Thursday 1 January 2015

Dumb Angel (Olorin Edition)














New Smile mix from Mujan. Always a decent way of kicking off the new year.

Download from Mediafire
Download from Google Drive
(FLACs, mp3s, cover pic, and info)

6 comments:

  1. Having done a few mixes myself I know how incredibly difficult this is. I think bridging tracks with spoken word is a good one, done most expertly in alternatebrianwilsonpresentsmile. With this mix it has probably been overdone in places.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a fair criticism, point taken. If you read the liner notes, you'll see I acknowledge that my use of Psychedelic Sounds is "liberal" and that certain choices I made were "arbitrary."

      Still, I think they would have been on the album. I'm as convinced as one can be regarding SMiLE that George Fell Into His French Horn was supposed to come before or after Surf's Up as either a bridging segment or a hidden track at the end. I have similar feelings regarding the Veggie Fights with Hal and Vega-Tables. No way would he waste the studio musicians' time on something he wasn't serious about.

      The other Psychedelic Sounds skits I'm less certain of, but I think they were also recorded with a purpose. Brian did not start goofing off and losing his way until 1967 with the endless H&V tinkering and Jasper Dailey songs. In 1966 he was still coherent and seemingly still serious and focused regarding SMiLE. I think these skits were mostly recorded as a pool to pick "funny" highlights from to bridge certain songs together.

      I believe Brian is on record saying that spoken word humour was to be a big component of the album, and that there'd be some between the tracks. Now granted, they probably wouldn't have bridged EVERY song together, but certainly a few here and there. As long as I'm introducing the concept, I figured I might as well take it to the extreme and try something for each song. Just to see how it sounds, give people ideas and sample as much of those obscure recordings as possible.

      Alternate BWPS is interesting, but none of the talking on that is even remotely historically accurate (not that that's what that mix was going for) and, honestly, not to talk down on that mix, but I thought it was kinda unnecessary there. Different strokes.

      Any other thoughts on the mix, btw? I'd love to get your complete feedback. Which specific talking segments did you think we're pushing it?

      Delete
    2. I'm going to have another listen and will come back to you in a few days - regards Martin

      Delete
  2. Having now listened again to Dumb Angel Olorin and more importantly to alternatebw I must retract my comment and the word overdone.
    My recollection of alternatebw was of a standard smile interspersed with a few humorous comments within or between one or two tracks. That clearly is not the case!
    My position is that soon after hearing BWPS 2004 I set out upon the mission of finding the clearest cleanest sounding original versions of the familiar tracks and shuffling them into various different sequences. I was not happy even with the "fly-ins" featured on Song for Children on the Smile Sessions as these weren't original!
    So hearing another version with additional bits added in resulted in my outburst. Sorry about that. Martin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Please don't apologize.

      In the liner notes, I mentioned my intention to do a "one big suite" version of SMiLE with the whole album strung together with all the Heroes fragments. But, I also want to try my hand at yet another 3-suite. Even though I've come to believe very strongly that a 2-suite format sounds much better and is more accurate to Brian's wishes circa 1966, I want to see what I can do with it.

      I mention this because I thought I'd use just George Fell and Veggie Fights to bridge the suites together. A more reigned in, perhaps more historically accurate, use of Psychedelic Sounds. Perhaps I'd use Taxi Cabber too, to lead into the first suite (Americana.) I'd also like to experiment with switching the order of the Innocence and Elements suites so Surfs Up can still be last and there isn't that awful transition from that song into Vega-Tables.

      Expect both of these sometime in the next couple months. May at the latest, I'd expect. Depends on when I get enough free time.

      Delete