to downtempo lounge beats.   Despite the pedigree and the uniqueness of the enterprize, I couldn't find a single review on the internet (at least not in English)! so here are some of my thoughts:

S/QU/NC/R's "Maessig bewegt" is a more than deserving winning entry, very reminiscent of Fennesz's work.  It falls somewhere between Fennesz's own Mahler remix experiments -- classical maximalism meets blissed out ambient serenity -- and his sublimely twisted "Plays" EP.   However, the second prize entry, Lambert Windges' "Something Went Wrong" is fairly straightforward downtempo coctail bar fare.  In third place, Aibos' "SONEL" is delightfully adventurous.  It starts with Murcof-like expansiveness -- lonely piano, stark atmospherics and dry beats -- before morphing into a funky jazz trio type thing punctuated by slabs of string orchestra-like noise.  

Rounding out the compilation, VennDiagram's "Moments de Lucidite Consciente" is more bleepy downtempo music but with some interesting atmospherics in the form of ghost-in-the-machine strings lurking throughout.  Artic Joy's "Revolution of Chaos" features breakbeats and a multitude of processed orchestra samples.  Pizzicatto strings and chilling, shuddering bass are the most prominent.  But it's the first track on here that sounds very much like a remix of the original material rather than a completely reimagined piece.  Next, V. B. Kuehl's "One Step Away" is straightforward and simple, a mid-90's Red Snapper homage driven by a noodly guitar loop and a flurry of samples.  

Quadra Pong 2.0's "Goodbye to Romance" is a unexpected change of pace, a beautifully sad work filled with nearly unintelligible whispers and lonely-sounding vibraphone.  It's the shortest work on the album but really comes across like a long, sentimental goodbye. 

The album then takes a 180-degree turn, as Frieder Dziobek and Patrick Eckert bury the source material deep within a sunny club-ready tech-house track, followed by another sharp turn back to icy, near-isolationist downtempo electronica.  Haraamo's "Symphony #4" isn't for everybody, but for me is a standout track on this collection and should have landed one of the top three prizes.