STRAWBERRIES OCEANS SHIPS FOREST CD *** The Fireman

Transpiritual Stompo

Track Nª1/9

STRAWBERRY OCEANS SHIPS FOREST

The album consists of samples of McCartney material, mostly from the sessions that spawned his Off the Ground album, as well as samples of "Reception" and "The Broadcast" from 1979's Back to the Egg, as remixed by Youth. Neither McCartney nor Youth are credited on the album; rumours of McCartney's involvement were eventually confirmed by EMI.

In a Melody Maker review, Michael Bonner wrote, "Paul McCartney has discovered dance music - and the results are as staggeringly brilliant as those that came from John Lydon's similar road-to-Damascus-like conversion last year. Truly, we live in an age of miracles. Eschewing the easy option of making a remix album, McCartney and his collaborator, Youth, have chosen to follow the likes of Brian Eno down a more experimental and cerebral path. They take a melody and, with dextrous genre-hopping through ambient, trance and house, evolve a number of breathtaking variations. Like snowflakes, each song seems identical to the last, until closer inspection reveals that it has its own unique shape."

The project began when McCartney asked Youth to remix several tracks from McCartney's Off the Ground album for use on possible 12" singles. McCartney stated, "The brief from me was that he should only use stuff from our recordings, because dance mixes often feature a kick-drum sample or a James Brown snare sound and, as a consequence, the record ends up sounding a bit like someone else's so I told Youth that I'd prefer any sound he might select to come off our recordings, mainly 'Off the Ground'."

Regarding the project, Youth has stated, "I didn't think it appropriate to remix any of the Off the Ground tracks the way I'd been briefed. I thought it would be better to do a more conceptual thing - that is, rather than remix a track I thought we should deconstruct the album into samples and then construct a new mix from those. And Paul liked the idea. He was into it, so I went for it."

Eventually, McCartney decided to join Youth in the studio to create new music to add to the tapestry along with the existing samples, and the project became a more collaborative effort. Although originally conceived as a series of 12" remixes, McCartney became so enamored with the results of the sessions that the project became this full-length album, released in 1993 in the United Kingdom, and several months later in 1994 in the United States of America.

Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest, which never charted, is no longer in print. It is, however, available on iTunes.



Transcrystaline

Trac Nª 3/9




Pure Trance

Track Nº 4/9

Arizona Light

Track Nº 5/9

Celtic Stomp

Track Nº6/9

This album is adictive!


"Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest" is the first of two albums which Paul McCartney released under the pseudonym The Fireman. Essentially, it is a collaboration between McCartney and a musician/remixer/engineer who simply calls himself Youth.

The fruits of this album came about during a remix session for what was then Paul's latest album "Off The Ground". Instead of properly remixing that album's title track, Youth and McCartney created something entirely different. Upon listening to this CD, you would be hard-pressed to think that this music was done by McCartney. It sounds like nothing he has done before. Also, apart from the song titles and publishing credits, there is no other liner notes in the CD cover. McCartney was definitely undercover on this one.

Musically, the album is quite interesting and trance-inducing. It contains nine lengthy variations on a single theme set to a moderately paced drum rhythm. This is a far cry from "Silly Love Songs" or "Band on The Run". However, once you get used to the strange sounds and plodding rhythms, this CD can become an excellent piece of background music. It's simplistic and stays out of the way. This album is very much in the same style as modern composer Steve Reich especially with his composition entitled "Drumming". Both feature the same idea of trance-like rhythms with uncompilcated melodic and harmonic patterns.

All in all, The Fireman McCartney's "Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest" is an excellent CD. It's also now extremely rare, out-of-print and very expensive. However, if you're a Paul McCartney collector, this CD is a must. I will not reveal in this review how much I paid for this CD but I will reveal that it was very much worth it.

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