this might be sacrilege on this board but i dont much like what ive heard of derrick may so far. ive sifted through the anthology just so i know what its like and get up on the history of the music but i hate those cheapo italian sounding toy keyboards on tracks like strings of life, the drum programming seems to be going for complex but seems to just sound over-programmed, a lot of the synths seem to be played totally randomly (would it have hurt to have some sort of musical training?). its also somewhat pompous and takes itself a bit too seriously. i prefer cybotron or kevin saundersons stuff - seems funkier/harder.
i can understand why people might be put off by prince - a lot of his production style hasnt dated well at all. maybe its just perfectly 'of its time' but a lot of it is pretty cheesy. i love his weird drum programming and the sounds he made from the drum machine using his guitar pedals and what have you, but the way he recorded them a lot of the time sounded a bit messy. not in the good way exactly either, just a bit shoddy, like the clarity isnt there. tracks like kiss or starfish and coffee are immaculate though, i dont know how anyone could have a problem with the sound of them.
i can understand why people might be put off by prince - a lot of his production style hasnt dated well at all. maybe its just perfectly 'of its time' but a lot of it is pretty cheesy. i love his weird drum programming and the sounds he made from the drum machine using his guitar pedals and what have you, but the way he recorded them a lot of the time sounded a bit messy. not in the good way exactly either, just a bit shoddy, like the clarity isnt there. tracks like kiss or starfish and coffee are immaculate though, i dont know how anyone could have a problem with the sound of them.[/QUOTE]
derrick may still sounds fresh to me, he didn't use cheapo italian keyboards, it's all roland gear, it's recorded at home studios on tape so it may sound cheap. it doesn't sound random at all to me but i think there is a level of on the fly experimentation to what he did, those aspects yu hate seem to be te aspects i find very welcome about it, and the fact that its music made by a non musician is great, love it.
As for prince a similar thing applies. and i don't think you can ever call prince cheesy as a programmer, later on in his career he was cheesy but from about controversy to batman he was super creative. listen to some o his stuff again and it sound brutally fresh, parade or something. some of around the world in a day etc, it's crazy.
as for covers, 'nothing compares to you' versions are better but the family, the band that played it originally were shite anyway, nothing can beat princes' 'when doves cry'.
someone down thread was dissing bob marley, hes quite often dissed on the grounds of a couple of tracks and the fact that he was popular or is the person who doesn't like reggae's artist of choice etc.
so what, brilliant songwriter and lyricist, great song from the studio one era, to his death, thoroughly respectable man. Dissing him just seems to be dumb.
astral weeks, oh come on it's a brilliant album, full of life and energy, just standing up at the centre of chaos, ace.
i don't get the cramps. they're just terrible, a trendy girl at work who is trying to pretend she is into rockabilly, bacause its a fashionable thing to say or something says she likes the cramps but doesn't stay in the room when she puts a cd by them on.
dfa, they put a disco/rockish drum behind things and call it a track, maybe say something ironic over the top, they're shit, but good ears so good label.
never really liked culture on the reggae tip, just find them very boring.
never really liked dylan apart from a few tracks, its such fucking smug music, just music to confirm to a few weekend hippies the world isn't right. his voice is horrible and he's not as great as the music he copies.