Music Recommendations - Mike Patton

Selections from Mike Patton's radio interview with Mary Anne Hobbs on the Radio 1 Rock Show.
Originally recorded: August 2, 2000 London, England, BBC Radio Centre.

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 ARTIST: Martin Denny
ALBUM: Quiet Village [Vinyl LP]
LABEL: Liberty Records
RELEASED: 1959
DURATION: 13 Tracks

TRACK: "Quiet Village" (Les Baxter) 3:44
Quiet Village was the landmark album that signified the arrival of Exotica music in the late-1950's. The song "Quiet Village" was originally composed by Les Baxter, and popularized by Martin Denny. "Quiet Village" became the Exotica standard that was covered by composers including Don Tiare & The Alohas, and Webley Edwards. Arthur Lyman took this track and renamed it "Taboo Tu", which has been covered live by Mr. Bungle, and sampled by Gus Gus during their song "Oh (Edit)".
"Martin Denny is fantastic!.. An incredible innovator, inventor of Exotica music. Very popular in the fifties, people when they were buying their really fancy hi-fi sets wanted to get this strange new kind of music, that was basically the whitest ethnic music that was ever created. Basically, it's this fake Polynesian stuff done by a bunch of L.A. studio cats. So it's really great stuff, I really love it!.. That stuff is actually really complicated stuff and I think really, really interesting. Most people just laugh at it though, so what do I know!?" - Mike Patton.

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 ARTIST: The Young Gods
ALBUM: L'Eau Rouge (Re-Released)
LABEL: Interscope Records
RELEASED: October 31, 1995
DURATION: 40:50 - 10 Tracks

TRACK: Rue Des Tempétes 2:51
The Young Gods are Swiss experimental-rockers who formed in Geneva during 1985. The Young Gods use classical sampling, noise rhythms, guitar riffs, and drum machines to manufacture an indelible listening experience. An experimental sound influenced by classical compositions and visceral power-punk. Overdriven guitar chords are heavily sampled in "Rue Des Tempétes" with vocalist Franz Treichler providing the lyrical content. Listen for the Parisian beauty of "Charlotte" and "La Fille De La Mort". "L'Eau Rouge" is a critical album with abrasive and assaultive sound structures.
"They're a great band! Incredible band, really interesting band. Makes very heavy music, guitar-based heavy music, but there's no guitar player in the band. They use samplers I think in a really creative, nice way." - Mike Patton.

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 ARTIST: Massive Attack
ALBUM: Mezzanine
LABEL: Virgin Records
RELEASED: May 12, 1998
DURATION: 63:29 - 11 Tracks

TRACK: Angel 6:18
Mezzanine is Massive Attack's third full-length release, fusing prog-rock riffs with hip-hop beats to create a new bread of trip-hop. The album opens with the beautiful "Angel", featuring Horace Andy's androgynous crooning, melted together with the industrial backing beats. The album also includes the hit single "Tear Drop" featuring the soothing vocals of Liz Fraser of The Cocteau Twins. A award-winning music video accompanied this track, showing a baby in it's mother's womb singing the lyrics to this song.
"This next [project of mine] will be with Robert from Massive Attack, who writes a lot of their stuff, and Franz, the singer from The Young Gods.. All three of us are vocalists, so there's gonna be a lot of weird triple-vocal stuff, but also everybody writes music so it's gonna be like a little mail-order band. I want each guy to write a bunch of stuff and send it through the mail, I'll add things and take it slow like that." - Mike Patton.

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 ARTIST: Ron Geesin & Roger Waters
ALBUM: Music From The Body (Re-Released)
LABEL: EMI International Records
RELEASED: April 26, 2000
DURATION: 41:28 - 22 Tracks

TRACK: More Than Seven Dwarfs In Penis-Land 2:00
Music From The Body takes you on a marvelous musical journey through twenty-two compositions. The Body was a medical documentary directed by Roy Battersby and produced by Tony Garnett in 1970. Sound experimentalist Ron Geesin collaborated with progressive-rocker Roger Waters to release this twisted auditory exploration of the human body. "More Than Seven Dwarfs In Penis-Land" and "Mrs. Throat Goes Walking" explore the bizarre world of vocal manipulations. In addition, members of Pink Floyd join the duo for the soundtrack finale "Give Birth To A Smile".
"More Than Seven Dwarfs In Penis-Land, let's dedicated that to Anthony Kiedis, how about that?.." - Mike Patton.

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 ARTIST: John Zorn
ALBUM: Naked City
LABEL: Nonesuch Records
RELEASED: February 20, 1990
DURATION: 56:35 - 24 Tracks

TRACK: "The Sicilian Clan" (Ennio Morricone) 3:33
Naked City are primarily an avant-jazz thrash-metal band, however, their radical music fuses stylistic boundaries. This legendary debut album from Naked City includes beautiful renditions of "The Sicilian Clan" (Ennio Morricone), "Lonely Woman" (Ornette Coleman), "I Want To Live!" (Johnny Mandell), "The James Bond Theme" (John Barry), "Contempt" (Georges Delerue). Naked City were also known for performing an extensive array of cover songs throughout their live performances worldwide.
"Naked City.. great band! Very influential, kind of cut-up music. Jazzers playing hardcore, I'll take that anyday!" - Mike Patton.