My previous weird request was so successful I thought I'd run this one by everyone as well. I'm also trying to compile a list of albums that use random and / or shuffle in some creative way.
Right now, I know of three examples:
The first is a japanese cd of music meant to played on a CD player's random setting. The IDEA is great, but the execution is LAME LAME LAME. Just 88 tracks of
one note each (The phrasing in the english description is misleading).
My friend will pointed out this one:
"Autechre, in their infinite awesomeness, already did this. They were/are part of a collective called Gescom that put out a minidisc-only release in the mid-90's called "Minidisc." This takes advantage of the fact that those minidiscs (not the mini CD's) supposedly have zero time between the end of one track and the beginning of the next even when on shuffle. The entire album was meant to be listened to on shuffle for a different listening experience each time. I've never listened to it, but I'm sure it's the best thing ever done in human history, since Autechre was involved."
Finally, there is a board game found in the liner notes to The Detachment Kit's recently released 'Of This Blood' CD. Folding out the CD booklet reveals the game board, on which you are instructed to use a penny as a marker and the detachment kit CD, set to random, as the dice. Each player will take turns advancing the track and moving the number of spaces indicated by the random track number selected.
So - Other albums that use random / shuffle creatively?
― Adam Kempa, Friday, 14 January 2005 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)
They Might Be Giants - Apollo 18. The entire "Fingertips" section was made for random play, so that you'd get random bits of craziness between songs. I think it turned out better if you just played all of them straight through, though.
― mike h. (mike h.), Friday, 14 January 2005 15:06 (twenty-one years ago)
Not an album, but Julio Cortazar wrote a novel
Hopscotch, of which the pages are unbound and may be shuffled.
― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Friday, 14 January 2005 15:08 (twenty-one years ago)
Farmers Manual -
Explorers_WeOtomo Yoshihide -
Night Before Death of the Sampling VirusFon -
Proofgenerally a lame, ineffective, and overused gimmick.
― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Friday, 14 January 2005 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)
A Chance Operation: The John Cage Tribute. The 23 pieces are subdivided into 150+ tracks for extra Random Playtime Fun.
― I Am Curious (George) (Rock Hardy), Friday, 14 January 2005 15:27 (twenty-one years ago)
just thought of two more:
Ensemble Aleph - Arrêts Fréquents
Jean-Marc Foussat - Nouvelles
― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Friday, 14 January 2005 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)
Not sure if either of these count, but....
IIRC the sleeve notes of the first Thousand Yard Stare album suggested a number of different running orders that you might wish to plat the album in.
Also Todd Rundgren released an "interactive" CD-ROM version of his album No World Order which consisted of nearly 4 hours of musical fragments of between 4 and 8 seconds each, which could be combined by the [listener? participant?] in an almost infinite number of ways.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 14 January 2005 15:43 (twenty-one years ago)
I had that second Stone Roses Cd, which had about 99 tracks of nothing, which meant you HAD to play it in order. One more reason to get rid.
― everything, Friday, 14 January 2005 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)
The RIp Off Artist placed index points at significant musical transitions inside the songs on one of his albums (I think it was "Pump", not sure tho) so that you could shuffle play and create endless proggy time-signature switcheroo remixes of the album. It was fun, but it was already a good album, which helps. Same goes for Gescom's "MiniDisc".
― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:03 (twenty-one years ago)