Customer Reviews

Otherness

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The "Otherness" EP is a four-track disc of remixes of Cocteau Twins songs by Mark Clifford of Seefeel. He remixes the songs from the Cocteau Twins' art-pop into ambient soundscapes ruled by Liz Fraser's lovely voice, clearer than ever (although one still can't understand what she's singing) and with a decidedly organic feel.

Reviewing each song separately wouldn't be fair, as the disc should be heard as a whole, but "Cherry-coloured funk," the last track on the disc, is the sweetest point on the EP.

The "Otherness" EP is not an essential Cocteau Twins release, but it is noteworthy if one wants to hear Liz's angelic voice in never-before-heard clarity.

What a strange and wonderful concoction this EP is. The original versions of the four tracks on this disc are ethereally organic productions. With remixer Mark Clifford, they become ethereally mechanical, yet they still beat with a pulsing, erratic, techno-organic heart. Impressive work, that is.

An interesting side note: though Liz Fraser's vocals are brought to the foreground in tracks like "Violaine" and "Cherry Coloured Funk," my fox ears STILL can't understand what she's saying. Kinda cool, ne? I only wish there were more tracks remixed like this, or perhaps longer versions of the existing ones (these songs could go on for 10 minutes and not bore the listener). But it's still worth the money; with the lovely foldout packaging, it's sure to be a jewel in anyone's music collection.

This is their one and only release in the '90s which offers the same great innovative potential as the recordings in the beginning of their career. Liz Fraser's voice is set against a metallic-cold but fascinating background of industrial-techno rhythms and alienated guitar-samples. Unfortunately they've missed this chance to update their sound, and the following album "Milk and Kisses" was a depressingly safe mainstream-pop affair. This noble double-foldout Digipak may be a bit expensive, but it's worth the money all over. If you like this sound, check out the fabulous techno-rock-group Seefeel of remixer Mark Clifford and their side-projects Disjecta, Scala and Locust.

Sculpted loops of Cocteau Twins, segued together by Seefeel maestro Mark Clifford. The result is four perfectly formed slices of concentrated euphoria. I own every Cocteau Twins and Seefeel release and count among them several personal favourites, but this is the standout. These tracks fuse gloriously bright melodies with the abstract surprises of out-of-phase electronic loops, forming textures that have more depth than Seefeel's usual minimalism, but also contain more complex internal structure than any four-minute Cocteaus song.

The natural progression of the Cocteau Twins' shimmering guitar-driven sound into ambient, hypnotic territory was unfortunately never pursued further than this short EP. Every lover of electronica or shoegazing pop should have a copy.

If you like this, you might also like Sigur Ros, Brian Eno's ambient works, or Susumu Yokota.

Otherworldly sonic soul-sculptures. Four "songs" of nonsense using the voice as a powerful musical instrument, devoid of any meaning except for the pure, raw, nonverbal emotional content. At times the music feels robotic, but that is only in comparison to the fiery warmth of the vocals. Leaves you wanting more.

this EP justifies its name, being basically composed of previously released songs which were remixed into something not enirely different, but definitely other.

I have this cd and I hardly ever listen to it... I'm even a big CT fan... If you must collect every cd by them make this your very last... lol

This stuff is like an endurance test. How many times can *you* listen to the same theme repeated over and over and over, without screaming, "Change the chords, for crying out loud! Vary the tempo. Add a new melody. Anything!"

This is not music, as such. There are snippets of songs here which build up a tension through repetition that is never released. Then the track ends. Musicalis interruptus. Except that they could not completely ruin Violane. They tried, though.

I cannot believe this material is from the same period as Cocteau Twins' Milk and Kisses album. The weakest song on that record is ten times better than anything here. Beware that this material is not representative of the other songs Cocteau Twins were releasing at the time.