Mar 3, 2000 ... They're back. On Tuesday, the Smashing Pumpkins, ... their last release “Adore”
and are hoping ... overly produced mess that “Adore” was at.
8b
On the Verge of the Weekend
friday.3.3.2000
Pumpkins enter world of ‘Gods’ and monsters by matt rennels Staff writer
After returning from a two minute commercial break, the disc jockey comes on the air with a great amount of excitement in his voice, announcing the arrival of the single, “The Everlasting Gaze.” With a warm welcome, Billy Corgan’s signature shrieking voice powerfully says hello to the public. They’re back. On Tuesday, the Smashing Pumpkins, natives of Chicago, released their first recording in nearly two years, “MACHINA/the machines of God.” The Pumpkins recently suffered an industry failure with their last release “Adore” and are hoping to redeem themselves with this album and return the rock industry to where it should be at. And, if time permits, Billy wouldn’t mind taking over the world while he’s at it. What went wrong with the last album? It seemed to me it was an overly produced mess at times. Bands seem to feel the need to overproduce their music when they feel that it is lacking something like, oh say, a drummer. But not to worry. Jimmy Chamberlin, who was absent on ‘Adore’, is back in a major way. And he doesn’t waste any time at all making his presence known, as the first track and first single off the album, “The Everlasting
Gaze,” is a drummer’s heaven. Jimmy tears it up all throughout the song, never taking a second off to catch his breath. However, this does bring me to my first qualm with the album. “Try, Try, Try” is a well-written song with good lyrics, a good feel and a fine rhythm, the only problem is that the beat is synthesized. When you have such a drumming force as Jimmy Chamberlin, why mess with it? It goes right back to the saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” “MACHINA” is not quite the overly produced mess that “Adore” was at times, but it still takes the production a step or two too far. I must say when I bought the album and listened to it the first time, I was slightly let down by its seeming lack of power. When I first heard Billy taunt me with the rockin’ guitar lick and intense fury I heard on “The Everlasting Gaze,” I was ready for this album to truly rock just like the Pumpkins did back on albums like “Siamese Dream” or “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.” Unfortunately, Billy did not have the same desire as I did. The only other track on the album with even nearly as much power was a lackluster attempt to rock called “Heavy Metal Machine,” a song that seemed written just to fill the void of songs that rocked. But this wasn’t a complete disappointment, as I found that Billy Corgan is abso-
lutely fantastic at writing emotional songs with a thick glaze of glory on top ready to make you fall in love. And if this is what you look for in Smashing Pumpkins songs then this is the album for you because it is full of them. Standouts include the second single off the album, “Stand Inside Your Love,” a gripping and powerful love song Billy wrote that’s a little reminiscent of “1979.” Another song full of passion is “With Every Light”, which is most likely the best song on the album, complete with a jazz rhythm courtesy of Chamberlin. Another standout worth mentioning is “Glass and the Ghost Children,” a tenminute piece reminiscent of The Doors song, “The End.” Billy Corgan goes on a melodic ramble halfway through the song while being backed by fills as if played by The Doors’ very own John Densmore himself, and you have to wonder if James Iha didn’t trade places with Robby Krieger on just this one song. They all come together on “Glass and the Ghost Children” for a masterpiece. Soon after the album was recorded, bassist D’arcy Wretzky left the band and was replaced for the sake of touring by the bassist from Hole, Melissa Auf Der Maur. D’arcy did play bass on every song on the album, so her presence was there. But the guitar riffs were not. Way back when I was
a freshman in high school after buying “Siamese Dream”, I was ready to pick up a guitar and learn all the guitar licks on the album. A lot of the time on “MACHINA,” one could hardly even hear the guitar. It is fortunately more guitar-based than “Adore,” but still not what I craved. “MACHINA/the machines of God” is a good album. Billy may not conquer the world with it, but he certainly will win over a few more fans with it. “MACHINA/the machines of God” Smashing Pumpkins Virgin Records
★★★
Ørbit’s indulgent classical foray fails to explain itself by courtney la zier Staff writer
The entertainment industry must have invented multitasking. When a certain level of credibility is achieved, actors and actresses suddenly feel the need to direct. Directors then add “writer,” “producer” and “editor” to their credits, as if directing wasn’t enough to prove themselves. Athletes do it. Kobe wants to rap. Deion wants to do it all. Musicians are guilty of these little attempts at self-justification as well. Don’t call Billy Joel a “pop star” anymore (did you ever?). He only plays classical music now. The same goes for Paul McCartney. Somehow not quite content with his little project during the `60s – THE BEATLES! – McCartney is well into his third helping of hubris with his latest stab at the classical form. Not to be outdone, and apparently not content with rampant success and praise, is artist/writer/producer (see what I mean?) William Ørbit. In the last two years, he produced Madonna’s “Ray of Light” and Blur’s “13,” coproduced and co-wrote “Beautiful Stranger” for the “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” soundtrack and All Saints’ “Pure Shores” for the soundtrack to the
sea-based, Leonardo DiCaprio epic masterpiece... “The Beach.” And he won two Grammy Awards. While Ørbit isn’t composing quite yet, his newest release, “Pieces In A Modern Style,” contains reworkings of 11 (you guessed it) classical compositions. The gamut runs from the Baroque masters (Handel, Beethoven, Vivaldi) to 20th century innovators (Cage, Barber, Mascagni) to contemporary composer Henryk Górecki. Ørbit goes one of two ways with this material: minimalist homage or overdone sacrilege. One piece, Samuel Barber’s heartbreaking “Adagio for Strings,” unfortunately gets both treatments. The first version, without percussion and very loyal to the original, contains such a convincing string patch that it begs us to question what remains. Why not listen to Barber’s poetic original? Two remixes of “Adagio” are included on a bonus CD and this is where the heresy dwells. When Barber’s haunting melody is interrupted by clichéd bass-and-drum “bump” one has to wonder what purpose this juxtaposition is meant to serve. Also in this vein is Maurice Revel’s “Pavane pour une Infante Défunte.” Ørbit feels compelled to undo the continuity of the melody with some “bounce” where it is sim-
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ply unwelcome. His minimalist approach toward the more ambient tracks, conversely, adds little to the original texts, outside of spaced-out synth effects, and it reveals something that Ørbit must not have considered prior to choosing which classical pieces to give the ambient once-over: they’re all pretty ambient in their original form. Supposedly, this project started as a “chill out” album just for Ørbit and his friends. If he couldn’t chill out to George Frideric Handel’s “Xerxes” without 32-bit MIDI sequencing, then he should have tried writing something mellower. A more thorough deconstruction in the ambient style would have seemed to justify a project such as this. Walter Carlos’ Moog classic, “Switched on Bach,” pushed the envelope much further 30 years ago than “Pieces In A Modern Style” does today. The question then still remains: why not listen to the already ambient originals?
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“Pieces In A Modern Style” William Ørbit Maverick Records
★ These folks just got done advertising with the DAILY
just look how elated they are. Wouldn’t you like to feel that way?
