Liverpool Sound Collage
(EMI)
So, was the first 'original' Beatles material in ages worth the fuss? Sir Paul McCartney - who pulls the strings with the help of Cian Ciaran from the Super Furry Animals and knob-twiddler Youth - certainly believes so. Others are not so sure.
This collection of five tracks (two clocking more than 16 minutes) was put together as the soundtrack for an exhibition at Liverpool's Tate Gallery by Peter Blake, who designed the sleeve of Sergeant Pepper. It's a dubby cut-up collection of Beatles out-takes, traffic noise, vox pop sound bites, an organ ... oh and some samples of the Fab Four, used to create the song Free Now.
Plastic Beetle is as tripped out and experimental as The Beatles ever were after they had met the Maharashi and discovered mind-altering drugs. Peter Blake 2000 has video game bleeps and verges on the upper end of the Josh Wink techno manic-ometer. Then there's the surreal Real Gone Dub Made In Manifest In The Vortex Of The Eternal Now Youth. Hmm, pass me one of those cigarettes.
The only radio/single friendly song in the collage is Free Now, a comparative snippet at three minutes, 28 seconds. In a meditative setting it works as a piece of art. But as an album in itself, it's ambient to the point of bizarre.