Malcolm McLaren - Tranquilize

[Lee]

Sorry, I hate it when people tend to stop posting, only to turn up once in a blue moon, generally when they want something; it's a very selfish thing to do. Still, what can you do?

Does anyone know anything about this release? I've been looking for it for a while now, on account of it having that track from Kill Bill on it, but I was just listening to Duck Rock and decided to have another look for it. From what I can gather it was at one point only available from Habitat stores (?), but a search of their website brings nothing up. I've emailed their customer services to see if they can help. Furthermore, a search of Discogs reveals this: http://www.discogs.com/release/1325926 however no-one seems to own a copy and it's quite possibly got the wrong date - I've seen three dates scattered around for this release: 2005, 2006 and 2007. You wouldn't think something so recent would be so tricky to find out about, would you?

Beyond knowing where I might be able to find a copy, does anyone have any more information about this release? As I say, the only reason I'm looking for it is because a) I love that Kill Bill track, and b) apparently it's got some chiptune stuff on it, which seems an even more bizarre conceit than him doing an opera album.

Cheers chap(ette)s.

[Identity Crisis Ahoy!]

The Kill Bill track's a cover of a Zombies song. Want me to upload it?

[Lee]

It's not what I asked for... but yeah, if you like.

[Identity Crisis Ahoy!]

Alright snidey, I'll upload anyway.

It's quite annoying, the way my winamp is set up this is the first song that plays every time. I dislike it now.

[Identity Crisis Ahoy!]

ZOMBIES - SHE'S NOT THERE

[Lee]

Yeah, that was a bit arsey actually, sorry about that. Cheers for the MP3.

Was this sampled in McLaren's track then? I've noticed the weird timestretchy thing going on with the vocals in that track, and I'd guess that would make sense if it was indeed a sample.

[Identity Crisis Ahoy!]

I'm not sure mate. I didn't even know the Zombies did it originally. I do love both Kill Bill albums, so it was a pleasant surprise when I dl'd a Zombies album and I heard this version.   I think I prefer the chilled out McLaren version.

[Lee]

Selfish bump, made a little more selfless with this:

Two buffalo gals go round the outside, round the outside, round the outside...

[Lee]

Ah, never mind; I've just managed to find a copy at Habitat in Bath (£2.50 for the disc - £6.50 P+P. Pffff.) If anyone's interested, reply down there vvvvv and I'll post some stuff up in a few days.

[Lee]

No-one replied... but fuck it, I'm in a good mood. I'd guess anyone interested would have heard About You by now, so here's tracks 2, 3 and 4 from Tranquilize:

Mexico, Manhattan & Malibu (a bluesy mashup featuring bits of William Burroughs)
His & Her Theme (Future) (some chiptune, probably more akin to Pixelh8 than DJ Scotch Egg)
Chinatown (a mashup of, amongst other things, Carl Douglas and Barry White, with vocals by a group of Chinese models called Junk)

This collection of tracks began their life in Paris at the early part of this decade. I was encouraged to make an album by an old acquaintance and studio owner. I had always wanted to make an album about fashion and this seemed like a chance to do just that: the 'sound of fashion'. I searched amongst my archives - old Pop & Blues recordings. Records I'd spent my entire youth listening to. And then to be inspired by other sources - in particular the music of those French Classical Minimalists such as Erik Satie, Francis Poulenc, and others. I was suitably inspired to start. Some tracks succeeded, some didn't. It is a work that is still ongoing.

Bastard Blues, Post-Karaoke, Rock 'n' Roll Gameboy and Chip Music are musical genres of the 21st century. These 8-Bit recordings were made in the cut & paste lo-fi, lo-tech style. By hacking antique technology, sequences and arpeggios were played on modified 1980s Gameboys, as well as Atari and Comodore (sic) 64.

I'd assume that Mexico, Manhattan & Malibu is an example of "Bastard Blues" ("bastard" = mashup), His & Her Theme "Rock 'n' Gameboy" and "Chip Music" (I'd have stuck with just the latter, to be honest) and Chinatown "Post Karaoke" (a mashup with live vocals, akin to Smash Up Booty, Holestar, etc). Bearing in mind this was released in 2005, and produced between 1997 and 2004, it certainly shows that McLaren hasn't lost any of his forward thinking since the days of the Sex Pistols and Duck Rock. Chinatown in particular, made in 1997, would have preceeded the earliest "mainstream" mashups by 3 or 4 years at least. Furthermore, this album preceeded DJ Scotch Egg's debut by a few months, who really gave the chiptune genre a boot into the public domain. And of course, this was released exclusively in Habitat, a couple of years before the likes of Prince and Paul McCartney and Sonic Youth and Nine Inch Nails started their alternative, non-HMV distribution methods. Looking retrospectively, it's really quite stunning how many trends McLaren was able to predict with this release. Even if you hate the music (and I don't), you have to respect his canniness. Even if he does spend his time nowadays appearing on shitty reality shows.

Oh, and I got that new Zombies best-of CD yesterday - great stuff.

[LetterBeacon]

Really enjoyed those - thanks for those!  I've always wanted to listen to more Malcolm McLaren, can you recommend anywhere to start?

[Lee]

No problem............. Recommendations? Depends what you like... If you liked those three tracks, try and track down a copy of the album at a Habitat store (try and get it from the store rather than getting it delivered - read up to find out why). If you like hip-hop and electro, get Duck Rock or Swamp Thing. Classical operatic disco, Fans. House and techno, Magic's Back. Downtempo jazz, Paris. Or if, like me, it's not so much the music (although it is great) but more the attitude McLaren seems to take to music you appreciate, grab the lot. Oh, and the Duck Rock VHS, which is worth getting solely for his utterly pretentious opening monologue.

Actually fuck it, just get Duck Rock. It's basically an Art Of Noise album with more rapping and samples. It's even got Trevor Horn and Anne Dudley on it.

[Identity Crisis Ahoy!]

This sounds great, will DL in a bit.

[Lee]

Another bump, another highly obscure McLaren record.

I've just bought a copy of this from an Austrian eBayer:

http://www.discogs.com/release/1353693

...despite knowing bugger all about it, apart from that it was released in an edition of 500 to co-incide with a chiptune-themed party organised by McLaren and fashion label yoox.com somewhere in Europe, and that Discogs list it as "Latin, Rock". Oh, and that it looks like this:



I guess I'll be bumping this in a week or two to tell you all anyway, but does anyone know anything else about this, particularly what it sounds like? I've got to say, Tranquilize has taken an absolute hammering on the iPod lately, and this came out only a year earlier, so the omens are good that I'll enjoy this. I'll bung a couple of MP3s on here too if you like.

While the thread's getting bumped, here's an article by McLaren from Wired Magazine in 2004 on chiptune:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.11/mclaren.html

Which is interesting enough, in the same way hearing him talk about meeting Afrika Bambaataa wearing a Sex Pistols t-shirt in the street is interesting, but it's made all the more curious by this angry reply from whoever runs the Micromusic website:

http://micromusic.net/public_letter_gwEm.html

Some of it's pretty nitpicky stuff though - the first bit, referring to the phrase "then I discovered chip music" obviously doesn't mean he "discovered" it, in the sense that Columbus discovered America (possibly a bad example, but you get the idea), but that he discovered it like you discover a coin down the side of the sofa. Some good reading though. Makes you wonder why the Habitat and yoox.com releases were so low-key, if he's so keen on championing chiptune to the tune of calling it the new punk rock.

[Lee]

Oh my goodness... this is the best version of Foxy Lady I've ever heard! This could be number 1 next week, easily.

Audio and review later.

[Lee]

A little later than planned... that recording of Foxy Lady:

Malcolm McLaren with the Wild Strawberries - Foxy Lady

The EP's 5 tracks long, and with the exception of this track the whole thing's more or less pure chiptune. Two up-tempo dancey tracks from established artists Tobiah and Hardliner, and two far more mellow tracks from McLaren in collaboration with Mark Denardo and Bubblyfish. I would upload the whole EP for your listening enjoyment, but there are rules I must abide by here. Rules that don't exist on a certain underground music torrent site, whatever it's called... ;)

In other McLaren news, he's currently showing a film at the Royal Academy of Arts in London called Shallow 1-21, and it's about (you guessed it) sex. From what I can gather it's a montage of archive clips of people about to have or just after having sex, played over a selection of McLaren's latest cuts, notably the above-mentioned Mexico, Manhattan & Malibu, which samples William Burroughs, whom is apparently a big influence on this work (although according to an interview on this website this is definetely not a "pop video". No sir.) It's being shown at the RAoA until the 19th, on which date McLaren's giving a talk about the film, and as much of a twat as he undoubtedly is, he knows how to capture people's attention, so it should be interesting. If I can find my dictaphone I'll make a bootleg (and hope it turns out better than the David Lynch/Donavon one) for potential listening pleasure.

PS. Neil, if you're reading, could you change the title of this thread to something like 'Malcolm McLaren: the BIG thread' or something please? I get the feeling I might end up posting more stuff in here as time goes by.

[SavageHedgehog]

Fans is one of my favourite albums. As big of a machiavellian bully and chancer he may have been at times, I can't help but love old Malcom.