ZAIREEKA!

this might be a silly thing to blog about (but judging from other blog sites and bloggers, that is never a true statement) but i love the Flaming Lips, and after reading visiting their site and reading wayne's notes on albums, my love is that much more confirmed. while i was scratching around on http://www.flaminglips.com/main.php i found this little know album called Zaireeka, 4 discs to be played simultaneously. here's a discription of the first time the band heard it all together:

"Okay, on go we start it," Wayne pauses for this to sink in and shouts, "One, two, three, go!" He stabs the play button on the CD player and a voice declares, "This is track number eight." This voice surrounds us - coming from all the stereos in this room and the next. It sounds... POWERFUL. "CD Number One," comes a voice from behind me.

From the other room, "Number Two."

From in front of me, "Number Three."

Then it begins.... unearthly yet melodic music is, quite literally, swirling around us. We move to the hallway between the two rooms, Wayne cranks a stereo - in the room we just left - a little higher, and then joins us in the hallway. Then he grins as his voice comes from around a corner and begins to relate a tale about his dogs. And fluffy toy animals, and some giant plastic bugs. A Bonham-with-a-hangover drum pattern synchs in with a crazy dobule bass drum sound from the opposite side of the house, and then it really starts... voices EVERYWHERE singing the choral refrain, "The big ol' bu--ug is the new... ba-by..no--owww..." The music surges from alternate directions and we start to turn ourselves round and move side to side - experimenting with this melange that has become this glorious total sound. Gentle guitar, stray noises, voices, voices, and beautiful strings and horns just swooping past and around. At times it's like there are three clones of the Flaming Lips all playing at once, with slightly different songs that only almost lock in. Then it's all synched and it's a total sound again. The process just makes it all the more exciting and powerful. Stuff races around the room and you feel like you've been hit in the head. This particular song ends with about a million dogs all barking from all directions i.e. it's bloody frightening.

Which kind of sums up the record - alternately glorious, breathtaking, exciting, fragile and ultimately frightening. An intense vision realised in the true rich Flaming Lips tradition but eschewing the guitar pyrotechnics of the past for an altogether more atmospheric (and ultimately more stunning) arsenal that leads, truly, to a step beyond. Wayne explains that he was, ".. bored of people being able to point at a part of a song and say, 'Well, that's a Nirvana influence and there's the Stooges,' and all that.." So he made a record that comes on four CDs to be played simultaneously. "Well, now no-one can say that we're doing anything that's been done before..."

sorry, kindof long, but it got my attention. so of course i ordered the cds and sometime in july i'll play them at the living room. you can chill out with me and experience Zaireeka.

blessing all,
j-w