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seedarklyxeroWelcome to SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies:
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
In order to accommodate last week's feature I swapped the scheduling for what would be my usual "Second Sunday Slowly" and Third Sunday Throwback entries, so that means this week we go down-tempo. "Synth Sunday Slowly" for the sake of my dopey alliterations. :P
Meld your mind to my mind, your thoughts to my thoughts, and enjoy this subtle re-vamp of an 80's synthpop favorite:
Null Device - What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy) (Information Society)
What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy) was the first single released from Information Society's self-titled 1988 debut album. The song was inspired in part by Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer and a number of Duran Duran tracks that were popular at the time. The element that made the track stand out most however was its use of samples from the late 60's Star Trek series and the characters Mr. Spock and Doctor McCoy. The opening quote form McCoy came from the second season episode, I, Mudd. Spock's quote, which serves as subtitle to the track, came from the first season episode, Errand of Mercy. The complete line referred to a pacifist alien race of great power that reveal their nature near the episode's end, "Fascinating. Pure energy. Pure thought. Totally incorporeal. Not life as we know it at all."
InSoc did resort to using Star Trek samples in various other tracks, but none gained the popularity of what has become considered their "one-hit wonder."
There have been a few covers of the track; some of note include those by Tre Lux (Tina Root's post-Switchblade Symphony solo project,) Guggenheim & Gas-Mask, and this one by Null Device.
Null Device are a synthpop project based in Wisconsin that formed in 1994. In those 20-plus years they've covered The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove by Dead Can Dance, Monkey Gone To Heaven by Pixies, and more recently, All You Fascists Bound To Lose by Woody Guthrie. They released their version of What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy) in November 2016. As self-proclaimed "InSoc nerds," the choice to cover one of their favorite InSoc songs came naturally. They say some of the inspiration for their take on the song came from when they "watched Stranger Things and thought it might be cool to re-contextualize the song as more along the lines of a darker, moodier theme inspired by that series." They describe the result as "a harrowing tale of psychic powers gained in a Cold War experiment gone wrong. Or… something."
Technically their cover is near-identical to the original in beats-per-minute but it minimizes percussion and syncopation in ways that stretch the sense of rhythm, giving it a suspenseful cinematic down-tempo effect.
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Summer officially begins this week so we'll kick it off with some appropriately themed terror-EBM!
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a LiveJournal account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
I spin next this coming weekend in the Boston area. As always the details can be found on my schedule for those who'd like to join! ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Jun 11 - Marilyn Manson - I Put A Spell On You (Screamin' Jay Hawkins)
Jun 04 - Siouxsie Sioux - These Boot Are Made For Walkin' (Nancy Sinatra)
May 28 - :wumpscut: - All Cried Out (Alison Moyet)
May 21 - Sisters of Mercy - Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones)
May 14 - Torso - Nijinski [Nijinsky] (Daniel Darc)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
In order to accommodate last week's feature I swapped the scheduling for what would be my usual "Second Sunday Slowly" and Third Sunday Throwback entries, so that means this week we go down-tempo. "Synth Sunday Slowly" for the sake of my dopey alliterations. :P
Meld your mind to my mind, your thoughts to my thoughts, and enjoy this subtle re-vamp of an 80's synthpop favorite:
Null Device - What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy) (Information Society)
What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy) was the first single released from Information Society's self-titled 1988 debut album. The song was inspired in part by Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer and a number of Duran Duran tracks that were popular at the time. The element that made the track stand out most however was its use of samples from the late 60's Star Trek series and the characters Mr. Spock and Doctor McCoy. The opening quote form McCoy came from the second season episode, I, Mudd. Spock's quote, which serves as subtitle to the track, came from the first season episode, Errand of Mercy. The complete line referred to a pacifist alien race of great power that reveal their nature near the episode's end, "Fascinating. Pure energy. Pure thought. Totally incorporeal. Not life as we know it at all."
InSoc did resort to using Star Trek samples in various other tracks, but none gained the popularity of what has become considered their "one-hit wonder."
There have been a few covers of the track; some of note include those by Tre Lux (Tina Root's post-Switchblade Symphony solo project,) Guggenheim & Gas-Mask, and this one by Null Device.
Null Device are a synthpop project based in Wisconsin that formed in 1994. In those 20-plus years they've covered The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove by Dead Can Dance, Monkey Gone To Heaven by Pixies, and more recently, All You Fascists Bound To Lose by Woody Guthrie. They released their version of What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy) in November 2016. As self-proclaimed "InSoc nerds," the choice to cover one of their favorite InSoc songs came naturally. They say some of the inspiration for their take on the song came from when they "watched Stranger Things and thought it might be cool to re-contextualize the song as more along the lines of a darker, moodier theme inspired by that series." They describe the result as "a harrowing tale of psychic powers gained in a Cold War experiment gone wrong. Or… something."
Technically their cover is near-identical to the original in beats-per-minute but it minimizes percussion and syncopation in ways that stretch the sense of rhythm, giving it a suspenseful cinematic down-tempo effect.
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Summer officially begins this week so we'll kick it off with some appropriately themed terror-EBM!
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a LiveJournal account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
I spin next this coming weekend in the Boston area. As always the details can be found on my schedule for those who'd like to join! ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Jun 11 - Marilyn Manson - I Put A Spell On You (Screamin' Jay Hawkins)
Jun 04 - Siouxsie Sioux - These Boot Are Made For Walkin' (Nancy Sinatra)
May 28 - :wumpscut: - All Cried Out (Alison Moyet)
May 21 - Sisters of Mercy - Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones)
May 14 - Torso - Nijinski [Nijinsky] (Daniel Darc)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies