[.ca] Papua New Guinea

hm - where's the variety?:
If you know FSOL and their epic singles and EPs full of complete transformations of already wildly unusual tracks into totally new forms of music, then this one will seem, well, rather bland. Don't get me wrong. "Papua New Guinea" is one of the great dance tracks of our time, a true pop hit without a trace of compromise, and a reminder to club-goers and casual listeners alike that dance music can be more than Eiffel 65. But a great song deserves a great single, like "Lifeforms," "Cascade," and "We Have Explosive" got. This isn't it. Of the eight tracks on here, only three really depart from the original. One of these, the Hamish McDonald mix, is very quiet and not very good sound quality. The other two, by Graham Massey and Andrew Weatherall, are both solid. But as far as FSOL goes, two remixes does not a single make. Just a cursory dip into the more recent "Papua New Guineau Translations" can remind us of what the Future Sound of London is capable of.

This Tune is Back................:
This Tune is official back in club land due to the Satoshi Tomie remix of the song, but as a DJ, this single collection is an essential for all music lovers... If you have not baught this cd in the past, buy it today, becasue this song is still sending chills down my spine when I hare it it is tuley a classic song.....

Start your journey in Papua New Guinea...:
What people visiting this page need to understand is that Papua New Guinea in any form is but a gateway drug. No argument: it is a wonderful song that rises above much of the Dance/Trance/House/Floor pap of today, and debatably has more staying power than any other song from those heady days when Electronic began its glorious assault upon the ears of the world, fulfilling its manifest destiny. What you must realize is that FSOL is more than Papua New Guinea; to truly understand their genius you must receive the ISDN transmission, examine Lifeforms, walk along Lifeforms:Paths 1-7, and travel unaccompanied through Dead Cities. With these albums FSOL exhibit through the newest musical medium musical genius that would make the great classical masters bow their heads. In those songs are aural landscapes of such beauty and sonic visions of such complete sublimity that other musics will be measured against them from then on, and either found lacking or at best: in complete harmony. Start your journey in Papua New Guinea, but do not stop there.

Nifty holographic cover but...:
If you've experienced FSOL's mind-blowing CD "singles" like Cascade or Lifeforms, this disc pales by comparison; so don't expect anything like those brilliant releases. This is more along the lines of the usual CD single, except for its massive length and number of mixes. There are 8 here, and as a big fan of FSOL, I haven't listened to any of them in quite a while. There's probably a couple I would and should listen to, and so I should just dub those to my MP3 collection, but if you're going to try and listen to this the whole way through, well, it sounds like a trial to me. I know that those two singles mentioned above (which are more like EPs really) were a ton of work for FSOL, they being 6 or so tracks each, all excellent revisions of the one track, continuously mixed (basically they're each a full-length mix of one track that somehow is a fascinating and diverse listen the whole way through). So I don't expect them to do anything like those for each and every single; but the result does show the difference, and so this single (and a couple other more recent ones) do end up seeming like a typical single from any other artist: too many mixes of the same thing, barely any of which you'll want to hear more than once or twice. If you can get it used/for cheap, and are a fan, I'd say get it; and if you're an FSOL collector, of course you must get it; but if you're at all a more casual fan and are looking for a nifty release to pick up in the non-album format, I'd highly recommend getting Cascade and Lifeforms long before this one. But the cover IS nifty.

Incredible -this song is the zenith of musical excellence:
This song --i cannot say enough about it. It is pure emotion. It is the most organic, earthy song i've ever heard in my life. If nature were to compress all the sounds that it produces, i think this would be the product of that, or close to it. Apart from being breathtakingly original in its melody and form, it is composed in such a natural, smooth, poignant moderate tempo that the brillance of such timing is almost startling. The vocals are wonderfully selected and appropriated in the song--they capture the essence of that ancient, ethnic, uplifting chanting style of singing. They are a very emotional part of the song for me. The ones at 2:38 minutes into the song emote the most. The instrumentation of it reminds me of listening to sounds that are carried in the wind...that smooth melody is the wind, and all these natural sounds, and worldly vocals that are vocalizing in sync with nature. I feel like im being taken on a boat, drifting around the world, almost too relaxed, yet totally aware of the harmony being presented and the nature of nature happening around me. The only other song i've heard that has similar instrumentation, and sort of connotes the same type of harmony, is the amazingly empathetic "Porcelain" by Moby. I just can't get over how machine-made music can sound this earthy and celestial. It's pretty whimsical....