Music for Freelance: No sponsors, no commercials and no guarantees, kids
March 25, 2018 10:15 PM Subscribe
"Check, check, this is Radio Free Mars ... where I do my usual thing - do what I want, say what I want and play the music that I want, so f**k the frequency laws!" [YouTube playlist] Tune in for 45 minutes of downtempo, breakbeat, trip-hop and related remixes of The Seatbelts' soundtrack to Cowboy Bebop, with radio banter interludes written by Shinichiro Watanabe and Dai Sato, so it's "cannon" - if that means anything to you.
Metafilter: Thank-you for this bizarre thing which I did not know I needed.
posted by Coaticass at 11:38 PM on March 25, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Coaticass at 11:38 PM on March 25, 2018 [3 favorites]
Oh, memories. (Any other Bebop Board alumni out there?)
posted by faineg at 5:04 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by faineg at 5:04 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
It was only several years after I first encountered the Cowboy Bebop soundtracks that I realized that the Radio Free Mars DJ character might be an allusion to the interspersed "Snakeman Show" skits on Yellow Magic Orchestra's 1980 mini-album X∞Multiplies.
There's at least a couple of other YMO references in CB:
-- The assassin Tong Poo, aka Mad Pierrot is named after two YMO songs, the latter of which is in turn a reference to Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 film Pierrot le Fou, which is also the title of the CB episode in which he appears.
-- U-T (from the 1981 YMO album BGM) was referenced on the official CB website as the initials of space trucker V.T.'s husband, Ural Terpsichore.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:11 AM on March 26, 2018 [4 favorites]
There's at least a couple of other YMO references in CB:
-- The assassin Tong Poo, aka Mad Pierrot is named after two YMO songs, the latter of which is in turn a reference to Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 film Pierrot le Fou, which is also the title of the CB episode in which he appears.
-- U-T (from the 1981 YMO album BGM) was referenced on the official CB website as the initials of space trucker V.T.'s husband, Ural Terpsichore.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:11 AM on March 26, 2018 [4 favorites]
I think it's time we blow this scene. Get everybody and the stuff together. Okay, three, two, one let's jam.
Hearing Luke Vibert's remix was a bit off-putting: the remix is faster than the original version, but then you get into the big beat and downtempo elsewhere in the album, and you're back in 1999. Or at least, that's how I felt when I replayed the album yesterday.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:50 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Hearing Luke Vibert's remix was a bit off-putting: the remix is faster than the original version, but then you get into the big beat and downtempo elsewhere in the album, and you're back in 1999. Or at least, that's how I felt when I replayed the album yesterday.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:50 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Tank! Was always going to be the toughest one to remix, because it’s perfect.
posted by Artw at 9:59 AM on March 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Artw at 9:59 AM on March 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
For more similar vibes - that turn of the century Japanese jazzy hip hop sound - make sure to check out Jet Set Radio Live.
posted by sleeping bear at 11:36 AM on March 26, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by sleeping bear at 11:36 AM on March 26, 2018 [4 favorites]
Anyone else remember when the internet thought Yoko Kanno was a secret artist collective, cuz there was no way one person could make so much great yet dissimilar music?
posted by glonous keming at 3:20 PM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by glonous keming at 3:20 PM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Strange Interlude,
Thanks for those links and linkages. Between YMO and Radio Free Mars, there's some fine music up in here tonight.
posted by the sobsister at 4:50 PM on March 26, 2018
Thanks for those links and linkages. Between YMO and Radio Free Mars, there's some fine music up in here tonight.
posted by the sobsister at 4:50 PM on March 26, 2018
Oh, memories. (Any other Bebop Board alumni out there?)
Me, me! I spent so much time hanging out there on the board and in the chatroom. It was one of my first Internet homes in high school.
posted by WidgetAlley at 5:55 PM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Me, me! I spent so much time hanging out there on the board and in the chatroom. It was one of my first Internet homes in high school.
posted by WidgetAlley at 5:55 PM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Anyone else remember when the internet thought Yoko Kanno was a secret artist collective, cuz there was no way one person could make so much great yet dissimilar music?
That's basically what the Seatbelts were. The recordings were the product of three separate groups of musicians based in Japan, New York, and Paris, each of whom was overseen by Kanno and focused on different aspects of the soundtrack: The Japan group specialized in the rock/pop/blues numbers, New York was straight-up jazz and swing, and Paris was acoustic folk and percussion oddities like "Doggy Dog". They came together for a few live concerts, but AFAICT they weren't all in the same room during the actual recording process.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:03 AM on March 27, 2018 [3 favorites]
That's basically what the Seatbelts were. The recordings were the product of three separate groups of musicians based in Japan, New York, and Paris, each of whom was overseen by Kanno and focused on different aspects of the soundtrack: The Japan group specialized in the rock/pop/blues numbers, New York was straight-up jazz and swing, and Paris was acoustic folk and percussion oddities like "Doggy Dog". They came together for a few live concerts, but AFAICT they weren't all in the same room during the actual recording process.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:03 AM on March 27, 2018 [3 favorites]
That was great, the in-universe sci-fi radio station is such a fun idea, I wish there were more. Thanks for the reminder about the Jet Set Radio site too sleeping bear!
posted by lucidium at 8:55 AM on March 27, 2018
posted by lucidium at 8:55 AM on March 27, 2018
« Older Scenarios for Bigger Brother, & other, nicer... | Singapore would become the “Antioch of Asia” Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Artw at 10:51 PM on March 25, 2018 [15 favorites]