amp playlists

The Grooveshark Playlist

I gotta say, people, I’m not terribly impressed by this list. Maybe it’s because the last episode had Josh Wink, Mowgly, The Prodigy, and Massive Attack, and my expectations for a repeat opus were far too lofty. Also, I’m beginning to tire of the constant repeats. I understand far fewer electronic music videos were made when compared to say, oh, I dunno, things like:

But I’m seriously considering just putting up only the unique videos and being much less strict in my preservation of the playlists. Bleh.

Anyway, the only song absent from the Grooveshark list is Metamorphosis by Orson Karte — no, I don’t think it merits embedding.

The gems are shiny, especially when compared to the steaming hunks of wet lard adjacent.

“3:7:8” — EBN

In many ways I feel this is a parody of electronic music videos (overblown pastiche; mirrored images; juxtaposition). But that’s not to say it’s not really well-done. I for one would love to have this part loop in perpetuity projected onto a white tarpaulin on the side of my house.

“Glass Museum” — Tortoise

I do believe I’ve subjected e’ryone to this before, but it’s one repeat with which I can live. I’m still not sure what it’s doing next to things like “Insomnia” by Faithless, as it’s some of the purest post-rock weirdness with more in common with Sonic Youth than DJ Immablowyourillhard. Also, the video is deceptively nightmarish.

“Sugar Water” — Cibo Matto

Cibo Matto- Sugar Water [PV] by skanel

The first of two Michel Gondry-directed videos on this list, “Sugar Water” is a split-screen night in the life/lives of two painfully adorable Japanese girls (the band), one going forward (bathing in water), the other backward (bathing in sugar), eventually meeting at the tragic Vespa accident where their narratives intertwine. It’s basically the plot of Inception.

“Extra” — Ken Ishii

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Anime is best when presented as plotless video art and not a logical narrative meant for mass consumption. What the fuck is Ranma 1/2 anyway? Prince of Tennis? .Hack/AsterISK—Fuji Bananaspiel?

“Da Funk” — Daft Punk

Of all the videos on this list (in this episode), the one about the crippled man-dog hobbling through Manhattan with a blaring boombox is the only one to which humans can actually relate. He just wants to play his music (see Radio Ruffheem) AND get on the bus with pretty girl that actually likes him — we’ve all been there, sort of.

Blah. Better luck next list.

The Grooveshark Playlist

Only a few songs missing from Grooveshark, but at least present in YouTube (with less than mentionable videos)

“Dr. Bradford” - Cal-Q-Lator (just the song)

“Natural Rhythm” - Coldcut

This reminds me of any Art of Noise video, where they decided against interpreting their noises and, instead, set nasty beats to repetitive movement. Also, when I saw the beetle, my first thought was:

OH GOD! CAN’T YOU SEE?! WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!

“Technova” - Towa Tei

90s computer animation! Few things bring me as much joy as ogling examples of what was once the pinnacle of computer-generated imagery. Do you think those DJs were friends with Bob The Guardian and Enzo Matrix! Did they have high-RAM condo-chips in The Mainframe? The Future (was) here! Anyway, I wish I had a “thinking suit”, it would make this all so much easier.

“Sly” - Massive Attack

Nipples! Kind of!

Massive Attack’s catalog would almost certainly accompany me to a desert island, to which I would almost certainly be sent for using the word “catalog” when referring to a musician’s…uhh…

“Poison” - The Prodigy

Not much going on here; just a bunch of hardcore Englishmen writhing around in black mud and screaming: ”I got the poison/I got the remedy/I got the pulsating rhythmical remedy.” Or, as I thought up until posting this: “I got the poison/I got the remedy/I got the polsec corrithma karemedy.”

As Keith Flint would say: SQUAW!!!

“A Higher State of Consciousness” - Josh Wink (1995)(original video with radio edit)

I know, right! Do these people still exist? If so (or if not) where’d they run off to? Did they become hipstarz? Did they all overdose on Eu4Ea and ClubDrug9000? How do glow-in-the-dark whistle companies get by without them? Jnco, even? My guess: Eugene, Oregon. Cheers to those weirdos, I say.

Wait! I found them! They’re here!

They gave up their whistles and magic pants to become curmudgeons while their place was taken by a secret cabal of meth-addicted sex offenders who meet daily at the homes of random Londoners where they shoot water guns filled with ammonia at each other and dry hump. (I did see a neon green whistle).

This is more my speed…

“Cook Cook” - DJ Mowgly/Carl Crack

Ahhhh….much better.  

As soon as I’m done with my stupid thesis, Imma be all over dis shit.

The Grooveshark Playlist

One song is missing…

threeguesseswhichohitmustbeMeccanobySunElectricwhatafuckingsurprise

This list, unlike the last one, does not lend itself so well to mockery. It is a genuinely listenable episode represented by an accurate cross-section of the era’s electronic tunes. I will, however, do my best to deliver jabs when deserved.

Straight to the Gems this time!

“We Have Explosive” - Future Sound of London

I wish all music videos were animated, poorly or wisely.  I prefer drawings of things to actual things.  In the case of this video, those things include, but are not limited to: popcorn, bolts, those funky outlet adapters you get when traveling abroad, wacky-waving-arm-phono-cables-man, and the We Have Explosive EP logo dude walking around in a junkyard.  These seemingly disparate things are given the Terry Gilliam treatment and cobbled together in a delightful pastiche. We have Run Wrake to thank for it…and things like:

“Jukebox”

…which served as the template for the FSOL video.

And this terrifying thing:

“Rabbit”

Innocent enough…until the slicing begins.

Stare at more of his videos when you get the chance.

“Little Wonder” - David Bowie

To be sure, the video is amazing.  It shows the bullshit a time-traveling Mick Jagger had to endure just trying to get to work on any given day in the late 1990s, his “work” being the delivery of super-imposed projection-face cats to a one-eyed David Bowie in his underground lair.  The song, though, is actually not bad.  It’s from Bowie’s Earthling, an album that didn’t do much for Uncle Gaga’s career, but was certainly entertaining — and has aged well.  Lots of LFO modulation, kick drums, LOUDquietLOUD etc., basically getting all the stereotypical techno out of his system.

I still think “little wonder” is a reference to Mick Jagger’s penis.

“Inner City Life” - Goldie

Not the most mind-blowing video ever, but perfectly representative of 90% of all music videos, electronica or otherwise.  It’s pretty formulaic; lyrics-influenced, refers back to the singer (Diane Charlemagne), and rubs a little funk on an otherwise unfunky piece (car that shoots fire from its gas tank).  Why did I bother copying the HTML to embed it? Because I lovelovelovelove the song and think Goldie is one of the Top 5 electronic music producers of the last three decades. Gush.

Also, he was in Snatch.

“I Miss You” - Bjork

I don’t care much for Bjork beyond her work with The Sugarcubes (she remains adorable physically; musically…ehhh), but the video itself is an artifact of John Kricfalusi’s, and watchable sans noise.

END COMMUNICATION

The Grooveshark Playlist

One song is missing from the original set:

“Metamorphosis” - Orson Karte

I’m not entirely certain whether both the tune and the video are, indeed, the versions shown on Amp — if you know the truthiest truth, let me know.

And speaking of truthy truths, there’s one thing I know for certain, and that’s that I don’t regret having never been to a rave. And by “rave” I do mean the thing wherein MDMA-fueled elektro-punks cavort like the tribesmen from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, waving glowsticks, blowing whistles, and generally being way too “into it…man.” And all this happens in the desert or in some abandoned steel mill warehouse, all to the thrust-inducing sounds promoted by the episode of Amp I’m about to lay down. 

Don’t get me wrong — I love the Transmetropolitan, Gibsonian aesthetic; when I was in middle school, I wanted so badly to be Crash Override/Zero Cool from Hackers. But then I realized how fucking ridiculous the reality of it is…

This person looks like Gumby, not a bad-ass, technoid hacker who gets jacked on Jolt cola and amphetamine cocktails and makes cash machines in Idaho spit c-notes into the street.

On to the gems!

“Evolution” - Speedy J

This, somewhat like the Orson Karte video above, is merely an abstract visual accompaniment to music that has no plot; music that was meant to feel longer than it really is so the Jnco Junkies tapping their hooves on the local rave floor could bust moves in a trance, their blood soaked with uppers of all wacky varieties, sweating kinky bullets, thus drinking a shit ton of bottled water to prevent sudden death. Do a little research and you’ll find that in the mid-late 90s, bottled water sales went stellar. It was an epidemic, really, and a covert collusion between DJs and Aquafina. A fucking conspiracy.

can’t wait…

“Insomnia” - Faithless

Arguably the mum of all UK trance hits from the mid-90s, this beauty has been remixed and sample so many times, I’m glad to have found the original video. It was a chart-topper in the US as well. The tune is most memorable for its high-pitched, tinny doot doot dooing, the video for it’s stark portrayal of a man’s inability to get a good night’s rest. Maybe if Faithless spent less time wandering around housing projects in London taunting red children with his Dave Chappelle-esque head and face, he might be able to sleep.

and bring it on back…

“Polyesterday” - GusGus

THAT is a music video. Many a dream I’ve had, on my belly a on civic lawn in Reykjavik, getting a rub-down from Crispin Golver, when out of the blue some pony-tailed nymph jumps in and ruins everything. But then there’s motorcycles! And a road death! Or so it seem! A-ha!

The video was directed by Sigurður Kjartansson & Stefán Árni, who are part of the GusGus collective, which, apparently, originated as a group of filmmakers! Which seems appropriate given the quality of their other videos. (I recommend watching “Ladyshave” before anything else).

So right, that last one wasn’t a trance hit raved to by pea-brained Gumbies, but it salvaged the list for me.

Bonus! (in case you wanted to watch the guys from Orbital do their laundry)

What is this thing?

The Grooveshark Playlist: MTV Amp, February 2, 1997

Repeats: “22:24” by Alec Empire; “Second Bad Vilbel” by Autechre; “Extra” by Ken Ishii; “Atom Bomb” by Fluke; “My Kingdom” by FSOL; and the always elusive “Sun Electric” by Meccano.

What a delightfully bizarre arrangement of tunes this list encompasses! How odd, how lurvely! Things not so electronic and delectably avant-garde; theme music; and an Orbital song that sounds better when jazzed out of your brain on X.

The Gems:

“Glass Museum (Ice)” - Tortoise

As a video, “Glass Museum” is haunting. I could use the word ‘juxtaposition’ a bunch, but I think the video speaks for itself, conveying whatever you infer. Needless to say, time-lapse anything and it becomes unnatural — uncanny, even. Tortoise is an oft-forgotten force of avant-garde ‘post-rock’ inspired in no small way by progressive rock, Brian Eno, and Zappa. If new to you, spend some time acquainting yourself with their singular sound, at home nowhere along the timeline of music.

“Halcyon” - Orbital

Not to be confused with Orbital’s short, more upbeat version (Halcyon + on + on, as listened to by many a Hackers fan), “Halcyon” is an epic, 11 minute trance-accompanying diddy, perhaps best enjoyed with a little MDMA, a gallon of tap water, and two or three soft-skinned friends to touch awkwardly for five hours. The video, on the other hand, kind of makes me want to dunk my head in dishwater until I pass out or die — in a totally good way, though. This video could have been one of two things: a spinning orb shooting colors into space with lots of wavy bits; or a red-headed housewife cleaning commemorative dishes and occasionally having a little freak-out…for 11 minutes. I’m glad they went with the latter, as it is far more memorable than spaceshootyorblighthingy. 

“Close (to the edit)” - Art of Noise

That delightful thing you just watched is but one of THREE versions produced by Art of Noise’s then-label, ZTT. This, however, is my favorite, and for good reason: a Toyah Wilcox child-clone assists three weirdos abuse musical instruments in an abandoned train tunnel in what can only be described as a Herbie Hancock-esque filmic malformation. Also, they smash a violin. A violin killed my brother.

Fact: Art of Noise’s “Peter Gunn” was the first song on a mix tape my crazy Uncle Bob made for me when I was 7 years old.

The other versions of “Close (to the edit)”:

AND the ZTT documentary-ette:

Ooohh! A Treat:

“To Kill a Dead Man” - Portishead 

To Kill a Dead Man is a short film produced and acted in by Portishead. It hearkens back to the very 1960s British movies that inspire much of their music. To think that there really was a time when MTV would show a 9-minute short film/video by a brooding British trip-hop group…*sigh* 

Also, what the fuck!? It’s still two-minutes shorter than “Halcyon”! 

The Grooveshark Playlist: Amp, January 26, 1997

Missing from the Playlist: threeguesses

The repeats: Underworld, Howie B., CJ Bolland. No biggie, all goodies. It’s just nice to not have to re-list the same Ken Ishii and Orbital songs…again.

Totally unexpected part of the list:

Don’t get me wrong, “Paid in Full” is a righteous jam, as it were, but it sticks out like a sore thumb amongst Underworld, FSOL, and…oh god, wait, another throbbing thumb just popped up:

The works of Ofra Haza are new to me, and I couldn’t be any less unhappy as a result. She makes Erik B. and Rakim look like the Chemical Brothers, who, by the way still suck.

So rather than start with the Gems, why not go right in to the aforementioned sore thumbs:

“Paid in Full” - Erik B. and Rakim

Something seems wrong about these two guys gyrating behind what I can only imagine are passages from the Qu’ran.

“Im Nin Alu” - Ofra Haza

Ofra Haza - Im Nin Alu - The best bloopers are here

So, Israeli Cher, basically.

Oh, so hey, there’s even a 1978 version from Israeli cable access:

Little better, but that might be the black and white talking.

The Gems:

“Asbestos Lead Asbestos” - Meat Beat Manifesto

I’m not particularly fond of the tune (which, from what I gather, is a condemnation of the UK national healthcare system and dogs: “Equal opportunity, except if our pedigree dogs don’t like the smell of your children.”) but the video is like a screen adaptation of Neuromancer as made by a handful of less-than-devoted William Gibson fans who have only read the inside flaps of William Gibson novels. For that convoluted reason, this video is quite cool. See also: Farewell, My Lovely and Gun With Occasional Music.

“Kids are United” - Atari Teenage Riot

I recall playing laser tag with some friends in middle school with this ATR loudness crackling through Q-Zar’s busted-ass speakers…I do believe it kept us kids united. Here, here. Also, Hanin Elias (that’s a girl, trust me) is looking par.tic.u.lar.lee adorable in this video. f yer i.

“Amoeba” - Future Sound of London

Does he drown?! Does he live?! Was he even in water?! Is it a metaphor for man’s struggle against the futility of advanced capitalism?! Why are there no dolphins?! This is what it must look like inside Haruki Murakami’s head.

The Grooveshark Playlist: Amp January 19, 1997

Three repeats: FSOL, Ken Ishii, and Orbital.

I jinxed us all with my exclamation of list completion last time — this list is missing one little song. “Meccano” by Sun Electric, which I first mentioned in my initial post, is, as of this posting, fucking unfindable. If anyone knows where it lives, song or video, I’d be as happy as one of these disgusting things:

…it, the Sun Electric video, was the very first video played on Amp, after all.

On to the gems!

“Spoonman” - Underworld

This video is nothing if not absolutely boring — when watched straight. But it is inseparable from its aural source, in a way. This is the kind of meandering, pulsating, trance-inducing crap one might have seen buzzing behind the glass of 30 different tv monitors stationed at various points around any dance club circa 1997. Perfect eye-candy for a rave, but not particularly entertaining when not stoned/blitzed/tripping balls.

“Speed” - Atari Teenage Riot

Oh, Atari Teenage Riot, it’s adorable you have a message and all, and that your video is like a Darren Aronofsky nightmare, but I think most people just appreciated your loudness and speed — to which they did copious amounts of amphetamines and thrust themselves at one another. This video/song’s message is not so telegraphed-in as this banned box-smasher by the same group: Revolution Action

“Cars” - Gary Numan

The clear winner. No message, few colors, no pulsating — just Gary Numan’s silent movie actor make-up, a shit load of tambourine whacking, and a drummer that looks oddly like Steve Guttenberg…

Okay, so not exactly like Steve Guttenberg…but I think you can see what I’m driving at.

Bonus!

A video from this list buried in AOL Video.beta (beta? really? AOL?)

“Feel the Sunshine” - Alex Reece

You’re watching Feel The Sunshine. See the Web’s top videos on AOL Video

The Grooveshark Playlist: MTV Amp January 12, 1997

Finally, a complete list! And good thing, too, because what a list it is. Underworld, Aphex Twin, Skylab, and even Kraftwerk, electronic music’s expertly pretentious but wholly sufferable German uncle. 

Some marquee videos:

Underworld - “Born Slippy.nuxx” 

The version in the GS playlist is the full 11 minute ear-fuck (in a good way); the video represents the—understandably—abbreviated version. The video is nothing special, but it does subtly underline Underworld’s love of shitty hats.

The Prodigy - “Firestarter”

The video for “Firestarter” is no “Smack my Bitch Up” (where many a bitch is up-smacked) but it does have loads more tubes and a generous helping of twitchy, Ian Curtisesque…dancing? By the way, I’ve seen more The Prodigy videos, live performances included, and I’m convinced Keith Flint (the grotesque incubus the band can’t seem to get rid of) has twitch-danced his way into something resembling Parkinson’s disease. 

Future Sound of London (FSOL) - “Cascade”

I have a not-entirely-unsexual affinity for really bad (by today’s standards) computer graphics from the 1990s, so this video is practically pornographic. It’s slightly worse than the crap in Lawnmower Man but only a little better than the garbage in Johnny Mnemonic, which is to say there is a tremendous amount of abstracted blobs turning inside out and joining other blobs to make even bigger blobs. The song is okay, not FSOL’s best (see: “We Have Explosive”)