To start the new year out I changed the layout of my blog, more for practical reasons (
there is now a listing of topics at the top of each page to make it easier to locate stuff). And I wanted to change direction for a bit. I've been thinking about all the innovative, experimental and exciting projects that have been issued on CDs but not on vinyl; and there have been so MANY! My collection of CDs is larger than my
vinyl LP collection (
in quantity, not physical size), so, I thought, "Why not start writing about it and bring in the new year with a new perspective?"
So, here I go, starting off the new year breaking my rules again. (
What a surprise!) The rule broken was to limit my writings about my music collection to just my
vinyl LPs. I broke the rule once before and wrote about a
compact disc (
henceforth referred to as a CD),
The Division Bell by
Pink Floyd (
and the blue glass bell that came with it) because it was just too good to NOT write about it.
Then two more subjects came up: the
45 RMP (
henceforth referred to as a 45)
Big Black EP recording of
Bulldozer and the
45 of the soundtrack from the film,
The Wild One.
Ergo, both of those articles were written for the same reason: just too
good to NOT write about them! I stretched the point in those cases as
they were 12" and at least they fit into the SIZE requirement for an
LP.
Thus, this is my second article on a CD starting a whole new trend about what I write. As with the
Vinyl Archive, don't expect any
top 40 entries in this new category (
uh, right, already broke THAT rule with CD 1, oh, well). I'm excited about my new
trajectory, although, when I read this article after I finished it, I realized I might have gone a little
Big Bang Theory!
I'll have to work on that. Hope you like the places I go.
Cheers! .
~ ~ ~
CD back detail
The
Zaireeka CD album is the perfect one to start the new category, as well as the new year with, as it is a stimulating experiment in sound manipulation, audience participation and . . .
. . . just plain 'ole FUN!
This
is the eighth
studio album by the
alternative rock band,
The Flaming Lips, which was released on October 28, 1997. It is an
experimental rock piece that is a fascinating investigation into
aleatoric or
chance operation music (
one of my favorite subjects, see: John Cage). The process used in this album was first introduced fifty or so years earlier with
Pierre Henry and
Pierre Schaeffer (
see link below).
Some quick tech stuff first, though, to understand what's going on; the next sentence is important for that.
The album has 4 discs with the SAME 8 songs on each of the discs; each song consists of four discrete stereo tracks, one from each of the four discs. (
Follow me so far?)
Wayne Coyne, of
The Flaming Lips, discovered that no two CD players have the EXACT same play back rotation or consistancy (
in microseconds but discernible). The album was designed so that when the four discs are played simultaneously on four
separate
audio systems, the four CDs would produce an
harmonic
or
juxtaposed sound. Also, they can be played in different
combinations, omitting one, two or even three discs. The variation of CD players and other factors create
different results/sounds for the song each time it's played; thus, it
never sounds exactly the same (
hope this makes sense as it's a lot of fun playing around with it).
I have not been able to get four CD players together at the same time
and location but I've played them using two and three players with
fascinating results. I did find, however, that each part played singly
is interesting as well. I've had a great time fooling around with them and I think
that is the importance of and what the project is all about; not
passively listening to a piece of music but actively experimenting with
the possibilities of random events that can never be repeated. That is
the marvel of
Zaireeka.
logistics of listening
The speakers being used may be physically positioned in many different configurations (e.g. at different heights or even in entirely different rooms). Some listeners may even choose to disable the left or right speaker of one or more systems. Synchronization errors between the audio systems may cause effects such as
reverb or
echo being heard on one disc before the original sound is produced from another. Further, the type and quality of each audio system affects the relationship between the four CDs.
Zaireeka has an interesting
etymology and
entomology (
the words are VERY appropriate here). The album's title is a
portmanteau of two words:
Zaire, chosen as a symbol of
anarchy after
Wayne Coyne heard a radio news story about the political instability of the African nation; and
Eureka which comes from the
Ancient Greek, εὕρηκα
heúrēka, meaning "I have found (it)".
During 1996 and 1997, The Flaming Lips ran a series of events known as
"The Parking Lot Experiments". The experiment was inspired by an incident
in Coyne's youth, where he noticed that car radios in the parking lot at
a concert were playing the same songs at the same time. Coyne created 40
cassette tapes
to be played in synchronization. The band invited people to bring their
cars to parking lots, where they would be given one of the tapes and
then instructed when to start them. According to Coyne, the music was "a strange, fluid
20 minute sound composition".
The concept for
Zaireeka came about because of a lack of personnel during club dates due to two events, which were recounted in
The Spiderbite Song from The Lips' album,
The Soft Bulletin.
Michael Ivins was involved in a car crash, and
Steven Drozd's hand became severely infected. Drozd initially claimed his hand had been bitten by a spider but later he admitted the infected abscess was caused by an injection of heroin. Those two incidents were the cause of the personnel shortage for performances, thus, the experimentation that resulted in
Zaireeka.
The following photos are of the booklet that came with the CD. They should help to further explain the concept and process behind the project. There is a link (
below) to a mix-down of the song,
Okay I'll Admit That I Really Don't Understand, on YouTube. However, in my opinion, the very act of 'mixing' it down to a static, two-track stereo state destroys the whole concept of the process, thus, the sample is, in effect, pointless other than to give ONE example of the thousands (
if not infinity) of possibilities of what it can sound like.
If this hasn't done it for you, there is an explanation and demonstration video of
Zaireeka, as well as the afore mentioned mix of the four discs of the song
Okay I'll Admit That I Really
Don't Understand on YouTube (
links below).
a little more history
The Flaming Lips began work on
Zaireeka in April 1997 in the then-new
Tarbox Road Studios. Initially, the band was frustrated while making the album. Even after diverting half of the budget for the next album into
Zaireeka,
there were no tangible results. The band experienced difficulty writing
songs for the album. Finally, Coyne exclaimed "Look, we don't have to
be friends... but we have to make this record!" While this philosophy
aided progress, the band only began to complete songs when they learned
to write
FOR the medium as opposed to trying to split normal songs across four CDs.
Warner Bros. Records was initially apprehensive about releasing
Zaireeka, so manager
Scott Booker carefully researched the costs of releasing a box set. Booker discovered that
Zaireeka
could be released so that once 12,000 copies had been sold, the label
would break even. (Advance orders for the album came to 14,000 copies.)
Booker pitched the album to Warner Bros. Records president,
Steven Baker.
Eventually, they reached an agreement in which the album would be released, although
Zaireeka
would not count towards the seven albums the band was contracted to
deliver to Warner Bros. For an advance of $200,000, the band would make
both
Zaireeka and
The Soft Bulletin. In addition, Booker mentioned that by allowing the media to proclaim how "weird" the band was with
Zaireeka , they would be more prepared to treat
The Soft Bulletin as a serious album.
Zaireeka was released in October, 1997. The album was reissued on vinyl, April 20, 2013, for
Record Store Day.
end of history
Zaireeka
by Mark Richardson
by Mark Richardson
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
(2009-12-24)
There is a paperback book, written for 33 1/3 by Mark Richardson, about the album. Richardson says, "
Zaireeka is the anti-headphone and the anti-mp3. It purposely makes the two biggest developments in end-user music in the last 30 years irrelevant.
Zaireeka is not mobile. It is not personal. It is not solitary, cannot be easily controlled, and can't easily be consumed in small doses. So another way to think of
Zaireeka is as
a one-off piece of technology that comes in a highly inconvenient dead-end format." (
Way cool.)
Zaireeka is available from
AbeBooks and
Amazon.
Track listing:
All four discs have identical track listings.
All songs written and composed by
The Flaming Lips.
1. - Okay I'll Admit That I Really Don't Understand - 2:51
2. - Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now) - 7:03
3. - Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair - 4:59
4. - A Machine in India - 10:23
5. - The Train Runs Over the Camel But Is Derailed by the Gna - 6:14
6. - How Will We Know? (Futuristic Crashendos) - 2:23
7. - March of the Rotten Vegetables - 6:28
8. - The Big Ol' Bug Is the New Baby Now - 5:05
Total length: 45:32
Credits:
Released on October 28, 1997.
Internet links:
The Flaming Lips homepage
The Flaming Lips discography
Interesting sites relating to
Zaireeka :
Unofficial Flaming Lips News
ZAIREEKA 4CD set for simultaneous play
Pierre Henry ~ Le Voyage
~ ~
So, now where to? As I have researched, assembled and written this
article, I have been thinking of the two
45s I've
previously written about on the Viewfinder. They keep buzzing around in my brain and I keep hearing in my head the
hundreds of fantastic, old 45s in my collection.
You can bet your bippy there's a 45 RPM Archive in the works . . . . . is there never an end?
But that's the marvelous magic of music (
forgive me, I just couldn't pass that one up):
it's endless.
Have a healthy, creative and fantastic
New Year!
