Repost- Techno Takeover Episode 15

“Around the World”

ATC

Hello wonderful people!

While playing Beat Hazard's chill out mode, a song I completely forgot I had, came on called “Around the World” by ATC and as I was listening I got the urge to review it so here I am.

ATC stands for A Touch of Class and consists of four people, they are a pop band from Germany that formed in 1998 and disbanded in 2003. The members are all from different countries so they went with the option of basing their band out of Germany because Germany is where all the cool kids are from, (as well as Ireland.) Joseph, Livio, Sara, and Tracey are the four members of the band and they are from, New Zealand, Italy, Australia, and England. Their first album called Planet pop was released in February of 2001 and charted number 56 on Billboard 200, despite it containing their first single ever released, “Around the World (La, La, La, La,).”

Around the world contains samples from “Pesenka” by a Russian group called Ruki Vverkh. It was released in Europe in 2000 and then two years later in the United Kingdom and was produced by Alex Christensen; it reached number 1 on the top 40 charts in 2000. It is the second track on Planet Pop, and is considered to be the group’s signature song. The song has been covered by everyone and their mother and sampled by Auburn's song “La, La, La” which features Lyaz, it's also been covered by a German hard rock band Naked 'Round The Block in 2000 and a German Pop Group beFour in 2007. Now with formalities out of the way on to the song review!

Verse one:

“The kisses of the sun - Were sweet I didn't blink
I let it in my eyes - Like an exotic drink
The radio playing songs - That I have never heard
I don't know what to say - Oh not another word”

Alright this has to be one of the weirder first verses of a song I've seen in a while or that I have been made aware of... I also think that putting exotic drinks in your eye is a really bad thing to do. Well if you stare at the sun for too long your eyes do begin to hurt and I assume putting an exotic drink in your eye would do about the same in pain levels... oh and take a shot as another song that uses cool music to hide the absurdity of the lyrics.

Verse Two:

“Just – la, la, la, la, la - It goes around the world
Just - la, la, la, la, la - It's all around the world
Just - la, la, la, la, la - And everybody's singing
La, la, la, la, la, - And now the bells are ringing”

This is actually part of the chorus, so you'll be seeing this a lot in the next few verses... it's sad...

Chorus:

“La la la la la - la la la la la la la - la la la la la - la la la la la la la
La la la la la - la la la la la la la - la la la la la - la la la la la la la”

That's the actual chorus... talk about lazy or really creative lazy creativity I like that better than just lazy or creative. Then again this is just a dance song... no there's no excuse for that, if Tom Shear can create awesome lyrics for his songs then ATC can too even if they are just dance tracks.

Verse three:

“Inside an empty room - My inspiration flows
Now wait to hear the tune - Around my head it goes
The magic melody - You want to sing with me
Just la, la, la, la, la, - the music is the key”

That's nice that you felt the need to describe how you came up with this song, but really don't tell me what I want or don't want to do. I hate when songs just insist what the people listening want to do. Maybe I don't want to sing just enjoy the music that I am hearing. People can’t hear what’s in your head while it’s still inside your head so this fragmented sentence thing they have going on is not working.

Verse four:

“And now the night is gone - Still it goes on and on
So deep inside of me - I long to set it free
I don't know what to do - Just can't explain to you
I don't know what to say - Oh not another word”

Does anyone else see possible sexual undertones with the fifth and six lines if you look at it out of context? Then again you can take anything out of context and it would look different from its original meaning. Except this song's chorus it can't be taken out of context or in context and mean anything of importance. The chorus happens again and did I mention there's a music video that nothing happens in it? Yes there's a music video and nothing happens in it worth mentioning except really awkward dancing... The beginning has a cool illusion with the whole arm thing but it's not that impressive. The second chorus contains the awkward dancing that happens for some reason unbeknownst to me then after the awkward dancing comes the slightly interesting arm choreography... and a random outfit change...

I am really curious as to if the floor is water. I think it is but at the same time it could just be an illusion. There are some scenes that the band members look like they were forced to do this. They also seem like they're trying way too hard in the video during the close-ups. Seriously the girls look like they are thinking about how they could be doing something better with their life at the moment, but the song is popular so they had to do a video so they sucked it up and looked happy to make more money.

Enough of the negative, the song ends with the same mallet riff that opened the song I absolutely love that choice of instrument for an opening of a song. I think that's the one thing this song has for it is the mallets then again this isn't even ATC's song. It's in all honesty a remake of the Russian version only the lyrics are different. So all the credit for anything interesting goes to Ruki Vverkh because they just borrowed the instrumental part and put new lyrics to it... That's becoming a common theme, take those lyrics out, put new lyrics in, and call it a day (but getting permission to do so first because not doing so would be illegal.) After asking around, someone replied to my tweets about a translation (an accurate one not from Google) for the Russian song. (http://cka4ai-ka.ru/news/ruki_vverkh_pesenka_slushat_onlajn_tekst_pesni_perevod_english_translate/2011-09-28-87)  You can see there that the lyrics aren’t the same in English as they are in Russian, so ATC does get some creativity points but not much…

Sampling is just bits and pieces of a song appearing in a different song, not the whole thing. A cover song is the song sung by another band… So what do you call the instrumental track of another song put to lyrics of an original song?

I am Pugsly and the world is a confusing place.

** I don't really care for Pesenka I listened to it and I didn't find the singer's voice that appealing, and no I am not biased against anything that isn't in English I have songs (Most likely not techno) that aren't in English and I haven't even looked up the lyrics to that I enjoy very much. “” by Chemistry, “Let it out by Miho Fukuhara, and “I am Eve” by The Mediæval Bæbes (The Medieval Babes) are awesome songs and although I have the lyrics to Period I don't know them in English just Japanese, and I Am Eve is in Irish Gaelic... which I've been trying to learn for three years and gotten nowhere with it. **