If you thought that Beck’s Record Club project couldn’t get anymore insane, then get ready to mess up your drawers because the whole thing is about to get absurd in a very fantastic way.
Beck last took on INXS’ classic album – Kick – with the help of indie heavyweights like St. Vincent and Liars, but heads began to roll once word got out that Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Chicago’s post-punk rhythm kings, Tortoise, would be joining Mr. Hansen in the studio. I mean, what was Beck doing essentially using one of the rock’s most unique acts as a session band? Well, now we have our answer.
On June 6th, the crew apparently holed up at Hollywood’s Sunset Sound Studios and casually recorded their interpretation of Yanni’s (yes, this Yanni) 1994 epic set– Live at the Acropolis. Tortoise’s Douglas McCombs told Time Out Chicago that Beck asked his band to play a “broad spectrum of music that was sort of appropriate,” but now the Record Club’s official website reveals just how technical – and broad – that music was.
The drummer’s count into the song goes “One, two, five, six, seven, two!” and additional studio musicians were “brought in to read a heavily doctored score with interpolations of everything from Stravinsky to Shania Twain.” Which begs the question, “How much time does Beck actually have now that he’s not confined to a record deal?!”
Below, find a video of the band taking on one of Live’s first and one of its best tracks – “Santorini” – where Beck & Co. add a hip flavor to the percussive intro featured on the original track. Watch Moore add to the overall zaniness of the instrumental track by improvising lyrics like “Burn, burn, burn it up baby/I got a brand new pack of matches/And I’m ready to set fire to this crazy city.”
More tracks will be revealed soon, but until then just tell us if there’s anything else the Record Club could cover that would actually top this.
