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Morphine is a textbook example of just how far the definition of alternative rock can be stretched. A casual listen to radio or peek at the charts in the post-Nirvana world would lead one to believe that the parameters of modern rock lie somewhere between Live and Bush, with little variation from the jackhammer-guitar-and-angst-ridden-vocals formula allowed. But vocalist/two-string "slide" bassist Mark Sandman and his unconvential trio are the photographic negative of the Nirvanawannabe legions.
Sandman's low, breathy vocals and elastic basslines combine with Dana Colley's impossibly low sax grunts and Billy Conway's syncopated, jazzy drumming to create a sound that makes Spinal Tap's infamous "Big Bottom" seem positively tinny. Throughout LIKE SWIMMING the band pursues a jazzy, understated groove that is sinuous, sensual and downright slippery. Lyrics use simplicity and humor to good effect, and exist largely to set the mood for the tunes' angular, minor-key riffs. The liquid flow of Morphine's songs makes listening to the band's fourth album feel very much LIKE SWIMMING.
Recorded at Fort Apache, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Morphine: Dana Colley (baritone, tenor, bass & double saxophones, background vocals); Mark Sandman (2-string slide bass, vocals, tritar, keyboards, mellotron, guitar); Billy Conway (drums, percussion, background vocals).
Additional personnel: Mike Rivard (acoustic bass); Larry Dersch (drums); Melissa Gibbs, Meredith Byam, DJK (background vocals).
Award Winner
Entertainment Weekly (3/14/97, p.81) - "With a lineup of two-string slide bass, baritone sax, and drums, this Boston trio makes a seductively noirish noise unlike anything in contemporary rock....exotically refreshing."
- Rating: A
Q (4/97, p.126) - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...With this fourth album, Morphine have quite sensibly resisted the urge to dangerously tamper with a possibly unique formula."
Option (5-6/97, p.117) - "...grabs ahold of your head and bottom and won't let go. Sandman's lyrics are a mix of hipster bedtime stories and crafty non sequiturs, and they set smooth as silk against the superbly simple funksmanship of drummer Billy Conway and the inspired moans of saxman Dana Colley..." Like Swimming Music | List Price | $9.95 (You save $2.96) | | Category | Rock Albums, Alternative CDs, Rock/Pop | | Label | Dreamworks SKG | | Orig Year | 1997 | | All Time Sales Rank |  11698  | | CD Universe Part number | 1201852 | | Catalog number | 50009 | | Discs | 1 | | Release Date | Mar 11, 1997 | | Studio/Live | Studio | | Mono/Stereo | Stereo | | Producer | Mark Sandman; Paul Q. Kolderie | | Engineer | Paul Q. Kolderie | | Personnel | Dana Colley - baritone, tenor, bass & double saxophones, background vocals
Billy Conway - drums, percussion, background vocals
Mark Sandman - 2-string slide bass, vocals, tritar, keyboards, mellotron, guitar
Also: Larry Dersch, Mike Rivard, DJK, Melissa Gibbs, Meredith Byam |
Morphine Like Swimming Songs Like Swimming Review
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Purchase Like Swimming CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Morphine Cure For Pain CD (1993)
Like Swimming
 $10.45  
Morphine's 1992 debut, GOOD, was a pleasant break from the rock music norm, but the band improved dramatically on their original blueprint with their next release a year later, CURE FOR PAIN. For starters, there was a line-up change--original drummer Jerome Dupree was replaced by Billy Conway (a former bandmate of Morphine leader Mark Sandman's in the blues outfit ...
| | Morphine Good CD (1992)
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GOOD, Morphine's full-length debut from 1992, introduced this unorthodox yet mesmerizing Boston trio to the rock underground. With the whole world ...
| | Morphine Yes CD (1995)
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All songs written by Mark Sandman except "The Jury" (Morphine/Frank Swart).
Morphine's Mark Sandman thinks he's the king of alternative romance; the smooth tones of his ultra bassy band--no guitar, but a saxophone--purr elegantly. YES, Morphine's third release, offers Sandman's sleekest, most consistent songwriting efforts to date, and the band has never sounded so inviting.
Morphine is as close as alternative rock comes to jazz. It's swinging bass lines sound impossibly low, complete with a rain-like drum beat and smoking sax lines. What sets Morphine's rich tones apart from swank background music is Sandman's highly physical lyrical angle.
In the dizzying "Whisper," when Sandman soothes "Don't worry I'm not looking at you/Gorgeous and dressed in blue," you can see the color. When he croons, "Just whisper me your number/I'll call you ...
| | Morphine B-Sides & Otherwise CD (1997)
Like Swimming
$10.59
B-SIDES AND OTHERWISE is a collection 12 Morphine non-album tracks and rarities.
Live tracks were recorded at Bullet Sound, Nederhorst Den Berg, Holland on May 25, 1994.
Now that Morphine's success has resulted in a leap from the indie environs of Rykodisc to the major-label stomping grounds of Dreamworks, B-SIDES traces their esoteric path to mainstream visibility via a collection of noirish odds and ends. Morphine's unorthodox musical approach is fueled by a drum/saxophone/2-string slide bass line-up, and the resultant sound drags the Beatnik jazz of the '50s into the world of 90's pop. Consequently, Morphine's ...
| | Chemical Brothers Dig Your Own Hole CD (1997)
Like Swimming
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DIG YOUR OWN HOLE was nominated for 1998 Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Performance. "Block Rockin' Beats" won the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
Chemical Brothers Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands waste no time on their nuclear-weapon of a second album proving they are masters of the techno groove. DIG YOUR OWN HOLE opens with a sampled shout-out by old-school gangsta Schoolly D, a syncopated bass line, and a drum loop that gives credence to the song's title, "Block Rockin' Beats." This smorgasbord of sounds--a hallucinatory interweaving of hip-hop, techno, trance and the Chemicals' trademark synthesized guitar loop--builds up and cold-rocks the first five minutes of the record like a tsunami crashing ashore. Unlike most productions in the electronic/dance-music universe, the music on DIG YOUR OWN HOLE also has the weight of great rock and roll. That makes DIG YOUR OWN HOLE the personification of modern pop music at its chaotic best, and a funky agent of change.
DIG YOUR OWN HOLE is built on a repetition of beats, samples and skewered sounds, but that doesn't mean it's a repetitive album. Between bass-heavy house tunes like "It Doesn't Matter" and "Elektro Bank," the Chemicals show where their pop-oriented interests lie--in tradition. Whether butting heads with the Beatles ("Setting Sun," which ...
| | Morphine Night CD (2000)
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Don't let the name mislead you. While some might jump to the conclusion that a name like Morphine would be reserved for another derivative, abrasive metal band, this band's music is something completely different. Morphine was in one fact of the most original indie-rock bands of the '90s. It's ironically tragic that vocalist/bassist Mark Sandman's untimely passing from a heart attack cut the band's future short before the release of the group's last and possibly most brilliant album, THE NIGHT.
Morphine's sound could possibly described as a jazzy, musical backdrop to beat poetry. As soon as the two-stringed fretless bass and baritone saxophone open "The Night," the listener is put into a hypnotic, trance-like state. Sandman's smooth, baritone vocals are the focal point of "Souvenir." The sexy feel of "Top Floor, Bottom Buzzer" is only accentuated by female background vocals. "Like a Mirror" is subtly beautiful; and the haunting line "I'm like a mirror / I'm nothing 'till you look at me" is striking. "Rope on Fire" uses a harmonic-minor melody to engender an Eastern feel. The instrumental syncopation and Roger Waters-influenced vocals of "I'm Yours, You're Mine" showcase the passion ...
| | Now That's What I Call Music! 7 CD (2001)
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The seventh edition of this wildly popular series of pop anthologies focuses on hits from the first half of 2001. Any claims that bubble-gum is dead are dashed by the brigade of TRL heavyweights featured on this collection. Britney Spears ("Don't ...
| | Sixty Stories Anthem Red CD (2003)
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Includes a bonus CD.
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| | Bob Dylan MTV Unplugged CD (2009)
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