I was listening to a few tracks from this era like In Silicon, S&M Groove, Judas smile and was really admiring this stage in his music production. Now I know they weren't meant to be on any particular album like they ended up (to varied degrees of like and dislike from the fans). I was wondering what the initial reaction to any these tracks (not just the ones I mentioned) when they were dropped on to the fans individually.

Were they liked, not liked, hoped to be on an album (though there was the HIGH project). Much of it is of very good quality, and funky and wierd. I can see fans getting all fammy over In Silicon when it came out because it is a very funky track! Was this the case? Did any of these get played live? Did it seem like he was going in a good direction...maybe in a very unbridled artistic direction as these were really meant for the fans?

Do tell...I was not a memeber of the NPGMC until these got released as they are now.

superspaceboy said:

Some of the more dance-oriented tracks tended to get played by Prince / DJ either in their released or as slightly different mixes at Paisley Park parties and the first two Celebrations (2000 and 2001) as opposed to performed live.

I think Vavoom and I know The Daisy Chain was certainly performed live on at least one occasion.

As I recall it the songs attracted an interest principally because he was releasing new material each month during the first year of the club.

Of that music, different fans tended to gravitate towards different songs, so there wasn't a huge buzz about a specific tune - simply that Prince seemed to be willing to share a series of light, uncomplicated pop/dance/rap tunes.

I can recall some people thinking that Prince was making the material available only because they perceived it as less-than-stellar standard. Perhaps for those people they felt Prince was simply working through the songwriting and recording process, but his muse still wasn't inspiring him.

Others, whilst recognising that the material wasn't necessarily stunningly creative, saw it as a bit of relief from 'Rave Un2' which might have been seen by them as Prince trying too hard to have an album chart hit. Here, at least he was coming across as putting stuff out for fun without any pretension to make a grand return, with people's expectations raised followed by disappointment.

My recollections, anyway.

.
[Edited 8/25/06 10:58am]

We posted at the same time, but I agree with every word you said.

I loved it! Great memories...the musicology store started working!

I miss those days!

miguelbulcao said:

I think this is before the Musicology Store. I joined right around then.

superspaceboy said:

Some of the more dance-oriented tracks tended to get played by Prince / DJ either in their released or as slightly different mixes at Paisley Park parties and the first two Celebrations (2000 and 2001) as opposed to performed live.

I think Vavoom and I know The Daisy Chain was certainly performed live on at least one occasion.

As I recall it the songs attracted an interest principally because he was releasing new material each month during the first year of the club.

Of that music, different fans tended to gravitate towards different songs, so there wasn't a huge buzz about a specific tune - simply that Prince seemed to be willing to share a series of light, uncomplicated pop/dance/rap tunes.

I can recall some people thinking that Prince was making the material available only because they perceived it as less-than-stellar standard. Perhaps for those people they felt Prince was simply working through the songwriting and recording process, but his muse still wasn't inspiring him.

Others, whilst recognising that the material wasn't necessarily stunningly creative, saw it as a bit of relief from 'Rave Un2' which might have been seen by them as Prince trying too hard to have an album chart hit. Here, at least he was coming across as putting stuff out for fun without any pretension to make a grand return, with people's expectations raised followed by disappointment.

My recollections, anyway.

.
[Edited 8/25/06 10:58am]

langebleu said:

They do seem like material that followed the Rave Era...or could be considered part of that phase in his sound.

I find your statments around folks considering this material "less than par" or not "stunningly creative" to be interesting. This period of music, I find him very creative and sorta "free" with in which it seems like the music had nothing to prove. He simply put it out there and let them stand on their own. I find this material very different and at the same time very good. Y should I do that..., Judas smile, S&M, In Silicon (the Black Sweat for it's time), seem like the types on songs that fans are clamoring for now from him. Then again to try and guess what all of the fans want collectively is near impossible.

superspaceboy said:

The title is simply Silicon.

Also, a sample of SM Groove was posted on an older official Prince site (Love4OneAnother?) in June of 1997 as a work-in-progress before the New PowerSoul record was released. It's safe to say that some of these tracks were recorded before Rave (i.e. Van Gogh, Breathe and Madrid 2 Chicago).

I recall the focus being on the delivery method and the problems involved with that. Many people complained that it took forever to download these tracks because of the limitations of internet connections at the time. A lot of memebers only had dial up and would leave them downloading overnight which was a hassle. Also, the first month they limited you to using an application that had serious bugs (I can't recall the name of it) Was it Infinity that created that? Anyway they got rid of that thing in a hurry and posted MP3s from that point on. All of that affected the overall enjoyment of the new songs. I do remember a huge response to When I Lay My Hands U, though. People loved that one.