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Albums/artists with a similar sound to Chinese Democracy?


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Way before Chinese Democracy was released there was a soundtrack to a John Carpenter movie called Ghosts of Mars. It has songs that combine elements of industrial, metal, rock, blues and movie scores. Buckethead and Robin Finck play on some of the songs. It isn't exactly like Chinese Democracy, but some of the songs are a bit similar to Oh My God, Rhiad and the Bedouins, Scrapped and Shackler's Revenge.

Never seen the movie, but the soundtrack is really enjoyable. At least in my opinion. 

Edited by jekylhyde
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Hello by Adele, strangely. 

I've always thought there was notes of CD in the arrangement but more so the sonics. The sonics have a lead vocal and piano that are very present and sound full on there own, yet their are plenty of sonic pockets left empty to accommodate a great many layers of audio that enter later. Leading into the chorus theres even a tiny synth swell that is comparable to the one heard at the start of This I Love. The drums in the chorus don't sound much like the final released version of CD but it really reminds me of the TWAT demos. And the drums in the last section are reminiscent of Madagascar.

To me, CD really broke some ground in creating grand atmospheric 'spaces' that are similar to movie theatre mixes. I think Hello follows in that lineage.

Throw some over-saturated guitarist on the last few chorus' and to my ears we are in CD territory.

Start at 2:17ish

 

Edited by soon
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3 hours ago, UsedYourIllusion said:

If you dive through NIN, you might find a couple tracks are that similar, but i haven't found anything with the combination of industrial-esque with bluesy and ballady at the same time. 

??

NIN is a completely different beast.

It's hard to find something that sounds like CD because it is an amalgamation of different styles and so many musicians with different influences. You can find certain elements of CD in other bands or styles, maybe then you can hear how bands like NIN were an influence, but so far I haven't found anything that sounds like CD.

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On 10/6/2018 at 7:47 AM, Gibson_Guy87 said:

I love the sound that's on some of the stuff on CD, especially TWAT, Prostitute, and Madagascar. Are there any bands that have a similar sound or did Axl create something completely unique? 

Imo if there's something somewhat close to these songs from the time they were conceived, it is British bands of mid-late 90s like The Verve, Spiritualized, etc. that used orchestral arrangements and "wall of sound" (Youth had worked with the Verve and Prostitute and Madagascar were written during the period he worked with Axl). I think this type of CD songs are a combination of Axl's own 70s and cinematic influenced epic balladerie, influence from these bands (which of course were influenced by older stuff, mainly the Beatles) and other contemporary elements (loops etc.)

Edited by Blackstar
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pink floyd (wish you were here, division bell), buckethead (population override), beatles (sgt pepper), john barry (bond theme and anything bond-esque), led zeppelin (presence)

of course not exactly the cd sound but kinda similar sounds and moods there, guess axl might have taken a page or two out of these

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On 6-10-2018 at 8:58 AM, jekylhyde said:

Way before Chinese Democracy was released there was a soundtrack to a John Carpenter movie called Ghosts of Mars. It has songs that combine elements of industrial, metal, rock, blues and movie scores. Buckethead and Robin Finck play on some of the songs. It isn't exactly like Chinese Democracy, but some of the songs are a bit similar to Oh My God, Rhiad and the Bedouins, Scrapped and Shackler's Revenge.

Never seen the movie, but the soundtrack is really enjoyable. At least in my opinion. 

"Really enjoyable"it is ! Thanks for mentioning this one.... listening right now and like it a lot.

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Fun fact: it never even crossed my mind when I posted it, but the Carmen Queasy track is by Maxim, who is one of the guys from The Prodigy, who Axl is known to be a fan of (although I can't hear the similarities between them and Silkworms that other people seem to).

12 hours ago, Sosso said:

Check out Free Mars from Lusk. This album had a huge impact on the sound of Chinese Democracy.

Is that the one The Pitman was involved in?

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1 hour ago, Azifwekare said:

Fun fact: it never even crossed my mind when I posted it, but the Carmen Queasy track is by Maxim, who is one of the guys from The Prodigy, who Axl is known to be a fan of (although I can't hear the similarities between them and Silkworms that other people seem to).

Is that the one The Pitman was involved in?

Yes.  But for me Lusk is a lot more dreamy than ChD.

For me the closest album to ChD sound is the last Ed Harcourt's album - Furnaces.

It has the same a little bit dark mood, a lot of vocal layers, piano heavy and synths.

 

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10 minutes ago, loko said:

Yes.  But for me Lusk is a lot more dreamy than ChD.

For me the closest album to ChD sound is the last Ed Harcourt's album - Furnaces.

It has the same a little bit dark mood, a lot of vocal layers, piano heavy and synths.

 

Some of the orchestra parts from Lusk are similar to Street of Dream, There Was A Time, Prostitute, in my opinion. The guitar riffs from Kill the King are similar to a couple of the riffs from CD.

Edited by Sosso
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On 06/10/2018 at 10:33 PM, soon said:

Hello by Adele, strangely. 

I've always thought there was notes of CD in the arrangement but more so the sonics. The sonics have a lead vocal and piano that are very present and sound full on there own, yet their are plenty of sonic pockets left empty to accommodate a great many layers of audio that enter later. Leading into the chorus theres even a tiny synth swell that is comparable to the one heard at the start of This I Love. The drums in the chorus don't sound much like the final released version of CD but it really reminds me of the TWAT demos. And the drums in the last section are reminiscent of Madagascar.

To me, CD really broke some ground in creating grand atmospheric 'spaces' that are similar to movie theatre mixes. I think Hello follows in that lineage.

Throw some over-saturated guitarist on the last few chorus' and to my ears we are in CD territory.

Start at 2:17ish

 

Wow i think you nailed it. This is exactly what he's talking about! :P

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On 10/7/2018 at 12:22 PM, Blackstar said:

Imo if there's something somewhat close to these songs from the time they were conceived, it is British bands of mid-late 90s like The Verve, Spiritualized, etc. that used orchestral arrangements and "wall of sound" (Youth had worked with the Verve and Prostitute and Madagascar were written during the period he worked with Axl). I think this type of CD songs are a combination of Axl's own 70s and cinematic influenced epic balladerie, influence from these bands (which of course were influenced by older stuff, mainly the Beatles) and other contemporary elements (loops etc.)

Also Mercury Rev (US), another example with cinematic sound and orchestral arrangements

Spoiler

(I'm also using the thread as an opportunity to post this, as I liked them a lot back then then :lol:)

 

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On 10/6/2018 at 12:47 PM, Gibson_Guy87 said:

I love the sound that's on some of the stuff on CD, especially TWAT, Prostitute, and Madagascar. Are there any bands that have a similar sound or did Axl create something completely unique? 

Are you familiar with Buckethead's solo work?

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