Chelonis R Jones

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arno from booka shade sez the lyric is "emotions rung like a towel / vowels dangled and knived"

― mark p (Mark P), Friday, 12 August 2005 11:45 (7 years ago) Permalink

Ooooooh!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 12 August 2005 16:40 (7 years ago) Permalink

i assume he means "wrung".

― mark p (Mark P), Friday, 12 August 2005 16:41 (7 years ago) Permalink

I like those lyrics

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 12 August 2005 17:32 (7 years ago) Permalink

still loving this.

― mark p (Mark P), Sunday, 14 August 2005 13:36 (7 years ago) Permalink

me too. so far get physical are 3 for 3 on the albums front. i think booka shade is my favorite, but this album has been a huge grower.

― tricky (disco stu), Monday, 22 August 2005 18:34 (7 years ago) Permalink

i dunno, there are moments, but it seems hugely uneven to me. i always want to like get physical more than i actually do.

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:09 (7 years ago) Permalink

I can't get into Booka Shade or Dj T. all that much. I like the mixes and I like Chelonis, though.

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:11 (7 years ago) Permalink

i agree about the uneven quality, but that's part of it's charm. i think i would call it idiosyncratic before uneven actually. the first few times through i didn't like it at all. the lyrics are really good. to each their own of course. i think it's the spliffed out production that i like the most (same goes for booka shade, but i guess that goes without saying).

― tricky (disco stu), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:27 (7 years ago) Permalink

the singles do feel a bit out of place in the context of the rest of the album. synthpop-tastic vs. art damaged funk.

― tricky (disco stu), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:33 (7 years ago) Permalink

I think MANDY is the best, certainly the most radically good anyhow, DJ T has a string of really good sort of "floorworker" type records with that trademark GPM disco beat but I'm not sure he's the equal of the best MANDY tracks, I dunno. Am I wrong in saying "Body Language" is in the top 5 best GPM tracks? Maybe even top 2 or 3?

I still think Vince-Superworld (DJ T Dub), on Art of Disco is DJ T's best track. Check that out if you've not heard it Adam.

Booka Shade often sell themselves a little short with their own work, touching on overly retro sort of deep techno/tech-house, like say the Juan Maclean remix. It's very good but not amazing maybe. Though "Vertigo" and "Mandarine Girl" are both about as good as it gets. I never fully got into the album. Though I wouldn't say I'm fully into the Chelonis album either, I still think the best ones are the ones he had released already. Maybe I'll get into it.

The "Body Language" mix I like more and more with each listen, I don't know if I can overstate how good I think it is. It's up there with the best mix CDs I've ever heard I think. It changes direction so seamlessly, sometimes without even mixing. My only gripe is perhaps it's a tiny bit dry in the opening 7 or 8 tracks and I WISH they didn't use that Slam Wighnomys track, cos of the awful vocal. The Triola Polar Zipper thing would be so much better.

Everytime I sell a copy to someone who has no idea about Get Physical and buys it from hearing it on the shop system (and that's alot of times, to all sorts of people) my faith in humanity is restored.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:33 (7 years ago) Permalink

best thing for me is still the get physical 2nd anniversary mix

― ambrose (ambrose), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:37 (7 years ago) Permalink

yes!

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:43 (7 years ago) Permalink

Yeah I mean I think I rate that as highly as "Body Language" but it's not a mix in the same way really, it being all their stuff.

Maybe it is actually!

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

i love how the body language mix changes directions, too. it reminds me of what tiefschwarz did for their misch masch mix, but bl really succeeds where mm feels continuous, but dry/over-engineered and almost aimless.

"mandarine girl" is one my favorite gp tracks ever for sure.

― tricky (disco stu), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:52 (7 years ago) Permalink

"but dry/over-engineered and almost aimless."

Yes! "Aimless" is precisely the word to describe what bugs me a bit about that Tiefschwarz mix.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 22 August 2005 22:50 (7 years ago) Permalink

just goes to show that track selection is only one component of a good mix...

― tricky (disco stu), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 02:10 (7 years ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

holy shit. I missed out on this Chelonis bizness by obsessing over Luciano/Villalobos/Two Lone Swordsmen type minimalism but i downloaded a lowfidelity mp3 of Justus' vocal remix of I Don't Know and i can't stop listening to it. It's like the first time i heard the 12" of Your Life by Charles Webster. Must find Chelonis LP and Get Physical Mix NOW!

anyone know of any Seattle shops carrying these?

― biz, Thursday, 15 September 2005 16:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

This just in: Chelonis is k-razy! I'm really going to enjoy writing up my interview with him.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 26 September 2005 03:19 (7 years ago) Permalink

I still think he reminds me of Terence Trent D'arby

http://www.sanandamaitreya.com/interviews/ttd_sans_ego.html

http://www.askmen.com/toys/interview_100/111_terence_trent_darby_interview.html

Hopefully it makes up for your Superpitcher interview.

― Jedmond (Jedmond), Monday, 26 September 2005 12:19 (7 years ago) Permalink

Is it true that he is originally from California? And if so - what part of California?

― Cristal Waters (nordicskilla), Monday, 26 September 2005 16:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

I dont love the Chelonis album but I like it.
Body Language is good but almost too diverse for me.
How much do you guys recommend the Booka Shade album? I'm deciding whether 20.99$ is too much to pay for a CD I could potentially acquire when I get broadband again.

Definitely glad I paid for 2nd Anniversary Mix aka the CD I cannot stop listening to. By far my favorite thing in this whole vein; I like it more than the Mei Lwun mix, even, if just because the aesthetic is so consistent throughout. (Mei Lwun got a liiiiittle tacky at the end of the mix I thought, although the beginning is perfect.)

― deej.. (deej..), Thursday, 13 October 2005 23:53 (7 years ago) Permalink

i rate the booka shade album, but i think the other usual suspects here weren't so hot on it. i would say that it sits right in the middle between chelonis's album and dj t's album. not every cut is 4/4 and parts of it sound kind of blunted and paranoid (in a good way!), but some parts are also the opposite of that. really nicely produced...

― tricky (disco stu), Friday, 14 October 2005 00:01 (7 years ago) Permalink

Deej I definitely think you would like the Music For Freaks See You @ the Party mix.

Stick with Body Language, I think it's an album that really grows with relistens, and the stuff that initially seems quite abstract (like the Guido Schneider "On & On" remix) eventually seems really catchy and populist! Sorta.

Actually one odd thing is that each time I've heard one of the tracks on the mix in another context, I've gone back and loved that part of the mix a lot more.

The Booka Shade album is v. good, worth it for the astonishing opening track "Vertigo" alone, though I also really like "Double Identity", "Memento", "Something Physical" and a few others heaps. It could do with a few more anthem tracks though (one of the most anthemic tracks on the vinyl, "Ain't Got Much To Lose", was left of the CD version).

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 14 October 2005 00:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

I sometimes start "Body Language" at track 9 or 10, to avoid that Slam vocal! And cos it's about a 40 minute journey to work and I don't want the entire build up intro and no pay off!

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 14 October 2005 18:01 (7 years ago) Permalink

tim so right about "vertigo"

― mark p (Mark P), Friday, 14 October 2005 20:18 (7 years ago) Permalink

Also recently I've been adoring the Afrilounge remix of the track "Body Language", which I had initially kind of dismissed. It's totally hypnotic.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 15 October 2005 02:30 (7 years ago) Permalink

wait - tim, i've been waiting for a day and an hour to hear how k-razy chelonis is. please enlighten the people.

― natedey (ndeyoung), Saturday, 15 October 2005 04:16 (7 years ago) Permalink

"The last decade has been a tough time for house vocalists. Oh, there’s a steady trade in brassy divas delivering shrill proclamations of ecstasy over brisk disco-house grooves; what has been sidelined is the Chicago house tradition (think Jamie Principle or Robert Owens) of evocative and seductive personalities delivering showstealing performances that run the gamut from heartbreaking to creepy; only old stalwarts such as Aaron Carl and Romanthony have been left to fly the flag.

Which made Chelonis R Jones’ emergence on Germany’s Get Physical label last year feel like quite an event: with a brace of anthem-ready tracks such as the bouncy falsetto One & One, the catty spoken word Blackout! or the devastating ballad I Don’t Know, Chelonis quickly established himself as the pre-eminent diva in a scene whose Chicago house revivalism has tended to the dry and techy side. Not that he necessarily likes this label:

“Chelonis R. Jones is an entirely different can of beans altogether! I have dangerous depth to my concept. I started as painter/novelist! This has nothing to do with diva, it's a fact! There is no one in vocal house singing the shit I'm singing; most don't have the balls, anyway! They keep going on about "everyone must be free"/"peace and harmony is the key" blah blah blah! I am a special case: I lived on the streets, for crying out loud!”

On his first album – bearing the unsurprisingly portentous title Dislocated Genius – Chelonis puts distance between himself and the diva with a succession of brittle, paranoid electro grooves and deadpan performances that recall Green Velvet, although again, such comparisons are not particularly welcome. This side-swerve into alienated eccentricity was a deliberate move for Chelonis:

“I was in a hospital to treat my wars with manic depression. I am well aware of my blessings and my curses; everything has its price! That's why my CD is quite dangerous to the average disco club singer... People can take a single look into my eyes, and just feel that I've been through it and mean every word and action! The public is not so stupid as most attest! I chose to keep the shady parts, even the mistakes, and paid close attention to leaving it all in the mix; that is the ultimate secret of Dislocated Genius. I chose not to polish/censor/whitewash or perfume my debut! I did nearly everything to get the CD adored, despised or banned.”

“I come from an extreme 70's/80's indie rock background, and this accentuates my eccentric position in vocal electro-pop. Until last year, I had no idea who Green Velvet was! I listened to no dance or electronic music whatsoever while working on Dislocated Genius... I just kept it harshly real, which most others aren't daring to do. I could've just sat back and sold my ridiculous face: people always compare me to the same 4 black musicians all the time. You know who they are! It gets tiring...flattering, but still tiring.”

Chelonis’s insistence on his own uniqueness perhaps reflects the convoluted path which has led him to his current incarnation, a path which took him from California to New York to Germany in the pursuit of a variety of vocations: “I was painting and songwriting in rock groups up until the very moment I met the highly charming Arno Kammermeier of Booka Shade; the rest is...history.” Booka Shade, the duo responsible for much of the music produced on the iconic Get Physical label, are Chelonis’s main production foil: “I guess, in a way, they were/are my sound/trend police hahaha. They know what's hot, and obviously what's not. I adore them for helping shape such a respectable start in the electropop ( yes, that's what it is) world. My ideas are presented in demo landscapes, they re-tone the hues and trim pastures.”

Between his already established anthems (“you are so kind to consider them club hits... I still wonder about this”, he avers) and the singular vision of his album, Chelonis is quickly earning the status of hot property, most recently providing guest vocals on the new Royskopp album. But, he insists, this modicum of notoriety hasn’t changed him: “Oh, I'm still the same, still a struggling artist. I don't drink crystal with Diddy… I'll never be number one, I'm not interested. Innovation is the key!”"

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 15 October 2005 05:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

Chelonis! He is great! An excited person!

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Saturday, 15 October 2005 05:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

ah, thanks tim!

― natedey (ndeyoung), Saturday, 15 October 2005 16:09 (7 years ago) Permalink

haha did you plan that setup nate?!

― deej.. (deej..), Saturday, 15 October 2005 17:10 (7 years ago) Permalink

Tim I saw poker flat 4 in dr. wax today - have you heard that yet? I thought about picking it up but decided to wait.

― deej.. (deej..), Saturday, 15 October 2005 17:13 (7 years ago) Permalink

...i dont know why i ended that post. Decided to wait and check ILM dahnce consensus, picked up the old closer musik cd i'd avoided buying til now instead.

― deej.. (deej..), Saturday, 15 October 2005 17:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

Deej I haven't gotten Poker Flat 4, so I'm not sure. They're inconsistent enough that they're not a buy-on-sight label for me, such that while I'm still eager to pick up that comp one of these days I'm reluctant to give a recommendation without evidence to base it on.

e.g. quite a few people here (who are more ambivalent w/r/t Poker Flat than I am) seem to rate label-owner Steve Bug's recent Bugnology very highly, but I rarely listen to it...

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 15 October 2005 23:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

thanks, Tim!

Chelonis is great.

― Lion-O (nordicskilla), Saturday, 15 October 2005 23:35 (7 years ago) Permalink

My co-worker has a track coming out on Pokerflat in about two weeks, with a Steve Bug remix.

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 16 October 2005 11:56 (7 years ago) Permalink

the second cd of pokerflat 4 is aaaaawesome. but thats just me talking.

bugnology is too perfect!

that is one of my favourite cds i think. even though i have never seen it on cd, if you see what i mean.

― ambrose (ambrose), Sunday, 16 October 2005 14:02 (7 years ago) Permalink

where can i order this? Can't seem to find any online vendors with dislocated genius listed

― fffnnnsss, Sunday, 16 October 2005 20:08 (7 years ago) Permalink

here?

― ambrose (ambrose), Sunday, 16 October 2005 20:12 (7 years ago) Permalink

off topic but :O!!!!

― ambrose (ambrose), Sunday, 16 October 2005 20:14 (7 years ago) Permalink

― Lion-O (nordicskilla), Sunday, 16 October 2005 20:15 (7 years ago) Permalink

haha

sorry try this, and you will see what that is

― ambrose (ambrose), Sunday, 16 October 2005 20:16 (7 years ago) Permalink

...only $30 at Amazon. I'm reasonably sure this is all the Poker Flat I could ever need and then some, so it's tempting...

― telephone thing, Sunday, 16 October 2005 20:57 (7 years ago) Permalink

thanks for the interview tim!

― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 17 October 2005 08:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

Chelonis' album is growing on me. That last track!

― deej.. (deej..), Monday, 17 October 2005 17:35 (7 years ago) Permalink

holy crap that cover

― strng hlkngtn: what does it mean? (dubplatestyle), Monday, 17 October 2005 17:39 (7 years ago) Permalink

How completely bizarre about that 6CD box! Are they wrapping it up after that or something?

I see what people mean about 'availability' re: this label. Mind you it is "limited edition".

― fandango (fandango), Monday, 17 October 2005 17:42 (7 years ago) Permalink

Will probably get filed next to Hed Kandi comps (if 'holy crap that cover' isn't referring to the Chelonis).

― fandango (fandango), Monday, 17 October 2005 17:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

yeah, it was. a pleasant surprise

― strng hlkngtn: what does it mean? (dubplatestyle), Monday, 17 October 2005 17:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

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