November 23rd, 2007
The Gossip… through the magic of pan pipes
If you’ve ever taken place in team debating, you’ll know there are plenty of duff sides to be on in an argument. No one wants to defend “Bertie Ahern is an honest man”, “Twenty Major’s swearing should be banned” or “Tom Cruise is not sinister and creepy”. Another one I’d struggle with is “Pan Pipe music is a beautiful, important musical oeuvre”. Apart from a mention of Appalachian folk music, I’d be all out of positives. Until now. Behold Never Mind the Pan Pipes - indie hits expressed through the medium of pan pipes. Oh yes. If the compilation is guilty of anything - and we’ll leave the cheesy delivery aside for now - it’s that the musical scope is a bit limited. Instead of just including tracks from a chunk of average, indie guitar bands, they could have expanded it a bit. Hits obviously work best with these projects, but taking a leaf out of the Nouvelle Vague book would have been the way to go. A bit of Kraftwerk here, a pinch of Radiohead there and it’d have been gold. It’s no where near as good as Mr. Hopkinson’s Computer but it’s still good fun. And that’s without the wonderful ‘llama regarding Machu Picchu’ postcard style cover.
Featured tracks include Keane’s ‘Everybody’s Changing’, Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist’, ‘Men’s Needs’ by The Cribs, Kate Nash’s ‘Foundations’, ‘When You Were Young’ by The Killers, ‘Ruby’ by The Kaiser Chiefs as well as The Pigeon Detectives, The Kooks, The Automatic and The Twang. The winners are The Gossip’s ‘Standing in the Way of Control’, which is on the NMTPP myspace page and The White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army’.
But I draw the line at ‘Chasing Cars’. No rendering of that song will ever sound good to me.
Never Mind the Pan Pipes is released on December 10th on Ernest Records.
November 23rd, 2007 at 11:18 am
What’s that coming over the hill? Is it the pan pipes? Yes it’s the pan pipes.
They even inspire new lyrics.
November 23rd, 2007 at 11:21 am
Or indeed a llama?
November 23rd, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Oh sweet suffering hell.
Pan-pipes are the work of the devil. Last year in barcelona, there were two different pan-pipe acts busking for months on placa catalunya - it was sound of hell, in ponchos.
November 23rd, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I want this. Sounds amazing.
Have you heard the Radiohead Lullabies album?
Perhaps it would be a good purchase for Iarla?
http://www.amazon.com/Rockabye-Baby-Lullaby-Renditions-Radiohead/dp/B000GY72KQ
November 23rd, 2007 at 12:16 pm
That was me, nialler btw
November 23rd, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Dear. Lord.
November 23rd, 2007 at 1:40 pm
I never thought I’d be curious to check out pan pipes but guess which myspace page I’m off to now…?
November 23rd, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Pan-pipes are the work of the devil. Last year in barcelona, there were two different pan-pipe acts busking for months on placa catalunya - it was sound of hell, in poncho
They’re there all the time, they have been for years.
November 23rd, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Nothing could persuade me to even give pan pipes a chance…
November 23rd, 2007 at 6:21 pm
That is insanity. Insanity coupled with something of an evil hangover and intense consumerist guilt. My thanks
November 23rd, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Oh good lord no! Tool of the devil indeed (and as if Keane and Coldplay weren’t boring enough already). I recall my hatred of the instrument began on an innocuous bus journey from Sligo to Dublin where the driver had rebel songs in panpipe format playing non-stop the whole way. Still gives me audio nightmares to this day…
November 23rd, 2007 at 11:41 pm
this is hilarious…when I was on holidays last weekend we had a long conversation about those “sound of the panpipes” records you’d see advertised on tvs…
it’s seriously hard to make a panpipe noise with the human mouth.
November 24th, 2007 at 12:56 am
Panpipes have a full throaty timbre and are nice to listen to for about five minutes. After that it’s back to harpsichord and recorder pieces by Bach and Telemann for me.
The chinese 16-string “zhang” instrument has a sonority that surpasses the classical guitar.
November 24th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
All my Christmas present problems are solved. Thanks Sinead!
November 24th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
People in need of a giggle check out that My Space page.
November 24th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
I checked out the myspace and now I feel so conflicted. I still hate panpipes but I love cheesy MIDI backing tracks.
December 4th, 2007 at 8:03 am
That’s too scary….