Remixing "Kill Uncle" – If Ronson or Finn had been at the helm

s writes:

Kill Uncle has often been derided for its bland, undeveloped production. I’ve remixed the album and re-ordered the tracks in an attempt to bring its production quality closer to “Your Arsenal” or “You are the Quarry” (since I don’t have the original master, I couldn’t mix it as precisely as I’d like or undo the reverb on Morrissey's voice). In some cases I just filled out the sound with guitars/emulated the live version, and in others I adding new elements to enhance the song (for e.g., Driving Your GF, End of the Family Line). Hope you like it, thanks for listening either way. It's available at:

http://www.smithstorrents.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4141

Here was my approach to changes (I remastered all the songs, which improves the clarity and makes them sound consistent relative to one another):

1. Our Frank – significant changes. Original has boring, hokey production, like a Madness song. I added a number of guitars to fill out the song and make it edgier.
2. Asian Rut – no changes. The song is unusual, a storytelling in ¾ time (a waltz beat, which limited the musical possibilities). I experimented with adding guitars, cymbals, etc., but decided to leave it alone because anything I did wouldn’t be better, just different.
3. Sing Your Life – moderate changes. Original is okay but lacks “edge”. I added the strumming and distortion riff used by the band in the KROQ session.
4. Mute Witness – mild changes. Original is really well produced, just a little thin in the background. I added a couple of background guitars mimicking the original riffs to fill out the sound.
5. King Leer – moderate changes. Original lacks the swing of the band’s live version, so I sped it up and added some guitars and a small bass riff to make it closer to the live version.
6. Driving Your Girlfriend Home – significant changes. Original has boring production, lwith hardly any musical changes between the verse, chorus and bridge (like beat poetry over a jazz improv). I added guitars/harps to improve the emotional effect of the song.
7. I’m the End of the Line – significant changes. Original has terrible production (the tempo’s off, the drums and bass have no groove). I sped up the song, added a new bass line and a number of string parts to create some drama.
8. Tony the Pony (this song was on my US released CD) – significant changes. Original has okay production, though the bass line is too similar to Sing Your Life and the instrumentation is predictable. I added some guitar riffs to take it in a new direction.
9. Found Found Found – no changes. Good production.
10. There’s a Place In Hell for Me and my Friends – no changes. Original has good production, and the KROQ live version is a good alternative rock version.
11. The Harsh Truth of the Camera Eye – mild changes. Again, the song is unusual, and the production’s carnival-esque atmosphere plays off of this. I felt the tempo was languid and the intro/outro indulgent, so I sped up and shortened the song (and since I think it’s the weakest of the songs, moved it to the end of the album), but otherwise left it alone.

If you add in the singles/b-sides from this era (My Love Life, the Loop, Pregnant for the Last Time), I think it improves the album dramatically, just like the re-release of Maladjusted was improved by the various b-sides.

 

[CrystalGeezer]

Re: Kill Uncle remastered

let kill uncle die in the hole where it came from.

Found, Found, Found is one of my favorite songs.

 

[applebuttaz]

Re: Kill Uncle remastered

Found, Found, Found is one of my favorite songs.

okay, i wont take that away from you.

 

[CrystalGeezer]

Re: Kill Uncle remastered

okay, i wont take that away from you.

 

[Skylarker]

Re: Kill Uncle remastered

But it's a "hateful online creche" didn't you know? In fact, the webmaster is so proud of that criticism that he's appended it to the site name.

There's this amazing thing called a sense of humor. Get one.

The only thing the posters here truly adore is the sound of their own sneering voices.

Last I checked, people's words on a screen didn't make any sound. Maybe in your desperate attempt at sarcasm, you meant something else?

 

[fuckfase]

Re: Kill Uncle remastered

f*** you people are bitchy f***ing retards for the most part. You like it or you don't like it. Don't write a cocksucking book about it for f***'s sake. Eight tenths of you c***s wouldn't say half of this shit to the person in real life who modestly made the initial post. Grow some f***ing testicles.

So - the new "producer" can go through the trouble of making Kill Uncle worse, explain exactly why and how it was executed - and you wouldn't expect fellow fans (who make the effort to visit and post on this site) to say much more than, perhaps, "hated it."

I've criticized most of the attempts at covering or altering Morrissey's work (that have been posted on this website) for one simple, yet quite prevalent reason: with audio technology becoming smaller, cheaper and more accessible - peoples' perception of their own talents or capabilities (not to mention their standard of quality or "professionalism") seems to have been diluted into a rather pitiful, putrid ocean of sub-mediocrity. If it's not a horrible lack of things like engineering aptitude or experience, it's a horrible lack of musicianship or vocal tone. Just because you know the chords or lyrics, you probably can't make it any better than the original. Though if you're Morrissey or his band - a natural talent or a practiced musician who has devoted a huge, if not all, of their time to perfecting their craft - you can certainly take something like "East-West" or "Skin Storm" and make them better than the original.

Lastly: this is a public forum. If you can't take the criticism, create and moderate your own, private forum. For better or for worse... I'd happily tell you how much it sucks in person.

 

[Skylarker]

Re: Kill Uncle remastered

 

[Anonymous]

Any chance you can work the same miracles with 'Vauxhall and I'? That album would be so rad with the songs sped up and some hot guitar licks overdubbe on top.

 

[Anonymous]

for those who don't do torrents:

http://rapidshare.com/users/remixed/4228

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Kill Uncle remastered

There's this amazing thing called a sense of humor. Get one.



Last I checked, people's words on a screen didn't make any sound. Maybe in your desperate attempt at sarcasm, you meant something else?

I agree with the OP. For "hateful online creche" to have been added to the site name isnt funny in the least: it's pathetic, desperate & embarrassing, and demonstrates only that this site exists to pursue a vendetta against Morrissey. As for your other comment, it's abolutely clear what was meant, and it simply shows the poverty of your argument (not for the first time) when you have to pick holes the literal meaning. Ah the mighty intellects and rapier-like wit of the So Low mods... (that was sarcasm, by the way, Skylarker - it wasn't intended LITERALLY).

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Kill Uncle remastered

There's this amazing thing called a sense of humor. Get one.



Last I checked, people's words on a screen didn't make any sound. Maybe in your desperate attempt at sarcasm, you meant something else?

- freakin hilarious that this site dishes out criticism but proves over and over that it can't take any

 

[mcrickson]

for those who don't do torrents:

http://rapidshare.com/users/remixed/4228

Thanks for this.

If you're going to add guitar to "King Leer," why in Christ's name wouldn't you put in the riffs Boz played live in the verses - it's literally the only thing the studio recording is missing, and I was hoping to hear it here. The rest of the remixes? Easily forgettable. "Our Frank" sounded good until the chorus. This all could've been done so much better. It really sounds like Jesse did the overdubs.

 

[Uncleskinny]

Re: Kill Uncle remastered

I agree with the OP. For "hateful online creche" to have been added to the site name isnt funny in the least: it's pathetic, desperate & embarrassing, and demonstrates only that this site exists to pursue a vendetta against Morrissey. As for your other comment, it's abolutely clear what was meant, and it simply shows the poverty of your argument (not for the first time) when you have to pick holes the literal meaning. Ah the mighty intellects and rapier-like wit of the So Low mods... (that was sarcasm, by the way, Skylarker - it wasn't intended LITERALLY).

Ah! Someone's learned how to use an anonymiser service! Well done!

P.

 

[straighttohell]

Smantha Ronson or Huck Finn? Wait. What?

 

[123xyz]

for those who don't do torrents:

http://rapidshare.com/users/remixed/4228

Really pleased you posted this link , Anon.

I don't know that the butchery of KU is quite as genocidal as certain other posters have made out. However , the guitar overdubs probably would have benefited from a little less volume - they tend to come drunkenly crashing in at times.

Still digesting , but I like the idea that someone was so keen to dive into the music in such a way. It's probably not so very different than the urge ( which strikes many of us ) to sing along at Morrissey concerts ...


This version of "Driving ... " isn't too bad at all apart from the remixed clatter at around 0.25m (which shatters that whole 'slow cruise' mood ). Happily , that abates soon enough and the remaining added guitar bits fit in nicely with the original track.

 

[Uncleskinny]

Well, I downloaded the Rapidshare link. While I applaud the application and endeavour of the person responsible, I don't like the results. There seems to be overdriven guitar here there and everywhere. Like at the beginning of Tony The Pony. And '...Family Line..." has been destroyed. The original is far more the definitive artice. I can see what was being attempted, I just don't think that objective was achieved.

P.

 

[Anonymous]

Might end up giving it a miss after all ...

I'm sure you are right to give it a miss, I have no doubt it's all a load of utter shite, but why would you give it a miss on the say so of a bell end like Viva hate? Don't do what others tell you, use your own brain. Too many people on here think they know it all, and they know nothing, especially the likes of viva hate, uncle skinny and sky larker. Things ain't always what they seem to be.

T B

 

[modrevolve]

Almost makes me wonder if Jesse Tobias was behind this

 

[Anonymous]

Almost makes me wonder if Jesse Tobias was behind this

It's that bad?! I was gonna d'load it just for the comedy value. Doesn't seem funny now.

 

[Cornflakes]

Wrong place to post something like this, really. It could have been seeded with a free downloadable blowjob and the regulars would still have responded the only way they know how. I feel as if I'm stuck in a lift with twenty lobotomised Simon Cowells.

First thing to say is that KU was not in dire need of a remix. It's Morrissey's least accomplished album, but that has nothing to do with the production, the arrangements or the band.

I thought it was an interesting listen with mixed results, but some of the mixture being actually good and producing some nice alternative versions. Our Frank is probably the best track on there, I didn't like the unsynched guitar on Driving or the chorus to Tony. Sing Your Life is good, but it would be hard to spoil that song. Some of it is in the middle. I'm the End for example - it sort of shows a proof of concept, but you can't easily speed a CD track up that much without it sounding sped-up.

 

[123xyz]

I'm sure you are right to give it a miss, I have no doubt it's all a load of utter shite, but why would you give it a miss on the say so of a bell end like Viva hate? Don't do what others tell you, use your own brain. Too many people on here think they know it all, and they know nothing, especially the likes of viva hate, uncle skinny and sky larker. Things ain't always what they seem to be.

T B

But if I followed this advice from you , I'd still be doing what someone else told me , wouldn't I ?

More sensibly , I don't see Viva! as such a bell-end. From what I remember , he seems fond of the song "Southpaw" and , hence , when he complained about discordant racket in the KU homemix , I assumed he wasn't doing so because of an aversion to heavier guitars , etc. ....