thebeatswithin

You can be a DJ and a musician you know Guy Sigsworth, a classically trained musician, told me that he was in awe of Stuart Price because he was BOTH an amazing DJ and an amazing musician (which he is - no matter what your opinion of his style) and he was especially in awe of the fact that he could do them simultaneously live on stage. Patrick Leonard couldn't do that. Just sayin' ​Not saying anything negative about Pat BTW - the man's a fucking legend IMHO.

Whoop, why can't we vote for the album's best producer for all the other songs - Madonna? ​Tough decision, but I voted Diplo for the joy BIM & LFL gave me last year. Blood Diamonds 2nd just for DP.

Our Chelle - that was amazing and totally hilarious M LUVS YOU!!! You shoulda been the UB last night! After the rumour of Take A Bow, I never expected Drowned World! So totally fitting and so much more emotional knowing the David Collins connection. Wow, we were so lucky in London to be treated to 2 amazing and unique shows. Haven't seen this much London love since R-iT. OK, so I now want Bad Girl in this section - PLEASE Madonna!

Lady sings the blues. One of her best deeper songs!

Guys, I too got a bit excited about this Caroline Sullivan book as it's by a Guardian journalist, but it's only worth it for the pictures and having a book that covers her entire career if that's what you're looking for. In terms of her music and career, there's a lot of errors and her opinions of Madonna, which are often presented as fact, are sometimes just plain laughable - providing you have a sense of humour. It's poorly researched and there's nothing new in here that you haven't heard before. Some journalists are just plain lazy! If you only buy one book for Christmas, buy Matthew Rettenmund's - I say this with confidence in Matt being someone that digs DEEP, even though mine hasn't arrived yet!

Wow! I never knew this and always thought that it was promo only. Seems like Over and Over was also released in Philippines!

Carta, wasn't Over and Over a promo only release in Italy? Love Don't Live Here Anymore also got a single release in Japan back in the day.

I'm not sure about this one Karbatal, as Guy was understandably a little sensitive around this issue. It may have been Talvin Singh's Cyber-raga, but that's just a guess.

Billy & Webo. here's a little exclusive from thebeatswithin that explains the recording process... Guy Sigsworth told me that he was inspired by the German band Oval, who created tracks by scratching CDs to make them jump and skip and then re-arranged it to make it into something melodic. Guy actually created the song by messing around with a DAT player's jog wheel to create the clicking sound. He then cut up these bits of audio to give the feeling that the CD was skipping. So, although it may sound like the old psychedelic rock trick of playing it backwards, this wasn't actually how Guy achieved these sounds. It's interesting to me how these studio "accidents", from guitar distortion on Jimi Hendrix songs, to record scratching on hip-hop tracks, to time stretch first used on drum and bass records, which are all essentially "mistakes", have become something that musicians emulate to create something melodic. Guy told me that WIFGFAG was one of the last, if not the very last song to be recorded for the Music album, after a track from another collaborator (Not Orbit or Mirwais) got bumped off the record. It was the only song they recorded during the short sessions (Nothing Fails originated elsewhere), as M was heavily pregnant.

I agree with RoccoPapa - ridiculous to describe it as gay - reduces an amazing album to something Kylie might do, like Aphrodite.

You're right barneyboy, Jump was indeed one of the songs that originated from the abandoned musical projects. I promise not to be a stranger. And I'll see if I can make up for lost time - stay tuned!

In case you haven't seen it yet, the November issue of GT magazine, which is currently on news stands, has a 4-page spread about a decade of Confessions, which they declare as Madonna's "gayest" album. Unfortunately the article doesn't have anything new and there's a few "spot the factual error" moments. One for the complete-ists only. BTW, "gayest" to GT = camp, glitter and feather boas. If I was forced to describe one of her albums as the "gayest", I'd go for Erotica. What's your "gayest" Madonna record?

I love all of the influences that can be heard all over Confessions and some of them are just little flourishes rather than big samples, like the Abba sample on Hung Up for example. Parts of Forbidden Love have always given me Evelyn Thomas' High Energy / Laura Branigan's Self Control vibes - anyone else pick up on this? I'd love to hear what influences people can hear across Confessions, apart from the obvious and often cited Abba / Jackson 5 "samples".

You've picked out most of the lines that conjure up the masturbation fantasy and not sure if they were intentional or not, but we know how she often likes to write lyrics that can be interpreted in a number of different ways. Then again, it could just be MY twisted mind, not hers. Interesting how Supernatural and Like a Prayer both start with the sound of crashing guitars - I wonder which song came first?

Hey Pud! What's this about Ain't No Big Deal not being a proper or Bside? The version released on ROTKBs and PDP was recorded during the Madonna album sessions. Are you referring to the earlier Steve Bray, Mark Kamins or Wayne Braithwaite versions? LOVE Super duper naturally big outrageously large! I always thought Supernatural was about masturbation, no?