The Song Fight Bulletin Board

http://www.niggytardust.com

Despite being late to Radiohead's bandwagon, I like Niggy's scheme better. They explicitly offer you the choice between a free download or paying $5 dollars. Instead of Thom's 160kbps lame non-LAME encoding, Saul is offering 192kbps, 320kbps and FLAC lossless. Also, all versions of the album come with cover art and a 30+ page lyric and art book (in PDF format).

Also, isn't Niggy Tardust the best rapper name ever?

I just heard his version of "Bloody Sunday" yesterday on KROQ for the first time on Jed The Fish's catch of the day. The first thing that came to mind was that band from England that Caravan Ray got us to do a remix on, Block Party. The fake guitar sounds and uh uh uh oh's sound just like Block Party.
Never heard of this guy until now.

Wow, that version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is fantastic! Thanks for putting this guy on my radar screen.

Trent Reznor produced his album, which is somewhat apparent.

Hmmm. I was expecting straight up gangsta rap, but I got an interesting fusion of rap and spoken-word. Not bad.

anti-m wrote:Wow, that version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is fantastic! Thanks for putting this guy on my radar screen.

Yeah, that IS good. I don't like the other stuff though. Especially the DNA song...

Yeah, DNA is pretty bad. My favorites are Break, WTF!, Skin on a Drum, and The Ritual (which is amazing).

They're kind of like Gnarls Barkley, except Trent isn't as much fun as Danger Mouse and Saul's voice isn't as appealing as Cee-Lo's, but the music is more rockin' and the lyrics are better.

Also, I like how the mastering isn't harsh at all, especially for rap (or whatever). Huge basses, punchy drums. Makes me actually want to pay $4.68 for flac files, which is exactly what I'm about to do.

Hoblit wrote:

anti-m wrote:Wow, that version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is fantastic! Thanks for putting this guy on my radar screen.

Yeah, that IS good. I don't like the other stuff though. Especially the DNA song...

Actually I'd go the opposite - didn't like the SBS cover much (as BLT said - sounds a bit too Bloc Party) - but I did like the other stuff. And yes - a great rap name. Thanks for the intro.

Why can't he release it on a quick to download zip file though? Seriously? 83 mb? Downloading now. I've liked Saul Williams' past stuff, so I look forward to listening.

Ok. Nevermind. It IS a zip file. They need a faster server or something. In Rainbows took like 2 seconds to download.

3 POSTS IN A ROW

Hey this is pretty sweet. I agree that Sunday Bloody Sunday is awesome.

And that Reznor's influence is pretty apparent.

Sometimes Saul's voice actually sounds like Reznor and I have to check the pdf to see who's singing. I don't think Reznor actually sings on this.

Also a lot of the music sounds like it could be on The Fragile.

Reznor sings backup on Break and WTF. The Reznor-produced tracks sound really similar to The Fragile and nothing at all like Year Zero, interestingly.

there are a few very 'year zero'-esque digital-noisy parts, I thought.. also some of the drums sound straight off of 'with teeth'.

i like this album a lot

-craig

This is going to be interesting - on the one hand I just can't get into rap at all, on the other hand I'm a huge nin fanboy. I wonder if I'm going to be able to appreciate this or not.

I decided to check out more of this CD after Puce posted this thread. It is interesting, but I don't really care for it whole heartedly. BUT, it has inspired me in a strange way. The similar NIN sounds made me think of a brief conversation we had here a while back about using famous sounds and at what point does it sound TOO similar?
Ive always wanted to do something of the NIN or Ramstein genre, which I guess is simply labled industrial, and Ive talked with Spoon about a collab in this direction, but it is so distinct that it will sound TOO similar. Hearing this new stuff from Saul made me see the light...as it were.
If a song that is using a similar and distinctive style is done in a somewhat satirical way, it will give me a chance to experiment with some styles Ive always wanted too, but aren't my style, and if someone says that it sounds like so and so, I can say, yeah, I know, hah.

So it is official. All of my Purple Reign entries are going to be done in an industrial genre. This will give me a chance to collaborate with our electronic synth friends here and get involved in a style of music that is quite different for me.

Billy's Little Trip wrote: So it is official. All of my Purple Reign entries are going to be done in an industrial genre. This will give me a chance to collaborate with our electronic synth friends here and get involved in a style of music that is quite different for me.

Hey, I'm game for a collab if you're interested any time.

Guess I'll take that as a 'no', then.

I'm loving the
"after I say nigga, you say nothin"
"nigga"
----
"nigga"
"NOTHING!"
"shut up"

Fun stuff, this.

obscurity wrote:

Billy's Little Trip wrote: So it is official. All of my Purple Reign entries are going to be done in an industrial genre. This will give me a chance to collaborate with our electronic synth friends here and get involved in a style of music that is quite different for me.

Hey, I'm game for a collab if you're interested any time.

Sorry Obs, I just saw this. Absolutely we should do something together. I haven't posted it yet in the Collab section, but I am going to ask for synth and keys help on all of my Purple Reign songs. Wages has offered vox and Fluffy has a copy of my rough draft of "For You". My goal is to use different keyboard guys for each song. This will be fun. I'll PM you.

Great album, best $5 I've spent... I HATE rap... sorry rappers... but I LOVE Saul... very smart man he is... good stuff...

__________

Enter It In The Art Show wrote:Saul Williams is great. I first heard him on Blackalicious' "Release". Listen here.

I didn't like rap till I heard that song. First time I heard Saul Williams, too, and also the first time I heard Lyrics Born, who's wound up having a pretty interesting career since then.