Zaireeka
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Zaireeka | ||
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| Studio album by The Flaming Lips | ||
| Released | October 28, 1997 | |
| Recorded | 1996-1997 | |
| Genre | Experimental rock | |
| Length | 45:32 | |
| Label | Warner Bros. Records | |
| Producer(s) | The Flaming Lips, Dave Fridmann, Scott Booker | |
| Professional reviews | ||
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| The Flaming Lips chronology | ||
| Clouds Taste Metallic (1995) |
Zaireeka (1997) |
The Soft Bulletin (1999) |
Zaireeka (a combination of the words Zaire and Eureka) is the eighth album by The Flaming Lips, consisting entirely of experimental music and released in 1997. It is composed of four CDs designed to be played simultaneously on four different audio systems. The discs may be played in combinations of two or three, thus excluding the music on whichever discs are omitted.
Contents |
[edit] Logistics
The speakers being used may be physically positioned in any number of ways—high and low, in entirely different rooms, and so on; some may even choose to disable the left or right speaker of one or more systems. The discs may be played (intentionally or not) slightly out-of-sync, resulting in effects such as an echo dying away before the original sound is produced from a different disc. Further, the type of equipment the discs are played on affects the results; thus, a cheap boombox may be playing one disc while another is playing in a DVD player through a television and a third is in a high fidelity system—which discs are in which systems will determine the relationships between them.
The album is a continuation of the concepts behind the band's Parking Lot Experiments, in which a number of automobiles with loud tape decks parked in a covered parking garage would simultaneously play different tapes. These tapes were recorded to augment, clash with, and build upon each other.
Flaming Lips member Wayne Coyne confirmed in the 5.1 surround sound release of The Soft Bulletin that Zaireeka will be released as an Advanced Resolution Surround Sound 5.1 DVD, like The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.
[edit] Track listing
All four discs have identical track listings:
- "Okay I'll Admit That I Really Don't Understand" – 2:52
- "Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)" [sic] – 7:02
- "Thirty-five Thousand Feet of Despair" – 4:59
- "A Machine in India" – 10:24
- "The Train Runs over the Camel But Is Derailed by the Gnat" – 6:13
- "How Will We Know? (Futuristic Crashendos)" – 2:24
- "March of the Rotten Vegetables" – 6:27
- "The Big Ol' Bug Is the New Baby Now" – 5:11
[edit] Critical reception
Rolling Stone gave Zaireeka four stars out of five, writing: "Zaireeka's wall-of-surround-sound approach melds droning-rock dissonance with warped, off-kilter pop melodies, producing a totally immersing post-Pet Sounds audio seance."[1]
Conversely, Pitchfork gave the album its rare 0.0 rating, criticizing the concept for its "ridiculousness" and dismissing the project as "completely useless."[1] Several Pitchfork reviewers disagreed with Jason Josephes's review, claiming that if one had the four CD players necessary to give the album a "proper" listen, it would have warranted a much higher rating. The Flaming Lips' next album, The Soft Bulletin, received a rating of 10.0 (nearly as rare as 0.0), also from Josephes.
[edit] Alternate mixes
Several internet sites have hosted fan mixes of Zaireeka. These mixes present the program on a single disc in stereo or surround sound.
The band themselves are negative about stereo mixes of their Zaireeka material. In 1999 Waiting for a Superman Maxi-CD was released on the US. Two of the B-sides were stereo mixes of "Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)" and "Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair". The band were unhappy with their inclusion, since they said the point of Zaireeka was a recreation of the parking lot experiments. The concept was in part about bringing people together to make Zaireeka, to 'play' the CDs, much like the participants 'played' the cassettes.
"Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)" as featured on Waiting for a Superman EP includes an extra line. The verse before the your invisible now section features this extra line. The song also ends earlier.
"Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)" and "Thirty-five Thousand Feet of Despair" were featured as b-sides to the UK singles Race for the Prize and Waiting for a Superman, the owner had to buy all four CDs (Race for the Prize and Waiting for Superman singles were two-CD sets) to play the songs.
[edit] External links
| The Flaming Lips |
| Wayne Coyne | Michael Ivins | Steven Drozd | Kliph Scurlock |
| Mark Coyne | Dave Kostka | Richard English | Jonathan Donahue | Nathan Roberts | Ronald Jones |
| Discography |
|---|
| Studio albums: Hear It Is | Oh My Gawd!!! | Telepathic Surgery | In a Priest Driven Ambulance | Hit to Death in the Future Head | Transmissions from the Satellite Heart | Clouds Taste Metallic | Zaireeka | The Soft Bulletin | Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots | At War with the Mystics |
| Extended plays: The Flaming Lips | Due to High Expectations... | Fight Test | Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell | It Overtakes Me |
| Compilations: A Collection of Songs... | Punk Rockers | Jesus Egg | Shambolic Birth | Late Night Tales | 20 Years of Weird |
| Songs: "She Don't Use Jelly" | "Do You Realize??" | "Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)" | "The W.A.N.D." | "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" |
| Related articles |
| Fearless Freaks | Christmas on Mars | VOID | Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen | Dave Fridmann |
