I ordered the new Negativland DVD “Our Favorite Things” a couple weeks ago from a vendor on Amazon’s marketplace. It arrived this afternoon, much to my delight. I was getting rather impatient.
I had previously heard a working cut of the bonus audio CD by the 180G’s who happen to be natives of Detroit, and of whom the various members are responsible for plenty of great audio wanderings. The finished product is every bit as fantastic as the earlier version, complimented by the finishing production touches. Imagine if you will, 13 of Negativland’s more popular tracks, all rendered by the human voice alone. Samples and lyrics of the original songs lovingly recreated a capella. Absolutely brilliant. My original purchase motivation was this CD and in my opinion the DVD content is the bonus for my money.
What a bonus it is. The weatherman sample that opens the disc is telling - “Do you COPY…over?”. To say Negativland’s content decisions are bizarre doesn’t even begin to describe what I’m seeing and hearing. As expected, it’s a audio/video mish mash of found content, samples and otherwise dubiously acquired items mixed in with oddities created by the group themselves. This is probably as close to a music video collection as one can get from the pioneers of today’s sample-happy music and video cultures. Long time fans will no doubt “give a fuck” that a section of the DVD deals directly with the letter U and the number 2.
This is a definitely DVD and CD set for the established Negativland fan. it’s a well rounded package, slick, well produced and worth the time spent listening and watching. A new viewer or listener being exposed to this as an introduction to the band (if they can be called a band, I fear that may be an insult) will probably be confused to the point of being put off, as it does tend to come off like an inside joke a lot of the time.
-bp
