cluster and eno

In the summer of 1976 Brian Eno hooked up with Harmonia (Michael Rother, plus the Cluster duo of Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius) and recorded some music that wasn't issued for over 20 years. Eventually issued as Tracks And Traces in 1997, the pieces show the musicians creating some beautiful soundscapes, but the end result is a little aimless at times.  

The following year Eno joined Moebius and Roedelius at Conny Plank's studio in Koln. The results this time were more focused and two superb albums emerged.  

The first - Cluster & Eno - was released just a few months after the June sessions, the second - After The Heat - followed in early 1978. 

Musically these two albums are very like a sort of slightly more intense, slightly more warped, slightly more weird version of Eno's contemporaneous Music For Films. Some of the tracks, like "Old Land" or the angelically pretty "Fur Luise" could easily have fitted onto MFF or Before And After Science - in fact "Old Land" is actually pretty similar to Eno's "Dover Beach" in with its lovely synth washes. But the more rhythmic tracks, like "Oil" or "Die Bunge" have a much more definitely Germanic air about them. They are also pretty odd. More so than any Eno solo pieces from this time. The more traditional musical training of Roedelius shines through too - "Mit Simaen" is classically beautiful. 

Then, at the end of After The Heat, we have the three songs. These are very Enoid, as we would expect, with "The Belldog" being one of the loveliest songs Eno has ever created. I love the spacey-ness of it all, the twinkling synths, the burbling rhythms. Eno's vocal is excellent too. Restrained and perfectly pitched. The other two songs are perhaps not quite as wonderful but both are impressive - "Broken Head" is graced with a superbly deep soundscape, full of relentless swirls and swoops, and I love Eno's deadpan delivery. And "Tzima N'Arki" is just loopy. A brilliantly jumpy backing track, with Holgar Czukay guesting on bass, and the backwards vocals all making for a fantastically disorientating song (and the fact that some of the vocals are the chorus of "King's Lead Hat" but run backwards somehow makes it even better). Yet, listening to it today I was surprised that despite the sheer weirdness of the track I was happily so familiar with it that it felt reassuring and friendly too.

I get that with songs by people like Laurie Anderson or Scott Walker too. A track like "Tzima N'Arki" or Scott's "The Cockfighter" might pop up on shuffle and I love it like an old friend, but objectively I know that it's genuinely weird beyond belief. Sometimes if a track like this crops up in the car and Charley is with me and hearing it for the first time, to her it's mad, bonkers and freaky. To me it's perfectly normal! 

toyah - it's a mystery

This cropped up on the iPod shuffling just now....Toyah's 1980 single "It's A Mystery". 

What a thoroughly enjoyable song it is. The chorus, despite being lively and pretty epic is also oddly downbeat and has a welcome melancholy edge to it. But what really struck was that fact this song would never be made today. Or at least it wouldn't sound anything like this. 

Toyah's vocals are a little ragged and clearly untrained, with lots of squeaks and pitching which is just about on the right note, but it's perfect for this song, giving it an energy and charm that is unique. And if this song was to be made today, Toyah's slight lisp would probably be erased, the rest of the vocals autotuned to hell and any interest and quirkiness would be sucked right out of it.

Also on shuffle earlier, from around the same time as "It's A Mystery", the Passions' brilliant "I'm In Love With A German Film Star". Wonderfully languid and disinterested sounding vocals in the classic New Romantic style. The Passions supported Roxy Music on some dates around 1981 - that would have been a good bill, an appropriately fashionable and classy looking band supporting Bryan and the boys. They never did anything else to rival "German Film Star" though. A quick look at Wikipedia reveals that the band pretty much broke up soon after this hit with their main songwriter leaving due to "serious political differences" - makes a change from musical differences!  

television - queen elizabeth hall, london, 21 june 2005

More from the written years ago but never used pile...

Although it said 7.45 on the ticket I think everyone was surprised when the last call bell rang at 7.45 and Television actually ambled onto the stage. Nothing in the way of Good Evening London, or even any acknowledgement that they were even on stage. Richard Lloyd looked really scruffy! Horrible red shirt and terrible sweatpants rolled up at the ankles. At least Fred Smith and Tom Verlaine wore regulation black jeans...

A surprisingly brief bit of noodling / tooning and we were off into the first of a whole bunch of new songs. Really new ones, not even the ones that they have been performing over the last few years. These were brand new. And good too - quite rocky in places. The opening new piece, apparently called "Flower Spasm" at the moment led into a spirited "Venus" and the always welcome "1880 Or So", the long jam at the end lifting the song into the stratosphere. 

Then four new ones in a row! The new songs were, on the whole, rather tasty. No idea what they were about as the words were sung in Tom's usual strangled goat voice (Richard Lloyd's description!) and he often didn't bother to get too close to the microphone. Even when he did, his voice was mixed too low for most of the first half of the show anyway and was therefore overpowered by (mainly) Richard's guitar. Of these tracks, "The Sea" is a mighty impressive slice of moody, swirly rock and one of the best tracks Television have ever done in my opinion. Since 2002 they've played about 8 or 9 new songs - so when's the album coming out? (**)

In between the songs Tom consulted with his music stand containing his "note... book" as he called it. He speaks with loooonnng pauses in the oddest places. He also muttered something about "we like to come and play in European theatres. It's like rehearsing on stage. That means we'll be really good when we get back to our practice room..."

Tom actually seemed quite cheery though, in his usual distracted manner. According to TV, Richard plays the "Strat - o - cast - or..." and Fred plays the "bass" but he pronounced it like the fish... it seemed to amuse him though! 

Lots of protracted tuning while Fred stood and watched. Billy Ficca used these times to tap everything he could find with his drumsticks and occasionally he managed, in this way, to lead these seemingly random tunings into actual songs. Richard seemed quite chirpy too but still looks like he's gonna murder someone when he takes a solo, and he holds his guitar as if it's really pissed him off somehow, so he's gonna strangle that mother soooo hard... But what magnificent playing! It's fascinating to see them up close and watch the constant swapping of lead lines. "Marquee Moon" is a good example - Tom plays the choppy riff at the start of the song as Richard does the fiddly bits, but somehow they seamlessly swap over for the long solo in the middle. As usual there's very little interaction between the band members - they barely look at each other. 

Old favourites - "Venus", "See No Evil", "Prove It", "Call Mr. Lee", "1880", and of course "Marquee Moon" were all dispatched with a freshness that pleased me. "Mr. Lee" was especially good, a really chunky sound from Lloyd. 

Then after a great encore of "Little Johnny Jewel" another, shorter mic stand appeared on stage and when they all wandered back again they were accompanied by Patti Smith in battered leather boots and a sort of tweed jacket over a lurid orange t-shirt. With her glasses and her greying frizzy hair she looked like a scary granny. She launched into a semi-improvised song / poem - about Ophelia it appeared - backed by a top new tune from Television. It was a really great, powerful piece - Patti reading most of the words from her notebook and Tom grinning occasionally at her. Must have been written / made up on the night as it referred to the summer solstice. Very cool anyway.  

Then they all wandered off again and the lights came up. It all seemed over rather abruptly but they'd played for nearly two hours, so we can't complain.

Set list...

Flower Spasm

Venus

1880 Or So

Kinks' Song

Balloon

The Sea 

Shirley's Song (Frustration)

Prove It

Persia

Call Mr. Lee

See No Evil

Marquee Moon

Little Johnny Jewel

Ophelia (?), featuring Patti Smith...

...case closed!

** - 12 years on and there's still no sign of the album, nor do we have any idea what's happened to all the new tracks, as Television have stopped playing them! 

suede - a new morning

I seem to be one of the only people in the world who likes the final Suede album before they split for a while in 2003 - A New Morning. It pretty much bombed when it was released, barely scraping the Top 20 (all their previous albums made number 1), the accompanying singles didn't bother charts much (though "Positivity" was one of their biggest sellers in most European countries - especially Denmark) and despite generally favourable reviews from the press it was the fans, crucially, who had always defended Suede against every criticism, who seemed to turn against the album. Quite why is a mystery. Suede's concerts from 2002 and 2003 were some of the best, and best received gigs of their career. Critically acclaimed shows, sold out everywhere, yet the album they were promoting sold next to nothing. 

To add insult to injury 2003's Singles collection didn't even reach the top 30 despite containing all 21 of their singles, most of which had been top 10. It seems that by 2003 Suede had become utterly irrelevant to the general public. A strange and very sudden turn of fate - in 1999 all the singles from Head Music had charted well, and that album was their biggest seller.

Anyway, A New Morning, whilst not being the strongest Suede album is by no means the disaster that everyone seems to think it is. The opening track and lead off single "Positivity" is delightful - summery, up beat and very catchy, backed with a lovely string arrangement. I'm at a loss to explain why this song attracted so much disdain. Maybe it wasn't murky and grimy enough for the old Suede fans. The next track "Obsessions" is a real return to basics - a classic Suede rocker with Brett on top form vocally. His singing voice had lowered slightly from the whine of the first album to a more gravely rasp vaguely reminiscent of Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs. Many of the following tracks adhere to the band's initial desire to record a sort of electric folk album. Gentle guitars, piano, mellotron and strings mix with some glorious backing vocals and genuinely uplifting and laid back melodies - "Lost In TV" is a wonderful example of this, with it's catchy chorus it could have been a great summer hit. 

Interestingly the whole album was recorded at least once before being scrapped and redone. The original versions, recorded with Beck producer Tony Hoffer, circulate and it's hard to hear why they were dropped. Not only do they sound excellent, with some intriguing electronic flourishes, but the eventually released versions recorded mostly by Stephen Street, really don't sound that different and none of the released versions are appreciably better. It's as if Suede had a weird crisis of confidence that was never satisfactorily resolved.  

There are still some harder songs - "You Belong To Me" is up there with the best ever Suede riffs, though on this one I find Brett's vocals strongly reminiscent of Scott Walker (and why was it relegated to bonus track status??). The song is fast and pounding with a great circular guitar signature but somehow the vocals are cool and relaxed and remarkably similar to Scott's laconic drawl on some the Walker's more up beat numbers. "One Hit To The Body" is classic Suede, but arguably the most impressive songs are the quieter ones - "Astrogirl" has a delightfully woozy mellotron sound, and the hidden track "Oceans" is gorgeous. 

It's a feel good album, full of nifty tunes and melodic invention. Should have been a much bigger hit, and really deserving of rediscovery. 

roxy music live 1975 - viva! and wembley

Viva! Roxy Music, the brilliant live album, was issued in late 1976 after it was announced that Roxy was on hiatus. Phil Manzanera went through about a dozen properly recorded concerts and cherry picked the best tracks - not the most obvious, not the big hits, but the ones he thought best represented Roxy Music in concert. Then he assembled the songs and added some judicious instrumental overdubs - bits of Andy's sax playing here and there when mics hadn't picked everything up, some of his own guitar playing, tidying up wayward notes. Not much was needed as Roxy live was a well honed machine.

Five of the tracks came from the Newcastle show in late 1974, including all of the second side of the album. Two tracks - "Pyjamarama" and "Chance Meeting" are from Glasgow in 1973 on the first tour with Eddie Jobson, and "Both Ends Burning" is the sole track from Wembley in October 1975. Another Wembley song - "For Your Pleasure" was issued on the b side of the "Both Ends Burning" single.

Now, a few years ago the complete Newcastle show leaked out the internet. Lovely soundboard recording, the whole show, no overdubs, the band on fire and a terrific audience. And when that happened I pondered the whereabouts of Glasgow Apollo 1973 and Wembley Empire Pool 1975.

Well, just recently I became aware of a full soundboard recording of Wembley 17/10/75. It's superb! The whole show, except it's oddly missing "For Your Pleasure", but a bit of nifty CoolEditing later and I've reinserted "FYP" from the single. It was a little bit tricky as "FYP" sgeues straight into Manzanera's "Diamond Head" - and as this faded in on the soundboard I nicked the join from the radio broadcast of a US show from March 1976. There's a slight dip in quality but it's only over a few seconds so it's not really obvious.

One of the interesting things about this gig is that it actually preceded the release of Siren, but they still perform most of the new album anyway. Siren's release had been delayed slightly due to the printing of the cover so I guess that the tour was planned to follow the originallly scheduled release date…

Anyway, the gig opens with "Sentimental Fool" and then current single "Love Is The Drug". The band is tight, Ferry is on form, the Sirens adding some screechy backing vocals, and it's all good. Some surprises - "Strictly Confidential" is performed for the first time since the Eno days (and dropped again after the two Wembley shows apparently) and "A Really Good Time" makes a rare appearance too - it's beautifully performed, so I don't know why it didn't feature much. A cracking "Virginia Plain" ends the main set, though the audience are a bit weak at the end - "what's her name?" sings Ferry, expecting the whole crowd to chant back "Virginia Plain" but there's just a few voices at this point rather than usual bellow. Perhaps it's a quirk of the soundboard, although the crowd seems loud enough between songs. "Both Ends Burning" is interesting too, as you can clearly hear what overdubs were added to the official Viva! version. Mainly Andy beefing up his saxophone intro, though some of Ferry's vocal excesses may also have been sorted out. 

The encore is a stomping medley of "Re-Make/Re'Model" / "Do The Strand" / "Editions Of You" and back into "Strand" again, then a further encore of another rarely played song "The Thrill Of It All" - this one rocks like mad, and is brilliant live so again it's a little baffling that it didn't get played often. A final encore of "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall" is a little surprising as it's a Ferry solo track, not a Roxy song, and it's perhaps a little cheeky to end a Roxy show with it.

Mid-set Ferry takes a short break (I expect he went off for a clean shirt, plus a fine cognac and a cigarette, lit for him by some beautiful girl) while Manzanera's "Diamond Head" was played, followed by "Wild Weekend" from Mackay's Eddie Riff album. Usually Ferry returned to the stage to take on "The 'In' Crowd" which kind of completes a little segment of Roxy solo tracks, but on this show "A Really Good Time" is slotted in before "The 'In' Crowd" where it doesn't actually fit terribly well. Oh well. However "The 'In' Crowd" is fantastic, arguably the best track performed at this show. Everyone having a real blast, Ferry shouting out the lyrics breathlessly, the Sirens wailing away, Manzanera delivering a storming solo. Tremendous stuff.

Now all we need is the complete Glasgow Apollo 1973 show and I'll be delighted!

tim bowness / iamthemorning - bush hall, london 14 november 2016

A lovely venue for an evening of stunning music.

Tim Bowness was on first with Steve Bingham opening the set by looping some gorgeous violin to create the soundscapes for "Only Rain". It was a beautifully atmospheric way to start the show. By the time Tim had hopped up on stage to whisper "What can you say? ...no more fountains, only rain" I was already completely hooked. 

The rest of the band (Pete Morgan on bass, Andrew Booker and iamthemorning's Evan Carson on percussion, Stephen Bennett on keyboards and Professor Michael Bearpark on guitar) silently took their places ready to crash into a chunky "Time Travel In Texas". Tim laughingly called it their version of swamp rock. The double percussion worked surprisingly well when you consider that frequently Tim's music is so delicate. But in concert his songs often seem to gain a different sort of strength and pulse with life. Stephen Bennett moved to the grand piano for a tight version of "The Me I Knew" then iamthemorning's Gleb Kolyadin took his place on the piano stool for a lengthy and darkly brooding "Mixtaped". Never my favourite no-man song on record, but in concert this becomes something else entirely. A very powerful piece.  

Another song from Schoolyard Ghosts followed. In my opinion this is one of the most wonderful tracks Tim has ever written - "Wherever There Is Light". It's both devastatingly sad and stunningly beautiful at the same time and this performance was all that and much more. I had to wipe away tears by the end. Steve Bingham's violin work was gorgeous. A change of mood came about with a pounding blast of "The Warm Up Man Forever" showcasing Professor Bearpark's superb guitar skills and giving the two drummers plenty to do. Then the shortish set rounded off with another deeply atmospheric song, "Days Turn Into Years", on which Marjana Semkina accompanied Tim. The song dissolved into a terrific swirly conclusion as Tim sat on the stage giving out almost primal howls into the maelstrom of music around him. 

Tim Bowness so rarely plays live that it's always worth catching him when he does, and he never disappoints. The choice of songs tonight was excellent, the musicianship first rate. Once again I was struck by how versatile and accomplished is Bowness' band. It's such a shame they don't perform more often. The sound in Bush Hall was also excellent, clear and sharp allowing the quietest of whispers to be heard but giving a satisfyingly crunchy sound when needed. Bowness may not be the most relaxed of front men, but his reticent manner and self deprecating stage banter is always very appealing - never more so than when introducing the band. Apparently someone had earlier confused Pete Morgan with Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin, so Tim ran around the band introducing them as alternative musicians (Bennett was Brian Eno, Booker became Gavin Harrison etc). Then he introduced them properly which ended up being just as funny - Bingham is such a star of the violin that Bowness claimed, with a wicked grin, that he makes his children call him Maestro!

The stage was reset slightly for iamthemorning - flowers around the mic stand, a few candles, that sort of thing. Then Marjana and Gleb took to the stage accompanied by a bass player, a violinist, a cellist and Evan the percussionist. They played a number of older iamthemorning tracks before launching into a selection of songs from their recent, award winning, album Lighthouse. Along the way Bowness returned to perform his own "Beautiful Songs You Should Know" with iamthemorning which was, for me, one of the absolute highlights of the evening. For an encore Tim and Marjana duetted once again, on a delightfully light and pretty "Sing To Me". Bowness rarely duets with anyone but this and the other vocal collaborations worked so well that I'd love to hear more in this vein.  

Iamthemorning are, perhaps surprisingly, a formidable live act. The delicacy of their records translated very well to the little stage and intimate surroundings of Bush Hall. I can't see their music working quite as well in a much larger hall however, as it's all the little touches that make it so lovely. You need to be able to see Marjana's expressions and tiny hand movements - it adds so much to the mood of the songs. Her gentle skipping and ability to almost float across the stage is bewitching, but would be lost in a much bigger venue. Musically they are incredibly strong - not only Marjana's enchanting voice, but the string players created so much colour and Joshua the bass player and Evan on percussion were vital too, anchoring the songs with depth. Gleb's virtuosity on the piano is actually breath-taking yet he seems extremely humble, sometimes looking into the audience with a faintly bemused smile, as if he couldn't quite believe all these people had come to see him play.

Marjana is a charming and engaging singer and front woman, her pale skin contrasting strongly with her vivid red hair. She was effortlessly cheery announcing, with a wide smile, how their songs are all about death and mental illness and things like houses burning down. And she was clearly thrilled by the enthusiasm the normally reserved English showed in joining in with the clapping on "5/4". Marjana was also encouraged by a highly supportive Russian contingent in the audience and the whole band was visibly delighted with the richly deserved standing ovation at the end of what I believe was their debut headlining a London gig. 

A thoroughly enjoyable two and half hours of superb music. A perfect evening! 

brian eno - the ship

Earlier this year Brian Eno released his latest album, called The Ship. 

I revisited this album recently after initial plays left me rather underwhelmed, and I'm still unsure of this record. 

The title track is 21 minutes of ambient burbles and bleeps and bloops which is rather good, but then Eno kind of speak sings some stuff over the middle part using that sort of electronic effect on his voice that he’s so fond of, but which I find gets a bit tiresome after a while. And the vocal part is rather repetitive, which doesn’t help matters. Much of The Drums Between The Bells improved after a few listens, and this is like a 21 minute track from that record but with Eno’s voice. I thought it would grow on me, but it didn't and still hasn't.

The rest of the album is better though – I was very impressed with “Fickle Sun” straight away - it is ambient and noisy all at the same time. It’s odd, but entertainingly so. “Fickle Sun” has some surprising horns, some weird chanting sort of singing near the end with strings which is all a bit Tilt-era Scott Walkerish, and Eno’s vocals on the earlier part of the piece are terrific, none of the electronic trickery you get on “The Ship” – he’s also singing in a very deep voice which works really well. The vocal melody comes across as a sort of weird folk song, as if it’s really old somehow, though I don’t think it is.. “Fickle Sun II” is good too – gentle piano underpinning Peter Serafinowicz reciting some sort of baffling poetry.

Then we get Eno’s version of “I’m Set Free”, the VU song. And frankly it’s worth the price of the album just for this song. I love it. A fairly faithful rendition, Eno in really fine voice, with some gorgeous strings replacing the emotional guitar solo of the original. The wonderfully named Nell Catchpole is responsible for those, as she has been on many other Eno records. I would really welcome an album of songs like this; how about an Eno sings VU Classics record?! He recorded a version of “White Light / White Heat” about ten years ago and then auctioned off the only copy of it, so only one person has ever heard it! 

Anyway, as with all recentish Eno albums it’s good, but apart from “I’m Set Free” it’s not (so far) outstanding in the way Eno records used to be. 

I’m still not convinced by the title piece. To me it’s overlong and doesn’t really justify it’s 21 minutes length. Half the length would have done it I think.

But “I’m Set Free” is just brilliant! Really, really brilliant.