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President
President (Acoustic Version)
President (IAMX Accident Mix)
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- IAMX to release new digital single
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- IAMX releases single
- IAMX announces U.S. tour dates
REVIEWS
INTERVIEWS
IAMX
President
Metropolis Records
Posted: Friday, September 12, 2008
By: Vlad McNeally
By: Vlad McNeally
This American-market single for IAMX's cabaret phenomenon features only a meager few additional baubles for collectors.
In this digital age, offering only a meager three tracks and one music video seems a bit frugal for a new release. However, perhaps one can excuse IAMX's President single some for its paltry contents, for the American market is a late-comer to Chris Corner's wonderful cabaret-steeped electronica.
Marshmallowy bass drum and brisk sing-song piano interlock in a dusty clockwork waltz, and with a snare roll, slithers in Chris Corner's haunting tenor. This is the heart of "President," but a few more fireworks are later added like flatulent tuba during the bridge, and an eerie theremin-like synth wails its way from chorus back to verse to further enliven the IAMX spectacle. Beyond this utterly sublime (albeit previously released) track, IAMX offers two additional versions. First, one encounters the acoustic version of "President;" vocally, Corner's gossamer croon is slightly quieter, while the instrumentation stripped down to a plucked low note "drum" and a spindly noodling filling in the rest of the void. While still quite eerie, the Accident mix hurtles it into an opposite, electronic direction. Here, the organic components are replaced with its pianos transformed into blippy computer dialog and the percussion beveled to stark angles. Finally, there's the "Berlin Basement" video, which is actually the second version shot for this particular track. While the original perfectly captures Corner's cabaret theatrics and steampunk burlesque attitude, in this version, a hand camera films a scruffy Corner and his acoustic guitar jamming alongside his synth and drum armed compatriots, the whole cast on a stage of secondhand hand-me-downs under the gauzy light of a projected psychedelic kaleidoscope.
All in all, both these new versions aren't terrible, but are still rather blasé translations of the fantastic source material. Still, "President" is one of IAMX's best songs to date... but one would be far better off buying the full-length instead.
Marshmallowy bass drum and brisk sing-song piano interlock in a dusty clockwork waltz, and with a snare roll, slithers in Chris Corner's haunting tenor. This is the heart of "President," but a few more fireworks are later added like flatulent tuba during the bridge, and an eerie theremin-like synth wails its way from chorus back to verse to further enliven the IAMX spectacle. Beyond this utterly sublime (albeit previously released) track, IAMX offers two additional versions. First, one encounters the acoustic version of "President;" vocally, Corner's gossamer croon is slightly quieter, while the instrumentation stripped down to a plucked low note "drum" and a spindly noodling filling in the rest of the void. While still quite eerie, the Accident mix hurtles it into an opposite, electronic direction. Here, the organic components are replaced with its pianos transformed into blippy computer dialog and the percussion beveled to stark angles. Finally, there's the "Berlin Basement" video, which is actually the second version shot for this particular track. While the original perfectly captures Corner's cabaret theatrics and steampunk burlesque attitude, in this version, a hand camera films a scruffy Corner and his acoustic guitar jamming alongside his synth and drum armed compatriots, the whole cast on a stage of secondhand hand-me-downs under the gauzy light of a projected psychedelic kaleidoscope.
All in all, both these new versions aren't terrible, but are still rather blasé translations of the fantastic source material. Still, "President" is one of IAMX's best songs to date... but one would be far better off buying the full-length instead.
