Movement in Still Life is the third studio album by American electronica artist BT. It was released in the United Kingdom on October 8, 1999, and a different version released in the United States in 2000. A transition towards hip hop, it includes the singles "Godspeed", "Dreaming", and in the US, "Never Gonna Come Back Down". The original cover art is a photogram, Invocation, by Adam Fuss.[6]
Movement in Still Life was completely redesigned in the US for an American audience. This version has several minutes cut from each track and is presented in an unmixed manner with breaks in between songs. The tracks were also rearranged: The original closer, "Satellite", was moved to the middle and replaced by the hip hop track "Love on Haight Street", while the opening song was also moved to the centre of the record and replaced by "Madskillz-Mic Chekka" and the US single "Never Gonna Come Back Down", featuring Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing on vocals. "Ride", "The Hip Hop Phenomenon", "Giving Up the Ghost" and "Namistai" were replaced with "Shame" and "Smartbomb"; the latter of which was later sampled for *NSYNC's international hit "Pop", also produced by BT. The album's Australian version uses the UK track listing, but replaces "The Hip Hop Phenomenon" with "Never Gonna Come Back Down", mixing it into its surrounding tracks with transitions.
A song called "Far From Goodbye (Later My Love)" was released in a sampler of the album in 1999, but never released officially.[7]
There are two versions of the album on vinyl: a double LP, with a variant of the UK track listing; and a four-LP version with eight tracks, with one song per side, featuring extended mixes. Several of these extended mixes were later added to a Special Edition double-CD set from Hong Kong, which also included other extended mixes.
Movement in Still Life ties These Hopeful Machines with the most singles BT ever released from one album, largely due to the differences between the UK and US versions. Tracks like "Godspeed" and "Mercury and Solace" did well in the UK, but would not fare well on US radio, where "Never Gonna Come Back Down" and "Shame" performed well on American alternative rock stations. "Smartbomb" was used in several films, most notably in 3000 Miles to Graceland, and was used in the video game FreQuency. The Plump DJs remix of "Smartbomb" and "Hip Hop Phenomenon" were featured in the video game SSX Tricky. The Plump DJs remix also appears in Wipeout Fusion. A remix of "Never Gonna Come Back Down" was featured in FIFA Football 2002. "Ride" was originally released in 1998 as a single by 2 Phat Cunts, a group comprising BT and Sasha.
The track "Satellite" contains excerpts from the crew of NASA space shuttle mission STS-51-A during their post-mission press conference.[8]
^ abcdThis track was renamed "Namasté" on the UK Limited Edition release. However, the original name, "Namistai", is considered to be the official title by fans.[citation needed]
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