Search - Flaming Lips :: Race For The Prize Pt.1 (Mokran Remix + 2 Zaireeka tracks)

AVOID --its not what it promises to be

W. T. Hoffman | Pennsylvania, United States | 02/12/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I guess i'm as big a FLAMING LIPS fan as any. So, altho i own ZAREIKA (their 4 CD concurrently played experimental happening box set album) I saw that two of the songs from ZAREIKA were used as B-SIDES on this CD single. I had taken ZAREIKA, and using my digital 8 track, mashed all four CDs, with their various parts, down into One CD, to hear what it would sound like as an actual album. I ordered this CD to receive, first off, a REMIX of RACE FOR THE PRICE, and most importantly, to hear what the "official" mix down of a couple ZAREIKA tracks sounded like. Man, was I UPSET when i put on the CD single, and found out that A) The "remix" of RACE FOR THE PRICE is hardly at all different than the released version. So, if you think you are going to get an 8 minute radically reworked version of the song, like some of those great remixes from the YOSHIMI single series, you will be greatly disappointed. The "remix" is essencially unaltered from the album version, maybe a couple extra vocal "AHHH"s at one point. The song is the same length as well. But point B) is the BIG disappointment. The ZAREIKA tracks here, are simply ONE CD's worth of sound. Now, to hear the songs as what the band intended, you have to play at least 2-3 CDs, otherwise, you have things like BASS AND DRUM parts, and no vocals, or sound effects, and no song, or vocals and not much else, or even DEAD AIR where you should be hearing a song. THESE ZAREIKA TRACKS ARE THE RAW TRACKS OFF CD1 FROM THE FOUR CDS IN THE BOX SET. NO REMIXING WAS DONE. They didnt even remove the "This is CD number one, track 2" intos to the songs, used so that you can line up all the various CDs from the ZARIEKA project. (The alignment intos are at least 20 seconds long, lots of dead air.) What a HUGE disappointment, and actually, a misrepresentation on the part of the CD producer. How many of you, would buy a CD single, where the B SIDES were only PARTS of a song, with only one fourth of the music on the song, that belongs on the song? Having mixed down this ZARIEKA project, and listened to it many times, BELIEVE ME, you are NOT in for any kind of a treat, to hear just ONE CD of music from any song from this box set. I'm simply SHOCKED that FLAMING LIPS would release this. WHY? TO show people how messed up the ZAREIKA songs sound, if you don't play them all together? Was this simply a record company rip off skeme? WORSE KNIFE IN THE BACK, is that inside the CD single, it says, "Now that you have CD #1 to ZAREIKA, go find three other friends who have the other CDs, and join the wonderfully wierd world that is ZARIEKA." (But anyone who already has the other CDs, also has CD 1 as part of the Box set, so no one would want, or need, you CD single of two songs.) Unfortunately, altho this is great music, I have to give it only 2 stars, for being so little, and promising so much. I really feel RIPPED OFF."