Dennis P's "Ex-Lab Monkey Dreams" Remix
of Shock The Monkey by Peter Gabriel
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34 People have rated this remix.
2.21 Is the average rating.
Listened to 219 Times
24 Comments
Uploaded 24 Sep 2006 20:28:35
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Information
Remixer Notes
I played around with the original song alot - But I missed ME in all of it.
I then realized that as more as I got into the song I could hear how it could be de-constructed into something completely different! That imagined that since the song was not about animal protection I might as well make it about that - all the words were in there to make it an animal protection song.
So I de-constructed the lyrics completely playing around with cutting out words or phrases and putting it all together in a new way.
Then I made the music playing everything myself to accompany Peter Gabriel (Playing with Peter would be way cool, so this was my chance I guess. THANK YOU Peter!).
I call this remix Ex-Lab Monkey Dreams - but judge for yourselves if the lyrics fits the title.
Thanx for listening!
Dennis P
Technical Information
Using Cakewalk Sonar 5 Producer Edition, Freeware plugins (MadShifta by TobyBear, FreeAmp2 by FrettedSynth Audio, Helian 2ndBass by FrettedSynth Audio), Sonitus:Suite accompanying Sonar, PerfectSpace accompanying Sonar.
Played using Fender Squire (El-Guitar), Solo played on Ibanez RG Series (El-Guitar), Line 6 Variax Acoustic 700 (Acoustic Guitar on Dreadnaught setting of course!) and Cort Action 4 (Bass).
Also I used Digitech GNX-2 as Guitar amp/processing when not using FreeAmp 2.
Used Cambridge Soundworks for speakers (also for the feedback at the end of the solo).
Comments
Why the hell have you changed the lyrics?
the music is really interesting . but the lyrics man!
Too bad 
finally someone has change the lyrics.love you for that. are you u2? greetings from jägermeistertown
It feels just like somebody's rubbin ol Doghouse's tummy! Woof! And ya even got ol Brian May to sit in! The Fox, The Rat, The Ape & ol Doghouse!![:-]](smilies/embarrased.gif)
Thanks for the comments guys!
The lyrics - well - I thought I wanted to do something different - and because I found that it was possible to actually make an animal protection song, which most of the public thought the song was all about in the first place, I tried to do just that.
I forgot to mention that the drums are recorded using Yamaha XPress III electronic drums and played back using BFD 1.5 (no expansion packs).
Also I used V-Vocal alot to the the assimilated words to fit together. the MadShifta was to bring the general pitch up to D
Again - thanks for any comments you make - I really appreciate it - please also comment on the mix, cause this is recorded in my living room on nothing else than Cambridge SoundWorks computer speakers.
Thanks to my girlfriend for letting me have all these nice music gadgets!
I think this is really cool. Original approach, and the playing is good too. Great!!
This mix has been stuck in my head all day. You have done something right. You are on my favorites list. Good luck!
I like the music, but the vocals feel extremely disconnected-yes, I know the lyrics were changed, but they feel very jagged and sound out of place.
Great Dynamics.
Cool Riffage.
I Do like it. I do Like it.
Dennis,
I'm quite glad to hear someone else also fooling with the lyrics. You've done a creative thing by making this into an animal protection song. To me, this is the first place everyone should start with this remix. It's all audio. So we should play with it. I have a sneaking suspicion that Peter himself will get a kick out of songs like this that end up being "about" something other than the original. I also like those Digitech guitar things and Sonar. Rock on.
thanx for the nice comments.greetings from jägermeistertown
Hi jägermeistertown!
You're welcome!
Markman,
Unfortunately I don't think Peter G will ever hear a song that doesn't get into the top 12 list. there are just too many remixes - oh boy - 2 guys made over 20 mixes each - why would you want to do that - I would think a competition like this should have 1 mix per person and the ability to upload drafts and then get responses and perfect the result over time - but that's just the rules of the game.
Heck I doesn't really matter as it was so much fun to do this song! And I felt that making the aninimal protection song was appropriate - so great fun it is!
Thanx for the comments everyone - I still would like more comments on the mix part - as my monitoring on the technical side is very limited (the Cambridge computer speakers) so I wanted to hear how I'm doing with what I have as I'm speculating on buying some hi-end near-field speakers.
- sorry Cromigula I could have smoothed out the vocals more, but I feel that this is more the expression style of Peter G.
try playing in time next time
Hi Dennis P
To your question: the piano in my VoxPiano-version is "Ivory" (the Steinway-sample).
cm from Vienna!
Cool - thanx - better check that one out!
dp love the guitar sound and arrangement nice cut and paste of vox ya know if u look at the back of the cd it certainly suggests animal cruelty. but once i heard an interview with Peter in which he was asked directly wot the song was about and he sai something about jealosy but he is quite mercurial and thoughtful about his lyrics i mean after all he is the supersonic scientist! i would suggest its a double entndre.
cheerz and bon chance dan la comp.!
ps um yes i am indeed an old skool trekkie james tibereus is da man!
i don't really see why you did this remix other than to say "hey i did a remix", but your production quality is definitely good.
everything sits well in the mix, but "burning monkeys learning?" . you lost me there.
3 stars for the production.
great arrangement-definitley a super production, sounding very acoustic and i like that.vocals appear to be too much "sampled" for that great playback but anyways 4 points from me and good luck.
Thanx guys - it's nice to get some other ears to listen - one tends to get deaf especially when the equipment is only half good.
About the lyrics.:
("I'm" is implicit) Burning - monkey's learning is in the second verse.
I thought of the monkey being captured in the first verse and in the second verse is now in the lab and running on a wheel like mice do and gets burned by the rat that can breathe fire. and he is pityful that he cannot breathe back.
In the third verse the monkey excels on the wheel and learns to breathe fire and then he breathes fire on you (You in this sense means you who treats animals like experiments) even though he does not really like doing so but it's necessary to get out of there. exactly what happens in the bridge after the solo.
To wrap it up I try to explain that this is what the monkey had to go through so if his mate thinks this is strange she's darned right and the song explained why!
That is how I thought up the lyrics - I only had so many words but I thought it made sense this way - but perhaps it wasn't so obvious - but hey Shock the monkey was about jealousy - did you think that the first time you heard it? Poetry gives a degree of freedom I think.
But thanx for the kind words and stars!
Oh you did re-construction of lyrics! Amazing!
Nice guitar sounds, also.
Dennis, I mentioned this in another thread already, but, regarding that piano tone you were asking about: Try looking up "Synthogy Ivory" for that. I know you are likely to get a million generic returns for "Ivory".
Still have your mix stuck in my head. Love that bass line when it breaks into the chorus, and the acoustic guitar with the harmony lead at the very end. Awesome work!
Hey there Dennis. Thanks for the comments on my mix. Yes, I am very familiar with the work of Kai Hansen (Helloween, Gamma Ray, etc.) I know their music well, so to be compared as such is quite an honor in my eyes
Still loving your tune. For some odd reason, I hear 'The Police' in my head during the chorus break. Maybe it's just the way it breaks into a whole different mood, like on 'Don't stand so close to me'. Really creative use of the vocals, and I just love the way the ending came together. Going to have to slap it on my top ten for sure.
Best of luck to you! I hope Peter gets to hear it
thanx for the comment.greetings from jägermeistertown
Very cool idea the change in the lyrics is like you used the collage technic of visual arts in it,and the feel of the song supporting it works great, fine production sound too.
Thank you very much for your comment on my mix and for putting me on your top 10 list.
Keep up the good work!
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Nice serious feel to this and such tasty Edge-like guitar riffs! The guitar riffs are also similar to Stephen Fellows (Comsat Angels), so I have to like this for those details!
Comment added by Synthetic1 on 2006-09-25 11:26:49