Customer Reviews

Telegram

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Telegram is basically a beautiful compillation of the best mixes (and one b-side) from nearly all of the 'Post' singles.

The album revisits all of the songs off of 'Post' (except for 'It's Oh So Quiet' and 'The Modern Things') and completely revamps them.

1. Possibly Maybe [Lucy Mix] 4/5
This is a very odd version of possibly maybe with complete new vocals. It sounds almost mechanical, but it's deffinitely Björk doing what she does best!

2. Hyper-Ballad [Brodski Quartert Version] 5/5
This is the Brodski Quartert performance with bjork of Hyper-Ballad. The song has so much energy from the strings, and Björk gives one of her best performances with the quartet that I have ever heard.

3. Enjoy [Further Over The Edge Mix] 4/5
This is the most bizarre track on the entire disc. Its an electronic buzzing mind trip like none other. The music is all buzzing beats with sampled Björk vocals. Very awesome track.

4. My Spine 5/5
It takes you through glass windchimes and a sensual tune brought by Björk. A delacate & pretty song, it is a dust devil of pretty beats and chimes.

5. I Miss You [Dobie's Rub Part One - Sunshine Mix] 2/5
In my opinion, the worst track on the disc. It's basically the 'Post' version, except slowed down and put to hip-hop. Not very good.

6. Isobel [Deodato Mix] 5/5
This is the true highlight of the whole album. The song Isobel has here been put with a contemporary jazz beat and really awesome instrumentals that just take the already wonderful song to the next level.

7. You've Been Flirting Again [Flirt Is A Promise Mix] 5/5
Very simple and pretty. The beginning entices you and the beautiful string arrangements keep you wanting more. Different vocals than on 'Post,' but quite an improvement, in my opinion.

8. Cover Me [Dillinja Mix] 3/5
a six minute repetitious sample song. It gets kinda old after the first 2 minutes.

9. Army Of Me [Massey Mix] 4/5
Another bizarre electrick buzz trip. It sorta takes on a hip-hop beat throughout, but in a tasteful way by masking it with other fascinating sounds.

10. Headphones [Mika Vaionio Remix] 5/5
I love this song. It is basically an instrumental tribute of the song. It preserves the best bits of the 'Post' version, while managing to make a completely new sounding song. Björk's vocals are just beautiful in it.

Even though the song is 6 min+ in length, it does not get old.

11. I Miss You 5/5
This is the 'Post' album version of the song. cool, edgy and an awesome music video to go along with it. I don't really understand why this track was included, but I can only assume that it's to apologize for the bad hip-hop version in track 5 of the disc ;).

Overall, this album (or EP, whatever) is deffinitely worth adding to your Björk collection. the different versions of Björk's 'Post' Songs are really worth hearing.

say goodbye to the deliciously demented Sugarcubes, and say hello to Bjork solo pop star! in her old bands it was obvious that there was a mighty strong force brewing in her mind and with her vocals. sometimes her ideas seemed suffocated by her fellow band member's contributions; so thank god that someone had the sense to let her go solo and really explore the outer and inner dephths of her talent. now that she has enjoyed a healthy and high profile solo career for quite some time; it's amazing to take a look back at her past catalogue and examine her progression over the years.

"Telegram" stands out not just as an excellent Bjork album, but also as a superb example of how a remix album should be done. (Massive Attack's "No Protection" is another outstanding example.) the Bjork originals on "Telegram" are not just given a thumping 4/4 techno beat or some other kind of lazy "remix" treatment. in fact, many of these songs add so much more life to the originals that you may have a hard time choosing which is your favorite. it's also amazing to me that even though each song gets a different remix from a different artist, the whole album has a very coherent and organic feel to it. the songs flow and some of the performances are downright brilliant! "Possibly Maybe" warps and spaces out Bjork's sultry vocals and adds a lazy stumbling beat that fits it perfectly. Deodato's treatment of "Isobel" is sheer bliss, and "I Miss You" in the hands of Dobie becomes a fun and bouncy hip-hop lite anthem. the new track on here "My Spine" comes across alot like some of the percussion from Tom Waits' "Bone Machine" album crossed with some crazy calypso. it's a great song and fits in perfectly with the whole of the album. there are lots of great ideas and artistic energy here on "Telegram."

that's the beauty of Bjork. she can harness all her outrageous ideas and mold (or allow her producers to mold) those elements and create an amazing sonic masterpiece that stands the test of time. all her albums come highly recommended and i have a hard time trying to tell people who don't own any of her solo albums which one is best to start with. and even though it is a remix album, "Telegram" is a fine place as any to begin exploring.

of Bjork's eccentric music. Very powerful sounds yet a very modest approach. A definate must own for any fan of her work. Variety of musical genres presented here from a classical approach with the brodsky quartet to dark thumping techno-like pieces as well as traditional tracks. Bjork is a musician into and of her own style.

A remix usually constitutes just what it implies: vocals with some new instrumentals, and maybe a reverb, delay, and cutup, or two. But Björk being Björk, her less-than-monumental yet doubtlessly ambitious 1996 remix album Telegram is cut from a different cloth than most remixes. In fact, it's another fabric entirely.

Before any commentary, it should be duly noted that, if you disliked Post, stay far away from Telegram. There is certainly difference between the two, but if you found yourself moaning at the LP version of "Headphones," you'll practically gag on the minimalist remix on this disc.

But "Headphone" is the only track that's drastically minimized. The other songs feel busier, in fact. "Army of Me," for example, goes from the lead character to the anthropomorphic tree in the background. "Army of Me" is not minimized in a traditional sense, though the harsh electronic beats applied to it on Telegram diminish its original declaratory beauty.

If you found "Hyper-ballad" lacking on Post, you'll be happily surprised by the Brodsky Quartet version here. It sweeps into a Top Forty, Coldplay-esque crescendo that communicates such a rife, orchestral beauty----a beauty not found in the aforementioned forty. The hip-hop remix of "I Miss You" is a decent, slow-moving old-school mix that not everyone will find Björkish enough. Then again, the yuppie-lounge mix of "Isobel" may cause some listeners to instantly press "eject." And as for "Enjoy"? I don't what the hell is going on there. It's grating and pretty damn annoying. Instantly forgettable.

"Cover Me" has a little drum n' bass thing going on, and it works to an exciting degree. "Possibly Maybe" is possibly better than the original. A misty mysteriousness surrounds it, a blackened fog. Portishead vibes result, sans the emotional whining of Beth Gibbons. "You've Been Flirting Again" reminiscences a deathly little music box. It shimmers and then ogles at it own pity. An excellent track; perhaps another vastly preferable to the original.

The b-side "My Spine" is also included. It's a tiny sensuality that's breezy and a bit ominous at the same time, thanks to Evelyn Glennie's percussion.

Is the luxurious electronic silk that Telegram is made of worth your time, or should you stay to the classics and stick with Post? For a Björk fan, it's a worthy album and deserving of a spot on the CD rack. Otherwise, skip Telegram as a whole and buy its best tracks: "Hyper-ballad," "Possibly Maybe," "You've Been Flirting Again," and "My Spine."

An album of dance remixes often signals the end of a musicians career. However, while for most a remix album is a last effort to squeeze a few pennies out of some collectors, Bjork has gone back to the drawing board and redesigned all the songs from 1995's wonderful "Post" from scratch.

It seems that Bjork got all her best remixer friends together, and let them have it with whatever song they wanted. The album opens with LFO's version of "Possibly Maybe," a song that sounds nice for the first few seconds on the album, but overall is really boring. Mark Bell of LFO did extensive work with Bjork on "Homogenic" so I can't imagine why his version of "Possibly Maybe" turned out this bad. Luckily, next we get the Brodsky Quartet (who else?) doing "Hyperballad." It's not a far cry from the original version, and although I do miss the breezy brush-drumming, this version still packs the same punch as the original.

In the original "Enjoy," Bjork sounded perfectly greedy with the sound of a loud bass-driven beat backing her every word. And if that one wasn't noisy enough for you, this one just pounds on the static. I can't say I love it. "My Spine" is the only original song on the album, and it sounds like the type of music that Bjork should've been making from the start. Xylophone and exhaust pipe music! The kooky sound compliments the intonations that only Bjork can pull off. The Dobie version of "I Miss You" is good, but that's only becasue it infuses just a bit of hip-hop to the original perfect song.

The new version of "Isobel" brings the song to Brazil, where it sounded like it wanted to go in the first place. Deodato gives the song a lot of respect by not trying to change it around and make it something it's not. Bjork's new mix of "You've Been Flirting Again" could easily be mistaken for the original mysterious version of "Cover Me." This isn't exactly a song that's best done with spooky vibes. The new "Cover Me" starts off as trip-hop, and then becomes a real Tricky-esque jungle trip-hop dance song. It works really well, with its whirrs, beeps, and magically disappearing and reappearing beats. Graham Massey gives "Army Of Me" a new fuzzy edge and breakbeats. It works well as its own piece, not as a new version of "Army Of Me."

Mike Vainio was the one who had the gaul to actually remix "Headphones," a song so minimalist, peaceful and beautiful, that if anyone touched it, you'd sweat they'd screw it up. And he pretty much did. It's a lot like the original but with Mike Vainio junk where he tries to give it the same texture, but can't, and screws it up. Overall, some new mixes turn out as good as the originals, some turn out for the worst, but I would definitely reccomend "Post" instead.

In 1996, Bjork released her third album entitled, TELEGRAM. This album is a remix album, featuring most of the songs that were featured on her second album, POST. But the songs from her 1995 album that are on TELEGRAM are remixed. Though not as good as her first two albums, this is an extremely creative remix album.

POSSIBLE MAYBE (Lucy Mix)
Original version from the album POST (1995). Great remix.

HYPER-BALLAD (Brodsky Quartet Version)
Original version from the album POST (1995). The album/single version was incredible and amazing, but this string-band quartet version is just plain awful.

ENJOY (Further Over The Edge Mix)
Original version from the album POST (1995). Great remix.

MY SPINE
New song. This song should have been released as a single, especially for its sound and quality. Bjork could have made a great video for this one.

I MISS YOU (Dobie Rub Part One-Sunshine Mix)
Original version from the album POST (1995). Great remix.

ISOBEL (Deodato Mix)
Original version from the album POST (1995). Great remix.

YOU'VE BEEN FLIRTING AGAIN (Flirting Is A Promise Mix)
Original version from the album POST (1995). Great remix.

COVER ME (Dillinja Mix)
Original version from the album POST (1995). Another great remix.

ARMY OF ME (Masseymix)
Original version from the album POST (1995). This remix could have been a lot better, which is why I prefer the album version of this song, over this remix.

HEADPHONES (0 Mix)
Original version from the album POST (1995). This remix is a lot better than the album version of this song.

I MISS YOU
From the album POST (1995). Great song. Why Bjork included the album version of this song here is beyond me, but this is still a great song.

This remix album is another successful masterpiece by the Iceland Queen. This is a great buy for all Bjork fans.

Just forget that incomplete promotion and rumours that came on that time that it would be a reworked version of ¨Post¨. Actually you'll find here a superb collection of some of the best remixes great musicians did for songs from one of this singer's masterpieces, BUT an important detail must be mentioned: nothing is really new here, and ALL OF THESE SONGS were previously released as b-sides of her UK ¨Post¨ singles. But if you aren't a hardcore fan who owns everything she releases, you're certainly gonna find good music here and a big photo session used for the booklet. The first track, Mark Bell's version for ¨Possibly Maybe¨, is one of Björk's favourites and anticipated their future work together; another Björk favourite, Brazilian Eumir Deodato's rework of ¨Isobel¨ (with brand new vocals recorded specially for it), is one of this collection's highlights, and the mixes of ¨Headphones¨, ¨Enjoy¨, ¨Army Of Me¨ ¨Cover Me¨ ans ¨I Miss You¨ can'te be fogotten. These songs were totally transformed! My personal favourite mixes, Boadsky QWuartet's ¨Hyperballad¨ and Björk's ¨You've Been Flirting Again¨ shine in this collection, and ¨My Spine¨, IOSQ's b-side with Evelyn Glennie, appeared in its simple gourgeous original form.
I just don't understand what the album version of ¨I Miss You¨ is doing in the end of the US-version, but I am always glad to listen to that. GREAT album!

"Telegram" is like the remix album of "Post"... as we all know...
"Telegram" was commissioned personally by Björk to include artists she highly reveres and the brief remained for them to remix the tracks with total freedom.
She co-produced the haunting "My Spine" with the song's percussionist Evelyn Glennie and, along with "Hyperballad" and "Isobel", this track was recorded live and acoustic, avoiding the recording "tricknology" usually associated with the remix process. Mixing duties were also split with Markus Dravs on the wonderfully rich "You've Been Flirting Again". Despite her involvement vocally, she has also allowed her songs to be completely deconstructed as LFO proved with their spacey version of "Possibly Maybe", as did Dobie with a hip hop excursion through "I Miss You".
A collection of songs that have grown and developed fresh meaning, Björk's natural instinct to veer from the original blueprint of her songs is proved right with Telegram....

Iceland's Bjork, who originally came to attention throughout the world as a member of the Sugarcubes, was not actually heard by me on radio until "It's Oh So Quiet" from her second solo album Post, when I was becoming fed up with commercial radio as awful bands like Silverchair and the Presidents of the USA emerged. At first, I found "It's Oh So Quiet" annoying and no less terrible than grunge, but as I grew to adore artists like Laura Nyro and Kate Bush I came to realise that Bjork was regarded by many as the successor to those women. This realisation, indeed, caused me to reappraise the whole of Bjork's canon, which is (like all these eccentric female artists) very much an acquired taste.

Upon buying Post from a discount store and then the quieter Vespertine, I realised that there really was so much more to Bjork than I had thought half a decade earlier. rather than dreadfully overblown noise that easily surpasses any hated 1980s hair-metal band, the predominant theme in Bjork's work is vocal acrobatics that move far beyond such classics as Laura Nyro's New York Tendaberry. Bjork was able to achieve this because she relied on very sprasely used electronics instead of a piano, so that fewer, but deeper notes accompany her voice.

Nowhere is the deep emotion created by this pattern of simple synthesisers over a dramatic voice better seen than on the 1997 remix album "Telegram". With songs taken almost exclusively from Post, the various co-workers actually added to what was already an exceptionally high emotional level by retaining and expandion upon only the barest essentials of Bjork's sound. The opener "Possibly Maybe" is truly eerie and seemingly otherworldly, yet the echo-like tone set through the piece is remarkably resonant and even catchy - kind of like Parliament with only the essential drum and bass.

The second track, a remix of her minor hit single "Hyperballad" that evokes perfectly the famously celebrated Icelandic landscapes, is a total contrast. Bjork sings in a deeply sensual manner that touches the listener much more deeply than the original album version can. Then the remixers move to the opposite extreme with a techno-intense version of "Enjoy". Though I hate the techno played on the radio in the 1990s, "Enjoy" is truly ferocious and has a level of depth that ought to have made horrible dance groups like the Real McCoy think about not making music. "My Spine", the only track unique to this album, sees Bjork at her very best over a beat of jazzy percussion and lyrics clearly derived from "Hyperballad".

"I Miss You" might feature the distasteful rapping that ruined and ruins so much music to this day, but Bjork's seductive voice is sufficient to largely, if not completely overwhelm this fault. "Isobel", wiht its brilliant lyrical celebration of remoteness and solitude, is further enhanced by the strings, whilst "Cover Me" (probably her most underrated song) is expanded in a remarkable way from the album version without losing its distinctive simple harpsichord sound. "Army of Me", in its original version perhaps the best opening track on any 1990s album, is made into a gothic instruemntal piece by the dense, layered synthesisers. It is so different that even if you find it unlistenable it's worth a try. The version of "Headphones" continues the gothic tone but in a slower, though even deeper kind of manner. the way Bjork's voice enters when one least expects it adds to the wonders of what is achieved on "Telegram".

All in all, "Telegram" is a most remarkable deconstruction of what was an exceedingly impressive album to produce some of the most daring, yet most sedctive and passionate, sound to come from the music world in the last thirty years. If you want to see what made Bjork so unique and original, there is no better place than "Telegram".

Telegram is an ethereal trip through Björk's "Post" tinted by a refreshingly new perspective. I would recommend this album for the Björk fan who has exhausted their ears listening to all of Björk's stuff: Telegram brings a new spin on several Björk classics, many of which could stand on their own, without the designation of being "remixes". It took me awhile to get into it, but now it's my favorite music to put on in the background while I check my e-mail or chat with some friends. If Post is a forest, Telegram is that forest with thick pea-soup fog everywhere, and strange creatures popping out at every turn. Totally ethereal and totally addictive. Björk fans delight!