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The Free Design

AzusaAzusa 7 Posts
edited June 2005 in Music Talk
I like their albums but I don't understand why cratediggers are so crazy for it. Its mellow pop-psych with no real beats and/ or soul. I've seen rhe remix LP with Madlib and other producers on it and it just boggles the mind, does anyone know why this group has caught on with this beatdigging crowd?

  Comments

  • luckluck 4,077 Posts
    Madlib

    Uh-oh.
  • The_NonThe_Non 5,691 Posts
    Blackalicious-Blazing Arrow, some things on there with the same style.
  • mylatencymylatency 10,475 Posts
    Blackalicious-Blazing Arrow, some things on there with the same style.
  • AzusaAzusa 7 Posts
    Blackalicious-Blazing Arrow, some things on there with the same style.

    yeah I don't understand, please explain
  • The_NonThe_Non 5,691 Posts
    I think there are a lot of vocal samples/interludes on Blazing Arrow that remind me of Free Design's music, vocal spacy shit.I think that album helped popularize some of those styles to sample in hip hop. That's it, nothing too complex. No "direct samples" per se; "reminiscent."

    1

    T.N.
  • kilogramkilogram 152 Posts
    I like their albums but I don't understand why cratediggers are so crazy for it. Its mellow pop-psych with no real beats and/ or soul. I've seen rhe remix LP with Madlib and other producers on it and it just boggles the mind, does anyone know why this group has caught on with this beatdigging crowd?

    cause they're dope. no soul? what are you talking about? how could you even define that?

    i don't understand why beatheads seem to be more into them than mellow rockers who i thought would love them.

  • AzusaAzusa 7 Posts
    I like their albums but I don't understand why cratediggers are so crazy for it. Its mellow pop-psych with no real beats and/ or soul. I've seen rhe remix LP with Madlib and other producers on it and it just boggles the mind, does anyone know why this group has caught on with this beatdigging crowd?

    cause they're dope. no soul? what are you talking about? how could you even define that?


    I meant no soul as in soul music/ R&B
  • kilogramkilogram 152 Posts
    oops. never mind then.
    i'm also confused why people call them psych all the time.
    i guess the harmonies do fuck with your head.
  • upskibooupskiboo 2,396 Posts
    I like their albums but I don't understand why cratediggers are so crazy for it. Its mellow pop-psych with no real beats and/ or soul. I've seen rhe remix LP with Madlib and other producers on it and it just boggles the mind, does anyone know why this group has caught on with this beatdigging crowd?

    Not sure how many albums this group did, but there's at least one track that has heat, starts out real dope, open fenderbass line, nice, turns into a funky groove with organ and drums added,... as far as I recall its not a complete track, more like an interlude or something...
  • volumenvolumen 2,532 Posts
    It's a hard call. For me their stuff can be cool, but it's not that amazing and nothing I'd pay $15+ dollars for. I think so much stuff has been dug that weird stuff like this is always comming up and catching peoples attention just cuz a lot of people never heard it. Plus, they do have a couple cool tracks, so like a lot of bands, you go nuts and start looking for all their stuff int he hopes that their are more goodies, but their aren't. And of course the whole Re-Designed LP that I'm sure got a lot of people ont he hunt even thought that LP didn't do that great.

    I'll be the first to admit I've been caught up in group freenzy over artisits before, but this isn't one of them.
  • el_sparkoel_sparko 884 Posts
    Hmm, i like some of their stuff, but on the last album "The Redesign" (corny title) it was like some 50 cent album or something with all the collabo's they had. Dangermouse, Murs, The Peanut Butter Wolf etc... Madlib's involvement was cool though, worth the price of admission, i didn't know he did stuff with hippy types, versatile to the fullest. Good band though, listening to it, it was like the ultimate accolade for music, where you couldn't tell if it was a sample or original music. One of the songs sounded suspiciously like one from the Frank Ifield - Blue Skies album but i'll forgive that. Very nice, it gets two thumbs up...
  • volumenvolumen 2,532 Posts
    Hmm, i like some of their stuff, but on the last album "The Redesign" (corny title) it was like some 50 cent album or something with all the collabo's they had. Dangermouse, Murs, The Peanut Butter Wolf etc... Madlib's involvement was cool though, worth the price of admission, i didn't know he did stuff with hippy types, versatile to the fullest. Good band though, listening to it, it was like the ultimate accolade for music, where you couldn't tell if it was a sample or original music. One of the songs sounded suspiciously like one from the Frank Ifield - Blue Skies album but i'll forgive that. Very nice, it gets two thumbs up...


    Your joking right? The Redesign was a LP of producers sampling the Free Design in remix style. Could be completly wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Free Design had no involvement.
  • guy_alcindorguy_alcindor 621 Posts
    Obviously, with any el_sparko post, they must be taken with a grain of salt. "Accolade"? Does he even really know what this word means? As for the Free Design, one of the big reasons they caught on was because of their influence on 90s indie rock, specifically Stereolab. Groups like Stereolab ripped off verbatim certain Free Design vocal phrasing, as well as conjoining it with elements of krautrock. This group is not typically psych, but what you could call soft-psych, or, heaven forbid, popsike. They had a unique sound, and although not a huge source for sample pillaging, still caught on within crate-digging culture...
  • TheMackTheMack 3,414 Posts
    i dont know why Free Design are described as psych. thats some bull ish right there. this is pop music. not hating, just stating. on that note i like them, and i need their albums
  • volumenvolumen 2,532 Posts
    i dont know why Free Design are described as psych. thats some bull ish right there. this is pop music. not hating, just stating. on that note i like them, and i need their albums


    For sure, it's pop orch vocal stuff like most of that Enoch Light era/style. Way to happy to be pych. maybe cuz that bubbles song is a little trippy people sat that.
  • guy_alcindorguy_alcindor 621 Posts
    it's a fine line you draw...
  • PEKPEK 735 Posts
    Obviously, with any el_sparko post, they must be taken with a grain of salt. "Accolade"? Does he even really know what this word means?

    The question begs though: WHY bother? Too much time on one's hands? Some inside joke b/w himself and himself? Obviously knows records, but playing the role of the idiot savant only carries fleeting currency of clever BS like Vice Magazine for that allotted Warhol 15 minutes - time's almost expired...
  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    "Psych" has to be the most abused genre tag out there. I think that would make a good thread, actually, "most abused/mis-used music genre label." The age of eBay has taken this to a whole new level of comedy, as sellers strain for buzzwords that mean the most $$$ coming in...searching for "Northern Soul" brings up some funny shit.

    The range of groups & albums called "psych" is out of hand - pretty much anything from 1965 to 1977 can be refered to on eBay as being psych, and half of it will have nothing psychedelic about it whatsoever, or maybe there's an organ on it somewhere...

    I picked up a $4 OG of "You Could Be Born Again" a few months ago, was psyched to find a cheap one with all the hype going around, but it was not working for me...I only liked the final track, "An Elegy," where they got dark...I like my Sunshine Pop to be dark, ala The Poppy Family. The rest of that record was way too sixties choral pop for me.

  • lucerolucero 425 Posts
    I think there are a lot of vocal samples/interludes on Blazing Arrow that remind me of Free Design's music, vocal spacy shit.I think that album helped popularize some of those styles to sample in hip hop. That's it, nothing too complex. No "direct samples" per se; "reminiscent."





  • upskibooupskiboo 2,396 Posts






    Weird-ass story concept record, these people must have been doing a shitload of drugs recording this...
  • akoako https://soundcloud.com/a-ko 3,418 Posts






    Weird-ass story concept record, these people must have been doing a shitload of drugs recording this...

    i thought this was the soundtrack to the movie?
  • merlemerle 39 Posts
    um....moody loops for dayz?
  • slavinslavin 577 Posts






    Weird-ass story concept record, these people must have been doing a shitload of drugs recording this...

    i thought this was the soundtrack to the movie?

    yep. haha.. i loved this movie when i was younger.

  • DubiousDubious 1,865 Posts



    master freakin peace

    dude talkin about stereolab hit the nail on the head up there.

    7+ years ago shit like free design was getting reissued and marketted towards that "space age bachelor music" crowd, yer stereo total fans and such.

    the same could be said about the United States of America record... when i first got that joint like 10 years ago i was aware of it because it was something aped by sterolab.. then it got even more popular in the wake of bands like Broadcast aping it even more specifically...

    i think there's more crossover / overlap from indy pop types to soul / funk digger types than alot of people realise.. i mean these are peeps who came up collecting 7"s and vinyl and moved on to digging for alot of these band's influences. As much as Belle & Sebastian are twee ass shite they are probably responsible for a sizable number of new fans to the Northern Soul circuit, not to mention the light psych / private press weirdness.





  • GuzzoGuzzo 8,611 Posts
    As much as Belle & Sebastian are twee ass shite they are probably responsible for a sizable number of new fans to the Northern Soul circuit, not to mention the light psych / private press weirdness.



    whoa, watch yourself now on the Belle & Sebastian comments them dudes are hard as fuck to a lot of peoples (including me)
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