Blog: Dinosaur Planet (REDUX)

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Today I am very happy, almost GIGGLY, to announce the release of Dinosaur Planet (REDUX), a heavily revised version of the original Dinosaur Planet which we have put together to answer some of the QUALMS expressed in earlier reviews. The fact that it was a concept album seemed to bother quite a lot of people, especially that this was expressed with DRAMATIC INTERLUDES, while others had difficulty coping with linked songs, or science fiction, or just DINOSAURS.

All this came from music-types - regular Validators-album-buyers seemed to be FINE with it, comics and sci-fi people were more than willing to have a go at some INDIE, and I was especially pleased to find that children LOVED it, but some of these music reviewers are DELICATE SORTS who prefer the familiar and the unthreatening, and who are we to EXCLUDE them from our work?

I hope they will take this in the charitable, helpful spirit in which it is meant. It has been suggested that some might take this as SARCASM - i trust that the following WHOLLY SINCERE press release will answer any questions about THAT:

New version of album released for the easily alarmed

MJ Hibbett & The Validators are pleased to announce the release of 'Dinosaur Planet (REDUX)', a new version of their latest album created especially for those who found a full-cast science fiction rock opera about space dinosaurs too much to cope with.

"When we released the original 'Dinosaur Planet' we discovered that not everybody actually wants an hour long thrill-ride of dinosaurs, giant robots and good quality academic research," says lead singer MJ Hibbett. "Apparently they'd rather have a nice non-threatening album of straightforward unconnected songs that you don't have to listen too hard to. This is for them."


(l-r) new non-threatening cover, original too exciting cover

All of the original album's dramatic interludes have been taken out and musical tracks have been edited to remove any trace of plot, but some songs have had to be removed completely. For example, it was impossible to edit out the drama and thrill-power of the six minute orchestral extravaganza 'For The Fate Of The Earth', while the sound of hundreds of gigantic lizards dancing the hornpipe in 'Dinosaurs Talk Like Pirates' was deemed irredeemably exciting.

What's left is 20 minutes of excellent, if unrelated, music featuring a plethora of guest stars. Listeners can now enjoy guest appearances by the likes of Phil Wilson from the June Brides and Chris T-T without having to worry about them getting blown-up, eaten, or stamped on.

To be completely safe the band have also taken the precaution of removing the amazing cover artwork by award winning cartoonist John Allison, replacing it with a straightforward photograph of the band. "The fully illustrated booklet had to go too," says a contrite MJ Hibbett. "It was just too awesome and, for that, we can only apologise."


'Dinosaur Planet (REDUX)' has its own specially designed information-lite website at http://www.dinosaurplanet.co.uk/redux, where the album can be downloaded at the reassuringly expensive price of £10.00. The original 'Dinosaur Planet' can be downloaded from http://www.dinosaurplanet.co.uk for £5.00.

(should anyone wish to retweet, link or or AMIABLY MENTION the above, you can find the full press release HERE: www.dinosaurplanet.co.uk/redux/redux.php)

That special webpage, by the way, is a THING OF BEAUTY in my (admittadly BIASED) viewpoint: I spent most of a DAY going and looking at the websites of the bigger Corporate Indie bands, and did my best to create something that was as useful, user-friendly and informative as THEY all are. Because that's the sort of thing people LIKE.

I hope that this way we can please EVERYONE - those who like their music unsurprising now have a version of the album that THEY can enjoy, whilst anybody else who HASN'T heard it yet might just - WHO KNOWS? - think that the original might be worth a listen. That would be LOVELY!

posted 22/6/2012 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

thank goodness you've finally released the album in a proper format. what were you thinking of - a concept album with space dinosaurs (dinosaurs from space) finally it's available as just songs with no links or anything outrageous like that. I still won't be reviewing it.
posted 24/6/2012 by Steven Wells... no, he's dead isn't he, err, a current NME journo

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