SPECIAL TRIBUTE REVIEW: NEGATIVLAND - These Guys Are from England and Who Gives a Shit (2001)

Review by: Andreas Georgi
Dedicated to the memory of Richard Lyons

I’m not sure if this is currently in print or not. This stuff has been legendary since Island records forced them to take it off the market in the early 90's. As you already know from reading other reviews, this is the infamous Negativland collage of the U2 song "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" with a tape of radio celebrity Casey Kasem letting out a litany of four-letter words during the taping of "American Top 40". This CD contains various versions of the basic theme, including a "radio friendly" version which has the expletives bleeped out by sound effects like car horns, etc., which is still quite funny.

Even listening to it all these years later it's still very effective. One reason is that the subjects open themselves to ridicule as much as they do. To quote a reviewer on another website (don't remember who, sorry!), making fun of U2 never goes out of style. Casey Kasem's voice is so instantly recognizable, and his style so candy-assed, that it's totally hysterical to listen to his profanity-ridden tirades. Kasem's comments actually help mock U2's preposterousness. Introducing their song he rattles off their names, and when he gets to "The Edge" he breaks off and says "this is B.S.! Nobody cares!", and then states the title of this CD. I think that echoes a lot of people's reaction to the guitarist's stupid monicker.

This is being promoted as "semi-legitimate" or "bootleg", with Negativland's label's name modified to "Sealard". I'm not buying it. Keep in mind these are the same guys who circulated the fake news story about a kid killing himself after listening to "Christianity is Stupid". These guys are savvy media pranksters. Nevertheless, given the previous hullabaloo over this recording, you'll want to pick this up before it ends up on someone else's Bonfire of the Vanities.

This review is also posted on Amazon here.

NEGATIVLAND - Dispepsi (1997)

Review by: Ali Ghoneim
Album assigned by: Tristan Peterson

Dispepsi is an anti-consumerism, anti-commercial, anti-soft drink record by a group called Negativland. It alternates between sample heavy soundscapes and a couple straightforward songs. The more trad songs parody commercial jingles, which have thankfully gone out of fashion in the 21st century. All I will say about the parodies is that the basic melodies and singsongy vocals get their point across at the expense of enjoyability. Even the mixing on some of lead vocals sounds hollow. I couldn’t tell whether this was meant to reflect the soulless nature of jingles or just the band’s vocal talent; Dispepsi is my first and only Negativland record. “Aluminum or Glass” is the most honest attempt at an unironic tune, and even it sounds way too middle of the road to be memorable.

 

What Negativland is much more adept at is putting together sample-based music. Brooding sax and jittery dance music soundtrack the whole experience, showing that the band has way more musical talent on hand than they let on during the parody tracks. The group samples everything from TV spots, radio jingles, interviews with industry professionals, ad execs, testimonials from regular jacks like you and me to endorsements from famous jacks like Michael Jacks(on). This might all sound incredibly boring and pretentious, and while the latter is certainly true, the end result is actually dazzling –if a bit dizzying at times. The samples are mixed and matched and juxtaposed and repeated and repeated and repeated, but not TOO much. Five different interview samples will start and stop interchangeably, building and dropping threads, weaving them into a cohesive whole remarkable for sample based music, all the while underpinned by a kaleidoscope of shorter samples bursting left and right. It’s as if the Avalanches took a media studies course. It’s blunt and pretentious as hell, but boy does it ever keep your attention.