68 Million Shades...
{{Infobox album
| name = 68 Million Shades...
| type = studio
| artist = Spring Heel Jack
| cover = 68 Million Shades...jpg
| alt =
| released = 1996
| recorded =
| venue =
| studio =
| genre = Jungle, drum and bass
| length =
| label = Trade2/Island
| producer = John Coxon, Ashley Wales
| prev_title = There are Strings
| prev_year = 1995
| next_title = Versions
| next_year = 1996
}}
68 Million Shades... is the second album by the English musical duo Spring Heel Jack, released in 1996.{{cite book |last1=Shapiro |first1=Peter |title=Drum 'n' Bass: The Rough Guide |date=1999 |publisher=Rough Guides |page=206}}{{cite magazine |last1=Stubbs |first1=David |title=Well heeled |magazine=Melody Maker |date=Jun 22, 1996 |volume=73 |issue=25 |page=50}} It was released in the United States in February 1997.{{cite magazine |last1=Flick |first1=Larry |title=We're excited to report that Spring Heel Jack's... |magazine=Billboard |date=Nov 2, 1996 |volume=108 |issue=44 |page=30}} The duo supported the album with a North American tour that included shows opening for Orbital.{{cite magazine |last1=Gallo |first1=Phil |title=Orbital; Spring Heel Jack |magazine=Variety |department=Music |date=Dec 5, 1996}} "Midwest" was released as a single.{{cite magazine |last1=Savage |first1=Jon |title=Top ten—Spring Heel Jack |magazine=Artforum International |date=Dec 1996 |volume=35 |issue=4 |page=54}}
Production
The album was produced by the duo, John Coxon and Ashley Wales.{{cite magazine |last1=Verna |first1=Paul |title=68 Million Shades... |magazine=Billboard |date=Feb 8, 1997 |volume=109 |issue=6 |page=62}} They recorded from Monday to Friday, mostly from 11 in the morning until 6 in the evening.{{cite magazine |last1=Gross |first1=Jason |title=Spring Heel Jack |magazine=Perfect Sound Forever |date=January 2001 |url=https://www.furious.com/perfect/springheeljack2.html}} The duo felt that they complemented each other in the studio, with Wales the more easygoing of the two. They strove to create an album interesting enough to be enjoyed at home, divorced from nightlife and stimulants; they found that they kept adding musical elements to any attempt at a "regular" dance track.{{cite magazine |last1=Helms |first1=Colin |title=Spring Heel Jack: A Little Fantasy World of Sound |magazine=CMJ New Music Monthly |date=June 1997 |issue=46 |page=9}}{{cite news |last1=Kot |first1=Greg |title=British Logic: Spring Heel Jack Organizes All Sorts of Electronic Data |work=Chicago Tribune |date=28 Mar 1997 |department=Friday |pages=7, 15}} Coxon and Wales considered Ennio Morricone and Brian Eno to be among their primary influences.{{cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Joe |title=68 Million Shades Spring Heel Jack |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |date=13 Feb 1997 |department=Get Out |page=8}} The duo produced a disc of remixes of the album, Versions.{{cite news |last1=Porter |first1=Christopher |title=Spring Heel Jack |work=Washington City Paper |date=November 15, 1996 |department=Arts}}
Critical reception
{{music ratings
|rev1 = AllMusic
|rev1score = {{rating|4|5}}{{cite web |title=68 Million Shades... Review by John Bush |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/68-million-shades-mw0000616595 |website=AllMusic |access-date=16 April 2024}}
|rev2 = The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
|rev2score = {{rating|3|4}}{{cite news |last1=Dollar |first1=Steve |title=Techno |work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |date=23 Jan 1997 |page=G4}}
|rev3 = Robert Christgau
|rev4 = Los Angeles Times
|rev4score = {{rating|2.5|4}}{{cite news |last1=Romero |first1=D. James |title=Record Rack |work=Los Angeles Times |date=16 Feb 1997 |department=Calendar |page=68}}
}}
The Guardian noted that "Spring Heel Jack are routinely described in the music press as studio geniuses, but this sleekly produced masterwork suggests that a state-of-the-art studio has booted out the mere humans and set its own controls for the heart of the sun."{{cite news |last1=Gittins |first1=Ian |title=Music: This week's dance cd releases |work=The Guardian |date=28 June 1996 |page=T24}} Robert Christgau called the album "prog jungle," writing that Wales and Coxon "recontextualize drum 'n' bass's redolent lingo—its triple-time superdrum pitta-pat, its impossible deep tremblors that modulate whole power plants in repose—by subsuming densely frenetic techno cum dancehall in a witting synthesis of electronic composition and another of Wales's passions, On the Corner-era Miles Davis." The New York Times said that the duo "merges strings and horns that sound as if they come from movie soundtracks with a beat that can fluidly change from a rapid-fire drum-machine roll to a conga rhythm."{{cite news |last1=Strauss |first1=Neil |title=New Sound Takes Root and Grows |work=The New York Times |date=30 July 1996 |page=C11}}
Entertainment Weekly concluded that "the record has moments of airy, disquieting tranquility... But it could double as Muzak for a department store’s Gen-X section."{{cite magazine |last1=Browne |first1=David |title=Spring Heel Jack |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |department=Music |date=January 24, 1997}} The Atlanta Journal-Constitution determined that Spring Heel Jack "is equally an inheritor of punk's do-it-yourself aesthetic and 1950s 'exotica' auteur Les Baxter's distinctly mondo notions about mood music." Rolling Stone stated: "Surrounding their break beats with a reverberating drone, Spring Heel sample sweeping strings, elastic saxophone, sitar, car horns, steel guitar, piano and trumpet, as well as cryptic, treated sounds, into a reverberating clamor that is equally tuneful and enigmatic."{{cite magazine |last1=Micallef |first1=Ken |title=68 Million Shades... |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=Feb 6, 1997 |issue=753 |page=48}} Spin included 68 Million Shades... on its list of "The 10 Best Albums You Didn't Hear in '96".{{cite magazine |last1=Hermes |first1=Will |title=The 10 Best Albums You Didn't Hear in '96 |magazine=Spin |date=Jan 1997 |volume=12 |issue=10 |page=61}}
AllMusic wrote that the album "continues the duo's dense, dub-inspired take on jungle."
Track listing
{{Track listing
| all_writing =
| title1 = Take 1
| length1 =
| title2 = Midwest
| length2 =
| title3 = 60 Seconds
| length3 =
| title4 = Plan
| length4 =
| title5 = Plates
| length5 =
| title6 = Bar
| length6 =
| title7 = Eesti
| length7 =
| title8 = Roger Tessier
| length8 =
| title9 = Island
| length9 =
| title10 = Suspensions
| length10 =
| title11 = Take 2
| length11 =
| title12 = Take 3
| length12 =
}}