Readymades (music album title)
| Readymades | ||||
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| Chumbawamba studio album | ||||
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Publication |
June 18, 2002 (USA), August 26, 2002 (D) |
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admission |
2001 (partially throughout the year) - January 2002 |
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| Label (s) | Mutt Records | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
13 |
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running time |
53:17 |
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| occupation |
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Chumbawamba |
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Studio (s) |
Shabby Road Studios, Bradford |
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Readymades is the tenth studio album by the anarcho-rock group Chumbawamba . It is the second (unsuccessful) attempt to build on the success of the multi-platinum album Tubthumper . Folk songs form the basis of the album and the creative method that is increasingly used is sampling .
History of origin
Moby's Play album with its traditional gospel and blues samples inspired the musicians to make use of British folk in a similar way. One was already working with the stylistic devices of the house . The flair of the northern English working-class towns, the Beatles , punk rock and resistance songs should be captured in readymades . Thanks to the joy of experimentation and the new diversity within the folk scene, but also thanks to the preservation of the combative note, the project met with approval and was able to be carried out.
In 2001 the pieces were tinkered with from time to time until January 2002. The album title Readymades is derived from the term of the same name , which describes "found art". Here the “found art” is the snapped up folk song, around which a new song was created. The often booked - also with WYSIWYG - Geoff Pesche subjected the recordings made in the Shabby Road Studios in Bradford to a technical refinement in The Townhouse .
The self-operated label Agit-Prop Records was given up in the mid-1990s because it required an immense amount of work. Choosing an indie label turned out to be the wrong decision because it hindered the free development of the band. The transition to a major label , EMI , which granted the required freedoms, only worked as long as record sales were flourishing. With Readymades one had returned to the starting point, which is called self-publishing . The album was released on the newly founded Mutt Records label with the catalog number "Mutt CD001" on August 26th, 2002. The overseas partner Universal Republic had already gone public on June 18th. Home With Me was released on October 14th and Jacob's Ladder was released as a single (December 9th), but with updated anti- Iraq war text. This version was added as the 14th track in album reprints.
In the self-promotion it says: “This bears little resemblance to anything that they [Chumbawamba] have produced so far [...]. Readymades is an album packed with samples from the world of English folk music, past and present, killer melodies and breakbeats. It's an album full of harmony, full of history and full of passion. "
Track list
| # | title | length | Credits | Text meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salt Fare, North Sea | 4:29 | The title line is a sample by Lal Waterson & Olly Knight (from Some Old Salty ). | Mutinies of Spithead and Nore 1797 for better working conditions and pay for sailors. |
| 2 | Jacob's Ladder | 3:23 | A line of text is a sample by Harry Cox (from The Pretty Plowboy ). The guitar track is from Davey Graham (from Anji ), who is listed as the co-author of the song. | Unnecessary death of seafarers due to tactical reasons or intent to cover up. Historic: Churchill in World War II ; current: Putin in the case of the Kursk downfall . |
| 3 | All in Vain | 4:16 | Janet Russell sings a line of text (the title line, so to speak). | The speculation about the murder of TV presenter Jill Dando became a media event, while the racially motivated murder of Ricky Reel two years earlier had no media coverage. |
| 4th | Home with Me | 3:57 | For the originally planned sample, Chumbawamba received no approval, so a separate passage was used. | Memory fragments (specific moments) in different places on earth. |
| 5 | If It Is to Be, It Is Up to Me | 4:42 | A line of text sung by Coope Boyes & Simpson and sampled here comes from a poem by Jock Purdon, who was known as "The miners poet". | Panicked flight of the king during the peasants' revolt in 1381. |
| 6th | Don't Try This at Home | 4:02 | no | Revolutions spread rapidly - the great opportunity that keeps coming up, from the French Revolution to the present day. |
| 7th | Song for Len Shackleton | 3:37 | Contains vocal samples from Belle Stewart. | Len Shackleton, known as the "Clown Prince of Soccer", is an English football legend. The individualist was not wanted in the national team . |
| 8th | Without Reason or Rhyme (The Killing of Harry Stanley) | 3:45 | Comedian Jeremy Hardy gives the ironic introduction . A Joe Heany sample was used in the actual song. Janet Russell's line of text from All in Vain was also processed here. | Police brutality. The occasion was the authentic case of a victim of a police officer with a “loose-fitting weapon”. |
| 9 | Don't Pass Go | 4:19 | Another sample from the folk trio Coope Boyes & Simpson, which has been active since the 90s. | The 1986 Satpal Ram case: He exercised self-defense in a racist attack, killing the attacker. He remained in detention even after the sentence had expired because he showed no remorse. |
| 10 | One way or the other | 4:03 | The line "Peace will not come by words alone" comes from Prisoner 562 of Dick Gaughan . | A hymn for a self-help group with unorthodox methods of the 20s / 30s. |
| 11 | When I'm Bad | 4:22 | Same credits as If It Is to Be, It Is Up to Me . Additional for Sally Riozzi (vocals). | The meaning of life is not service, but pleasure. You shouldn't let yourself be broken. |
| 12 | Sewing up crap | 3:46 | Abi Riozzi and Michelle Plum (incorrectly spelled Plumb) are responsible for the vocals. | The continuation of child labor in modern capitalism. An old English nursery rhyme about the hardship of child labor concludes the song. |
| 13 | After Shelley | 4:31 | Kate Rusby received credits for the sample and as a co-author . The fifth stanza of the poem "Men of England" by Percy Bysshe Shelley has been incorporated into the text . | In 1845 food was exported from Ireland to England despite the famine. Even today, many children die because economic interests take priority. |
Re-Release (together with a DVD), 2003:
| 14th | Jacob's Ladder (Not in My Name) | 2:53 | like # 2 | Attached single version that was published with anti- Iraq war text. |
CD with bonus CD (only for the Brazilian market), 2002:
| CD2 | Salt Fare, North Sea (6 remixes) | ? | The remixes have the following brackets: (Aural Mix), (Club Mix), (Frankie B. Spacemix), (Neon Underhouse Mix), (Profondement Mix), (Traktor Mix). | In addition to the 14 recordings of the re-release, this issue contains a bonus CD with six remixes. |
Guest musician
Neil Ferguson, still guest bassist at Tubthumper himself, has been part of the permanent line-up since the previous album WYSIWYG . Richard Mutt contributed tea- box bass background music . Marcel Duchamp , the inventor of readymade art , appears on the acoustic guitar , albeit under his pseudonym Rrose Selavy. Simon Pugsley on trombone and Toby Greenwood on saxophone complement Jude Abbott on trumpet. James Reiss took care of the occasional scratching . The voices of Michelle Plum, Abi Riozzi, Sally Riozzi and Janet Russell can also be heard.
Artwork
The front cover motif goes back to the inventor of the political photo montage, John Heartfield . The poster artist Alan Gerard Fletcher used his self-portrait from 1920 for his work I Have Nothing to Say and I'm Saying It , whereby Heartfield's image is darkened like a xerocopy and the associated loss of quality. Fletcher put the said words in and in front of the mouth of Heartfield, who was balling his fist and shouting. Fletcher's background is bright yellow. Chumbawamba (alias Baader-Meinhof) only changed the background color to pale pink and the leaving the mouth message to the album title Readymades . Only on the back of the promotion postcard is a quote from human rights activist Amy Goodman printed, which could just as easily have been assigned to the speaking Heartfield mouth: "Go to where the silence is and say something." The booklet was thinner than usual, since the texts have not been printed and have been limited to brief references, i.e. explanations. The detailed credits take up the last inside page.
reception
The album was rated differently, tending to be average to good, but more positive by Anglo-American reviewers than by German ones. (The English-language excerpts are translated.)
Positive reviews
In the Frankfurter Rundschau , the album got 3 CD symbols, which stands for “terrific”. “With readymades the maxim that pop is the vehicle for spreading political messages is dissolved. Musically, that's a good step […]. Readymades is full of songs that only become apparent when you listen to it for the second and third time. Soft house beats and drum computers set the tone. [...] Lyrically, the internalized intellectuality, which has replaced the old catchy slogans, fits perfectly with the relaxed and more thoughtful pieces. "
For “catchy pop melodies, dreamy breakbeats, smooth harmonies and accusatory vocals”, Q Magazine's Ian Cranna gave 4 out of 5 stars.
Readymades received a “B +” from Alex Steininger, who wrote for inmusicwetrust.com: “Alternating between male and female vocals, the band creates a balanced balance between catchy pop and beautiful melodies, with lush instrumentation and a flair for producing songs that well produced while maintaining their own identity. […] [They] are warm, dynamic and lively and are able to tip you out of your pines within a minute and finally prostrate yourself when you sing along to the next. "
Readymades is "Chumbawamba's best output by far," said the Barcodezine reviewer. It contains “perfect, charming songwriting” that has “atmosphere, depth and charm”. And further: "These qualities mixed with a healthy dose of self-irony result in an incredibly addicting collection of pop songs." The political index finger is still there and for anyone who wants to deal with social criticism, it offers an additional incentive, it does he is no longer so pushy. Grade: "8.5".
Balancing reviews
Michael Gallucci said in the Allmusic Guide that one should finally forget tubthumping and indulge in the subtle charm of the shrewd pop band with their captivating melodies and ideological showmanship. He rated the album 3 out of 5 stars.
The daily returned its loyalty to the change of style. This has "always been her method of remaining true to herself". “The current one”, it goes on, “is to be called at least semi-radical: With relaxed swinging breakbeats, airy samples and sedate folky melodies one has moved a lot away from the own sound of the nineties, the eclectic contrast of dance beats and crashing guitars , cheesy trumpets and euphoric choirs. "And at the end the loyalty keyword was repeated:" You have become more melancholy and more cautious, but remained true to yourself. "
Laut.de began with the melancholy : “This year, [...] wistful pop sounds in New Age guise dominate. The ostensibly harmless melancholy is cleverly paired with anti-fascist announcements and stories about social injustice. This stark contrast accounts for a large part of the fascination of the Chumbawamba ensemble. ”At the end, it was added critically:“ The only question that arises is whether this musical class struggle concept somehow improves the world. Perhaps the beautiful two-part vocal harmonies and sound levels are ironed too flat and without pressure to animate the hearts and minds of the worldwide masses for revolts and changes. After all: even if you are insensitive to left-wing agitation, there is still a fine pop album left. "
The album got 8 out of 15 possible points on bizzare-radio.de. The combination of denouncing lyrics and sugar-sweet melodies was felt to be inappropriate, but there were "really nice songs on readymades - but nothing more."
Despite harshly articulated disappointment about the first product after regaining integrity , plattentests.de still scored 5 out of 10 possible points: “Nobody shouts out their anger anymore. Instead, the anger and desperation of others is simply sampled. Old folk songs and dusty laments are supposed to create atmosphere, but unfortunately mostly suffocate under mountains of kitsched electronics and yawning standard beats from the day before yesterday. " Jacob's Ladder is excluded from the criticism, because it is" a real hit ".
Modernrock.com stated that the band constant is the musically unconventional. Regardless of this, the combination presented here is modern and accessible and at the same time subversive. The not exuberant, but benevolent criticism is without a final grade.
Negative reviews
“The divergence between supposedly revolutionary content and the proven arch reactionary musical form is indissoluble. So it doesn't help that Chumbawamba have recently made out to the well-known gruesome programmed “ Magix Musicmaker ” beats in rural areas and seize Anglo-Saxon folklore, ”wrote Boris Fust in the intro .
Visions ended his swan song on Chumbawamba with the following sentences: “Remarkably unimportant pop songs are lined up here, carried by padded beats and covered with spherical melodies and esoterically tangled chants. That is - one would hardly believe it - even more boring than Mobys 18 , and the argument that you are defeating the mainstream at your own pace by infiltrating it with anarchist ideas in pop guise has now slowly come to an end for Chumbawamba. Here are the nails, there the coffin, there the hammer. Tack, tack, tack. ”3 out of 12 possible points were awarded.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Promotion postcard from Mutt Records, [o. D.]
- ^ Shelley poem , accessed December 5, 2013.
- ↑ Fletcher-Pakat , accessed December 5, 2013.
- ^ LR: Farewell to the agitprop . In: Frankfurter Rundschau ,?.?. 2002, magazine.
- ↑ Ian Cranna: readymades . In: Q Magazine , August 2002, p. 122. Also on: workhardpr.com ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 5, 2013.
- ↑ Alex Steininger: Chumbawamba. Readymades , In Music We Trust , No. 55 (December 2002). From: inmusicwetrust.com , accessed December 5, 2013.
- ↑ barcodezine.com ( Memento of the original dated December 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 5, 2013.
- ↑ Readymades at Allmusic (English)
- ↑ Thomas Winkler: Our favorite pop guerilla . In: die Tageszeitung , September 12, 2002. Also on: taz Print-Archiv , accessed on December 5, 2013.
- ↑ Stefan Johannesberg: The British squatters want to make the revolution danceable once more . From: laut.de , accessed on December 5, 2013.
- ^ Jochen Melchior: Chumbawamba. Readymades . From: bizzare-radio.de , accessed on December 5, 2013.
- ↑ Oliver thing: I want to buy an A . From: plattentests.de , accessed on December 5, 2013.
- ↑ Jeff Leisawitz: Chumbawamba. Readymades . On: modernrock.com ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 5, 2013.
- ^ Boris Fust: Chumbawamba. Readymades . In: Intro , No. 98 (September 2002). Also on: intro.de ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 5, 2013.
- ↑ Tino Hanekamp: Chumbawamba - Readymades. Hey, Editor-in-Chief, why are we reviewing the new Chumbawamba? To nail the coffin shut for good? In: Visions , No. 114 (September 2002). Also at: visions.de , accessed on December 5, 2013.
