The "X" Hitmakers TS: Richard X vs. Xenomania

Richard X's work seems a little more in tune with my brain, but then again I'm also not an auto Girls Aloud worshipper. Perhaps I would need to be British. ;-)

Probably, since I don't like Texas. But this has not been released yet, right?

Right now i'd go with Xenomania

So Xenomania, then, though I still haven't heard what they've done on the new Saint Etienne record.

I think the likes of 'Rock Jacket', 'You Used To', the extended 'Some Girls', 'You Better Let me Love You', the 'Hands Up' remix and his general multilayering tactics go some way to countering this. Whereas, you could be talking about most Girls Aloud songs if you swapped out a name in that there statement.

If anything, Xenomania have always reeked of "too clever by half" for me. On average, their work feels forced, lacking any of the naturalness that certain Japanese favourites of mine and the likes of the Dust Brothers exude in their own combinant and retro-updating pop productions. They seem to generally operate at about 35% of the liveliness I'd expect from a hot pop prospect - if there was ever a Girls Aloud track barring 'Love Machine' and 'No Good Advice' that I thought I could dance to, it should've been 'Grafitti My Soul' til Tom played it last week and all the old feelings of "why bother?" came flooding back (and talk about no changes in dynamic, though that doesn't usually bother me outside of electro house).

Richard is a lovely guy who doesn't strike me as a major cynic, and even if he is, it's probably what's giving his work the required bite. He's brave enough to give his pure pop work the nuttiness it needs to stand out in the charts. Xenomania sound far too safe in comparison. And on a related note, Basement Jaxx's more pop-oriented style of late is also playing it safe in the production stakes (compare the two Singles...singles to JC Chasez's 'Shake It'), but they also beat Xenomania via better sounds and danceability, plus the hooks aren't bad either.

I've started writing an answer to this thread and then it deleted it twice - a tough one to answer!

Popjustice just e-mailed me to say that Basement Jaxx are in fact looking for an act to produce an entire album for, taking them one step closer to "becoming Britain's best pop producers". Also, RX is still looking for that girl group and 'Crazy Boys' is Rachel's next single.

i predict a reynolds girls revival any day now.

You see, for me it's the other way around. Richard X's output (possibly excluding his work with Liberty X, possibly not) has always seemed to be music you "appreciate" first, and dance to later (if at all). Xenomania are a lot more, well, fun.

both of them rank similarly in terms of overt cleverness though, I don't see how either are any worse/better than each other in that regard.

From a performance perspective "Being Nobody" would have likely been the same no matter who produced it. Its distinctiveness arises from the contrast between the performance's declaration of love and satisfaction and the groove's mechanistic hollowness - there's a friction between them that creates a strong sense of pathos.

With Xenomania the grooves are generally less "subversive" in and of themselves: they are merely a component of a cohesive song-as-statement, and it's at the song level that the art-pop claim is staked. So you get stuff like "No Good Advice" or "Love Machine" where the music, the lyrics and the performance all seem really intricately but seamlessly connected.

There are of course moments of convergence: "Some Girls" and "In The Middle" seem to borrow from both approaches, for example.

I wonder if there's a case to be made for this convergence being an increasing trend rather than momentary blips - since 'Some Girls' RX seems to have been emphasising the song-as-statement more ('Chewing Gum', '10 Dollar', 'Crazy Boys') while Xenomania were last seen toying with incredibly dominating deliberately un-pop grooves which backed songs which were barely there in the conventional sense ('Graffiti My Soul').

'Negotiate With Love' seems to be the ultimate incidence of convergence so far, so much so that I can't tell who actually produced it (I haven't seen the credits). Haha I bet it was neither of them.

"Tim I note that you have cleverly sidestepped the issue of which you prefer!"

I think I might lean towards Richard X but that might be because I come from a slight dance-music perspective.

Re those recent Richard X productions: with Annie and M.I.A. might it be a case of working with artists who have a more specific idea of what they want to do and be? (ie. who wrote the lyrics to "Chewing Gum"? It wouldn't affect the tune's quality either way but it's interesting in terms of artist/producer interaction). Haven't heard "Crazy Boys" yet - anxious to though!

this is true! er, wasn't 'Sweet Dreams My LA Ex' also written by a third party?

I suppose Xenomania's equivalent of the RX/MIA and RX/Annie works would be their stuff with St Etienne - and then again, it's song-as-statement rather than groove-as-statement, except obv it's St Etienne's song this time even though it's recognisably Xenomania (haha in the same way that 'Negotiate With Love' is "recognisably Xenomania").

Yep, possibly the same person who did "Negotiate With Love"? I don't think this is surprising actually: considering the fact that Richard X and Xenomania pretty much define the field when it comes to non-R&B UK pop, it makes sense that attempts by 3rd parties would end up taking cues from both.

tim, why do you think the human league groove on 'being nobody' "contradicts" the vocal line?

Richard X has no talent for writing songs. Xenomania have. Fact.

The Xenomania hit factory have a weird approach to lyrics - always fishing about for a killer line, not caring *at all* how those lines all hang together (a couple of exceptions: "Hole In The Head" for instance).

"I Beg Your Pardon" is fast becoming a Poptimism standard.

Negotiate With Love is (IIRC) Swedish electro-pop types Vacuum.

My favourite X track is still "Some Girls". My favourite Xenomania track is either "No Good Advice" (whose ending is probably my favourite moment this decade!) or V's "Hip To Hip".

- "Crazy Boys"
- Freeform Five, "No More Conversations" (Richard X remix)
- New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" (Richard X remix)
- MIA, "10 Dollar"
- New Order, "Jetstream" (Richard X remix)

All of the above are probably somewhere in my top 20-25 songs for the year, and that's not even counting his lesser stuff like the Bravery and Ciara remixes. At the very least, he's definitely at least had a better 2005 than Xenomania (although "Nothing Good About This Goodbye" is godlike and "Biology" could turn out to be a world-wrecker once a CD-quality version surfaces).

Sugababes - "Red Dress"
Texas - "Can't Resist"
Saint Etienne - "Lightning Strikes Twice"

I'd say it's been a pretty great 2005 for Xenomania. (And "Long Hot Summer" despite the "o no! only #7" backlash, is still amazing in a Betty Boo style-ee)

Do we give more points for production work compared to remix work? No, wait -- that would be sort of a rockist mindset.

I will now immediately go track down that St. Etienne album - somehow it slipped under my Pop Production Fireworks Radar. Are there any Jewel & Stone things I should track down? Those two songs turn me into Tyrone Biggums, but I really hated Rachel's cover of "More, More, More".

If I'm right, then, wow, I have no idea why I knew that.

I'd say it's been a pretty great 2005 for Xenomania. (And "Long Hot Summer" despite the "o no! only #7" backlash, is still amazing in a Betty Boo style-ee)

...AND

Kylie's "Giving You Up" and "Made of Glass".

Yeah, RX PWNS.

- Three with Annie ("Songs Remind Me Of You", "Crush", "Two Of Hearts") (Stacy Q cover?)
- one from "a lovely young all-American girl" (no clue who this might be - Gwen Stefani maybe?)
- one from "2 men with keyboards" (what, the Postal Service?)

Are there any others? God let there be a million others.

A brand new Pet Shop Boys track now in the bag for some future release. Speculate away.

Update: No more emails please, it's a new track , not a remix, i'm sure the boys will announce all soon....

I'm thinking that we may as well cede 2006 to him.

(on another note: So that means we've got RX/Trevor Horn/PSB, Epworth/Pearson/Rapture, Black Leotard Front and the "Relevee" single, Just Blaze/Ghostface, and the forthcoming Chinkuzi riddim waiting to drop. I gotta say - super-producer pop is doing a BANG-UP job of keeping my head out of the oven so far this year.)

Seconded. In fact it is my favorite Richard X produced track so far. I wonder what Xeno have been doing in the last couple of months. News anybody?

SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THIS IS PLZ

This has probably been mentioned here many times before but RX is the perfect person for Haines to work with considering he was making RX & Xenomania-type records before either took off (cf: the superb two solo albums from years back, Oliver Twist Manifesto and the Christie Malry's thing).

Also, cannot wait to hear the other Luke/RX track, "I Am The Best Artist". That is the best song title since disco.

revive!

did everyone hear Nerina Pallot's cover of Steely Dan's 'Peg' produced by X? think it got pulled as a single

Richard X's album is brilliant, absolutely worth checking out. Was "Into U" ever released as a single?

there was a Chrimbo version called Into Yule that was meant to come out but didn't.

So Wikipedia says Richard X's real name is Richard Philips. Discogs says a Richard Philips went under the name of Serious Danger who had a speed garage hit I remember called "Deeper"

Of course that could be a common speed garage producer actual name!

did everyone hear Nerina Pallot's cover of Steely Dan's 'Peg' produced by X? think it got pulled as a single

― blueski, Saturday, 4 August 2007 07:17 (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

no. ysi??

Oh yeah, I'd love to hear it!

http://www.popjustice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1103&Itemid=279