The Million Colour Revolution (CD - 2006)

Personnel: Mister Furia (vocals, whistling, guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, 12-string guitar, flute, grand piano, Clavinet, Moog synthesizer, vocoder, bass guitar, congas, bongos, cowbells, guiro, shaker, tambourine, triangle, wood block, bells, programming, sampler, scratches, background vocals); Professor Manso (whistling, guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, 12-string guitar, flute, grand piano, Clavinet, Moog synthesizer, vocoder, bass guitar, congas, bongos, cowbells, guiro, shaker, tambourine, triangle, wood block, bells, programming, sampler, scratches, background vocals); Andrea Oggioni (classical guitar); Vladimir DeCastro (grand piano); DJ Niño (background vocals).

Recording information: PinkerLand Studios (09/2003-03/2005).

Creator: Lope Serrano.

Unknown Contributor Roles: Professor Manso; Mister Furia.

With the assistance of a long list of collaborators, the Pinker Tones give their celebrated 2006 album The Million Colour Revolution a deluxe remix treatment on More Colours! The Million Colour Revolution Revisited, a fittingly eclectic and unpredictable 18-track collection. Some of the remixers billed here -- including Nacional Records labelmates Kinky, Mexican Institute of Sound, and Nortec Collective -- will be familiar to those who follow Latin alternative music. Most are obscure, though, which makes More Colours! that much more curious, for stylistically these remixes are all over the place (not unlike the Pinker Tones themselves, of course) and the initial listen is indeed a wild ride full of pleasant surprises (for example, the Torpedo Boyz adding a Japanese-language rap to their remix of "L'Hero," which is otherwise in French). Anyone enamored of The Million Colour Revolution will find plenty to enjoy on More Colours!, and anyone enamored of the Pinker Tones themselves will want to hear the new material of theirs, including some mash-ups, that is sprinkled across the album. Though no substitute for the original album, More Colours! is nonetheless a welcome release by the Pinker Tones and should add to their reputation as an up-and-coming act well worth following. ~ Jason Birchmeier

Barcelona-based duo the Pinker Tones have apparently never met a style of music they don't like. Their second full-length album, The Million Colour Revolution, is even more wide-ranging than 2004's The BCN Connection. Rather like a more world music-influenced version of Saint Etienne's Foxbase Alpha or Pizzicato Five's mid-'90s work, The Million Colour Revolution is based in club-oriented dance music, but it layers in elements of indie pop, bossa nova, European film soundtracks from the '60s, various countries' folk musics, and influences yet more unexpected. For example, the weirdly insistent "Gone Go On" has the warped beat and loopy vocal style of the Residents, while the jaunty "Pinkerland Becaina" sounds like the instrumental bed for an as-yet-unfinished Leon Redbone tune and "Maybe Next Saturday" recalls the Normal and other minimalist British synth rockers of the early new wave era. Hugely entertaining, and much more cohesive than the laundry list of influences would suggest, The Million Colour Revolution is both a giddy giggle and an appealing piece of electronic dance-pop. ~ Stewart Mason minimize