180 D'Gs to the Future

Negativland | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 23, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Seeland Records
• ASIN: B000VJE1L4
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #557,677 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Debut CD by a capella Gospel R & B Doo-Wop group, The 180-Gs. You'll be all ears as this talented posse from inner Detroit sings out heavenly cover versions of Negativland's best (and least) known cut-up collage work from throughout their career!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Negativland Vocalese, February 21, 2008

By 

...Bill (St. Paul, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 180 D'Gs to the Future (Audio CD)

Stop!

If you've never heard of Negativland and/or like your music simple, non-threatening and free of profanity skip this album. It's not for you.

If you like/love Negativland --or are a fan of Frank Zappa-- then continue...

In the strange world that is Negativland it's hard to be sure what's for real and what is not. This album IS for real and what it is advertised as. It IS as unique a tribute to Negativland as Negativland is to music in general.

The 180-Gs are an excellent "a cappella" vocal group reinterpreting a nearly full retrospective of the Negativland catalog from "Points" to "Dispepsi" with an "Over the Edge" piece thrown in for good measure. The more you know of the originals the more you'll appreciate the effort put into creating some of the most amusing and entertaining re-interpretations of the FULL original pieces --complete with the samples and sounds. The entire albums is an aural delight and all the humor of the original comes out fresh again --and "more accessible" (if you accept the originals were in the first place --or just ignore the lyrics entirely). The effect on some tracks turns these covers into something that would fit nicely into a Zappa album complete with all the biting wit and style.

Examples:

"Greatest Taste Around" from Dispepsi is converted into a "full chain gain dirge" (....huh.)

"Helter Stupid" is completely recreated including vocal recreations of the news theme and all of the TV ads, phone calls and found samples.

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (i.e., the controversal track from the "U2" single) is not re-interpreted (yet again) into a spiritual, but starts out with the notorious intro as if it were from a old 78 before setting all of Casey Kasem's diatribes (and swearing) to music.

"A Nice Piece To Live" (from "A Big 10-8 Place") is reinterpreted as if it was a gregorian chant with scored by Philip Glass.

In short, it's sounds as if the Nylons, Bobby McFarrin or the Manhattan Transfer (or other do-wop, vocalese, R&B, soul, gospel group) decided that experimental, collage music should be set not only to music, but full harmonies. It's hard to believe anyone would try it, but it works.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best A Capella Since The Bobs, May 12, 2008

By 

Solo Goodspeed (Granada Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 180 D'Gs to the Future (Audio CD)

Have you ever wondered how it would sound if someone did cover songs by Negativland a capella in a gospel doo-wop R&B flava? Of course you have! Chances are you'll never hear it done better than on this phenomenal collection of songs, arranged from those infamous media manglers from Contra Costa, CA. To truly appreciate this stuff, you have to realize that much of the original source material was not so much music as sound collage. So six brothers from Detroit get a notion to vocally (and otherwise physically) interpret these tracks, the result being voice and harmony like you never thought you'd hear it. Usually it's the other way around; someone writes a song and it gets performed unmusically. Here you get impeccable musicianship inspired from noise and spoken word source. "Car Bomb" and "Playboy Channel" are extraordinary executions; these guys even perform the ambient and incidental background sounds.

No instruments. Some digital manipulation is obvious, but much of this stuff could be pulled off live, out on a street corner, and it would be a joy to see it. Hate to resort to a cliche, but just when you think you've heard it all.... incredible, is all I can say.

Look forward to more from these guys, though it's hard to imagine topping this outing on the basis of creativity alone.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A little disappointing, August 21, 2008

By 

Mark Prindle "(or his wife)" (NYC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 180 D'Gs to the Future (Audio CD)

It sounds like a great idea, but I'm pretty sure all the voices are just one guy overdubbing himself. He mostly ignores what the original songs sounded like and just doo-wops them in whatever way he wants. It sounds like a Frank Zappa rip-off, quite honestly. He's definitely going for the Frank Zappa novelty doo-wop sound.