| Subject: JC sings backing vocals in Somnambulist (the chorus). He also cowrote FOG with BT. |
Author:
Cari
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Date Posted: 15:47:09 08/13/03 Wed
In reply to:
chrystynne
's message, "okay, i'm confused. i know JC does FOG but looking at the first review, he also did Somnabulist? damn, i can't wait for payday!:( btw, thanks for the many reviews!!!" on 06:27:17 08/13/03 Wed
>>
rel=nofollow target=_blank >>href="http://www.billboard.com/bb/reviews/album_articl
>e
>>_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1952923">Billboard
>>
>>BT
>>Album Title: Emotional Technology
>>Producer(s): BT
>>Genre: DANCE/ELECTRONIC
>>Label/Catalog Number: Nettwerk America 30344
>>Release Date: Aug. 5
>>Source: Billboard Magazine
>>Originally Reviewed: August 16, 2003
>>
>>
>>Building on the success of his "Movement in Still
>>Life" album and high-profile gig as producer of 'N
>>Sync's "Pop" single, BT (aka Brian Transeau) smartly
>>continues to expand the notion of what a dance/
>>electronic artist can create. On this, his fourth
>>proper artist/studio recording, BT gives equal time to
>>thick beats, spacey trance, classical arrangements and
>>sincere melodic pop. While BT's vocals are spotlighted
>>throughout, he does share the microphone with 'N
>>Sync's JC Chasez on the hypnotic lead track "Simply
>>Being Loved (Somnambulist)," and it is truly one of
>>the album's high points. Chasez is one of many
>>well-cast guests on the disc, which also includes
>>actress Rose McGowan and Scott McCloud (sharing vocals
>>on the funky, guitar-heavy "Superfabulous") and Guru
>>on "Knowledge of Self."—KC
>>----------
>>
rel=nofollow target=_blank >>href="http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp
>?
>>nid=18473">Rolling Stone
>>
>>BT Emotional Technology (Nettwerk)
>>
>>If anything defines where BT is at on his fourth
>>artist album, it is the self-sung lyric in "Dark Heart
>>Dawning," that goes "though I came up in it/I'm not
>>defined by it." The gospel-tinged ballad can be read
>>as BT's swan song to trance. Instead, he's attempting
>>to build heartily on what he introduced on 2000's
>>Movement in Still Life -- bringing a real,
>>radio-friendly pop element to electronic-based tunes
>>he hopes will cross over. "Force of Gravity,"
>>featuring 'N Sync's JC Chasez's heavily filtered
>>vocals, follows the same formula as the hit "Don't
>>Give Up" by British artist Chicane with Bryan Adams.
>>Later Rose McGowan, Scott McCloud (Girls Against Boys)
>>and BT sing on "Superfabulousness," funked-up,
>>industrial-tinged, pop fodder, and likely a hit single
>>in the making. BT is clearly ambitious -- and ET will
>>help him achieve his lofty goals. (JOLIE LASH)
>>-----------
>>URB
>>review - In flash, but a worthwhile read
>>----------
>>
rel=nofollow target=_blank >>href="http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=162&Iss
>u
>>eNum=9">LA City Beat - article/review:
>>
>>Engineering 'Emotional Technology'
>>
>>by Dennis Romero
>>
>>BT is lost in his little silver PowerBook, launching a
>>sequencing program called Ableton Live that will allow
>>him to perform pretty much his whole new album using
>>just his laptop. He begins to demonstrate his own
>>proprietary “stutter edit” plug-in program, which he
>>co-wrote specially for his new CD, Emotional
>>Technology. It makes a vocal snippet bounce like a
>>ping-pong ball on its way to rest. “Fucking amazing,”
>>he says, sitting on a vanilla-colored couch in his
>>panoramic Los Feliz home studio. “This is way, way
>>cool.”
>>No one is more enthusiastic about Emotional
>>Technology, released this week, than the man born
>>Brian Transeau himself. At home with his Boston
>>terrier Tootsie and his pug Presley, overlooking
>>Griffith Park and gazing at an array of dream gear –
>>two Mac G4s, flat-screen monitors, three racks of
>>processors and effects – the 32-year-old is like a kid
>>in a candy store. He explains how he’ll control the
>>stutter edits by using an infrared beam that will
>>respond to his body movements.
>>
>>“I’m going to sing into the laptop and with my hands
>>go like this” – he karate-chops the air – “and be able
>>to stutter-edit the music live.”
>>
>>The album is just as ambitious as BT’s worldwide tour,
>>set to begin in October. It’s a showcase of
>>out-of-this-world production techniques that should
>>make the world’s top pop studio artisans – Timbaland,
>>the Neptunes, et al. – take notes. The razzle-dazzle
>>array of nu-skool break-beats (“Knowledge of Self”),
>>lush trance lullabies (“Force of Gravity”), and sassy
>>pop-rock (“Superfabulous”) features celebrity voices –
>>rapper Guru of Gangstarr, singer JC Chasez of ’N Sync,
>>and actress Rose McGowan of television’s Charmed,
>>respectively. But the biggest star of the CD is BT,
>>who finds his voice somewhere deep down on the
>>optimistic “Somnambulist,” and on the digital,
>>throwback-to-hair-band ballad “Dark Heart Dawning.”
>>The collection reaches for the heavens like a
>>progressive-rock opus, but it retains focus and soul
>>even as it showboats with layers upon layers of
>>digital sound editing, amazing effects, and punchy
>>stops. After working the studio with ’N Sync and
>>Britney Spears, perhaps Transeau wanted to make the
>>statement that he can create the hits on his own.
>>Following a decade-long career of pushing forward new
>>dance-floor genres (“epic” house, progressive, trance,
>>nu-skool breaks), BT is leaving it all behind to
>>become a pop star. Few, if any, of Emotional
>>Technology’s album edits will appeal to underground
>>DJs.
>>“I wanted to make some really personal music and
>>showcase how diverse my influences are,” he says. “The
>>intention was to up the bar on a production level,
>>too. There are a couple songs that are melodically
>>simple, but the production is sophisticated.
>>
>>“I don’t have a problem with pop music,” he continues.
>>“I want people to hear what I do.”
>>
>>Like crabs in a bucket, some dance critics are griping
>>about Emotional Technology’s mainstream aspirations.
>>Despite the clawing, the record is already crossing
>>over, with “Somnambulist” debuting in the Top 40 of
>>Billboard’s singles chart. The single has also
>>received airplay on pop station KIIS-FM (102.7) and
>>alt-rock station KROQ-FM (106.7). “We’ve been banging
>>‘Somnambulist,’” says DJ “Swedish” Egil Aalvik of
>>grooveradio.com and Sirius satellite radio. “We’ve
>>been playing five tracks off the album. They’re all
>>awesome songs.”
>>
>>BT, whose last album was released in 2000, describes
>>spending hours and hours fine-tuning bits and pieces
>>of each track on his Mac G4 just to get the right
>>sound for Emotional Technology. He says he started
>>with a song in his head – often just a melody – and
>>composed around it, frequently with a virtual,
>>MIDI-controlled synth. “While I’m walking or driving,
>>a melody or a lyric comes to me and repeats itself,”
>>he says. “I sing it into my cell-phone voicemail or a
>>ghetto tape deck I keep in my car. I never just
>>program beats to write songs. The production process
>>always starts with a completed idea for doing a song.”
>>It sounds a bit advanced for a dance artist, but, then
>>again, BT has always been a prodigy, having started
>>playing piano at age two, learning classical licks at
>>13, and ultimately attending Boston’s Berklee College
>>of Music, only to drop out to chase his California
>>dreams. These days, his production schedule is so
>>intense – he’s scoring the soundtrack to the
>>forthcoming Charlize Theron film Monster – he’s hired
>>a full-time assistant and an intern to help with the
>>more mundane duties. The two young men slice and dice
>>sounds from a downstairs office in BT’s home studio,
>>sending strange loops and phrases resonating through
>>the modern box of a home (which has corrugated metal
>>siding). “This sound editing is really extensive,”
>>says assistant Mike DiMattia as he sits in front of a
>>Mac.
>>
>>BT is proud of the extra work put into every note on
>>the new album, too.
>>
>>“Every single 64th note has been intently combed
>>through, sometimes 50 or 100 times,” he says. “There’s
>>a lot of attention to detail.
>>
>>“Music based on technology should be the most
>>cutting-edge music there,” he continues. “Everybody in
>>the dance scene is trapped under their own little
>>rock, scared to do something. The people stepping out
>>and thinking outside the box are the ones exciting me
>>right now.”
>>
>>Those people must include BT himself, indeed.
>>----------
>>From E! Online (the one I disagree most with because I
>>like the whole album but I like the JC mention)
>>
>>BT: Emotional Technology
>>Our grade: B-
>>
>>Artist / Band: BT
>>Record Label: Nettwerk
>>Release Date: August 05, 2003
>>------------------------------------------------------
>-
>>-------------------------
>>Our Review:
>>Brian Transeau (aka BT) is used to rubbing shoulders
>>with the stars. After all, he has spent the past
>>decade remixing hits for everyone from Tori Amos to
>>Madonna, collaborating with 'N Sync and Sting--and
>>filling the world's trendy clubs with his signature
>>trance grooves. Now he's flipped through his Rolodex
>>and asked his high-profile pals to return the favor
>>for his latest solo album. The hard work yields mixed
>>results. JC Chasez helps propel first single "The
>>Force of Gravity" to exciting heights, and BT's trance
>>and dance tunes can still rock the clubs. But actress
>>Rose McGowan's vocals only make the synthed-out '80s
>>number "Superfabulous" super-tacky, and BT's attempts
>>at rock 'n' roll lead to schizophrenic sloppiness.
>>Seems Emotional Technology still has some bugs in it.
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