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.

david bowie / dana gillespie - BOWPROMO 1

Today’s music comes from the summer of 1971. 

Before David Bowie had signed to RCA his management team, (then called GEM, but soon to be re-christened MainMan), put together a promo disc. Only a few dozen copies were pressed, and were sent round various record companies and DJs to drum up support and interest. 

At this point Bowie and his band had only recorded about half of what became Hunky Dory, and so, to fill out side two of the disc GEM compiled a few tracks from their other new client, Dana Gillespie. She was quite a star in London, having recently completed a lengthy run in the original production of Jesus Christ Superstar in which she played Mary Magdalene. She had previously released a couple of folk albums in the late 1960s but Bowie’s manager, Tony DeFries, hoped to relaunch Dana as a sort of female Bowie and to that end Bowie and Mick Ronson had worked up some of her songs which she then recorded with the Spiders. Bowie had written “Andy Warhol” for her. 

So BOWPROMO 1 was pressed and did it's job in impressing RCA enough to sign both David and Dana on the spot. Dana’s theatrical commitments prevented her from finishing her album until 1973 and when Weren’t Born A Man was issued it was an uneasy mix of the 1971 songs and more recent recordings. 

Bowie, as we know, quickly finished his record off and was on such a roll that by the time Hunky Dory was released in late 1971 he’d already recorded nearly all of the next record – Ziggy Stardust. 

Anyway, both Bowie and Dana had two copies each of the promo disc and a few years back Dana sold one of hers on eBay. It sold for nearly £2,000 and was rapidly digitized and made available for download...And so I downloaded. And it’s fantastic. 

Superb quality, and all the Bowie tracks are different from what ended up on Hunky Dory, so a real treat for me. 

“Oh! You Pretty Things” is basically the same recording but the vocal mix is different and frankly the song sounds clearer all round. 

“Eight Line Poem” features an entirely different vocal take. 

“Kooks” has some vocal differences, the acoustic guitar is different and the strings aren’t complete. 

“It Ain’t Easy” was held over until the Ziggy album, and sounds pretty much the same. 

“Queen Bitch” features some different overdriven Ronson electric guitar, and the stereo separation is way more pronounced with acoustic guitar in one side and electric in the other. There are less multitracked vocals too. The whole thing leaps out of the speakers at you. It's absolutely marvellous. 

“Quicksand” – like “Pretty Things” there is more clarity here, although it’s lacking some of the strings of the finished version. 

“Bombers” – never released until the Ryko reissues in 1990, but this is a much better mix than the tinny Ryko issue, with lovely crisp drumming and lots more backing vocals. What the hell did Ryko do to the song? This is way better. And it segues into the intro to “Andy Warhol” (that’s Warhol, as in hols…) which indicates that it was replaced at the very last minute by “Fill Your Heart”. 

The rest of side two consists of five Dana Gillespie songs, which are uniformly brilliant. What a find! Neither of her RCA albums seem to be available anymore though a compilation of the two, called Andy Warhol, was issued about 15 years ago and is still available on Amazon. Dana’s roots in folk and musical theatre are obvious when she sings – she has a lovely theatrical manner and clearly enunciates every word. But it’s a very likeable and emotional voice too. I’m most impressed. 

As far as I can tell, she spent the rest of the seventies in stage productions and films before resuming her singing career as a blues woman. The last thirty plus years have found Dana carving out a niche in the blues market where she remains very successful. 

Anyway, her tracks on the promo include her take on “Andy Warhol” – backed by the Spiders, this is a much rockier version than Bowie’s acoustic one, and is, frankly, better. A storming Ronno solo at the end is criminally faded out. 

“Mother Don’t Be Frightened” also features Bowie and the boys but is a beautiful ballad. 

“All Cut Up On You” is another cracking song, which is quite funky. 

All three of those songs appeared on 1973’s Weren’t Born A Man, though the versions on BOWPROMO 1 are different. 

“Lavender Hill” is another gorgeous ballad, arranged by Ronno who is also an excellent pianist, but which sadly never ended up anywhere else. 

And the best track “Never Knew” is a simple piano song with the prettiest melody I’ve heard in years, topped with heartbreaking singing. I LOVE this song. It’s superb. A version of this played by a full band is on her second RCA album 1974’s Ain’t Gonna Play Second Fiddle (surely a comment on how she was never given the right attention by RCA or MainMan…), but that full band version doesn't better the simplicity of this.

Well worth tracking down.

laurie anderson - delusion

In 2010 - 2011 Laurie Anderson toured with her multimedia show called Delusion.

This tour followed the release of Homeland and some material - notably "Another Day In America" - was reused from this album, but most was new. Some of the material has now found its way onto her recent album Heart Of A Dog and it's prompted me to revisit a splendid, crystal clear audience recording from Hamburg in May 2011. 

As always with Laurie the material works on many levels. Ostensibly Delusion is a series of meditations on death, though it goes much further than that. The promo blurb says this –

Conceived as a series of short mystery plays, Delusion jump-cuts between the everyday and the mythic. Combining violin, electronic puppetry, music and visuals, Delusion is full of nuns, elves, golems, rotting forests, ghost ships, archaeologists, dead relatives and unmanned tankers. It tells its story in the colourful and poetic language that has become Anderson's trademark. Inspired by the breadth of Balzac, Ozu and Laurence Sterne, and employing a series of altered voices and imaginary guests, Anderson tells a complex story about longing, memory and identity. At the heart of Delusion is the pleasure of language and a terror that the world is made entirely of words.

Phew!

Well, the first piece concerns Laurie’s technique for pushing herself on the try new things, "a basic carrot before the donkey technique" she says, "until one day… the donkey died…" This piece, typically for Laurie, is both very funny, and then suddenly very shocking. The audience laughs and then all too often stops laughing abruptly when the full meaning of what she's said suddenly sinks in. 

A little further on and another recitation begins, “I was standing in the room…” and relates the touching story of an old lady at the moment of her death. She's surrounded by her family and friends, but the old lady is talking to the animals… on the ceiling… and Laurie relates this tale of the delusional lady in her usual… calm…. voice and the narrative contains those… unusual…. pauses that punctuate Laurie’s stories. There is such a beautiful violin underscoring the narrative, that the strange text becomes incredibly moving. Really stunning stuff.

In fact most of Delusion is surprisingly emotional. Not sure why I am surprised. I suppose I think of Laurie Anderson as more of a clever manipulator of words and sounds than I do as an emotional songwriter and lyricist. But although Laurie's work can sometimes appear detached, a little cold on the surface, there's always a deeply emotional core.

Throughout Delusion there are bizarre excursions into Laurie’s dreams (where apparently it’s always raining) - in one she is served penguin in a restaurant, though it’s not clear if the penguin is actually dead yet… at another point she talks of an Icelandic farmer who is trying to rebuild a rotting barn so he can hold barn dances, but she’s more concerned with the fact that he can see elves… and there’s a frankly disturbing sequence where she believes she has given birth to her favourite dog, Lola-belle - this crops up on Heart Of A Dog too.  

Musically there’s loads of mournful and genuinely emotional violin / viola going on, really powerful pieces of music, multi-tracked and magnified. The deep voiced reassuring tones of the voice of authority, who Lou Reed had recently named as Fenway Bergamot, pops up on some pieces. But it’s the words in Laurie's own quiet voice that really hit home, somehow conveying real loss and hurt and confusion in those calm measured phrases.

And it’s fairly clear that, despite the promotional blurb, Delusion is pretty much all about Death - towards the end the dying old lady crops up again and, with a start, you realise that it’s Laurie’s own mother. It’s a shocking and terribly sad piece. Laurie has to rush to the hospital, and she doesn't know what to say to her dying mother. Not sure how true all of this is. And although I guess it’s all part of the act, part of the performance, Laurie herself seems to step out of that ultra calm… narrator voice, the one who leaves long… pauses… and she actually sounds genuinely worked up and frustrated and helpless and agitated, and it’s really quite a shock and the whole thing becomes desperately sad.

Immensely clever stuff, just Laurie, her simple instruments and the occasional voice of Fenway Bergamot and the result is 90 minutes of something that utterly transports you to somewhere else.

Really impressive.

Here’s an interesting interview from that time –

In Delusion, a new piece commissioned by the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad, musician, composer and multimedia artist Laurie Anderson will use mystery plays, photography, electronic puppetry and newly composed music to “explore mythic and everyday worlds.” Driven by her poetic use of language and inspired by everything from the mystic origins of the Russian space program to theories of time and speed, the show is set to be yet another in Anderson’s groundbreaking and envelope-pushing repertoire. (It also features a fictional historian and social commentator named Fenway Bergamot and his spotted dog.) Along with special musical guests Eyvind Kang and Colin Stetson, Delusion gets its world premiere February 16 at the Vancouver Playhouse.

Q: In an early description of Delusion, you talk about how language has the ability to both create and decreate the world. Can you tell me more about that?  

A: First of all, I’ve never talked about this thing [Delusion], and I haven’t finished it yet, (laughs). I haven’t found a way to finish it yet. There are a couple of things missing from the picture and I’m just starting to figure out what they are now. I began by writing a number of plays, two plays, in an attempt to get away from the voice I usually use. I wanted to bring some conflict into it. That was the beginning of trying to tell a story from a couple of different sides, which of course, in answer to your question, starts making you think, “What is the story?” The story is really the narrator or the writer. And when someone tells you a story, whether it’s Obama or your brother, you’re going to read the thing really differently. 

This is a whole series of interlocked stories and delusions. There are many, many different ways to tell them, and in many different types of voices. It’s not so much deconstructing the story as changing the voice in which they’re told. I’ve realized that the same exact words could be on a page and they could be in a live situation, or in a conversation, they could be the saddest thing you’ve ever heard, or really callous, or carefree. You can attach a whole lot of things to that.  

Q: Where did Fenway Bergamot come from? 

A: I don’t know quite how this voice, this filter, got a name. It is an "audio-drag” filter that I’ve used since 1978, when I first had to be a master of ceremonies at a [William S.] Burroughs event. I thought it would be fun to sound like a distracted old coot. Recently, it’s had a more melancholic ring to it, and I’ve been thinking that it almost sounds like a person. 

It was Lou [Reed] who decided to call this character Fenway Bergamot, and as soon as that filter had a name it was almost like I could do something different emotionally with that filter. It didn’t have to be just a joke. So I began to be able to use words in a different way with that instead of just being joke-y. I used to call it “the voice of authority” but now it doesn’t have much authority left. It frees me to use language in a more cut-up way. 

Q: In an old interview, you said you like to keep things simple, that you don’t want everything to get too complicated regardless of the whole multimedia aspect of your show. You seem to use such a complex mix of elements — your violin and puppetry and visuals. Do you think it’s easier to get at simple truths with complex methods? 

A: If I just minded my own advice… (laughs) Not necessarily. The only way to get there is to try to pay attention to them. Although I do have to say that one of the ways I tried to get to those things this time was through images. I sat for a long time looking at stuff and just listening to sounds. Not one single word. I thought, “I really enjoy this show. I really like it just like this,” and for awhile I was just going to have zero words. Then I thought, “Wait a second. I’ve never done that.” But it was really, really tempting. Now, in a way, I’m just trying to pare the words down even further, but some of them don’t like that. Some of them have to be the shaggy dog story they started out as. Paring them down, they become really silly. I’m in a bit of a dilemma right at the moment with some of this stuff. 

When you make something from absolutely nothing, there’s no template for it, and there’s no way to say that something isn’t what you wanted it to be, because that was just a vague idea. I’m not making shoes. I don’t know what I’m making. A lot of time I’ve started out to make one thing and I’ve ended up making something utterly different. I would begin writing a piece of music and it would become a drawing. I’m talking really different. I’m in a state of insecurity at the moment.

Q: Could that be why, when some people describe you, they use words like “innovator”? That you have this ability to bring things from nothing into existence? 

A: Everyone can do that if they want to. I’m convinced of that, that’s for sure. That everyone can’t is a bit of a myth, in the sense that absolutely everyone can sing. I think people are taught that they can’t do stuff way too early. I just wish we had a national music day like they do in France, when everybody sings and it doesn’t really matter if it’s not all in tune. That’s part of why I’m bothered that half of the things I do are amateur in a way, in a lot of ways. The animation I do is kind of amateur, the orchestration is pretty amateur, but I give them all a shot and I try not to worry that it doesn’t look very pro. 

Q: In a 2007 interview on Swedish television you asked a rhetorical question about if the world needs another multimedia show. Does it? 

A: Ha. Good question. At the time, I probably was going to do another one anyway. Needed or not, I might just have fun doing it. I don’t know… I wish I knew what the world needed. If I knew, I would try to contribute. But I have no idea what it needs, so I just try to think of something else that would be interesting to do.

what's this? a song I've never heard before?

I have so many CDs and so many songs on my iPod that inevitably I’ll come across something that I don't immediately recognise. Whenever I'm shuffling I try very hard not to look at the display and it's very rare that I don't guess what's playing. It sometimes takes a while but usually I get there. 

But this one completely stumped me - I thought perhaps it was something form a Brian Eno installation, but it was too dark for that. The swirly guitar sounds seemed familiar, vaguely like the David Sylvian / Holger Czukay albums but there was more drone, deep bell sounds and a far more unsettling air than something like the wonderfully tranquil "Mutability". I simply couldn't place it at all so I had to look…

I was close - David Sylvian - "The Beekeeper's Apprentice". Originally from the rare Ember Glance CD that accompanied a 1990 installation that DS did with the artists Russell Mills. 

I rather liked it, the gongs and bells offset the guitar rather nicely, there was a slightly disquieting feel about it and although it runs for over half an hour the piece didn't get boring. The weird thing is though, I genuinely don't ever remember listening to it before. 

Not once. 

It was more widely on released the Approaching Silence CD in 1999. Three tracks on that disc – this one, along with "Epiphany" also from the Ember Glance thing, plus "Approaching Silence" from a 1994 installation in collaboration with Robert Fripp. 

Now, "Approaching Silence" I remember, it’s a fine piece of ambient soundscaping. And I played "Epiphany" just now and I remembered that one too - a short and sweet little track. But "The Beekeeper’s Apprentice"? Nope. Never heard it before, I'm sure. Yet I've had the CD for seventeen years, and it's been on my iPod for quite some years too. Weird.

august shuffling

Some shuffling on the iPod today (I've not done that for a while) and I've heard - 

"Marian" from the Sisters of Mercy - Goth heaven! To be honest this is closer to the sound of the Mission which Wayne Hussey was shortly to form, but whatever it's a terrific song, and Eldritch's vocals are wonderful. the word 'subterranean' seems appropriate... 

"Artists Only" - a Talking Heads demo from late 1975 when the band was still a trio, yet the song is fully formed, and although not quite as obviously loopy as the More Songs... version, it's still a very peculiar piece. Very! 

"In Power We Entrust The Love Advocated" - Brendan Perry live in 1999. A lovely rendition of an always brilliant song. This is played very close to the DCD original and Brendan's vocals are just magnificent. 

"Cold Metal" - Lord Igworth of Pop, live in 1993 with his band blasting through this one at breakneck speed and Iggy at his most manic. Lots of almost unintelligible screaming and swearing as the song begins and Iggy singing ferociously as the song gets going. He's either really really cross about something, or really really happy. It's absolutely impossible to tell which! Not the best performance of this track however. 

"People" from King Crimson's THRAK. I love this track, it's about as poppy as Crimson ever got - it's pretty much an Adrian Belew song, but played by the Crims. Great singalong chorus too. Very catchy. 

"Big Science" - the live version from United States. Brilliant. Just brilliant. Laurie Anderson has always been so impressive as a performer, and her songs somehow seem sadder and more emotional in a live setting. This has a very wistful, melancholy mood, much more so than the studio track. 

"Fill Your Heart" - David Bowie from the recent 2015 master of Hunky Dory. It may a be a silly bit of space filling fluff, but it's probably the jauntiest song I own. There's that impossibly happy vocal, the bouncy trumpet, the sprightly piano and I'm running out of 'jaunty' synonyms, but you know what I mean. 

"PPP" from last year's Beach House album Depression Cherry. Vaguely Cocteau Twins / shoegaze ish, but more summery and American. Ish. Good band though, and their last album Bloom is really terrific. The new ones I haven't got really used to yet, they're less immediate, but rather good. 

"Lighthouse" - the first demo that no-man made for this brilliant song. It dates from 1994 (the finished track ended up on Returning Jesus in 2001). Although it's fairly primitive (the drum machine is basic in the extreme) most parts of this long song are in place (including some parts that were later dropped) and it's a lovely alternative. Tim Bowness' vocals are stunning, as always, even on a demo.

"Driving Me Wild" from Bryan Ferry's Avonmore. This was a great remix which can be found on his soundcloud pages. Unlike many Ferry remixes which are very dull and lifeless without any input from the man himself, this one runs to seven minutes, but sounds as if it's simply the full length version of the song. Wonderful track. 

"Andean" - Michael Brook live in 1992. Really good stuff. Brook was always good value live, busily fiddling with dials and buttons whilst striking infinite guitar notes and controlling programmed beats.  

"The Only Daughter" from cheery Mr Sylvian's bleakest album Blemish. All glitchy and buzzing electronics. Maybe it's time and familiarity, but this didn't seem quite as forbidding or as cold as the last time I heard it. After 13 years I think I'm warming to it!

"Golden Years" - classic Bowie doesn't get much better than this. This was the 7" single which sadly fades out a little earlier than the STS album version soon after DB starts his nonchalant whistling. It's a brilliant production - ultra slick, very cool, love the handclaps and almost lazy sounding percussion. It's danceable for sure, but very laid back danceable, not really breaking much of a sweat. 

"The Bends" - haven't heard this Radiohead track for ages. It ROCKS. I've rather lost touch with Radiohead. Their last couple of albums are impressive but I don't find them very likeable, and don't really feel the need to play them. This one is 20+ years old, but really doesn't sound like it. A very punchy modern sound. 

"A Gift" from Lou Reed's Coney Island Baby. Funny stuff. Again it's a very laid back song, jaunty almost, but those lyrics are so self mocking aren't they? You can actually hear the knowing grin on Lou's face as he sings, in mock seriousness "I'm just a gift to the women of this world..."

"The Rest Will Flow" - a lovely sunny Porcupine Tree track from Lightbulb Sun, which is probably their most commercial and poppy album. Interestingly Wilson would soon after hook up with Aviv Geffen in Blackfield who really carried on with this delightful 3 minute pop song approach, while PT switched to a rather harder sound with In Absentia and Deadwing. I wonder if he'd not met Geffen whether Wilson would have let PT have more of his more commercial songs? 

"Ghosts" - Japan. Utterly perfect. How it became a top 5 hit I've no idea, but it's a brilliant song. 

"The Real" - from Eno's Drums Between The Bells. Excellent ambient backing track, with various backwards things happening, but I'm still not convinced by the female narration. It would be better, I think, either with Brian himself doing the monologue, or just as an instrumental. In fact the Drums instrumental disc is, I feel, considerably more successful than the vocal disc. Oh well. 

"Fire Of Unknown Origin" - a weird Patti Smith track (b side of "Because The Night" I think), but frankly not very good. Patti is very whiney, there's little discernable tune and it's a bit of a waste of time to be honest. 

"Heidegger's Silence" from Jan Bang's excellent …And Poppies From Kandahar. Wonderfully moody and mysterious and exotic. This is a cracking album, and a great companion record to Uncommon Deities. 

"Pocket Calculator" - Kraftwerk live in 1990, on my birthday in fact, in Bologna. Trying out the new Mix versions of songs, this is a brilliant concert. Some stuff is all shiny and new - like the spiffed up Mix version of "The Robots", some is still the old style Kraftwerk ("Radioactivity" is very much the 1975 original version) and some - like this one - are a kind of mix of the two. Excellent quality audience recording - I must play this whole gig again soon, it's terrific. 

"Fear Of A Blank Planet" - Porcupine Tree live in 1998. Really pounding version of an already heavy song. There's a fearsome relentless quality to this song. Brilliant.

porcupine tree - royal albert hall, 14 october 2010

Another one from the I wrote this years ago and did nothing with it pile...

 

Porcupine Tree at the Royal Albert Hall, 14 October 2010.

 

It was a bit of a rush to get to the Royal Albert Hall - what was up with the tubes last night?? Everywhere I went there were announcements like “The Central Line, the Bakerloo Line, the Piccadilly Line etc etc are suffering from signal problems and are experiencing long delays - Sorry for any inconvenience.” There was absolutely no trace of “sorry” in the tone, which just sounded like “tough luck folks”. London Transport!

 

Anyway, I got to Knightsbridge tube at 7.20, with the show scheduled to start at 7.30 and I’d forgotten quite what a trek it is from the station… A good ten minutes brisk walking, but I got in to the RAH and found my seat straight away. Good view, just slightly raised up. Interesting crowd – loads of Europeans. I was next to some Dutch teenagers – they knew every word of every song and cheered till they were hoarse. It was so great to see such enthusiasm. Behind me were a group of Italians. No idea if they’d come specially for this show, but I wouldn’t have been surprised. The show turned out to be basically the same as the celebration gig in New York a couple of weeks ago, but no complaints from me as it had a spectacular set list. *

 

At 7.40 the band strolled on stage and they were their own support act, playing a sort of acoustic set. Richard Barbieri had a small keyboard and a Mac set up, Gavin Harrison played a little drum kit, Colin Edwin had a stand up double bass, Steven Wilson mainly sat on a stool with an acoustic guitar leaving any electric solos in this part of the show to second guitarist John Wesley.

 

They opened with the quite Pink Floyd-y “Stranger By The Minute” – nice harmonies in this one, followed by early rarity “Small Fish” (which, apart from the New York show a couple of weeks ago, had never been played live before). Popular choice “Pure Narcotic” was followed by The Incident’s “Black Dahlia” and then the surprise choice of “Futile” – surprising as it’s one of PT’s heaviest ever songs and so, as SW laughed, the obvious candidate for a semi acoustic arrangement in the august classical setting of the Royal Albert Hall. 

 

There was a short break while the equipment was re-arranged and then the opening notes of “Even Less” began to ring out. For about 5 minutes that string intro was looped until the lights went down and Wilson hit the guitar. The place went nuts! Everyone on the floor stood up, but being slightly raised up I didn’t have to and was able to enjoy the show from the comfort of my seat (how very rock ‘n’ roll huh?). “Even Less” turned out to be the full 15 minute epic version, which was a phenomenal opener. The sound in the RAH was excellent, loud (very loud at times) but not painful and no ringing in my ears after. Strange really as some of the songs were really pounding but I didn’t hear that ‘humming of 1,000 fridges’ afterwards. Well done the guys on the soundboard (which was just in front of me and looked horrendously complicated!). Two Deadwing songs followed with the beautiful “Lazarus” being one of my highlights. We all sang along.

 

Then we dropped back to 1995 with two from The Sky Moves Sideways. “Dislocated Day” was superb, but it was the title track that totally blew me away. Just amazing. Nearly 20 minutes long but I could have listened all night. Really good lighting too. A couple of screens were utilised on the newer songs with some rather spooky films, but mainly it was just spotlights twirling all over the place and frequently playing over the audience. Judging from the reaction “TSMS” was many people’s favourite too. The applause at the end was just enormous. The very severe looking man the other side of me (not the side with the Dutch kids) turned to me at this point and said in a very Germanic accent “Zat was my favourite song. It wass very fine.” I enthusiastically agreed with him but he didn’t say another word the rest of the night – though he did do lots of head nodding and occasional air drumming.

 

The band calmed things down afterwards with the final track from The Incident and ended the first set with the deeply odd “Bonnie The Cat” with it’s equally strange video flashing above the stage. 

 

There was a ten minute break which really was just ten minutes – a countdown clock counted down (well it would, obviously) on the screens and much fun was to be had cheering each passing minute, and of course we all joined in with the final ten seconds. 

 

The second half of the show opened with the first few songs from The Incident. That Very Loud intro, was indeed Very Loud, but as I said before, not distorted, not muddy, but clear as a bell. Gavin Harrison’s drumming was astonishing, especially on these songs. How he can hit so many things, so precisely, so quickly is nothing short of miraculous.

 

The video screens showed all sorts of images during these tracks including some fantastic swirly tunnel effects during “Blind House” that would make a great Doctor Who title sequence!

 

It was sometime around now that Steven Wilson brought a photographer on stage and got us all to raise an open hand to recreate the cover of The Incident 3,000 times over. Photos were taken because the show was being recorded (yes!) ** and the images will be used when it’s released. The photos should have been taken by regular PT sleeve designer and video maker Lasse Hoile (who had come over from Denmark both to attend the show, and exhibit some of his work at a special exhibition elsewhere in the Albert Hall – arriving so close to show time meant I missed that). But no-one could find Lasse when they wanted to take the photos. Whilst a substitute photographer did the honours someone told SW that Lasse was actually in the loo which SW, laughing, relayed to us all!

 

1999’s “Tinto Brass” followed which was great fun, full of bouncy energy, then a lovely “Time Flies” which was again accompanied by its video.

 

Then probably my personal favourite of the night – the middle section of “Anesthetize” which PT have been playing as a song in its own right, now dubbed “The Pills I’m Taking”. Another amazing reaction to this one from the crowd, so I’m not alone in favouring it. Brilliantly performed, really pounding at times, but still clear as a bell.

 

The main set ended with oldie “Up The Downstair” which got some of the oldies in the audience bopping to it’s trancey vibe and then “Sleep Together” from Fear Of A Blank Planet. Not one of my favourites, but it was much better in person than on record and works very well as set closer. 

 

Another short break and they were back for an epic encore of “Arriving Somewhere But Not Here” which was another of my favourites and a song (along with “Lazarus”) that really got me into PT when I first heard it, so it was wonderful to see / hear it live.

 

Lots of thanks, to all the crew, managers, lighting people etc etc, and Gavin Harrison stood up and performed a little magic trick (pushing a handkerchief into his clenched fist, opening his fist and hey presto it was gone!). Quite why he did this I have no idea but it was a funny moment. And finally into “Trains”, a favourite gig closer of PT. Another pause during the song as SW thanked the band and various roadies stuck their heads up and waved (Harrison’s drum tech waved the little yellow hanky that Gavin had made ‘vanish’, which got a laugh) and with one final triumphant chorus of “Trains” that was it. Thunderous applause as the band took their bows, with the shy Barbieri getting massive cheers as he tentatively waved to us all. It was 11pm, with just a couple of short breaks that made 3 hours of music! Fantastic value for money! 

 

The band are fascinating to watch – Colin Edwin looks like he’s in his own world, quietly smiling to himself whilst playing some superb bass. Barbieri has a faint mad professor air about him, hovering over various keyboards and computers. Harrison plays amazing drums quite effortlessly and John Wesley, whilst not an ‘official’ member of the band has now been a vital part of the live line-up since 2002 and SW simply couldn’t manage without Wes’s superb harmonies and surprising amount of electric guitar – lots of stuff that I’d have thought Wilson would play was taken by Wes. Steven Wilson, with his glasses and floppy hair looks remarkably like comedian Ed Byrne, and wanders all the stage in his bare feet whilst playing great guitar and smiling at everyone when his face can be seen under his hair. He was clearly in awe of the RAH mentioning a couple of times that the band first played “The Sky Moves Sideways” in clubs to audiences of no more than a couple of hundred. And now look!!! 3,000 people!!! The Royal Albert Hall!!! He actually seemed quite choked up. And he waved to his Mum. What an all round nice bloke. (And he got her a set list from Cliff Richard’s concert the day before – she’s a big Cliff fan apparently – and yes, in answer to the question we weren’t all thinking, Cliff had played “Devil Woman”. Good job SW told us that…) 

 

There was a definite impression that this was a celebration of all things PT and also something of an end of an era. SW said quite a few times that they’d been on the road for nearly 13 months and were looking forward to time off. It’s clear that there will be no PT record next year. But they’ll be back. ***

Opening set –

Stranger By The Minute
Small Fish

Pure Narcotic
Black Dahlia
Futile

Set 1 - 

Even Less
Open Car
Lazarus
Dislocated Day
The Sky Moves Sideways (Phase I)
I Drive the Hearse
Bonnie The Cat

Set 2 - 
The Incident –

  Occam's Razor
  The Blind House
  Great Expectations
  Kneel And Disconnect
  Drawing The Line
Tinto Brass
Time Flies
Anesthetize Part II (The Pills I'm Taking)
Up The Downstair
Sleep Together

 

Encore –

Arriving Somewhere But Not Here

Trains

 

 

 

* Radio City Music Hall, 24 September 2010.

** three tracks were used on the live album Octane Twisted, but sadly the whole RAH show has never been issued.

*** sadly, six years on, this gig remains, to date, the last Porcupine Tree show.