Jeff Mills - "The Blue Potential" - CD/DVD

[conflict]

http://img461.imageshack.us/img461/8171/19ax.jpg

Hello from flight 1435 Air France. I'm flying somewhere over West Germany on route to Paris.
Today is the day of the completion of studio recording of the forthcoming DVD/CD "The Blue Potential". It's a collaboration project that originates from a live outdoor performance that took place in Montpellier, France at the historic site, Pont Du Gard in July of 2005.

At this performance, the attendance was 10,000+ people. It was the first for me to perform "live" outside the few performances of the groups Final Cut in the mid-eighties and Underground Resistance in the early 90's. What the performance consisted of was a philharmonic orchestra of 80 persons, The Montpellier Symphonic Orchestra. Twelve of my compositions were scored to sheet music by a very talented composer and violinist, Thomas Roussel of Paris/Djon.

I selected such tracks as, Gamma Player, The March, 4Art, The Bells, and other releases that I had only released via vinyl 12" disc. I also included 2 tracks from the Underground Resistance catalogue, Amazon and Sonic Destroyer.

After many days of studio recording for this project and listening to the integration, I must truly say that I am deeply convinced that the combination between Classical and Electronic Music is something extraordinary. I won't go into this too much, I don't want to spoil your surprise when you listen to it.
The DVD project is due out sometime in March 2006.

In the next few days, London/Spain/Chicago. Once settled in Chicago, my attention immediately turns to the being with family, office and studio recordings. Between December and January is usually hectic as everyone is in rush to finish the year on a good note. Until then......

Later,
Jeff

[Mindful]

sound as a pound

[marginmaster]

ill look forward to that!

[Dave Elyzium]

niiice - cant wait

[dirty_bass]

Am I the only person who thinks that mills is a pretty good, old DJ, who spouts a lot of intellectual bumf to try to beef up the fact that he is just releasing another record of a 909 beat with some beeps and bell noises over it.

[Dustin Zahn]

Am I the only person who thinks that mills is a pretty good, old DJ, who spouts a lot of intellectual bumf to try to beef up the fact that he is just releasing another record of a 909 beat with some beeps and bell noises over it.

Mills is the man and for many reasons. But yes, sometimes he goes a bit overboard with the intellectual stuff. I don't mind it though because he has many followers that I enjoy watching because they eat the shit up completely and its so funny. But you know...it all goes back to the intellectualize-techno vs. de-intellectualize techno debate. That is why there is always so much drama with the techno community.

I look forward to hearing this though. I'd like to see what they did with his works. He acts like this project is something new, innovative, and amazing...but people have been doing this shit for years.

[djshiva]

i am one of the unwashed masses who actually does quite a bit of self education who thinks it's all a bunch of hooey.

i remember reading one of the blurbs on a record ("the other day ep" was the record), and it was total hoohaa. made no feckin' sense whatsoever (i am a former english major, proofreader/copyeditor and writer; those are my credentials, for whatever its worth). total big word for the sake of big word malarkey.

dope record...totally idiotic pap on the label.

[conflict]

yea i know what you mean

dude, its only a tune haha

[The Overfiend]

I say good for Jeff.
An orchestrah doing your tracks?
I'd be stoked.

[Buttman]

Sounds good!! My number one fantasy is to have an orchestra perform with me.

[Miromiric]

i thought it was lining up 7 asses in a row and dipping in once into each?

[The Overfiend]

Sounds good!! My number one fantasy is to have an orchestra perform with me.

You're fantasy is to turn into a seal and make love to a manatee legally.

[Dave Elyzium]

Sounds good!! My number one fantasy is to have an orchestra perform with me.

You're fantasy is to turn into a seal and make love to a manatee legally.

there is a loop hole in the law...PM me will let you know ;)

[Buttman]

LOL at all three..
Luka: Yes but my sexual and musical fantasies are divided nowadays.

[conflict]

my sexual fantasy involves a climbing frame, monkey wrench, duct tape and an anal clamp

[Buttman]

Been there, done that.

[dirty_bass]

Well, it`s a fun project, but "the bells" is hardly an orchestral track.
Timpany for the kick, cymbals for the hats, maybe a sax for the housey noise, and then some idiot on tubular bells.
I mean, I`m all up for a bit of pretentious artiness, but converting some very simple 909 based tunes into orchestral score? it`s almost a joke.
Writing music for an orchestra is another thing altogether.
He`ll be doing some Jeff Mills and Garth Brooks country and western techno next.
The Bells, western style "yeeeeehaaaaaa ding ding ding ding, boom tish boom tish"

[Alan Oldham]

Am I the only person who thinks that mills is a pretty good, old DJ, who spouts a lot of intellectual bumf to try to beef up the fact that he is just releasing another record of a 909 beat with some beeps and bell noises over it.

When they do orchestral remakes of Dirty Bass tracks let me know.

But oh! It's a joke to do that for 909 based tracks.

Never mind.

[dirty_bass]

Sounds like your are hurt little lamb.

[Alan Oldham]

Sounds like your are hurt little lamb.

No, lost =)

[Francisco Scaramanga]

Well, it`s a fun project, but "the bells" is hardly an orchestral track.
Timpany for the kick, cymbals for the hats, maybe a sax for the housey noise, and then some idiot on tubular bells.
I mean, I`m all up for a bit of pretentious artiness, but converting some very simple 909 based tunes into orchestral score? it`s almost a joke.
Writing music for an orchestra is another thing altogether.
He`ll be doing some Jeff Mills and Garth Brooks country and western techno next.
The Bells, western style "yeeeeehaaaaaa ding ding ding ding, boom tish boom tish"

Theres alot of classical music that is alot more minimal than the bells. It would be quite good fun to be in the orchestra that played it I would have thought. Theres actually alot of room in something like the bells for an orchestra to amuse themselves and the crowd. How well it worked would be down to the guy who did the arranging and the conductor, but I'm guessing it came off pretty damn good or Jeff wouldent be putting this on a CD. And while the bells would be good, stuff like Amazon and 4Art would be ace I reckon!

Thing is, I have a feeling that when the orchestra does this, they will be using more than a Timpani, Cymbals, a Sax, and some Bells. I've never heard it, but I would guess they will be using as much of the orchestra as makes sense. No doubt there will be a big string arrangement, and the bells bit in particular would be excellent if done with violins/violas/cellos/basses. I dont know how much things got changed around, but the bells could quite easily be made to sound like a movement from a Beethoven symphony if people wanted to do that.

[dirty_bass]

I`m very much into minimal contemporary classical, but it shifts and moves and changes key.
The bells is just a 4 bar loop that does the same thing for ten years, with the bells riff.
Even philip glass would kick the ass out of that.

[dirty_bass]

I`d much rather have mills turn his intelligence over to writing something original for an orchestra, rather than just getting his tunes scored, and essentially releasing his product in a different format.
In concept it`s a good idea.
But it`s just another remix if you look at it from a distance (with a lot of drugs, and if you squint a bit), when he could do something really really cool.

[RDR]

its just a concept... good on him.

it'd be fun to work with an orchestra

[dirty_bass]

Yes, it would be fun.
I think working with a dixiland jazz band would be more fun.
It`s the clarinets that do it.

[Francisco Scaramanga]

I can see what you're saying about it being just another version of the same old same old, but I'm still quite interested to hear it. I've heard many projects of a similar nature from the rock world, and some are good and some are bad, and the Aphex Twin one that was done a few years back was definately worth listening to, so I'll be checking this out as well.

[teknorich]

Has Jeff learnt to mix yet? He's been practising with the same few records for the last ten years, but he still manages to f*ck it up. (I am thoroughly sick of hearing him play "The bells").

[gumpy green]

mix - he can but not very tight sometimes......its all about the other techniques for djing now anyway, everybody can mix.

on topic-
im quite interested to hear what this turns out to be.......i think it could be good but ill just have to wait..

still its very nice to see a bit of a different approach , and yes it would be good to see him do some new stuff in orchestra form like db said......

if i had some tracks i recon it would be good to hear them in different forms......like i luv the midi song i have on my phone....the herdrix ones are good as is rock supastar by cypress hill.....

mind you the 2unlimited ones are that awful ther funny.

[audioinjection]

Am I the only person who thinks that mills is a pretty good, old DJ, who spouts a lot of intellectual bumf to try to beef up the fact that he is just releasing another record of a 909 beat with some beeps and bell noises over it.

haha i agree with that

[djshiva]

mix - he can but not very tight sometimes......its all about the other techniques for djing now anyway, everybody can mix.

beatmatching is SOOOOO 94. trainwrecks are the new black. ;)

i do have to say that i think it's interesting to see him at least trying to do something new. as with anything else, it may be really cool or really awful, but the point is that he is trying new avenues to present his music.

i too, think hearing the bells in orchestra style would be rather boring (haven't heard it so i can't say for sure), but i do applaud the effort to change-up the context a bit. experimentation doesn't always work, but that's why it's called experimentation in the first place! :)

[Davin]

This Is what I've been told about by all my mate's!!!never saw it for myself till now, but shit this is gonna be good!!!! Davin

[RDR]

Yes, it would be fun.
I think working with a dixiland jazz band would be more fun.
It`s the clarinets that do it.


I kind of agree, but clarinets?

Devils own wind instrument. Lets get the Euphoniums rocking out instead... :lol:

[Stella Boy]

http://www.lesinrocks.com/DetailArticle.cfm?iditem=183342

just click the audio/video link.

[Francisco Scaramanga]

Well, I'll definately be buying this, I think its ace for sure. I mean, its really out there, this might be old tunes, but you'd barely recognize alot of it. Fair play, its a hell of a good job, cant wait for the release. It was nice of them to put up such a long clip as well, you really get a feel for it. I was loving it, and then Amazon came on and was ace, and then the bogeyman, ooops, I mean the Bells came on, and what a version that is! Anyone who thought it would be lame or just a timpani and bells cover version needs to check this out for sure.

Fair play to Jeff, he's gone for the arty techno holy grail with this one, and by the sounds of this clip come away a winner. Obviously its not exactly club material, but when we are all 50 we can put this on at a dinner party and discuss politics over cheese and wine while we listen to Sonic Destroyer - class.

[dirty_bass]

I think it`s pretty cheesy really.
Fair play for giving it a go. But it`s not dance music.
And certianly anyone into classical music isn`t really gonna dig it, as it`s repetative and too rigid.
If you wanna break into the contemporay classical thing, you are competing with true musical geniuses like arvo part, and elliot goldenthal (check the alien 3 soundtrack). this to me is pretty cheesy james bond-esque stuff.
Still no one else has done this yet, but then, no one has the connections to be able to make this kind of thing happen.

[eyeswithoutaface]

oh lord, really not into this, unfortunately, sounding a great idea, but seriously this grates, way too rigid to be truely classical and simply doesnt allow the natural ebb and flow that classical music naturally needs. Sounds too hard, stiff, rigid etc etc

great idea of course

[xfive]

I think you guys are reading into this a little too deeply. I don't think he's trying to make this be "truly classical"... its just a fusion of two things.
Same as when Smashing Pumpkins or whoever else had the huge string section with them etc...

I think it sounds pretty cool personally.. something different.

[eyeswithoutaface]

not at all, i can see what he's trying to do, the 909 indicates that right away if it were a true classical score and performance i dare say it would of been minus the 909

i just dont think it works very well, at all, i was hoping id enjoy it, im a huge mills fan, but alas

[dirty_bass]

buts it`s not a fusion of two things is it?
It`s a 909 slapped over some orchestrations of his tunes.
Techno is inherently quite a tight music. even with loose quantisation it`s still rigid. Whereas an orchestra ebbs and flows. To force them to essentially play along to a click track seems to have pulled the life out of it.
It simply doesn`t work.
The only good thing I see is that it introduces a lot of mills fans and techno fans to classical music, and may (doubtful) cause them to look into contemporary orchestral music.

Good idea.
But some experiments are doomed to failure.
Fair play for doing it, if I had the pull to work with an orchestra I would.
But I wouldn`t try to make techno.

[xfive]

I understand what you are saying, I think tho, since this was a case of orchestrating pre-recorded music... this is about as far as you could go with it while being true to the originals... otherwise sure.. he could have written something new, that was different.. more flowing... but that wasn't the goal of the project I don't think. The goal was to orchestrate his old tracks, and in that sense it fits the bill.

[xfive]

I'm not gonna buy the dvd mind you.. but I think it was an entertaining half hour listen :razz:

[Francisco Scaramanga]

First of all, while these were originally dance tracks, I really dont think anyone intended any of this to be dropped in a club. I dont think "dance music" was the goal of this project. And no, it wasn't true classical otherwise there would be no 909, but then again if it was a true Jeff Mills set, there wouldent be any orchestra. Its just a new and different way to listen to some of his music. Its quite interesting, future music techno, eletronic 909 etc, combined with age old sound of orchestra played on instruments that have been around for 1000 years or more. And it sounds allright. Gimmicky perhaps, but its amused me at the very least.

One other thing - this business about techno being tight - what and classical music isn't? I'm sure those musicians are playing to a metronome, only they are good enough that its in their head, and they can no doubt stick to that as well as a drum machine can, because to play serious classical music you have to be that good. I have never heard of any orchestra that prides itself on the looseness of their musicianship, and most of the truly great pieces require an immense amount of precision timing, there is no room at all for looseness, if you arent bang on you screw the whole thing up.

[SlavikSvensk]

anyone heard the orchestral version of the legend of zelda theme? now THAT's what i call a crossover! :bonk:

on jeff mills...i think this is neither a groundbreaking work of genius, nor some terrible, failed experiment. it's some dance tracks done orchestrally...in other words, a novelty.

[audioinjection]

im not really into this.....i mean its a cool idea and all, but i wouldnt want to hear this dropped in a club haha

although it does get pretty boring.......sounds more like a movie soundtrack to me

but props to mills for the experiment

[Dave Elyzium]

this seems a bit like an itchy willy - not all that unpleasurable to endure and at times almost enjoyable, but do you really want to be seen to be scratching it? becuase then althought the unpleasentness subsides, youre still left with your willy in your hand.

[dirty_bass]

One other thing - this business about techno being tight - what and classical music isn't? I'm sure those musicians are playing to a metronome, only they are good enough that its in their head, and they can no doubt stick to that as well as a drum machine can, because to play serious classical music you have to be that good. I have never heard of any orchestra that prides itself on the looseness of their musicianship, and most of the truly great pieces require an immense amount of precision timing, there is no room at all for looseness, if you arent bang on you screw the whole thing up.

Well, I have a very good mate who composes and conducts.
So we talk classical a lot.
Essentially the conducter is the metronome, but his job isn`t just to keep time, he reads the mood of the music as it plays, and adjusts acccordingly. If a performance is sublime but seems that it needs to slow down slightly then it will do so, and so to speeding up.
Of course you have to be good, because you have to play in unison, and to change tempo in unison, and be fluid takes more skill than just being rigid to the beat.
Thats why people have preference to different conductors and to different orchestras. It`s all about the way the dynamics work together.
Techno isn`t about that at all, it`s a rigid beat, with possible repetative swing to the groove. It has to be, otherwise DJ`s would be crying all over the world.

I`ve got plenty of contemporary classical music that I`ve tried to sample so I could wack it into a tune, but it is impossible, as the beat shifts (albeit imperceptably until you wack a metronome to it).

[Francisco Scaramanga]

One other thing - this business about techno being tight - what and classical music isn't? I'm sure those musicians are playing to a metronome, only they are good enough that its in their head, and they can no doubt stick to that as well as a drum machine can, because to play serious classical music you have to be that good. I have never heard of any orchestra that prides itself on the looseness of their musicianship, and most of the truly great pieces require an immense amount of precision timing, there is no room at all for looseness, if you arent bang on you screw the whole thing up.

Well, I have a very good mate who composes and conducts.
So we talk classical a lot.
Essentially the conducter is the metronome, but his job isn`t just to keep time, he reads the mood of the music as it plays, and adjusts acccordingly. If a performance is sublime but seems that it needs to slow down slightly then it will do so, and so to speeding up.
Of course you have to be good, because you have to play in unison, and to change tempo in unison, and be fluid takes more skill than just being rigid to the beat.
Thats why people have preference to different conductors and to different orchestras. It`s all about the way the dynamics work together.
Techno isn`t about that at all, it`s a rigid beat, with possible repetative swing to the groove. It has to be, otherwise DJ`s would be crying all over the world.

I`ve got plenty of contemporary classical music that I`ve tried to sample so I could wack it into a tune, but it is impossible, as the beat shifts (albeit imperceptably until you wack a metronome to it).

Well, we're in agreement with regards to the playing/conducting of classical music then. But I still fail to see how techno is all that different (theoretically speaking anyway). I'm not really into contemporary classical though, I prefer the older stuff. Which does include some cosmic changes of tempo and strange time signatures and that, but it is surprising how much of it is actually 4/4 dancefloor stompers. Beethoven was tearing up dancefloors back in the day, and some of it was even approaching techno sort of speed. And I have successfully lifted large chunks of it and put it over beats, and the timing is perfect, as if it was played by James Browns band or something.

Heres a thought, when discussing a conductor, I would go farther than to say he is like a metronome, because he also acts as a mixing desk really, by getting the right mix of the various sections of the orchestra, bringing bits up and down as the situation requires - this is a stretch but it just popped into my head - sort of like a DJ playing records, the DJ uses the pitch control to match the beats, but also if the set is a little flat, then maybe speed the set up, or slow things down if the dancefloor is looking cained, and then use the mixer to get the right mix of everything, levels and eq's. And of course some people prefer the smooth blended style, others like the fast and aggressive style, and I'll bet both of those ideas could be used to describe conductors as well.

I've had many discussions about this sort of thing with my dad who is a musician and for many years made a living playing with numerous symphonies around the world, and although he doesent like techno as such, he is forever pointing out the similarities to me between his favourite classical bits and my favourite bits of techno.

At any rate, I like it, you dont, and we both have our reasons, so fair enough.

[mat]

Well, it`s a fun project, but "the bells" is hardly an orchestral track.
Timpany for the kick, cymbals for the hats, maybe a sax for the housey noise, and then some idiot on tubular bells.
I mean, I`m all up for a bit of pretentious artiness, but converting some very simple 909 based tunes into orchestral score? it`s almost a joke.
Writing music for an orchestra is another thing altogether.
He`ll be doing some Jeff Mills and Garth Brooks country and western techno next.
The Bells, western style "yeeeeehaaaaaa ding ding ding ding, boom tish boom tish"

Alright, I've seen a overview of this dvd and I can speak of it. First, the ochestra version seems terrific (Amazon is a masterpiece). Then Jeff and Thomas Roussel (classical music composer) have told that it's not an orchestra version of the tracks because some of the selected tracks don't fit the classical stuff. So Thomas has recomposed more some tracks, and then with Jeff they have re-arranged them to keep the same emotional message that Jeff wanted to expose more than keeping the sound. As a result some tracks are hardly recognizable.

[Buttman]

Where to hear this? Found no samples nor info on Axis homepage.

[dirty_bass]

Where to hear this? Found no samples nor info on Axis homepage.

Just put on some beef oven, and then play the bossanove drum preset on you bontempi home organ.
Same effect.
Read a book on existencialism at the same time, for extra millsness.
:razz:

[xfive]

Where to hear this? Found no samples nor info on Axis homepage.
http://www.lesinrocks.com/DetailArticle.cfm?iditem=183342

[Buttman]

Hehe sounds a bit Naxos yeah ;) And why the drum machines??

Good initiative nonetheless...

BTW... Why did he not include his all time best track "Blueprints"?