A Reminder - V. A "The Now Sound Redesigned" (CD) The Supervenient Project Dedicated To The 60's Perfect Baroque Pop Band - The Free Design.

The Seattle label Light in the Attic began reissuing Free Design records in 2003, an overdue and most welcome development. Around the same time with the help of Peanut Butter Wolf they began roping in artists to remix and reimagine Free Design tracks. Originally issued as a series of 12" singles, the results are collected on The Now Sound Redesigned. A nice mix of hip-hop heads like Madlib, Danger Mouse, Murs, Kid Koala, and PB Wolf, electronic boffins like Caribou, Nobody, and Sharpshooters, and indie poppers like Stereolab, the High Llamas, Chris Geddes from Belle & Sebastian, and Super Furry Animals contributed to the effort, and you can gauge the reputation of the Free Design by the high quality of names who dug the group enough to be involved. Most of them kept large chunks of the source material, whether the pristine vocal harmonies or the ornate orchestral backings. Only a few deliver mixes that really hijack the originals, namely Danger Mouse and Murs (who turn "To a Black Boy" into a fiery condemnation of the prison sentence of a young athlete), Peanut Butter Wolf (who splices bits of Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle" on his alternately head-scratching and head-nodding demolition of "Umbrellas), and Caribou (who stretches "Dorian Benediction" into an epic-length electronic symphony with lots of clanking bells). Otherwise the feeling is playful but reverential with numerous standout tracks.

The Stereolab/High Llamas collaboration mixes five or six Free Design tunes into a sparkling chamber piece. Madlib adds filthy funk bass and stuttering drums to "Where Do I Go," sending it straight to a place you never thought you'd hear the Free Design, the dancefloor. Chris Geddes and Hush Puppy add a heady sense of humor and energy to their hilarious and energetic take on "2002 - A Hit Song." Kid Koala and Dynomite D. essay a suitably restrained, scratch-filled, and doomy trip-hop version of the Free Design's most emotional song, "An Elegy." Surprisingly with a project like this, there are only a few dud tracks, Stryofoam and Sarah Shannon (ex-Velocity Girl) turn in a hammy guitar rock version of the wonderful "I Found Love" and do what had seemed impossible: they manage to strip the joy right out of it. Mellow likewise remove all the fun from "Kites Are Fun" on a cover version that should be titled "Kites Are Bland." And for some reason, Dudley Perkins thought it would be a good idea for him to ramble on and on uninterestingly over Kousik's bouncy and sweet mix of "Don't Cry Baby." These moments are easy to overlook when the rest of the album is so nice, sweet, and interesting. A fitting tribute to the group, and if it gets a hip-hop fan or indie kid to discover the original beauty and wonder of the Free Design, the collection will have done its job.

The Free Design

Biography

The commercial failure of the Free Design remains one of the most baffling mysteries in the annals of pop music -- with their exquisitely celestial harmonies, lighter-than-air melodies and blissful arrangements, the group's records were on par with the work of superstar contemporaries like the Beach Boys, the Association and the Cowsills, yet none of their singles even cracked the Hot 100. The Free Design originally comprised siblings Chris, Bruce and Sandy Dedrick, natives of Delevan, New York whose father Art served as a trombonist and arranger with Vaughn Monroe; when Chris moved to New York City in 1966 to attend the Manhattan School of Music, he recruited Bruce (now living on Long Island) and Sandy (a teacher in Queens) to form a folk group, and soon the trio emerged as a popular attraction on the Greenwich Village coffeehouse circuit.

In time Chris began composing original material for the Free Design to perform, and with the assistance of their father, the siblings cut a demo, ultimately signing with producer Enoch Light's audiophile label Project 3. The title track from their 1967 debut LP Kites Are Fun was also their first single, cracking the Top 40 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart but reaching only number 114 on the pop chart -- somewhat amazingly, it was the Free Design's biggest hit. Another Dedrick sister, Ellen, joined the group after graduating high school, making her debut on 1968's You Could Be Born Again. "2002--A Hit Song," from 1969's Heaven/Earth, satirically addressed the Free Design's continuing inability to make a commercial impact, but still the group's chart woes continued, and with their next effort, 1970's Songs for Very Important People, they targeted a new audience -- children.

Stars/Time/Bubbles/Love, also released in 1970, returned the Free Design to their adult constituency; after issuing One by One two years later, the group was dropped by Project 3, at which time they relocated from New York to Canada. There Chris Dedrick recorded a solo album, Be Free, which went unreleased; signing to the Ambrotype label, the Free Design recorded one final LP, 1973's There Is a Song, before disbanding in 1975. In the years to follow, Chris remained the most musically active sibling, forming the choral ensemble Star Scape Singers as well as arranging and composing for the Canadian Brass. He also won a series of Gemini Awards for his scores for Canadian film and television productions. By the 1990s, hipster favorites including Cornelius, Pizzicato 5 and Louis Philippe were regularly citing the Free Design as a key influence, resulting in the 1998 release of Kites Are Fun: The Best of the Free Design. The new millennium saw the Free Design convene for another album -- 2001's Cosmic Peekaboo -- which gathered Sandy, Chris, and Bruce Dedrick back together again.

Album Review & Bio By AMG

LABEL PAGE (go to listen)

Review On "Cosmic Peekaboo" Comeback album From 2001