i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development – find out more here.
19. wings – letting go
its no secret that i’ve been on something of a mccartney bender for the past month or two. it all started with, heres that name again, robots in heat posting an old wings throwaway that set off memories deep in my skull. standing on milk crates trying to reach up to the pool table, getting my little hands around the cue, dad and steven drinking beers and laughing, “venus and mars” was always the soundtrack.
“letting go” is, of course, by paul mccartney’s 70s post-beatles project wings, and is from their album “venus and mars”. about two months ago, sitting in a little edit suite next to glenn ridge’s garage, i listened to this song on repeat for about 2 hours and it probably has to be one of the most emotionally visceral experiences of my entire life. now this means a number of things. it means i am prone to hyperbole. it also means that i need to get out more, and i probably need take more drugs, in particular, or less. but honestly. the first time paul mccartney eeks out an “oh” in letting go is likely to make you wince with heart ache and longing – the fiftieth time you hear it, you’ll be in tears. what do you hear? i hear regret, longing. dreams slipping away. loneliness, desperation. the loneliness of pragmatism. i seem to inhabit these modes too often, never more so when this track is on. so i guess in that way “letting go” is very very good for me and also very bad.
and as the “oh” is the sound of longing, those giant new orleans horns are the sound of release. i’m not sure there’s been a more important horn blast in the history of recorded sound. ending my r&d mix with this track was easy – what was hard was resisting the temptation to submit a mix for r&d that was simply this track on repeat for 2 hours.
when my wings urge really kicked in i went on an urgent hunt for venus and mars via p2p networks and accidentally found some bootleg versions and demos, things like that, another version of “letting go” which is pretty damn interesting to hear alongside the original. anyway, thats all for this series of posts. enormous thanks to declan and r&d for letting me put this mix together for them. if you enjoyed these mix notes, please let me know. i don’t often ask for your feedback but if you’ve been into anything you’ve heard here and want to chat, feel free to email me at tim@iamfauxpas.com, i’d love to hear from you.
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i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development – find out more here.
18. augustus pablo – stop them jah
i think its fair to say that i’m criminally uneducated when it comes to augustus pablo, and i think its also fair to say that i’ve come to the works of augustus pablo from perhaps a relatively unlikely direction – like many around melbourne i’ve been enthralled by the dub-meets-shaggs experimentation of melbourne indie duo fabulous diamonds, who list augustus pablo as their first influence on their myspace page (and what greater show of musical indebtitude is there than that)
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fabulous diamonds are part of melbourne’s wonderful mistletone family of artists.
i’ve downloaded an augustus pablo more or less at random, and gave it some repeated listens. i want to hear more but don’t know where to start – his catalogue, like so many legends, is overwhelming enough to seem impenetrable. so if anyone wants to let me know where to start.. ? how do you come at the works of a proliferous icon? its easier when you’re introduced by a friend, a fan who knows the ins and outs, where to start.
like, i could probably tell you where to start if you want to be introduced to ween’s vast back catalogue? the answer? anywhere! its all so fucking awesome!
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i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development – find out more here.
16. cleptoclectics – interstellar taste lapse
cleptoclectics is tom smith, originally from canberra, now in sydney. his textural take on cut-up instrumental hip hop is really intuitive and immediate, and he is a sampler with respect for the processes he’s employing. i found out about him through a compilation cd put out by australian leftfield music magazine cyclic defrost last year.
“What counts has never been to go along with some related movement, but to make one’s own movement. If no one starts, no one will move.” Gilles Deleuze
i’m exceedingly happy to say that cleptoclectics have turned in the very first remix of a faux pas track ever, and that it sounds great. in fact, he’s turned in two of them, and they are both pretty special. i’m gonna sit on them for a little bit longer, like a hen sits on an egg, like john howard sits on the toilet and excretes shit like so much coalition policy. actually not like john howard.
in the meantime, here are two tracks taken from cleptoclectics’ debut release for feral media which is called “poignancy beats volume two” – you can find out more about that here.
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i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development – find out more here.
15. nino ferrer – looking for you (faux pas edit)
another one from robotsinheat.com, and another track that i felt compelled to fiddle with. i think this track is still mutating, but is fun enough in its current form. i think the more i play with it, the less it becomes a re-edit and the more it becomes its own track. it is exceedingly difficult to work out where this line is drawn, given the kind of music that i make. the agitation free re-edit i posted last week i would never consider that a ‘faux pas’ track.. whereas this one, its heading towards being in the same ballpark as the other stuff i have released as ‘faux pas’, where a debt is owed to the sampled material obviously but the new track has enough of its own distinct identity that i feel comfortable separating it (in name) somewhat from its origins.
at the end of the day i try not to think too much about these kind of things, and just get the music out there. sorry this post is a little introspective and rambling, my head’s a little full of other things at the moment (the reasons why should become apparent soon – lets just say, you can officially start getting excited… now– if faux pas related things get you excited, that is)
nino ferrer was something of a reluctant superstar in his native france. he had some smoky hits in the 60s but it seems he never quite was convinced by this image of himself, a cynical and seductive crooner 10 years senior to the young starlets and hunks coming through the emergent pop machine of the late 60s and 70s. hmmm. there’s a lot you can assume about a guy from a thorough wikipedia entry. he moved to italy and became a cult tv presenter.
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/// New 6-track Vanderbilt EP features two Faux Pas tracks plus remixes by Crumbs, Aoi, Pasobionic and Lewis CanCut. Its a free download, get it here.
/// My album Noiseworks – featuring “Vanderbilt”, “Chasing Waterfalls” and “Silver Line” – is available here.
/// I’ve been working on remixes for local bands Rat vs Possum, Flying Scribble and Akimbo. These are good people.
/// I’ve started making some new songs – if you want to have a sneak peek at what they sound like, here is the place to start.
Tim Shiel lives in Melbourne. He makes music under the name FAUX PAS, and is also a broadcaster on public radio station 3RRR FM. This blog began in 2005.
1981: Born in Melbourne Australia, life feels empty and without meaning
2005: FAUX PAS created – life still meaningless
2010: Tim writes brand new three-line biography
Press photos:
“Cool Quotes”
“Psychedelic. Balearic. Straight up pop. Call it what you want, this is memorable music.” keytarsandviolins
“Lush, dreamy future pop that just begs you to dive in headfirst, your heart in close second. Just be careful how many times you dip in – you might find yourself blissfully lost in here.” mess+noise
“Impressive elastic strands of plaited sense associations; extract of flashy disco, pastoral swoon and computer exploration.” threethousand
“A total cottage industry – one guy recording, pressing and releasing his own music – and it’s an example of how to do it right from the bottom up.” Stylus
“A manic journey of sounds, bound by neither genre nor era.” Beat
“Cuts-and-pastes big samples with delicately rendered instrumentation. A party jam. Four stars.” Pitchfork
