Log #188 - Paddling In The Shallows

Just the one new entry this week: David Sylvian's mate Fennesz's sumptuous Agora album released this time last year. It sounds like the cover - shimmering watery ambience washing up over sand. Just four tracks of around 9 or 10 minutes each it's fairly modest in ambient length terms. There is less of the glitchy guitar distortion made famous on his Endless Summer album with Fennesz opting for a more Enoesque sensibility.

The experimental musician’s sweeping, ambient album works in small, fascinating ways from moment to moment but has a cumulative force that is unlike anything he’s done in years.

Pitchfork (8.5)

There is just a doubt about this music. It sounds simple (like the Jam or OMD did when I was a school kid getting into prog rock). It's the sort of music I feel I could have a bash at on my own laptop - for instance I certainly couldn't reproduce Supper's Ready in a million years for goodness sake but a few drones - no problem! There is skill required of course, and ambient music contains many hidden delights not always evident on first listen, but I do figure a Physics or Computer Science degree would be more useful than a Music one.

Anyway that's beside the point. On hearing Agora one of my first reactions was "this is just the sort of music I want to make." Is that the same as "...want to hear"? Well, yes it is pretty much - I'd rather listen to Agora than Supper's Ready so that's all that matters really.

Talk Talk - The Colour Of Spring

DJ Vadim - Soundcatcher

Four Tet - Rounds

David Sylvian - Blemish

David Sylvian - Everything And Nothing (CD 1)

Fennesz - Agora

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Log #187 - Moving Post Rock

Still working through my Mark Hollis/David Sylvian phase. On the Hollis side we have the Talk Talk crossover album The Colour Of Spring which is growing on me rapidly. It's not as beautiful as their follow up Spirit Of Eden but contains some classy melodic pop pointing the way towards their new "post rock" direction. 

[Incidentally I was directed towards an album by a band called Slint (Spiderland) which was mentioned in the same breath as Spirit Of Eden as an equivalent "post rock" offering, um errr, it's ok but not in the same class pop pickers]

Want to know what post rock is, was? Here's a list featuring both Slint and Talk Talk. Honestly though I fail to see much resemblance between Talk Talk and Godspeed You! Dark Emperor for instance.

Turning to David Sylvian we have Blemish which I believe was his first truly experimental album coming in 2003, 4 years after the relatively straight forward Dead Bees On A Cake. Lots more to discover in this unusual sounding record. Apparently, not that I have noticed yet, the ambient instrumental album that featured in Log #185 Wandermude was based on this one. There is also a remix version of Blemish. I will be intrigued to play all 3 together at some future point. Blemish is further reviewed here.

Talk Talk - The Colour Of Spring

DJ Vadim - Soundcatcher

Four Tet - Rounds

David Sylvian - Blemish

David Sylvian - Everything And Nothing (CD 1)

David Sylvian - Everything And Nothing (CD2)

Summarising much of his best music up until the year 2000 Blemish is supplemented this week with a complete playing of the double Everything And Nothing which is a superb retrospective. Lush music brilliantly produced this is a great primer for new fans maintaining a pleasing continuity despite the range covered.

DJ Vadim's Soundcatcher is a superb lo-fi down tempo dubby mashup. Love it. Four Tet's Rounds is a little more reserved with some great melodies. Two top electronic pioneers. I haven't heard any better albums from either artist, so wondering if I have chanced upon their respective bests?

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Log #186 - Two Hermetical Geniuses - Hollis and Sylvian

Talk Talk - The Colour Of Spring

Nitin Sawhney - Beyond Skin

Talk Talk - The Party's Over

Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden

Bonnie Prince Billy - The Letting Go

David Sylvian - Everything And Nothing (CD2)

“I want to write stuff that you’ll be able to listen to in 10 years’ time”.

Mark Hollis

Notwithstanding the slightly overbearing 1986 drums Talk Talk's The Colour Of Spring was a groundbreaking album for the band signalling the way towards the two jazz rock ambient classics that would follow.

They only made 5 albums but 3 of them certainly achieved Hollis' aim and more.

The Party's Over (1982)

It's My Life (1984)

The Colour of Spring (1986)

Spirit of Eden (1988)

Laughing Stock (1991)

Not a bad discography for a band who were compared to Duran Duran when they first started out (although this was more a marketing ruse than on account of any wishes of Hollis and his bandmates). Indeed many of the closest neighbours on the Talk Talk music map do relate more to their inception than their later albums:

Interestingly though David Sylvian does sneak into the chart over on the left hand side. I hadn't really related the two before this current run of magazine playing but the connection is now very obvious to me - Sylvian's Everything and Nothing is a brilliant retrospective which manages to cover many of his greatest and best known tunes up to the year 2000 (just before he started going much weirder) including some collaborations and Japan pieces, plus some outtakes and unreleased tracks for the dedicated fans too.

The Nitin Sawhney album (his only I possess) makes fleeting appearances at the blog, mainly on account of the marvellous Tides piano track.

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Log #185 - A Wonder Of Mood, David Sylvian's Wandermüde

Last week, although I liked it, I bemoaned the fact that David Sylvian's experimental Manafon album might have been better without singing. This week my wishes were granted with his 2013 follow up Wandermüde which turns out to be a pure ambient piece, with indeed no vocals. 

David Sylvian - Wandermüde

David Sylvian - Manafon

Bonnie Prince Billy - The Letting Go

Talk Talk - Laughing Stock

Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden

Bonnie Prince Billy - Pond Scum

This instrumental collection is blended throughout and delivers cascades of haunting tones, flooded with pools of tranquil retreats and gentle showers of suspense.

igloomag.com

Wandermude (literally translated as "tired hiking" - not google translates finest hour Ed.) is indeed a gem of ambience, one of the nicest I've heard actually. The record is extremely still, consisting of percussion less drones that hardly change at all, just in very subtle ways. Most movement is heard on the final track Deceleration which is quite startling in comparison with its distorted guitar chords that sound just like Fennesz's work on Endless Summer. I've heard Sylvian has collaborated with the Austrian electronic maestro so no doubt it is him here too although it's very hard to find any information about Wandermüde anywhere.

The album is actually a collaboration between Sylvian and German sound artist Stephan Mathieu and I wonder how much Sylvian was involved actually as apparently the crux of the record is reworkings of Sylvian's Blemish album from 2003. Sounds intriguing and Blemish will definitely be one I'll be checking out next.

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Log #184 - Sylvian Span

Steeleye Span are another band, new to me, that cropped up through reading the excellent Electric Eden anthology of English music. A shout out on Twitter suggested Below The Salt was a good place to start.  At first it sounded a bit too folky for me but it gradually started to resonate as I tuned in to the Sandy Denny era Fairport Convention vibes.

Steeleye Span - Below The Salt

David Sylvian - Manafon

Bonnie Prince Billy - The Letting Go

Talk Talk - Laughing Stock

Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden

Bonnie Prince Billy - Pond Scum

Manafon (a place in Wales) is a very unusual album. Top marks for David Sylvian doing something so left field it defines categorisation. But is it even music? It sounds like improvisations. In fact it sounds like avant garde ambient minimalism (with a jazz flavour) but with singing. Make of that what you will!

The parish of Manafon, Wales

For the first few listens I didn't really like it. But after a while I started to enjoy it, not in the sense of listening to music, but as an... experience.

But I wonder if it would be better just as instrumental music, like previously reviewed avant garde ambient albums by sound artists like Keith Berry and James Joys? Sylvian's very low key singing is sort of superfluous and distracting.

An interview with Sylvian reveals my impressions were well founded: "There was nothing written when we went into the studio – this was very much free improvisation. So, the selection of the group of musicians for each improvisation was paramount. I recognized on the day which pieces could work for me. The process was that I took the material away and then wrote and recorded the vocal line over in a couple of hours. So I couldn't analyze my contribution and that in a way was my form of improvisation – and I enjoyed the rapidity of response."

It sounds like the approach Van Morrison took with Astral Weeks. 

Genius or pretentious? I can't decide - it's certainly no Astral Weeks but nevertheless an intriguing listen which I will return to, along with some of Sylvian's other recent albums (Manafon dates from 2009).

Not a huge leap from David Sylvian to Talk Talk, especially when we are talk talking the band's final two albums; the "post-rock" masterpieces Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock - two albums of beautiful shimmering magnificent music topped by the late Mark Hollis's sensitive vocals.

More Bonnie Prince Billy listening in the player here with Pond Scum the 2016 offering of  BBC John Peel sessions, reworkings and covers, from this prolific artist aka Will Oldham. The renderings are stripped right back and thus even more relaxed and morose than usual.

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Up Close And Personal - David Sylvian's Most Compelling Incarnation Yet

David Sylvian / Blemish

It's been a trying time for the former Mr David Batt. Following protracted wranglings with a major label he's finally emerged from the legal jungle with head held high and bearing this, the first of his creative trophies from a plethora of ongoing projects. Described as 'an impromptu suite of songs for guitar, electronics and voice', Blemish is initially only available via the internet, yet those who have longed for some forward motion in Sylvian's career of late would do well to hunt this down immediately.

Mainly improvised solo, excepting three tracks with free jazz guitar icon Derek Bailey and one with electronica guru Christian Fennesz, Blemish is delineated from the rest of David's work to date by two points. Firstly: his singular extemporised recording process has freed him from any previous sense of precious perfectionism. This is a record that burbles, clicks and buzzes with, well, blemishes, and thus seems more approachable than his most recent work. Secondly: the voice, while retaining the sub-Ferry vibrato, is closely mic'ed; intimately double tracked for harmonies; and, most importantly, his lyrics seem remarkably honest.

Whereas previous stabs at profundity often resulted in a scattergun approach (involving dropping as many erudite literary and artistic references into one song as possible), now the subjects seem far less oblique. The title track hints at emotional trouble with the opposite sex. The Good Son seems almost sarcastic in its approach to familial turmoil, and The Heart Knows Better wins one over with a frankly simple message of redemption. Most impressively, Late Night Shopping contains mantra-like intonations seemingly at odds with the mundanity of its subject matter (''We can make a list, or something...''). That is, until you realise the strange sense of agoraphobia that seeps in with the lines: ''We can take the car. No one will be watching...'' It's both creepy and strangely mesmeric.

Sylvian always knew how to pick collaborators as he struggled to break away from his New Romantic origins with Japan. Names like Holger Czukay, Robert Fripp, Marc Ribot and Danny Thompson are just the tip of the iceberg of artists who have allowed his work to escape its crass commercial roots. Yet this time his choice is particularly inspired and, by stripping away most of the hip credentials, Sylvian's forged a work that startles with its originality. Bailey's guitar may often remind you of a roadie falling downstairs, yet it suits this rougher hewn material down to the ground. Most songs revolve around a single chord but never remotely approach the territory marked 'drone', with close attention being repaid by a swarm of insectoidglitches that will endlessly intrigue. Sylvian alone is his most compelling incarnation yet. Prepare to get close...


A 2003 review by Chris Jones shared under Creative Commons via https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/bwmq/

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Log #170 - What Was The Secret Of David Sylvian's Beehive?

Built on noir balladry, instrumental abstraction, and an abiding sense of distance.

...So Pitchfork describes David Sylvian's sumptuous 4th solo album Secrets Of The Beehive. It's a far cry from his pop work with chart topping new wave band Japan in the 80s.

Al Stewart Year Of The Cat
Nucleus Plastic Rock

Nils Frahm All Melody

Jeff Buckley Grace
David Sylvian Secrets Of The Beehive

Floating Points Elaenia

Probably only half a dozen times or so I've heard something so unique and different and significant and new to me it has left an indelible impression on my life - when I heard Can for the first time (taking a chance on a 2nd hand record - their Spanner fronted one, closely followed with Tago Mago and Hallelujah in particular), Black Dog by Led Zeppelin (possibly on TV?), Van Morrison (I bought Astral Weeks and Moondance together when I was about 19 and feel lucky I took that plunge relatively early in my music listening career!), discovering The Cocteau Twins (hearing Heaven Or Las Vegas and Four Calendar Cafe on a long journey in a friend's car), the coda to Mr. Blue Sky (Out Of The Blue being my first ever LP purchase), Re-ac-tor by Neil Young (borrowed on cassette tape from someone), Epitaph by King Crimson (my school friend Guy was moving on all his King Crimson albums in favour of Neil Young incidentally - come to think of it he probably lent me the Re-ac-tor tape), Captain Beefheart (not Trout Mask Replica but Clearspot), and The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld.

There have probably been lots more life changing moments actually although the experience is less frequent than once was. Anyway the point is Secrets Of The Beehive was one such experience. It was one of the most beautiful records I'd ever heard, the experience was no doubt enhanced by the setting - 1987, late one cold winter night, in a smokey student room (where it was so cold I had to put my coat on to come indoors). It was also an utter surprise, coming from the bloke in Japan of course. I remember the crystal clear acoustic guitar, the tender piano, the horns, swirling strings, and Sylvian's slow easy going baritone. It's an album that flows from start to finish, one of atmosphere. Like Astral Weeks.

Oddly like a number of classic albums (and the similarly brilliant Grace by Jeff Buckley is another - what a voice that gentleman had) it is not one I play that often any more - I wonder why. Maybe it belongs to that time when I first heard it. Maybe I remember it too well.  But nevertheless if it is a record you've never heard I recommend you do and see if it leaves a similar impression.

David Sylvian released a number of other solo albums and ambient collaborations with the likes of Holger Czukay and Robert Fripp. They vary from minimalist experimentation to more traditional rock music but all are of a consistently high standard. 

Checkout the other records in this week's playlist here>>:

Elaenia

Year Of The Cat

All Melody

Plastic Rock

All four excellent albums, three will be near my Album Of The Year shortlist.

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Log #97 - A Gang Of Dead Bees

The Guardian's readers recommend series, which I only discovered two weeks ago, is now being withdrawn after 13 years! This was a disappointment for both new contributors like me who was hoping to curate a playlist myself in the future, and stalwarts who have kept the concept going all this time. They will now be congregating over at the similarly formatted song-bar.com .

The final topic was on the subject of The Influence of India and I was chuffed to have one of my nominations (out of over 600) selected for the final play list of 13. It was Krishna Blue by David Sylvian which appears on his Dead Bees On A Cake album.

Here's the Guardian write up:

I certainly couldn't have described it better.

David Sylvian got so good after he went solo with a string of excellent albums. The first one I discovered was (ironically also on a bee theme) Secrets Of The Beehive which I remember most for the stunning acoustic guitar as on this track below.

It's a truly beautiful album and for a few years probably my favourite album of all, and not something I would have expected from the ashes of a pop band like Japan. I am shocked now to remember that that album came out in 1987 as it is one of those I remember clearly where I was at the time on first hearing.

Dead Bees was the follow up coming 12 years later!

1. Bonnie Prince Billy - Master and Everyone
2. David Sylvian - Dead Bees On A Cake
3. Efterklang - Springer
4. Mojo Presents - Return to the Dark Side of the Moon with Wish You Were Here Again
5. Fairport Convention - The History Of
6. Gang of Four - Entertainment!

The Gang of Four album isn't my usual sort of listening. Why have it then? Well, several reasons - I like to try all sorts of new music all the time. And the second reason is it literally fell into my lap. I found it in a bush on my walk home from work the other evening - along with three other Cds - REM's Automatic For The People, Cast's All Change, and Echo and the Bunnymen's Killing Moon The Best Of.

On first listen, as expected, I didn't like the simple Jam / Ramones post punk ranting and scattered guitar strumming over pumping bass. It was made in 1979 and so sounds like it. A few more listens and I am beginning to appreciate the Wilko Johnson like staccato guitar. Late in the album there are even a few variations on the theme.

Gang of Four - mostly like Dr. Feelgood but a hint of new romantic dress sense too

How about this for plaudits though - the album was ranked as fifth Greatest Punk Album of All Time and at number 483 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The album was listed by Pitchfork Media as the 8th best album of the 1970s. Kurt Cobain listed it as his 13th favourite album!

Here's his Top 20 for passing interest:

1. Iggy & The Stooges - Raw Power 
2. Pixies - Surfer Rosa 
3. The Breeders - Pod 
4. The Vaselines - Dying for It 
5. The Shaggs - Philosophy of the World 
6. Fang - Landshark 
7. MDC - Millions of Dead Cops 
8. Scratch Acid - Scratch Acid
9. Saccharine Trust - Paganicons 
10. Butthole Surfers - Pee Pee the Sailor 
11. Black Flag - My War 
12. Bad Brains - Rock for Light
13. Gang of Four - Entertainment! 
14. Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols 
15. The Frogs - It's Only Right and Natural 
16. PJ Harvey - Dry 
17. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation 
18. The Knack - Get the Knack 
19. The Saints - Know Your Product 
20. Kleenex - "anything by" 

...interesting, not many I'm aware of there.

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Log #31 - David Sylvian - From Pop Star to Serious Musician

David Sylvian found fame as the flamboyant front man of pop group Japan who were actually active a lot earlier than I'd assumed. They were formed as far back as 1974 ie. in the hey day of prog and glam. This surprised me as I'd always thought of them as an 80s pop band of the Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls, Spandau Ballet type, rather than contemporaries of Roxy Music and David Bowie. To be fair they didn't really emerge proper until the early 80s having adopted a new romantic style.

David Sylvian did not like to be associated with the new romantic movement which may explain the break up of the band at the peak of their success at the end of 1982, and his subsequent about turn in his solo recordings which began with Brilliant Trees in 1984. But the real eye opener for me was Secrets of The Beehive which I heard at a friend's house shortly after it's release in 1987. Frankly, it blew my mind. I thought it was superb and could not believe it was David Sylvian. I don't play it that often now but for a time it was one of my favourite albums and one of those nice surprises to share with others (I remember Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden was a similarly revered "surprise" album).

Continuing his bee obsession Dead Bees on a Cake came 12 years later. It's a lengthy album with 14 mostly substantial tracks touching on jazz, rock, blues and world music - beautifully produced and performed by Sylvian's usual plethora of top notch session musicians who included Talvin Singh, Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and Ryuichi Sakamoto on this one.

David Sylvian through the ages

1. Prem Joshua - Yatri
2. Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
3. David Sylvian - Dead Bees on a Cake
4. Van Morrison - Enlightenment
5. Luke Vibert - YosepH
6. Luke Vibert - Stop The Panic

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Log #30 - Impressive Beards / Mixed Results

1. Willard Grant Conspiracy - Mojave
2. Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
3. David Sylvian - Dead Bees on a Cake
4. John Surman - Coruscating
5. Luke Vibert - YosepH
6. Arbouretum - The Gathering


The Willard Grant Conspiracy album is so so. I used to love this sort of laid back Americana stuff but now it sounds pretty middle of the road and very low key. Actually a bit depressing. The lead singer has one of those baritones popularised by The Handsome Family, Tindersticks and Nick Cave. Sadly on googling a meaning for Willard Grant (there wasn't one particularly) I learn that the lead singer died only this February and that wasn't his name.

Willard Grant singer Robert Fisher 1957 - 2017

I was surprised the band were still going actually. I saw them at our local Komedia venue many years ago, probably around the time (1999) of the Mojave album (which also has a pretty bleak cover) and they seemed jaded at the end of a long European Tour. I could see the drummer lying on the floor back stage before the band made their appearance.

Depressing imagery on the WGC album

Iron and Wine on the other hand really resonate with me. I came to them late when I saw beautifully bearded leader Sam Beam with full electric band at The Green Man Festival in Wales about 7 or 8 years ago. I thought they were excellent - superb musicians, great vocals, and powerful songs especially Your Fake Name is Good Enough for Me. Later I read that diehard fans of Sam Beam were not so impressed with his switch to electric band from his acoustic roots. I've now caught up on the more solo emphasized earlier albums and they are excellent, but that doesn't detract from Kiss Each Other Clean this week's cover album.

Sam Beam, impressively bearded well before it became fashionable

Finally this week a return for Baltimore rock band Arbouretum who I was surprised to see are playing at a tiny venue in Brighton in June. Tickets secured and I hope for some tracks from this guitar laden Gathering album.

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Log #29 - I Love Luke Vibert's Acid

1. Iron and Wine - Around the Well CD 2
2. Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
3. David Sylvian - Dead Bees on a Cake
4. John Surman - Coruscating
5. Luke Vibert - Lover's Acid
6. Luke Vibert - YosepH

I love these heavy beatz Luke Vibert albums from his early noughties acid phase. They sound so fresh and current even though they are both over 10 years old now. An artist who has kept up a remarkably original and consistent standard over a number of years and name changes including Plug, Kerrier District and Wagon Christ.

One of my fave tracks with it's Kraftwerk like pulses and vocoder is I Love Acid from YosepH which does exactly what it says on the tin.

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