Errors-To: owner-ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu Reply-To: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu Sender: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu From: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu To: ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu Bcc: ecto-digest-outbound@ns1.rutgers.edu Subject: ecto #479 ecto, Number 479 Tuesday, 9 March 1993 Today's Topics: *-----------------* 10k Maniacs: BMZ Re: Equipoised Blind Man's Zoo Until the end of the posts Re: Hello, World. Re: cohabitants and the German language laser harps TangD, PG, Sting some buried records Re: Jane Siberry/K.D. Lang Correction Stuff [tm] SOS and Equipoise scans Re: Gloat Warning Re: 10k Maniacs: BMZ ======================================================================== From: drk@leland.stanford.edu (David Koehler) Subject: 10k Maniacs: BMZ Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 15:47:16 PST Hello, I have to agree 100% with Vickie's defence of Blind Man's Zoo. I cannot understand why folks dump on this album. IMO, it is the best thing 10 k Maniacs have ever done. It has a number of really great tunes (Eat For Two, Headstrong, Dust Bowl, and Hateful Hate come to mind) without any real turds that make most of their other albums "uneven" (to use Vickie's word). I second the opinion: *** I Love This Album!!! **** 8-) I was real dissapointed with their latest effort. I'm glad I was able to hear it before spending the money. What do y'all think of OTIE? Regards, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- David R. Koehler "His DNA is skewed!" drk@leland.stanford.edu -- Dr. Beverley Crusher ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================== From: boek@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Christopher Boek) Subject: Re: Equipoised Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1993 12:06:31 +1000 (EST) Doug wrote ... > > Someday I'll be able to concentrate on the lyrics for "Mother Sea", but I just > have no desire to. I simply let that gorgeious piano and wonderful high voice > wash over me, the musical equivalent of walking along the seashore letting the > incessant noisy surf wash deep into my psyche, taking away any emotional > disquiet unreachable by any other agency, leaving behind a clean and quiet > soul, which may be part of the song's point anyway. > Brilliantly put Doug!! *:). I love Mother Sea too, and I don't need the lyrics either. I completely agree with you. I also agree about the quality of Temporary and Eternal. It has some of the most wonderful moments on the album. I love it. Anyway, work calls. Byee, Chris. -- | ||| ||| | ||| ||| ||| | ||Christopher Boek - boek@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au | ||| ||| | ||| ||| ||| | || Dept Elec Eng Univ of Melbourne Australia | | | | | | | | | / "Anybody remotely interesting is mad in |___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___| \_/\_/\_/\_/\__/(:*- some way or another" ======================================================================== From: meth@aol.com Subject: Blind Man's Zoo Date: Mon, 08 Mar 93 21:57:31 EST Hi! I taped this album off the radio the night before it was officially released, and since then I've been wanting to buy it on CD but have never gotten around to it. (Hmmm... I just got enough MaxPoints to order a free CD- maybe I'll pick that one. :) Someone walked off with WESU's copy of it, which seriously pissed me off because I start off every Champagne Jam with a Maniacs song, and when you're missing an entire album it shows within a couple months. My opinion of it has changed over time. When it first came out I was really into it and listened to it all the time, although certain songs from it didn't do much for me at all ("Hateful Hate" and "The Lion's Share" come immediately to mind). I still love "Eat For Two" (that's also imo their best video) and "Dustbowl", but when I'm looking for a Maniacs album I'll almost never pick that tape now. It just was interesting enough to me to keep me wanting to hear it after about a year. "Hope Chest" and "The Wishing Chair", however, are two CDs that often spend time in my CD player. They contain many songs that stand up to the test of time (I bought "The Wishing Chair" two weeks after I acquired "Blind Man's Zoo"), and "Scorpio Rising" is and always be the best piece of music they have ever done. Period. "In My Tribe" will always have a special place in my heart because I bought it at the same time I got my first Kate album ("The Whole Story", in case anyone's keeping score ;), and it saw me through my senior year of high school quite nicely. I would listen to it more often, but the tape is starting to die and I haven't gotten to picking it up on CD yet. It contains some incredible songs, and has also stood up well to the test of time. "Our Time In Eden" is something I've been hearing a lot lately, simply because it ended up in the disc changer downstairs and no one has bothered to take it out for the past month. :> Otherwise, I don't think I would play it much. The songs on it are nice (and I love "Jezebel"), but they don't have the staying power of anything from the pre-"BMZ" days. I think the Maniacs are suffering the woes of slickened-up production- the rawness and innocence (not the right word, but *I* know what I mean :) are missing from the last two albums, and that takes a lot away from them. Vickie, I don't want to come across like I'm belittling the fact that your personal experience has made "BMZ" a very poignant album for you- I can see exactly where you're coming from on that one. But my personal opinion is that musically and even lyrically (but not as much) _BMZ_ and _OTIE_ have gotten progressively weaker, and it pains me to see it happen. Meredith meth@aol.com ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 8 Mar 93 20:50:26 PST From: stevev@miser.uoregon.edu (Steve VanDevender) Subject: Until the end of the posts Angelos Kyrlidis writes: > b)In OLAL, after the 'he'd broken his lease' line, *what* does she sing? > It sounds like 'learn to fly' but I am not sure. I hear "take a bow" at that point. "Take a bow" as in what a performer does after finishing his or her performance. I have no idea what Happy is singing in the right channel during the choruses of "The Flight", though. Thanks, Vickie, for posting those radio stations that have _Equipoise_. I'll have to nag KLCC incessantly now. It's really too bad that KAVE went off the air, since they were probably an even better outlet for Happy. It's also too bad that I now have no idea how to contact the DJ who got my first copy of _Warpaint_ :-). Fortunately, I ordered another one when I bought the complete 1st4 CD set, so I still have a complete collection of Happy CDs at home. ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 9 Mar 93 2:26:17 EST From: WretchAwry Subject: Re: Hello, World. > Hi gang. I just joined the ranks of.. of ... Ectophiles, I guess. Jeff > Burka kept playing Happy CDs whilst I was in earshot, so I went out and got > them all (direct from Aural Gratification, even). > > Oh, by the way, my shoe size is 11.5. > ------ > Mike Matthews, matthews@oberon.umd.edu (NeXTmail accepted) > ------ Hi Mike, I'm sorry I brain-damaged your name :-(. Welcome *Mike*! :-) Vickie ======================================================================== From: Ulrich Grepel Subject: Re: cohabitants and the German language Date: Tue, 9 Mar 93 11:11:59 MET VICKtorY wind: > Uli riches: Thanks, good idea! ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 9 Mar 93 11:53:38 +0100 From: Ulrich Grepel Subject: laser harps Jens said, in reply to me: > Continuing the thread on weird harps: Someone mentioned Jarre's laser > harp recently. While I'll agree that it's probably all show, and doesn't > actually control the synthesizers, I think a real laser harp *could* be > made. It would be pretty expensive though (involving separate lasers for > each "string", and interferometry between the light reflected from the > glowes and the light from the lasers...). > I don't think you would need that type of expensive equipment. Think about something like the scanner checkouts in the supermarket. They use a rotating laser beam, something like Jarre's laser harp uses too. Now if you take quick and short 'shots' of the beam, you just have to measure time to find out what shot got reflected. You won't be able to see any difference on TV or video, but you also won't be able to do that with your multi-beam-thingy. Bye, Uli ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 09 Mar 93 11:03:02 MEZ From: Dirk Kastens Subject: TangD, PG, Sting Hello Ectophiles, I'm back from my (much too short) trip to Portugal. Christine in perfect German: > P.P.S. Dirk, Ich hoffe Portugal war schoen und waermer als hier! :) Yes, thanks. We left Germany in the snow and arrived in the sun. The temperature was 11-15 degC in average. During the first days there was a strong and cold wind so that we didn't feel the sun. That's why I got a serious sunburn and had to walk around with a glowing red face :-\. We've been in the Algarve, the south coast of Portugal, and we had an appartment with a view of the ocean. We rent a car and drove along the coast from Faro to the very south-western corner of Europe (Sagres). All in all it was a nice time. Now I have to work through the bunch of digests. Yesterday I made it through the first half. Jens wrote: >To go further out on the tangent (after all, I'll probably not have my >"Equipoise" for another week... ;-)) of electronic music, anybody/everybody >familiar with Tangerine Dream's "Tyger"? yesyesyes. I followed the music of TD since 1977 and I nearly have all of their albums (26 CDs, lots of LPs, picture discs, etc.) >Unlike most other TD music, this album has some very good female vocals >(so, in fact, this thread still have a tenuous connection with Ecto), >unfortunately, I don't know who the singer is! Her name is Jocelyn B. Smith, I think she's black and she's living in Berlin. >I think this is the best TD album I've heard (if a bit atypical), and I spent >two years looking for a copy. I finally found one in Virgin in Paris... It has just been published in the USA with an additional track. ): It came out in Germany in 1987 (without this additional track). WRT Synergy: For those who don't know: Synergy is Larry Fast, the ex-keyboarder of Peter Gabriel (albums 2-4 and Plays Live, don't know about the first one). Welcome, Wolfgang. Another Ectophile from this part of the world (-: Welcome, Yngve. It's good to hear about how music can change one's life. It changed my life, too. But that's another story (did I post it to the list? I know that I told Vickie about it.) I didn't see anyone mention the new Sting album Ten Summoner's Tales. Isn't it out in the USA, yet? It's GREATGREATGREAT! Au contraire to the depressive Soul Cages it is a very groovy and positive album (WRT the music, I didn't read the lyrics, yet). I played it constantly since I bought it yesterday and I'm in high spirits since then :-) He combined so many different styles on this album: blues/country/jazz/folk with organ and harmonica and he used very complex rhythms (5/8 and 7/8 beats, no wonder that he asked Vinnie Colaiuta to do the job, maybe the world's best drummer. He had nothing better to do than to practice how to play a rhythm backwards. If you hear one of his breaks you'll ask yourself how he'll ever find back to the one (of the beat)). I read in a newspaper that PG is going to release another album this year, called Son of US. It will be a collection of songs that he recorded for US but that didn't make their way to the album. Enough for now. Dirk P.S.: I prefer the :-) because one looks at first into the eyes of a face and therefore I would type the eyes first. ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 9 Mar 93 11:55:01 +0100 From: Ulrich Grepel Subject: some buried records It lay buried here, it lay deep inside me. It's so deep I don't think that I can Speak about it. It could take me all of my life And then Martin said, at the very top of his message: > Uli writes: > >admit it?) ... (ok, this here is buried deep enough)... Heino... (Oops! I'm > >away now... did I break the record for the worst record?) I just have to add that H. nowadays is the host of one of these 'traditional-style' German folk music shows on TV. And you really should emphasize the 'style' part of that phrase. Real German folk music is a little bit different than what they do nowadays. The real one is what H. did earlier and some of this isn't that bad, it's the person of H. that did all wrong. The faked one is what all of them do now. It slowed down a bit by now, but in '91 and most of '92 there were about 3 such shows per week in German TV. And on the main channels. And on prime time. And I think there weren't three prime-time-shows in all that time that had any good music to our definition. MTV is gold. MTV is best. MTV is god (did I really say that?). Oh, H. is not the worst thing in these shows. That's probably the duo called 'Die Wildecker Herzbuben', especially their hit-single (probably one of the biggest selling singles in Germany, tells a lot of German culture music-wise) 'Herzilein'. I won't transcribe/late anything of them, first because they're not anything ectopian at all and second because my keyboard would melt under my fingers. Uli P.S.: My father has this single - he actually likes the song --- yikes!!!! P.P.S.: He didn't buy it, it was a present from someone not in our family. P.P.P.S.: There's actually something good about H.: He inspired several people to do parodies about him that are really funny. Best of them probably by Otto Waalkes. P.P.P.P.S.: Klaus asked what album of H. I have. It's called 'H. und die Sonntagskinder', but Klaus is also right: all of his records qualify! ======================================================================== From: Steve Fagg Subject: Re: Jane Siberry/K.D. Lang Date: Tue, 9 Mar 93 12:33:07 BST On Mon, 8 Mar 93 at 14:27:51 EST, special K wrote: > In-Reply-To: <9303081904.AA25457@lgserv0.cs.uit.no>; from "Yngve Hauge" at Mar 8, 93 8:04 pm > > What album should I buy first by Jane Siberry and K.D. Lang? > If you want to hear Jane Siberry and kd together, get the soundtrack for the > film _Until The End of the World_ and listen to "Calling All Angels". The rest > of the tracks on the soundtrack are rather good as well with Neneh Cherry, REM, > Julee Cruise, U2, and others. This track is also available on a Jane Siberry compilation called "Summer in the Yukon" which has tracks from each of her five studio albums to date on it. This compilation (which I gather from Neille has not been released in North America) may be a good place to start. Otherwise, try "Bound by the Beauty" or "The Walking" first. These are her two most recent albums and are quite similar in feel. They are also both excellent! My personnal favourite has turned out to be her first album (just called "Jane Siberry") which was only released on CD last year, but it's not very representative of the way her music sounds these days so it's probably not a good place to start. I wouldn't bother with "No Borders Here" or "The Speckless Sky" until you decide you're really keen on Jane. A word of warning: for some people, Jane can take a bit of getting into, but if you find her music does little for you at first I would strongly urge you to stick with it for a while because it's well worth the effort once you "click" with the way she works. As far as k.d.lang goes I have little to add to what special K has already told you, but I what I will say is that I *love* "Ingenue" and I'm sure it would appeal to most Ectophiles. Due to its chart success it's also probably the most readily available of her albums. Go for it! -- Regards Steve Fagg ( S.L.Fagg@bnr.co.uk +44-279-402437 ) BNR Europe Ltd., London Road, Harlow, Essex, CM17 9NA, UK *** "Better drowned than duffers. If not duffers, won't drown". *** ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 09 Mar 93 14:04:47 MEZ From: Dirk Kastens Subject: Correction Hi, did I say Sting used 7/8 and 5/8 beats? That would be much too complicated. Of course I meant 7/4 and 5/4. Dirk ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 9 Mar 93 07:22:51 MST From: dbx@teton.atmos.colostate.edu (Doug Burks) Subject: Stuff [tm] Greetings, Vickie goes against the prevailing winds: For reasons unknown and not understood by me, 10M's _Blind Man's Zoo_ gets relegated to the trash heap a *lot* and I just have to pop up every now and then and defend it. I **LOVE** THIS ALBUM!!! [Lotsa stuff sadly deleted] I'll second all of this. The first five songs are among my all-time favorite stretches of music, and the album holds just two wonderful love songs. Re: Save Our Souls: I don't completely disagree with Steve F's, Quenby, and Angelos' disagree- ments, as I sort of indicated in the bracketed section of that paragraph. I've listened to the song or read the lyrics about ten times now, and I've seen my side eight of those times and their side twice. I still find the former more convincing. Just a gut feeling. However, even if I accepted that Happy is being ironic here, I still think she stretched her facts and metaphors past the breaking point. She tried to juggle too many balls at once and fumbled all of them, in my opinion. Even beyond these points, I _still_ find "Save Our Souls" irritating in other ways. Sorry, folks, there's no chance of redeeming this song in my eyes. Well, I will admit that I do like its music. Truce? :) Steve PS'd: None of the above should be construed as a personal flame on Doug. None taken. For every opinion, there's an equal and opposite opinion. :) (Since we've been discussing physical laws :) ) As for what Happy sings behind the chorus of "The Flight": Angelos: VIVA AMORE Quenby: "we are mortal" How about: "Be a mortal"? Yngve asked: What album should I buy first by Jane Siberry and K.D. Lang? Kristi already tackled k.d.lang, so I'll take a stab at Jane Siberry. My personal favorite is _The Speckless Sky_ with _Jane Siberry_ not far behind. You really can't go wrong with any Jane Siberry album. They all show a little different side of her. Doug Burks _O_ dbx@olympic.atmos.colostate.edu |< She really is!! ======================================================================== Subject: SOS and Equipoise scans Date: Tue, 09 Mar 93 10:09:41 -0500 From: matthews@oberon.umd.edu Regarding all the SOS comment, I think everyone's missed what's quite obvious to me. Aliens adbucted Happy, made her sing that song to get you-er, US.. earthlings to comply with a takeover. Simple. Logical. Back to reality... Is there any FTP site where Happy pictures are kept? Those scans I did of the Equipoise cover turned out AWESOME. The 1120x832 one is almost a full size head on a 17" color monitor. It's already created some Happy discussions here at work; I think they made be ready for another try at it. ------ Mike Matthews, matthews@oberon.umd.edu (NeXTmail accepted) ------ Heller's Law: The first myth of management is that it exists. Johnson's Corollary: Nobody really knows what is going on anywhere within the organization. ======================================================================== From: Richard.Dean@central.sun.com (Richard Dean) Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1993 08:32:55 -0700 Subject: Re: SOS and Equipoise scans } Is there any FTP site where Happy pictures are kept? Those scans I did of } the Equipoise cover turned out AWESOME. The 1120x832 one is almost a full } size head on a 17" color monitor. It's already created some Happy } discussions here at work; I think they made be ready for another try at it. i'll have to second mike on this one. i just finished viewing the images and they look really sharp. i mistakenly didn't ask for the largest image, but i guess it's time to do that. /richard mike, can you go ahead and send me the 1120x832 in jpeg format -- many thanks. ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 9 Mar 93 10:38:48 EST From: markp@serpens.sbi.com ( Mark P) Subject: Re: Gloat Warning meth gloats: >It happened with The Tellings "Guardian Angel" and Dave Stewart and Barbara >Gaskin's rendition of "The Crying Game"- you can't tell where the former ends >and the latter begins, it all came across as one long piece of (oddly mated) >music. And it was absolutely unintentional- having never heard either tune >before, it just Happened. > >And the best part is: I got it on tape. :> :> :> :> :> Well, I'm impressed; Its always wild when the universe just synergistically *Works* for a change. Like winning the Lotto! :) Cheers! Marc Power markp@sbi.com p.s. Any other cheery tales out there of fortuitous lucking-out? ======================================================================== Date: 09 Mar 1993 10:52:20 -0500 (EST) From: "she listens like her head's on fire.." Subject: Re: 10k Maniacs: BMZ Hello, I'm afraid this is a bit long.... >>from David Koehler >I have to agree 100% with Vickie's defence of Blind Man's Zoo. >I cannot understand why folks dump on this album. IMO, it is >the best thing 10 k Maniacs have ever done. It has a number of >really great tunes (Eat For Two, Headstrong, Dust Bowl, and Hateful >Hate come to mind) without any real turds that make most of their >other albums "uneven" (to use Vickie's word). I like Blind Man's Zoo but I have to take the songs separately. Eat for two, Trouble Me, Jubilee...actually there are only a few songs I don't like on the entire album; Please Forgive Us, the Lion's Share and Headstrong don't interest me as much. Those are the songs I skip over the most. I just don't like listening to it as a whole, if that makes any sense.. I tend to listen to a few songs than change the cd. I would say that all of their albums are uneven but I like them all... and there are only a *few* truly awful songs.(Anthem for A Doomed Youth on Time Capsule springs immediately to mind!) In My Tribe contains some of my favorite songs but I find the overall feeling of it repetitive. The Wishing Chair....wonderful! >I was real dissapointed with their latest effort. I'm glad I was able to >hear it before spending the money. What do y'all think of OTIE? I thought Our Time in Eden was great! but that is just my opinion...;-) I think I may have been disappointed if it seemed to be just a continuation of their previous efforts. Another In My Tribe? No, thanks, I already own that particular album. Specifically, I found the increased use of piano, the addition of strings and the trumpets to add texture to the whole sound, though it is more subdued than their earlier work. Overall, this rates up there with the Wishing Chair (for me at any rate) its only personal.:-) I seem to have been rambling on a bit here. Some Happy Rhodes stuff... Equipoise is the first thing I have heard from her. The suggestion to buy both Warpaint and Equipoise was a bit beyond my budget at that point in time so I decided to start at the last album and work backwards. Why not? An interesting thing about listening to someone for the first time is that there are no preconceived ideas of how their music will sound. I had heard that Happy sounds like Kate Bush but I assumed that was meant in the same way people say Tori sounds like Kate Bush (which, to my ears, is not at all!). So I stick Equipoise in the cd player and start at the beginning. Runners. Its a duet between Kate Bush and Julia Fordham. Yikes! I didn't really believe that it was the same person singing both parts until I listened to the entire cd. What a range she has! The songs that caught my attention the first time around were Runners (just kept playing that over and over:-) The Flight and Cohabitants. I skipped through Save Our Souls. The sound was sparser than I had expected (a preconception|?). I have heard songs with just vocals and a piano that sound complete but somehow her arrangements sounded very bare to me on some of the songs. I think perhaps this was her use of drums (or synthesized drums) that give it this feeling for me. With just the keyboards and the strong beat it sounds as if something is missing. Sections of Cohabitants and Out Like a Lamb are like this for me. Well, I would like to say that I would definitely recommend listening to this through headphones. I taped the cd to use in my walkman and it has added another dimension to the sound. Maybe it is the immediacy or intimacy of headphones and having the sound right in my ear that changed my perceptions of the music. It has certainly increased my appreciation of Equipoise. I think I'm going to have to hear Warpaint now...;-) --Quenby Chunco ======================================================================== The ecto archives are on hardees.rutgers.edu in ~ftp/pub/hr. There is an INDEX file explaining what is where. Feel free to send me things you'd like to have added. -- jessica (jessica@ns1.rutgers.edu)