One of the many advantages of vinyl over digital formats is the instant ability to play tunes at the wrong speed. I’ll give you a personal example of this in a moment, because this erroneous piece of music was formative for me…. but I’m sure that ‘feature’ has been the undoing of many a drunken DJ…
You know when you hear an exceptionally mind & mood altering piece of music & think to yourself I wish I had written & produced that – well with this one particular tune I did, and I have thought it for many years… And just recently (as in a week or so ago) I heard a copy from a CD and realised that all this time the tune I loved I had been playing at 33rpm, when it was intended to be heard at 45rpm!?! So here it is, Tortoises Find The One remixed by Bundy K. Brown at the wrong speed:
I simply do not want to hear it at the ‘right’ speed, it just has none of the glacial pace & resonance…. so you’ll have to go find the Tortoise Remixed CD to hear the other version…..
But what tunes have you loved, at the wrong speed?
Apologies rss readers, had to rewrite this a bit after I realised I was confused as to which remix the original was
i really like “american woman” by “guess who” played at 16rpm instead of 45rpm.
this was not by mistake, it was intentional, but still it sounds amazing
hamboo hoodoo by renaldo and the loaf sounds equally well on 45 and 33. the record doesn’t have a clear marking of proper speed. as i never hear it played anywhere, i’m not sure any more which speed is right.
I was SO disappointed when I heard Röyksopp – Happy Up Here (Boys Noize Remix) at the right speed.
I sounds amazing in 33. I remember thinking “wow this saounds awesome. sounds like they’ve pitched down the vocals about the speed of a 44 going in 33″.
I was more right then i was hoping for…
On the digital end…
up until recently, when I opened my browser, I had it set to play this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sldoaXhnbI0
and here is another favorite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1M5Q3onsX4
The accompanion 12″ vinyl with Geogaddi from Boards of Canada, didn’t have a rpm listen, so i played the songs at 33 instead of 45, totally lovend them.. Untill I downloaded the mp3 verdien for iPod… never really liked both songs anymore.. BTW had a happy mistake while recording/designing the sound for coins in an animation, when I imported some new performances into Protools at the wrong samplerate all of sudden it worked like a charm.
Here a couple that stick out in my memory.
1. Pole – Raum Eins / Raum Zwei 12″ from 1998. I still prefer it at 33 1/3. It was so otherworldly when it came out that I don’t think it really matter what speed!
http://www.discogs.com/Pole-Raum-Eins-Raum-Zwei/release/368.
2. Full Swing (Stephan Mathieu) 10″s on Orthlong Musork. I didn’t know the “correct speed” until I heard someone play the CD. I still liked my slower version better.
http://www.discogs.com/Stephan-Mathieu-Full-Swing-Edits-2/release/298807
The U.S. powerpop band “The Three O’Clock” released a 5-song EP called Barque Hoedown in 1982. The vinyl label did not specify the speed so I (wrongly, apparently) assumed 33 1/3. Although the vocals have a wookie tonality, the sonics are far richer at this speed. At 45 rpm it simply sounds wrong, rushed and pinched. I’d like to think the band deviously pressed the album at a speed somewhere between the two so as to leave the listener in a constant state of doubt.
Night Flight to Venus by Boney M at 45 rpm,( its meant to be 33 )
My brother and I used to always use the record player to mess around and listen to recordings at wrong speeds, backwards etc. Another favourite was Bill Cosby- the laughter from the audience at 16 rpm sounds demonic.
Recently I heard somewhere on the net ” Daydream Believer” at 16 and it really changes the feel of the song-It approaches ‘epic’ I can’t remember where it was.