Foxbase Alpha

Product Information

The original album remastered and cut onto two twelve inch 45rpm discs for higher fidelity, housed in an exclusive gatefold version of the original sleeve.

The people hearing your music don’t know that. They hear a group writing about cool London, filled with carefully chosen references to pop culture they might well not know. They’re getting a display of impeccable taste from people dressed like they’ve come out of Blow Up. The album also explores a time where Britain last felt optimistic, they say, although it was tempered by disillusion even shortly after New Labour was elected. “We must be near the bottom of it for politics now, though,” says Stanley. Carroll, Jim (28 December 2016). "Saint Etienne – Foxbase Alpha album review: Still brilliant 25 years on". The Irish Times . Retrieved 22 February 2017. Lechner, Ernesto (21 July 2000). "*** 1/2 Saint Etienne, "Sound of Water," Sub Pop". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035 . Retrieved 13 March 2016.No. We needed someone to do it. We had to go to Ian Catt’s studio. Most good engineers can play most instruments reasonably well, and Ian’s certainly one of them.

Ware, Gareth (4 March 2013). "OMD: Of All The Thing We've Made: 'Dazzle Ships' At 30". DIY. Archived from the original on 26 January 2016 . Retrieved 21 May 2021. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL ( link) Beginning with their debut LP Foxbase Alpha, a seminal recording of the era released in October 1991, Saint Etienne convincingly blurred the lines between pop, indie and dance music, while embracing both retro and contemporary inspirations, all of which made for a kaleidoscopic, endlessly addictive sound. And ultimately, while their initial foray is stylish and catchy as all hell, it’s music of sophistication and substance to boot. An exclusive one-sided 7” featuring the original, previously unreleased version of Kiss And Make Up, featuring Only Love Can Break Your Heart singer Moira Lambert. Propelled by multi-layered dub basslines, house rhythms, piano loops, and pounding drum breaks, the group’s interpolation sounds little like Young’s 1970 single, save for the equally plaintive power of Lambert’s ruminations. While the album version stuns, the various remixes orchestrated by the likes of the late Andrew Weatherall and Masters at Work are worth seeking out as well. Formed in London in 1990 by fellow music aficionados and journalists Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, Saint Etienne was one of the period’s most intriguing acts, if not one of the era’s most unlikely success stories. Neither Stanley nor Wiggs was a musician by trade, but they founded the group based on their mutual affection for pop music in its various forms and an open minded acceptance of sonic experimentation. “I never thought I’d be in a band,” Stanley recently confided to RTÉ, Ireland’s National Public Radio. “I wasn’t a musician and it was technology that made it all possible because we were all big pop fans and we had fairly large record collections and when sampling came along it was a gift.”

Over time Saint Etienne became a chic, stylish pop band, almost carefree in their attitude towards the business of making music. Seemingly happy to breeze outside whatever might be the prevailing trend. Foxbase Alpha feels more aware, more focused on trying to draw from the contemporary scene to create an impression. Too often does it feel forced - although, being fair, hearing the album for the first time thirty years after its release may have something to do with that. Saint Etienne: Foxbase Alpha". Q. p.139. Fusing '60s girl group pop with cut-ups and samples, their records reimagined Burt Bacharach as a house producer.

Attempting to cover Neil Young is considered an outright act of hubris in many circles. But Saint Etienne’s stirring, Lambert-fronted debut single and album opener “Only Love Can Break Your Heart,” which was recorded in all of two hours’ time, manages to stay faithful to the original’s melancholy weight while transforming Young’s minimalist composition into a fresh and thrilling dancefloor-friendly affair. The album includes one of the group's best-known songs: a cover of Neil Young's " Only Love Can Break Your Heart". The cover quite differs from the original in that the original's mostly major chord progression is turned here into mostly minor, which emphasises a more melancholic feel. It is also arranged in 4/4 (as opposed to the original's waltz time), with a driving piano-bass-drum section. Andrew Weatherall later remixed the song to further emphasise the dub bassline; this remix was featured on both releases of the single and on the compilation Casino Classics (on American and European versions of the single, a Flowered Up remix is erroneously featured instead of the Andrew Weatherall mix). The follow-up single "Kiss and Make Up" was also a cover version, of a song written and originally recorded by The Field Mice. Ian Catt was the engineer/co-producer on both versions. This release was sold exclusively through the band's official online store. A small second batch of the "Subbuteo Edition" was sold in August 2013, with and without the 2CD set included.

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We're in the City" from the Places to Visit EP is featured in Jamie Babbit's 1999 film But I'm a Cheerleader. Also in 1999, "Wood Cabin" from the Good Humor album appeared in " I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano", the first season finale of The Sopranos. [25]