Album-Length Singles That Are - Quite Frankly - As Good As Any Album.

This Depeche single is 38 minutes long and has a million hands all over it - era-appropriate DJ Shadow soud bites included - but it flows really well and, heck, i've definitely heard synth albums from the era and after that were less compelling and that had way less variety and reason to be. After a decade of such shenanigans the record companies said hey waitaminute why are we letting people buy 40 minutes of music for $3.99. They should be paying $18.99 like everybody else. So they stopped making CD singles and Napster became President. i think that's what happened.

anyway, i was wondering what looooooooong singles (as opposed to EPs? yes, as opposed to EPs.) you listen to all the way through in a pop album kinda way. Or am I the only one who sits around listening to looooooong singles with multiple remixes? i can't be.

anyway, i am playing this which is the U.S. version and I say that because knowing DM they probably had 50 variations for 50 different countries. They are like that.

https://i.discogs.com/O_MwDwjPqSC1OQNCjmVyMZxu1uTqbL6adC9y7Jtsiyg/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:522/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEwNDA4/MS0xMzE0MjM3NDc4/LmpwZWc.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/SJJIsrermDEy7EB3XQuqGFhXBl3prdSg3tInilvvSKc/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:454/w:452/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEwNDA4/MS0xMjEzNzkzMzIz/LmpwZWc.jpeg

its possible that Depeche and PSB own this genre that isn't a genre. in the pop division anyway. electro techno house world is another thing altogether. I would love to know of any fave hip hop singles out there that act like albums do. not all of them are all street/clean/instrumental/a cappella. there are some weird ones.

The US single for the Chem Bros' Life Is Sweet is just the UK CD1 and CD2 stuck together but it works well imo

https://www.discogs.com/release/6389-The-Chemical-Brothers-Life-Is-Sweet

Length: at least 41:29

The Gossip GSSP RMX thing was my fav release of that year, tho' when I tried making it the top of my top 10, the editor switched it out for Standing in the Way of Control. But it was the Arthur Baker remix of Listen Up that made me swoon the most, and I just liked the flow of listening to the four mixes of the same song, + 2 other tracks.

Prince did this many times with extended, jammed out 12” singles - “Eye Wish U Heaven” / “Scarlet Pussy”, “Pop Life” / “America”, “Mountains”

jesus, yeah, prince. he knew how to make a single an event.

ow wow wow wow wa wa

https://www.discogs.com/release/72728-The-Orb-Blue-Room

that is a fine universe that single. its so true.

Underworld has a couple of these - Dark and Long (particularly the one with "Thing in a Book" on it) and Pearl's Girl. their 'remixes' often sound very little like the original so they're basically like companion LPs

Blue Room otm

yeah, underworld-wise, i was thinking of a weird born slippy cd single i had once that was different than other born slippy singles! different remixes. life could be confusing in the 90s.

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it might have been this:

https://www.discogs.com/release/8829417-Underworld-Born-Slippy-NUXX

https://www.discogs.com/release/531512-Spacemen-3-Transparent-Radiation

(38 minutes)

the one with the original and "Telematic" is indeed great. all 3 tracks are wildly different somehow. but it's only 30 minutes long. maybe youre thinking of the NUXX one which I think is about an hour and contains both "Dark Train" and a version of "Banstyle". unfortunately that doesn't include the original mix!

i want that really bad. i don't have it. spacemen 3-wise.

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cool to hear spacemen 3 on reservation dogs the other night. it was the theme of the show!

yes I loved that as well, even played that track on the radio last Monday and mentioned the appearance

Cabaret Voltaire's "Three Mantras" was actually a 12" single, not an album.

When I think of this type of single, Nine Inch Nails comes to mind first and foremost with singles like Head Like a Hole and Closer to God, but I haven't listened to either of those in a while, so I don't know how they hold up.

Did Underworld once admit that some of the "remixes" don't have a common thread at all and were actually titled that way for chart eligibility rules? This could just be someone else's speculation I'm recalling.

don't recall that but I do remember them saying a lot of them would be just pulling at one specific thread of the track and eventually just removing the traces of the original

how "Born Slippy" became "Born Slippy .NUXX" I have no clue

yeah. especially after checking out that disc full of early NUXX versions on the Super Deluxe reissue (once, lol)

right??? I thought that was gonna solve the mystery but no, it's just a different tune entirely

good opportunity to point out that the version of "Born Slippy" (the original, not "NUXX") that wound up on the Bootleg Babies comp - I think it was from the infamous '96 "European Club Gig" - is the most insane thing they've ever done, god how I wish I could find more that sounds like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_HoEQ7ThvE

Orbital - The Box

This Ventolin single was a really good time. Def played "like an album" in this house.

https://www.discogs.com/release/13352-Aphex-Twin-Ventolin

That DJ Shadow "Painkiller" remix is excellent, I actually have a 12" of that one.

Future Sound of London – Lifeforms. The one that had Liz Fraser on it.