Dogs In Space (the song) Had previously only heard this a couple times before. It’s a serviceable enough “punk” song by the fictitious band led by Michael Hutchence in the movie. Fun to listen to, but probably not that great outside the context of the movie. Rooms For The Memory This is a decent song, but in my opinion it suffers from the 80’s production, especially that awful drum/percussion sound. The lyrics are actually quite good but the music is a bit lifeless compared to INXS. Layers of sound, yes, but none of the chemistry that we are used to hearing from the five instrumentalists of INXS. My general memory of the Max Q material is the same as well: some decent songs but not a lot of variety from track-to-track and my brain had a hard time telling the songs apart. If I made a “greatest bits from Max Q” compilation this would be the song I’d pick from the soundtrack. While not technically a Max Q track it sounds like one thanks to the similar production and Hutchence’s vocals.
Unfortunately, Rooms For The Memory is the ONLY even relatively enjoyable MH track from the Dogs In Space soundtrack. If I were to place this song on any INXS album, it would probably fit best on FM,DH because of the edgier vibe. And in particular, because of the semi-industrial electronic instrumentation and distorted guitars.
Here's another "chunk" of ISOE, that I just found on youtube. It appears to be the first 30 or so minutes from the VHS release... INXS - Extra footage from New Sensation Collection, Live & More DVD - no LLT music video - YouTube
Max Q Released September 1989 Genre Synthpop pop rock electronic Length 46:07 Label CBS Producer Michael Hutchence, Ollie Olsen Max Q is the first and only studio album by Australian band Max Q. The album was released in September 1989. It was certified gold in Australia. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1990, the album was nominated for ARIA Award for Breakthrough Artist – Album.[3] Michael Hutchence – vocals Ollie Olsen – producer Arne Hanna – guitar Michael Sheridan – guitar, feedback Bill McDonald – bass guitar Gus Till – piano, MIDI programming John Murphy – drums, percussion, trumpet, screams Additional personnel Peggy Harley – backing vocals Marie Hoy – backing vocals ("Soul Engine") Pat Powell – backing vocals ("Bucket Head") Pam Ross – narration Recorded at Rhino Studios, Darlinghurst Paula Jones – engineer 1. "Sometimes" Ollie Olsen 5:33 2. "Way of the World" Olsen 4:09 3. "Ghost of the Year" Olsen 4:19 4. "Everything" Michael Hutchence, Olsen 4:57 5. "Concrete" Hutchence, Olsen 5:15 6. "Zero-2-0" Hutchence, Olsen 1:32 7. "Soul Engine" Hutchence, Olsen 3:51 8. "Buckethead" Olsen 4:01 9. "Monday Night by Satellite" Olsen 3:35 10. "Tight" Hutchence, Olsen 3:37 11. "Ot-Ven-Rot" Hutchence, Olsen 5:15 Japanese bonus tracks 12. "Sometimes" (Rock House Extended) Olsen 5:45 13. "Way of the World" (12" Mix) Olsen 4:37 14. "Zero-2-O" (Todd Terry Mix) Hutchence, Olsen 4:20 15. "Ghost of the Year" (Todd Terry Mix) Olsen 4:23 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ When Way Of The World came out, it grabbed my attention. I know it is blaspheme on an Inxs thread, but it grabbed my attention more than the more recent Inxs tracks had. As you know from what we just looked at, I enjoy the Kick album, but apparently not as much as everyone else in the world lol ... As an album, it took me a few spins, as it was a little different to most of the music that was around at the time, in its construction at least. I have read some people say that it was a very influential album, because it was quite different, but I am not up enough with that side of the music industry to give any firm statements regarding that. What I do know, is that when this album clicked for me, I really enjoyed it a lot, and I still do. This is an album that will generally get more attention form me than the post Listen Like Thieves Inxs albums, which isn't to say they are bad, but this album has an urgency that gets my attention. It isn't all beer and skittles though, probably the one thing about this album that has always been slightly difficult for me, is the lack of dynamics in the percussion/drums. As primarily a rock guy, I like drums to have a natural dynamic that moves up and down in rhythm with the rest of the music. On here we have programmed drums and beats I believe, and they are there, and the songs seem to be built around them, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that, it is merely a stylistic preference, but the overall songs generally keep me into it enough for me to overlook that slight annoyance. As I say, Way Of The World is the track that really got my attention, and I probably rate it, at least up with the best Inxs songs. I still love this track, and it will probably always get spun in my house. Anyway - Ollie Olsen Ollie Jngbert Christian Olsen (born Ian Christopher Olsen ) is an Australian multi-instrumentalist, composer and sound designer. He has performed, recorded and produced rock, electronic and experimental music since the mid-1970s. His post punk groups included Whirlywirld (1978–80), Orchestra of Skin and Bone (1984–86) and No (1987–89). Olsen joined with Michael Hutchence (of INXS) to form a short-term band, Max Q, which issued an album in 1989. He co-founded, Psy-Harmonics, with Andrew Till, as an alternative electronic music record label. In 2014 he formed Taipan Tiger Girls. From what I can gather Hutchence and Olsen met up during Dogs In Space, and this project followed on from that. Here is what Hutchence said about the scenario of the album. "Ollie isn't supposed to hang around with pop stars and I'm not supposed to hang around with punk types. The band is made up of rowdy friends from Melbourne. These guys are good musicians who've never had a chance. Most of them have never even been in a studio. These are real underground people who don't have any money. Some of them have never been on a plane before. They were worried that working with me, they'd lose their underground status." The album. Max Q released its sole self-titled album in 1989 and had minor hits with the songs "Way of the World" and "Sometimes". The album was certified gold in Australia,[3] and was the 93rd highest-selling album of 1989 in Australia.[4] Max Q was less successful in other countries. The album is no longer in print and has never been re-issued. The band never performed any live shows.[5] In 2019, INXS' manager Chris Murphy said he would love to reissue the Max Q album, but that legal issues were not yet resolved.[6] So for me, this album is a great addition to the Hutchence legacy, and one of my favourites that he was involved in. I am very interested to know why this album really didn't do much outside of Australia. So please give us your perspective. Is it well known outside Australia? Was the styling just not what folks into Inxs wanted to hear? Please give us the lowdown on your thoughts regarding this album, because it is really very interesting to me. Probably due to the fact that I really like it, and I am not sure what the stumbling block is for folks from overseas. Cheers Mark
Max Q Honestly this is one of those things I didn’t hear about until years after the fact. I don’t think it was heavily promoted, if at all, in the US and hence most fans over here didn’t even know about it. The songs have been harder for me to get into than INXS because I really still have trouble with the production. As Mark noted, the drums and percussion are very mechanized. Something about Hutchence’s vocals hasn’t ever clicked for me here either. His singing had become extraordinary by the time of Kick, but many of the vocals here come across to my ears as chanting or reciting rather than singing. Those are my impressions so far. I’m going to live a bit more with this album the next few days and see if I can get more into any of the individual tracks, but I’m a little surprised my ears hear this album as somewhat “bland” given that it’s been held in high regard as a great underrated side project of Hutchence’s.
To a degree it may well be one of those albums that you needed to discover in time, with the perspective of the time ... not sure really. When I first got it, it did take me a few listens. I loved Way Of The World, and that is the track that got me to give the album a chance. The album did grow on me, quite a lot, in spite of the drums, and I do rate it very highly these days.
Max Q -- finally getting to this. Had a busy work morning. Max Q, although decent did not make an impression on me. I do not remember any of the songs. There were a few albums released during this time that I gave away or just did have room for and they disappeared. Sometimes, a few of the songs pop into my mind. Not one single song ever comes into my mind from this. My friends and I thought at the time it was like a step down from INXS with a bunch of side-musician hacks. Hate to state it that way, but it is what we felt. Of note, used cds are going for about 900.00 on Amazon. I looked about getting another copy when this started to refresh my mind and just to have but that price put me off. Again, another recording left in limbo. Sadly, all of this has to do with the circumstances he died, people were just put off by all things INXS, sadly.
For interest sake. Discogs has quite a few copies, at somewhat reasonable prices. The 89 US pressing $18 Max Q – Max Q (1989, CD) 89 US club $15 Max Q – Max Q (1989, CD) Us lp from about $7 Max Q – Max Q (1989, Vinyl)
Max Q - a solid album with some stand out tracks (the singles + Friday Night by Satellite). I like the grittiness of this one, especially when compared with Kick and X. The sound quality of this album always bothered me, seems overly bright and/or not much bass (on my system).
I kind of get what Michael was going for with Max Q. But I don't think it's a strong album. There's a fair amount of filler & production flaws. It's going somewhere but just doesn't get there. However, I do like some of the songs. And I feel the strongest tracks are, Sometimes, Way Of The World (despite it being too political and partly hypocritical lyrically), Monday Night By Satellite, Tight & Ot-Ven-Rot. Commercially, MQ debuted and peaked at #182 on the US Top 200 Billboard Album Charts. And it only remained on that chart for 8 weeks, from Oct. 7 - Nov. 25, 1989. Which means, it basically sold over 50,000 copies in its initial run. To date, it's probably sold just over 65,000 copies in the US.
Catching up: Rooms for the Memory is one of the finest performances of his career, in my opinion. Great production, great song, great vocal. I watched Dogs in Space at the time and, while I found the depiction of the Melbourne scene interesting, the film was pretty aimless structurally. Would be interested to see it again. The Dogs in Space/Max Q era is very interesting and its appeal has grown in some ways as, with time, this whole era reeks of Hutchence's dissatisfaction with teenybopper fame and him wanting greater credibility. That narrative has cast these efforts in a heroic light I think. In terms of Max Q not being seen as a success, my guess is that Chris Murphy tacitly if not actively buried it. I remember at the time there was consternation that Hutchence was being self indulgent and that he was in a way being disloyal. Pretty sure Murphy wanted them to stay in album-tour-album mode and make hay while the sun shone. A similar thing happened to Midnight Oil's Rob Hirst and his Ghostwriters project. The mothership was very protective and didn't want its key members to 'stray', so set quite specific limits about how it was presented and marketed. Though with hutchence, being seen as 'just part of the Max Q group' would have been good for his credibility, whereas I think Hirst would have happily been more visible in Ghostwriters. I think for Hutchence, the fact that the band and management didn't want him to do it added to its cool factor and helped to cast him as the misunderstood artist.
This is a great post, and really helps me with a context that I really hadn't previously considered. It also explains, possibly, why the album was much less noticed overseas. If Murphy really wasn't keen on the idea of the project, he would have been particularly concerned about the overseas, and particularly the US market, not wanting any negative reflection on Inxs.... With Kick going gangbusters, he may have felt that his future income was going to be effected if Max Q was too successful. a) could that have led to the band breaking up? b) would the massive US market look at Inxs differently in light of this side project? Very interesting, cheers
"Sometimes" Single by Max Q from the album Max Q Released 30 October 1989[1] Genre Synth-pop, electronic Length 3:42 Label CBS Songwriter(s) Ollie Olsen Producer(s) Michael Hutchence Ollie Olsen 7" "Sometimes" (Straight Rock mix) – 3:42 "Love Man" – 4:18 12"/CD Maxi "Sometimes" (Straight Rock mix) – 3:42 "Sometimes" (Rock House extended mix) – 5:45 "Love Man" – 4:18 "Sometimes" (Dub mix) – 4:00 Chart (1989/1990) Peak position Australia (ARIA)[2] 31 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[3] 37 UK Singles (OCC)[4] 52 --------------------------------------------------- The second single off the album, and the first track on the album. This single was release the day before my twenty first birthday .... A very interesting time in my life. 21st birthday, followed by a long road trip of escape and discovery, follow by coming back to find my drummer mate had set up a jam with some guys .... and that turned into the most serious band I was ever in ... but anyway. I have never been a singles guy, and I have never even bought a single. I did get a couple of 12" releases, that were more mini-albums, but aside from that it is just a market that has never held much interest to me. So all that, just to help with understanding my perspective and where I was at in relation to this track. I didn't actually get this album immediately or anything. By 1989, I was discovering Frank Zappa, Seventies Prog and Fusion, and all sorts of other stuff that had been hidden from my view, and also probably wouldn't have made any sense to me earlier. So although I heard the singles ... this one, Way Of The World and although not a single Ghost Of The Year was in my line of view, I probably didn't hear the album for a year or two. Although in practice, I don't really like albums being top loaded with singles, in this instance it worked for me, because I was familiar enough with the first few songs that I didn't have any of that awkward trying to get the feel of the album thing. So Sometimes ended up being a great opener for me, and I got straight into it. In some ways these tracks were a little ahead of their time, or at least at the cutting edge of that scene. We open up with an excellent guitar riff, a solid kick, and some added percussion and it all works to drive the song along. then we get that very familiar voice kick in. For interest sake, I was playing this album in the car the other day, and my wife asked "Who is this?" I said "It is a side project of Michael Hutchence from 1989, to which she replied "I could tell it was Michael Hutchence instantly, and that's why I asked, because I don't know this" I think it is important to realise/recognise the importance of how distinct Hutchence voice was, and this probably goes a long way to explaining Murphy's discomfort with this project. Anyway... Sometimes I can't believe my brain And sometimes I can't believe my brain And sometimes you gotta take a chance on yourself Cause when the power strikes you blind They can see it in your eyes And it doesn't take too much to read Too much to read your mind Sometimes I can't believe your brain And sometimes I can't believe your brain And sometimes you gotta take a chance on yourself And sometimes you gotta take a chance on yourself Songwriters: Ollie Olsen / Frank Millward This song is looking to the future, but in many ways it is constructed of idea from the past. We have all the technology and such that gives it a certain sound. Also, in spite of there not being a ton of lyrics, the way phrasing and delivery is set up, it doesn't really strike me as being short on lyrics, and then again, it manages to say what it needs to in a concise way. I think the verses set up the song well, and the change/chorus/bridge, whatever we would like to refer to it as, is the perfect foil for it. The change in speed and dynamic really sells the song and works as a hook. I think the little vocalising effects with the delay work well, in adding a human factor, and an emotional factor. Also, although the songs don't really sound anything alike, one of the things that works really well for me is the way the tracks thicken up and we get those string sounds/samples, or whatever, giving the song a sort of Papa Was A Rolling Stone kind of thing, that has always been very appealing to me. So for me, this ends up being a great introduction to the album.
Love Man b-side I am completely unfamiliar with this track, and it sounds very much like some experimental type things, exploring the rap, techno and other newer styles in the music world at the time. This is probably just outside my personal interest, in terms of being a song as such, but perhaps it shows Hutchence giving Ollie a chance to expose what it is that he did, to the wider audience that Hutchence could bring to these guys.
Sometimes - the video and the straight rock mix For a lot of folks, I am imagining that this is going to be a slightly more accessible version, with it being more concise. I can certainly understand that too.
Sometimes Rock House extended mix To some degree these variations really show us more of Ollie Olsen than Michael. Ollie was a mixer and digital chop up kind of guy, from what I understand, and I assume he made these remixes.... please correct me if I'm wrong. I could seriously see this being played in nightclubs of the period, to some good responses. This is a very different mix, with some really interesting to me ideas put in here.
Sometimes dub mix The whole remix scene is fairly foreign to me, and the whole dub scene, probably even more so. Again we hear the variations in the presentation of the track, and it is another very different presentation.
I loved Max Q, way ahead of its time. For many years I've thought it was a big influence on the overall design of U2's "Achtung Baby" era (which I love btw) , the integration of dance / industrial rhythms, slogans, darker occasionally apocalyptic tone. Just look at the "Way of the World" / "Sometimes" videos they look like dress rehearsals for "The Fly".
Sometimes 3.5/5. While watching the proper, poor quality, video the other day. My instincts were right. It's a workable, passable song, but this project doesn't move me. Reminds me of what Duran Duran were doing at that time, mixing their styles with "acid-house" or what the flavor was called. Love Man 2.5/5. When I reach for something to listen to, I avoid tracks like this. Not a fan of rap, or techno. Glad that Michael did this without INXS. It would have brought their catalog down.
It appears that the Kick tour wound up on Nov 13 1988 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. I can't find any details of when Max Q was recorded, but with the release date being Sept. 1989, I assume the album was started after the tour had finished. Inxs's next concert was Oct. 6 1990 at Kuranda Amphitheater in Cairns, Queensland. for tour and gig date info this looks pretty solid https://www.concertarchives.org/bands/inxs?page=13#concert-table
So X was released nearly 2 full years after the touring for Kick ended (Sept '90). Not an eternity by late '80s megaband standards, but it sure felt like a long time.
