Damn if I’m not a Various Production addict.
Not since the halcyon heydays of Factory Records has there been a cohesion of art and sound that, together, crafts a highly-consumable, incredibly addictive and obsession-caliber total package the likes of which comes from the camp of UK’s Various Production. In addition to their phenomenally collectible 12″ releases, which feature art from long-time collaborator (in fact, “collaborator” isn’t really the word-in discussing anything released under the Various Production header, it would seem that everyone’s a part under one moniker) Bonesy. The weird little Bonesy creations juxtapose grotesque horror, cutesy cartoon creatures and explicit sexuality-the perfect image to front the unpredictable sounds crafted from, well, whoever it is that does the sounds. The guys in Various Production (formerly just Various) are notoriously elusive, preferring to let their always-instantly out-of-print records do all of the speaking, all of the press, handle all of the publicity needs for them. And it does a fabulous job, as do the creators themselves, of shirking genre labels, definition, expectations. The first full-length Various LP, The World Is Gone jumped from dream-folk to carport-shattering garage bassdrops, with honeyed vocals and shrieking guitars just as often played against as with one another. In the span of a year, they’ve dropped any associations with major labels, released a crap-ton of vinyl, put out the only thing I’ll ever want for Christmas/Boxing Day/Yule, and formed a boutique-of-sorts to continue the multimedia sensory assault that is the base of Various Production’s various productions.
They’re always about contradiction, and that’s what I love-the newest bit of Various Production insanity, Diver, is wonderfully contradictory to everything I stand for musically at the present moment.
Boston’s Basstown Productions’ own Lauren Hynde and I were having a conversation the other day that consisted of a too-long diatribe, voiced by yours truly, against the current obnoxious glut of electronic music that, to quote, well, me, ’sounds like ppppprrrrupruprupruprupruprppppppprrrrrrrrruprupruprupruprupppppprrrr”.
Keep that in your mind, Piaget fans, and listen to this:
Yup-it’s electrockrap, with a ….waitafuckingminute…that vocal sample is…no. way.
There, see? See why I can deal with this? A certain self-(over)important female M.C. is injected with an off-kilter sense of humor, the song itself is brought to a level of death-metal intensity, and, despite probably having been done by Camp Various in the time it takes for Chinese take-out to arrive, it’s still guaranteed to drop jaws and melt cement floors.
Not one of their best works (though the rest of the “Diver” release is truly monstrous), but definitely one of the most fun. Plus, when you’ve put out as much, encompassing every freakin’ sub-genre to have been cool-and-then-not in the past two years, as they have-”quality” becomes incredibly relative.
Various Production & Cat Power: World Is Gone
The destructive, apocalyptic title track from Various’ way-too-overlooked piece of LP genius, re-cut to feature vocals from Cat Power. “Holy crap”, you’re thinking-and you’re right. Chan holds her own, though, as the death march strings and that closed, echoing bass rattle lead the way into the dark.
Thom Yorke: Analyse(Various Production remix)
I paid zero attention to Thom Yorke’s solo record until the Child Rebel Soldiers (Kanye, Lupe, Pharrell Williams) song took a major sample from something off his album. Now, with the release of some mindblowing remixes, it’s almost as though a handful of songs are being given second lives. With no familiarity whatsoever of the original, it would appear to me that Various stripped all but Thom’s vocal here, replacing whatever laptop sounds he’d crafted with one of their trademark dubstep earthquakes. This is beautiful stuff.
If you’ve an hour to blow, and you’d like some visual accompaniment to your Various Production listening, tool around on their gorgeous-but-functionless site.
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