Sick-Love | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Remix album by | ||||
Released | 2000 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 71:56 | |||
Label | V/Vm Test | |||
Producer | Leyland Kirby | |||
V/Vm chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Sick-Love | ||||
|
Sick-Love is the debut remix album by V/Vm, an alias of English musician Leyland Kirby. Released in 2000, it samples and distorts several 1980s pop songs about love, distorting them to create a sinister atmosphere. The album is mostly unavailable physically because of copyright laws; V/Vm later released the similar album The Green Door . Met with a positive reception from music critics, the album and its single received airplay on various radio stations, achieving the NME title of single of the week.
Sick-Love comprises several covers of 1980s pop songs about love that are put through various sound effects, such as pitch shifting. [1] [2] [3] Most of the songs are recognizable for those who have listened to them before; however, they are distorted to an extreme noise, though not as much as V/Vm's other album The Green Door. Artists and bands sampled include East 17, Bobby Brown, Billy Joel, Berlin, the Bee Gees, Elton John, Robbie Williams, the Beatles, John Lennon, [2] Boyzone, [4] and Yazoo. [5] Other dance and disco tracks of the record feature new vocals or distortions of existing ones that make the original samples nearly unrecognizable. There are sound effects such as background buzz noises, saxophones with distorted notes, and growling vocals. [1]
The third track, "The Lady in Red (Is Dancing With Meat)", samples the song of same name by singer Chris de Burgh and distorts it with the intent of rendering it sinister. [2] Its vocal drone is pitched down and distorted so as to sound akin to releases of the Raster-Noton record label. [6] The following track, "I Need Lard" loops several lyrics of its original sample, "I Need Love" by rapper LL Cool J. [2] In "Just the Way You Are XX", the sample is modified in order to become more mutant, while "A Perfect Moment" remakes the style of the English band Portishead. [4] By "Take My Beef Away", sampling "Take My Breath Away" (June 1986) by Berlin, Kirby slows down the synth, making the chorus sound akin to a death wish. [7]
Sick-Love was released in the year of 2000 by Kirby's self-operated label V/Vm Test. [1] In a 2008 interview, Kirby said Sick-Love and his other work with pop under the V/Vm alias already explored memory; his later releases under the Caretaker alias would explore memory loss. [8] The musician said most people dismissed Sick-Love as a joke when, according to him, it "was about recontextualisation and memory just as much as any Caretaker album was." [9] The record is mostly unavailable physically because of copyright laws, which may be the reason as to why the most recent samples are the ones with most distortion. [4] [2]
The Green Door | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Remix album by | ||||
Released | 2000 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 73:18 | |||
Label | V/Vm Test | |||
Producer | Leyland Kirby | |||
V/Vm chronology | ||||
|
The Green Door, V/Vm's next release, is very similar to Sick-Love, distorting several disco and pop songs. Like Sick-Love, it does not acknowledge copyright issues. In addition to artists already sampled by Sick-Love, The Green Door has the work of Wham!, Falco, Lionel Richie, and Michael Jackson. In addition to pitch shifting, it also features glitch effects; some are unaltered, whereas others are distorted to an extreme. [10]
"I'd Rather Jack Than Fleetwood Mac" presents the adrenaline of the album, while tracks such as "A Day Up North" and "He Ain't Heavy He's My Butcher" are more noise-like, akin to Merzbow. However, some of the unaltered tracks, such as "This Ole House", as well as the title track, feature normal kids songs. Mark Weddle's review of The Green Door for Brainwashed said its silly sound is what one would except released from V/Vm. Weddle felt that, while the music's nature is questionable, it is still done well, concluding: "why bother?" [10]
The artwork features the character 'Shakey', which is named after Shaky 's single "Green Door" by Welsh singer Shakin' Stevens. The character speaks:
This was supposed to be a V/Vm compilation CD until I came along and abducted the V/Vm boys. Find out what I've been hiding behind my Green Door for all of these years.
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
NME | [4] |
Sick-Love was met with a positive reception from music critics, who praised its distortion of pop songs. AllMusic critic Tim DiGravina felt that, while it may be "first-class sonic thievery and manipulation," it would not be a record that listeners "would want to return to with great frequency." [1] Paul Simpson of the same website argued that, for the public that has "a downright evil sense of humor, this is simply one of the best albums ever made." [11] Writing for NME , Stephen Dalton called Sick-Love "a brutally disturbing treatise on pop and our love/hate relationship with it." [4] The Igloo Magazine said the album was fantastic, along with V/Vm's albums of commemorative dates. [12] However, Mark Weddle's more negative review for Brainwashed opined that the album "is fun and funny but the theme and gimmick get a bit old after awhile", and that The Green Door is more varied. [2]
Sick-Love received airplay from several radio stations. This includes ABC, [13] WPRB, [14] WFMU, [15] RTRFM, [16] KFJC, [17] and BBC Radio 1. [18] The single "The Lady In Red (Is Dancing With Meat)" was later named by NME as single of the week. [19] The song was also included in the Rewired program of The Wire . [20]
Adapted from Brainwashed. [2] Note and total length adapted from AllMusic. [1] Samples adapted from Brainwashed, [2] [10] AllMusic, [1] NME , [4] and Freaky Trigger , [7] as well as from the names of the songs themselves.
No. | Title | Sample | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "The Best Baby" | 1:51 | |
2. | "Stay Anuvva Day" | "Stay Another Day" (December 1994) by East 17 | 4:25 |
3. | "The Lady in Red (Is Dancing With Meat)" | "The Lady in Red" (1986) by Chris de Burgh | 4:09 |
4. | "I Need Lard" | "I Need Love" (July 1987) by LL Cool J | 4:12 |
5. | "Goodiepal's _ _ _ _S" | 0:56 | |
6. | "Only You Ba Da Da Da" | "Only You" (March 1982) by Yazoo | 3:18 |
7. | "Two Can Play That Gamon" | "Two Can Play That Game" (June 1994) by Bobby Brown | 2:33 |
8. | "Just the Way You Are XX" | "Just the Way You Are" (September 1978) by Barry White | 4:36 |
9. | "Say Nothing at All" | "When You Say Nothing at All" (August 1988) by Ronan Keating | 3:35 |
10. | "Take My Beef Away" | "Take My Breath Away" (June 1986) by Berlin | 4:06 |
11. | "Sex You Up" | "I Wanna Sex You Up" (March 1991) by Color Me Badd | 0:50 |
12. | "Words......" | "Words" (October 1996) by Boyzone | 4:01 |
13. | "The Other Side" | "The Other Side of the World" (March 1985) by Luther Vandross | 3:27 |
14. | "For Evver and Evva" | "Forever and Ever (1973) by Demis Roussos | 3:35 |
15. | "A Perfect Moment" | "Perfect Moment" (November 1997) by Martine McCutcheon | 3:30 |
16. | "Blue Thighs (Baby's Got)" | "Blue Eyes (March 1982) by Elton John | 3:47 |
17. | "Do You Want to Know a Sick-Rat?" | "Do You Want to Know a Secret" (March 1963) by the Beatles | 2:06 |
18. | "Spud Girls Two Become 1" | "2 Become 1" (December 1996) by the Spice Girls | 3:53 |
19. | "Angels" | "Angels" (December 1997) by Robbie Williams | 3:56 |
20. | "Mama Mia Tordis" | "Mamma Mia (September 1975) by ABBA | 1:37 |
21. | "On My Own Why Did It End." | "On My Own (March 1986) by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald | 4:31 |
22. | Untitled (referred to as "Imagine") | "Imagine" (October 1971) by John Lennon | 3:02 |
Total length: | 71:56 |
No. | Title | Sample | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm?" | "How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)?" (1919) by Walter Donaldson, Joe Young, and Sam M. Lewis | 2:16 |
2. | "The Green Door Abduction" | "Green Door" (July 1981) by Shakin' Stevens | 3:06 |
3. | "The Birdie Song" | 1:59 | |
4. | "Schwarz-gelb Ist Borussia" | "Schwarz-Gelb Ist Borussia" (2000) by V/Vm With Hein O | 3:38 |
5. | "Jim Bergerac" | "Bergerac Theme" (1981) by George Fenton | 2:32 |
6. | "I'd Rather Jack Than Fleetwood Mac" | "I'd Rather Jack" (1988) by The Reynolds Girls | 3:09 |
7. | "Lady in Red, Chris Has Gone" | "The Lady in Red" (1986) by Chris de Burgh | 1:47 |
8. | "Careless*Trotter" | "Careless Whisper" (July 1984) by George Michael | 3:41 |
9. | "BBC Snooker Theme" | "Drag Racer" (1988) by The Doug Wood Band | 1:42 |
10. | "This Ole House" | "This Ole House (Rock & Roll Melody)" (1981) by Mini Pops | 0:47 |
11. | "A Day Up North" | "Symphony #9 "New World" - Largo" (1893) by Antonín Dvořák | 3:07 |
12. | "Rock Me (H)amadeus (Edgeley Edit)" | "Rock Me Amadeus" (1985) by Falco | 4:14 |
13. | "All Night Long (Butcher All Night)" | "All Night Long (All Night)" (August 1983) by Lionel Richie | 6:18 |
14. | "The Green Door" | "The Green Door (Novelty Melody)" (1981) by Mini Pops | 0:58 |
15. | "He Ain't Heavy He's My Butcher" | "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" (1969) by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell. | 4:53 |
16. | "A-Team" | "The A-Team (From "The British Gas Advert")" (1984) by The Daniel Caine Orchestra | 2:40 |
17. | "Mark*-That's Livin' Allright" | "That's Livin' Alright" (1983) by Joe Fagin | 3:11 |
18. | "Please Stop, I've Had Enough" | "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" (July 1979) by Michael Jackson | 4:11 |
19. | "I'm So In Love With You" | 3:20 | |
20. | "Seven Days With Crab David" | "7 Days" (24 July 2000) by Craig David | 3:59 |
21. | "Up Where We Belong" | "Up Where We Belong" (22 July 1982) by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes | 3:54 |
22. | "Pigs (You Are All)" | 6:37 | |
23. | "Untitled" (referred to as "The Green Door Reprise") | 1:19 | |
Total length: | 73:18 |
Albert Allick Bowlly was a vocalist and jazz guitarist who was popular during the 1930s in Britain. He recorded more than 1,000 songs.
"Windowlicker" is a song by British electronic musician and producer Aphex Twin. It was released on 22 March 1999 through Warp Records. The artwork for the single was created by Chris Cunningham, with additional work by The Designers Republic. Cunningham also directed the song's music video, which was nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Video.
New Radicals was an American alternative rock band formed in 1997 in Los Angeles. The band was centered on the duo of Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois, and augmented by session and touring musicians.
V/Vm Test records was a record label based in Stockport, England and was started by James Leyland Kirby (V/Vm) and Andrew Macgregor in 1996. It did not have an overseas division, so releases on it tend to be collectable outside of the United Kingdom.
The Caretaker was a long-running project by English ambient musician James Leyland Kirby. His work as the Caretaker is characterized as exploring memory and its gradual deterioration, nostalgia, and melancholia. The project was inspired by the haunted ballroom scene in the 1980 film The Shining. His first several releases comprised treated and manipulated samples of 1930s ballroom pop recordings. Most of his album covers were painted by one of his friends, Ivan Seal.
V/Vm is the experimental music and sound collage project of Leyland James Kirby, from Stockport, England. Although starting out mainly in the style of noise music, Kirby is also a composer of original electronic music and remixes. His vast output is released primarily on his own V/Vm Test Records label. Alongside the work of the V/Vm project, James Kirby also recorded as The Caretaker. He currently resides in Kraków.
Ivan Seal is an English painter and sound artist who specializes in surreal and abstract works centered around concepts of memory and the creation of imagined objects. He is best known for his collaborations with electronic musician James Leyland Kirby, also known as The Caretaker, creating artwork for the critically acclaimed albums: An Empty Bliss Beyond This World and the six part album series Everywhere at the End of Time, both of which examine themes of memory loss through the long-term mental decay brought about by dementia.
An Empty Bliss Beyond This World is the ninth studio album by the Caretaker, an ambient music project of English musician Leyland Kirby, released on 1 June 2011 through History Always Favours the Winners.
The soundtrack for Patience (2012), a film by Grant Gee, was composed and produced by English musician Leyland James Kirby under his ambient music project the Caretaker. The official soundtrack album was issued on 23 January 2012. Unlike other albums of the Caretaker that used old recordings of playful and bright ballroom music, Kirby's score for the film uses a 1927 record of Franz Schubert's piano-and-voice-only composition Winterreise (1828) as its main audio source. It also differs from other works of the project where hissing sounds are used instead of crackles, the loops are shorter in lengths, and the non-musical aspects of each track serve as the foreground of the mix. The soundtrack was favorably received by professional music journalists.
We Will Always Love You is the third studio album from Australian electronic group The Avalanches, released on 11 December 2020 through Modular Recordings.
Everywhere at the End of Time is the eleventh recording by the Caretaker, an alias of English electronic musician Leyland Kirby. Released between 2016 and 2019, its six studio albums use degrading loops of sampled ballroom music to portray the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Inspired by the success of An Empty Bliss Beyond This World (2011), Kirby produced Everywhere as his final major work under the alias. The albums were produced in Kraków and released over six-month periods to "give a sense of time passing", with abstract album covers by his friend Ivan Seal. The series drew comparisons to the works of composer William Basinski and electronic musician Burial, while the later stages were influenced by avant-gardist composer John Cage.
Everywhere, an Empty Bliss is the twelfth and final release by the Caretaker, an alias of English musician Leyland Kirby. Released on February 26, 2019, the record is compiled from archived tracks that were meant to be used on the Caretaker's albums. Before finishing his album series Everywhere at the End of Time, Kirby released the album as "a surprise golden farewell". It is the first album under the Caretaker alias to feature easily audible lyrical content since 2003's We'll All Go Riding on a Rainbow.
We, So Tired of All the Darkness in Our Lives is the seventh studio album by English musician Leyland Kirby, released on 28 September 2017. An electronic album, it features melancholic and gothic elements. It was produced the same time as Stage 4, and released the same day as Stage 3, of Kirby's album series under the Caretaker moniker, Everywhere at the End of Time. We, So Tired of All the Darkness in Our Lives contrasts from the Caretaker's work in that it is more positive; aspects such as drums mimicking a sound of marching are present. The album's title is a reference to the Joe Jackson song Steppin' Out.
Sadly, the Future Is No Longer What It Was is the debut studio album by English musician Leyland Kirby, released on 1 September 2009. With his ongoing aliases at the time, Kirby produced a melancholic album that explored thoughts of the future. He produced Sadly at an agitated time, when he would not work but rather drink with various girls. The record was first issued as three full-length CDs and would later be repressed as six vinyls with artwork by Ivan Seal. The release received moderately positive reception from music critics. Some criticized its length, while others praised its emotional sound.
Selected Memories from the Haunted Ballroom is the debut studio album by the Caretaker, an alias of musician Leyland Kirby. Released in 1999, it consists of an influence from the horror film The Shining, manipulating songs from the 1920s to resemble the film's music. It differed from Kirby's earlier works in that it did not manipulate pop songs to create noise albums, as he did under the V/Vm alias. It rather slowed down big band records to create a hauntological atmosphere, as he did on the Caretaker's early albums. However, the packaging was the same as other V/Vm releases. The album was met with positivity from music critics, who praised its hauntological themes.
We'll All Go Riding on a Rainbow is the third studio album by the Caretaker, an alias of musician Leyland Kirby. Released in 2003, it was the last of Kirby's "haunted ballroom trilogy", which spans his albums influenced by the film The Shining. It features looped melodies and vinyl crackle to create the ambience of The Shining's ballroom, with its artwork emphasizing this style. We'll All Go Riding on a Rainbow was met with positive reception from music critics, who praised its haunted ballroom ambiance. However, other critics felt that the album's length was an issue. Kirby's next album as the Caretaker, Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia (2005) would abandon the haunted ballroom concept and install themes of memory loss.
A Stairway to the Stars is the second studio album by the Caretaker, an alias of musician Leyland Kirby. Released in 2001, it was created after one of Kirby's pop manipulations as V/Vm gained attention. Following Selected Memories from the Haunted Ballroom, A Stairway to the Stars features new genres such as darkwave and elements such as reversed vocals. The record was met with positivity from music critics, who praised its ambiance. It is regarded as Kirby's best album in his haunted ballroom trilogy, which spans his first three releases.
Persistent Repetition of Phrases is the seventh studio album by the Caretaker, an alias of musician Leyland Kirby. Released on 1 April 2008, it was his first record to cover themes of Alzheimer's disease. The album was also the first Caretaker release to present looping of short segments within tracks. It marked Kirby's change of record labels from V/Vm Test to History Always Favours the Winners, which he felt might have helped with the record's success.
Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia is the fourth studio album by the Caretaker, an alias of musician Leyland Kirby. Released in 2005, it abandoned the haunted ballroom aesthetic of the previous albums and explored memory loss. Divided into six CDs, it consists of seventy-two drone tracks combined to create a five-hour long release. It was compared by several critics to other musicians, including Merzbow, Boards of Canada, and Krzysztof Penderecki.
Eager to Tear Apart the Stars is the second studio album by English electronic musician Leyland Kirby, released on 3 October 2011. Following his own name debut album Sadly, the Future Is No Longer What It Was, Kirby continued exploring a more personal side of his music, though one that differs from his work as the Caretaker. Kirby produced the songs without using any samples, mostly creating piano tracks from synthesisers. This style of sound drew comparisons to the work of composers Harold Budd and Roedelius, though the record's press release claimed Kirby has his own oeuvre.