From: owner-ecto-digest To: ecto-digest@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: ecto-digest V2 #15 Reply-To: ecto@nsmx.rutgers.edu Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Monday, 6 February 1995 Volume 02 : Number 015 The Ecto digest is now being generated automatically. Please send problems and questions to: ecto-owner@nsmx.rutgers.edu. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ROBNPAM@delphi.com Date: Sun, 05 Feb 1995 18:54:09 -0500 (EST) Subject: Satan oscillates... Megadeth has never released an album by that name. Soundgarden did, however, release an EP called SOMMS, dual-packaged with their album Badmotorfinger, SOMMS indeed standing for the infamous oscillating palindrome under discussion. From the home of useless metal trivia :) - --Pamela ------------------------------ From: anthony@xymox.apana.org.au (Anthony Horan) Date: Sun, 5 Feb 95 18:23:26 +1000 Subject: Re: Highlander Musicians. > For all the Highlander (film) fanbs out there, I recently checked > out the new movie Highlander:The Final Dimension. It had the feel of the > original. I guite liked it. The special effects are great as is the duel > choreography. Is this why I decided to bother you? Well, not exactly, > but could you blame me if I did? Just a side note for non-US Highlander fans: the film is released in the rest of the world as "Highlander 3 - The Sorceror". Director this time around is Andy Morahan, who despite being tagged as "the guy that directed the Guns'N'Roses videos" constantly, actually had an extensive music video career in the UK for years before that, doing clips almost as frequently as Russell Mulcahy, for the likes of OMD (the entire "Crush" video collection), Pet Shop Boys, and (gulp) KajaGooGoo! > No,, the real reason I decided to post is that during a scene shot > in Glasgow, the most beautiful music was being played. I decided to wait > out the lengthy credits to find out who the musician was. It was our own > beloved ecto-goddess Loreena McKennit fillingb out the musical role. In There's a debate going on over on aus.films at the moment about that - along the lines of "who's this Celtic git, we want our Queen music!!!" :-) > fact, she's got three songs listed on the soundtrack. I don't know their > names. I have a really poor short term memory, except for numbers. As BTW Australian readers - Loreena's touring in March, and this time she's bringing the whole band! Finally! > I remain Chad, but I will soon be the mathematician formerly known as > Chad... Ni! - -- - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anthony Horan, Melbourne Australia - anthony@xymox.apana.org.au Physical mail: P.O. Box 40, Malvern 3144, Victoria, Australia "The red sky was bleeding glimpses of heaven, in sections of seven..." - Rose Chronicles reaching lyrical perfection on "Awaiting Eternity" - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ From: "Lundgren, Chad" Date: Sun, 05 Feb 95 18:54:05 CST Subject: Sarah video???!!!! 'Lo all, I hope all of you are very happy. I nearly had a heart attack in Best Buy yesterday. What started as a minor shopping excursion for my brother and I nearly ended in disaster. We were shopping for the new Mazzy Star CD (newest anyhow) and what do I see out of the corner of my eye on the video rack above the M section? Sarah McLachlan- Fumbling Toward Ecstasy Live!!! Oh wow! Why didn't I know about this??? Why didn't anyone say anything???? I know. I don't blame you guys. I love you guys. You were probably talking about it during the dark period in my former digest subscription deal. I didn't get any stuff back then. Still, someone could have grabbed me by the hair, slapped me around a bit and informed me of this video masterpiece. (The grabbing and the slapping is something I've gotten used to and have learned to enjoy.) In case you guys didn't know about it, though you probably do, I'll give you the details. I'm probably about to put my foot in my mouth about now. This is also something I've gotten used to and learned to enjoy. The tape includes live performance footage taped at a show in Montreal at L'Olympia as well as behind the scenes interviews and live studio performances. The list of stuff is as follows... (Everything without anything written after it is from L'Olympia...) Plenty Good Enough Wait Home Ice (Live Studio) Ben's Song Out of the Shadows The Path of Thorns(Terms) (Live Studio) Hold On Possesion Mary (Live Studio) Ice Cream Fumbling Toward Ecstasy Ol `55 (Live Studio) It all comes to a whopping 90 minutes and 22 seconds. And how much would you pay for this marvelous item? $5,000,000,000? $5,000,000? Well, if you do, I may have a copy available. If not, you could pay what I paid. A paltry $12.97! Talk about value for your dollar. Other good news: I picked up Rhodes II on CD. Happy never fails to surprise me. Why hasn't this woman gone platinum yet? (Much live the number of licks to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop mystery...The world may never know.) What a great CD!!! I have also moved out of the Lundgren Family Estate and into a rat trap of an apartment closer to school. It is pretty ratty, but it's mine. I'm a happy camper all in all. Thanks to all the people who comprise my net support system (yes, that means you guys :). Later all.... Chad Chad Lundgren--------->lundgren_c@music.lib.matc.edu 10223 W. Terra Ave. ************************************************* Milwaukee, WI 53224 *"Are you pondering what I'm pondering Pinky?" * * -The Brain (Animaniacs) * *HUGS* and *PONGS* ************************************************* for all!!! * "I think so Brain, but where are we going to * * find rubber pants our size?"-Pinky * ************************************************* ------------------------------ From: Dave Cook Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 09:08:30 +0800 (WST) Subject: Re: Highlander Musicians. On Sun, 5 Feb 1995, Anthony Horan wrote: > BTW Australian readers - Loreena's touring in March, and this time she's > bringing the whole band! Finally! > Anthony, do you know if she is coming to Perth???? Cheers, Dave +---------------------------------------------+ | Dave Cook Perth, Western Australia | | Internet: davecook@yarrow.wt.uwa.edu.au | +---------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ From: justicek@edge.ercnet.com (Kim Justice) Date: Sun, 5 Feb 1995 19:44:52 -0500 Subject: Re: the freezing cat stole my fries At 6:12 PM 2/5/95 -0500, THE OLIVE-LOAF VIGILANTE wrote: >(I had the grave misfortune to attend a party last night where at >one point we ended up watching a Bon Jovi laserdisc - ecccch) A Bon Jovi laserdisc?!?!? Sad, sad, very sad. >...and then they >might start to notice that the women are better than the men, in creativity >as well as musicianship... Maybe. When I have the misfortune to enter a local bookstore on their periodic Writers' Night nights, I note that cliches and hackneyed phraseology are equally in force for both sexes of performer. I think I know what you mean, but I can't agree that either sex has is superior in terms of musical talent, ability, or what-have-you. >Personally, I believe that the record companies aren't allowing more women >like Kate, Tori, etc. etc. loose on an unsuspecting world because they know >damn well that if all that incredible talent were to be let out there at >once there would have to be an implosion somewhere. A lot of it is probably an inability to differentiate. Another angle on this: when you go in a CD store, there seems to be a reasonable percentage of female artists in the bins, but when you look closer you see that the bulk of them fall into the category I call "girl and drum machine." Usually, the "girl" can dance really well. It's a problematic category because it allows record company people to say "Oh, we have plenty of women on our label" when the fact is they view these women almost as interchangeable parts--the (male) producer's the one who wrote and arranged everything, then just dropped the Voice/Face on top of it to complete the package. ISUN (I'll shut up now) kj - -- justicek@edge.ercnet.com (Kim Justice) "Let's remember that music is not the music industry." - Keith Jarrett Finger my account for a FREE cassette offer. No, really! ------------------------------ From: Robert Lovejoy Date: Sun, 5 Feb 1995 21:12:04 -0500 Subject: Ectophile mentioned in Philadelphia Newspaper! (and others) The Philadelphia Daily news ran a story about Dave Letterman's top ten mailing list. Aaron Barnhart was the focus of the article, but "Barnhart doesn't actually compile the list. Sue Trowbridge, a free-lance writer, does it. "Since Barnhart and Trowbridge took over, the list has acquired some bells and whistles..." The article concludes with subscription info. Congrats to Sue on her recognition! Anyone remember the efforts made - was it two years ago? - to bring the story of ecto to the papers? And is it grammatically correct to ask two questions in one sentence, or to ask even more, perhaps tossing in a phrase that is totally meaningless just to add to the confusion? But I digress. The article was by Yardena Arar for the Los Angeles Daily News, and ran on Feb. 1. Now, back to your regularly scheduled mail. Bob Lovejoy, cub reporter ------------------------------ From: David Dalton Date: 5 Feb 95 18:14 -0800 Subject: Siren's Whisper Here's a slightly edited note from Tonya Kearley on rec.music.celtic: T> -kathy phippard and esther squires, siren's whisper. T> The girl'eens are contemporary/indigo girls/crash vegas/sarah T> macglacghlan types with all original material and heavy traditional T> tones within! very good stuff! Many well known Newfoundland musicians T> are featured on it and it is highly rated. I recommend it. T> Contact me for more info any time? by the way... have you ever been to T> God's country.. Newfoundland , that is? all the best, Tonya Kearley T> tkearley@plato.ucs.mun.ca This probably could be phone ordered from Fred's Records (709)753 9191, fax (709)739 4849. I don't have a copy yet but will review it when I get one, so e-mail Tonya if you want more details. David - -- - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Dalton --- Earth science doctoral student ---- -- -- and Thea's/Koerner's (UBC grad centre) music booker/tech --- 3-2406 W. 5th Ave, Vancouver, BC, V6K 1S8, Canada (604) 733-1303 ------------------------------ From: jeffw@jane.tiac.net (Jeff Wasilko) Date: Sun, 5 Feb 1995 21:32:50 -0500 (EST) Subject: Amy X Neuburg? Has anyone heard of her? I just got a promo CD that had a few cuts from her album _Songs 91 to 86_ that sound quite good. The promo material that came with it makes the obligitory comparisions to Kate, as well as Laurie Anderson, and the Roches, to name a few. Thanks, Jeff - -- Jeff @ Home.... "With all the confidence I have, it seems I could go forever, but forever has no rest stops."--Happy Rhodes [smoe] ------------------------------ From: Sue Trowbridge Date: Sun, 5 Feb 1995 23:14:36 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: Ectophile mentioned in Philadelphia Newspaper! (and others) On Sun, 5 Feb 1995, Robert Lovejoy wrote: > The Philadelphia Daily news ran a story about Dave Letterman's top ten > mailing list. Aaron Barnhart was the focus of the article, but "Barnhart > doesn't actually compile the list. Sue Trowbridge, a free-lance writer, > does it. Woo hoo! Thankyouthankyouthankyou for pointing this out, Bob!! This Los Angeles Daily News piece has been turning up all over -- it's also been in the Detroit News/Free Press. We're up to 43,000 subscribers, and adding several hundred new ones every day. > Anyone remember the efforts made - was it two years ago? - to bring > the story of ecto to the papers? And is it grammatically correct to ask > two questions in one sentence, or to ask even more, perhaps tossing in a > phrase that is totally meaningless just to add to the confusion? But I > digress. :-) I remember. With so many newspapers running Internet columns now, I think it would be a SUPERB idea to put together an informative message about ecto and send it to the reporters writing these things. I can come up with at least three email addresses for this purpose -- besides the Los Angeles Daily News, the Washington Post, Washington Times have weekly columns on what they usually refer to as the (ack! gag!) "information superhighway." Anyone want to volunteer to write such a thing? - --Sue Trowbridge //////////////////////////trow@access.digex.net\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ "It's one of the few places in life where good and evil are so clearly defined." --Bob Mould on professional wrestling /////////////////////////////trow@charm.net\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ ------------------------------ From: THE OLIVE-LOAF VIGILANTE Date: Sat, 04 Feb 1995 17:57:17 -0500 (EST) Subject: Laurie Anderson -- The Nerve Bible (SPOILER WARNING) Hi! Now that a week has passed and I've had time to absorb the experience, it's time to finally write about Laurie Anderson's Nerve Bible show, which had its preview performance at Purchase College in Purchase, NY last Saturday evening. I know Anja has already posted details about it here, but it's always good to get multiple perspectives, no? (Besides, I can spell the names of the people I was there with correctly. ;>) So, if you are plan- ning to see this show when it comes to your town and want the experience to be entirely new, hit "delete" now! Now you can't say I didn't warn you. :> Attending in our raging horde were myself, woj, Jeff Wasilko, Mike Curry, Tamar and her ubiquitous Mr. Graham, Anja, and my friend Shura, who has turned up in previous ectogathering reports and has held the title of Honorary Ectophile for some time now. (She'll be at Happy's Bottom Line appearance, so those of you who are going who have not yet met her will get your chance then. :) Our seats were excellent: in the same row as the sound board, a few seats to the right of it. We had a perfect view of the entire stage, and the sound was great. My only previous live Laurie experience was seeing her Empty Places show in Munich in 1990. She did the whole thing in German, since it is her policy to deliver her performances in the vernacular of whichever country she is in at the time, and to this day I am kicking myself for not taping it. The Nerve Bible is structured similarly: keyboard and set of dual microphones to the left of the stage, set of dual microphones in the center of the stage, and behind this three screens upon which the visuals are projected throughout the show. She continued to employ things that have appeared in shows throughout her career: the big blinking light accompanied by the loud "scrONK" alarm sound (listen to _Home Of The Brave_ to hear what I mean :), and of course her electro-violin was everywhere, sewing the individual pieces of the show together. She also used the bow to cue her lighting, sound, and video people (I'm sure she also had a stage manager providing cues, but it was clear at least the video god was paying attention to her at times). Her big new technology for this show was the MIDI suit. She had gloves which made clapping sounds whenever she made a fist, and a touch-pad which made a convincing heartbeat sound when she struck her chest. (I hope she develops this further; she only used it at the very beginning of the show and for a few minutes at the end, and it has so many possibilities...) The visual leitmotif was girders. The set piece upon which the screens stood (and upon which Laurie sat from time to time when delivering her monologues) also served as a projection screen, and for most of the first half of the performance looked like a big red I-beam. Vertical I-beams also appeared on the edges of each of the screens for most of the first half, with various images in between them depending on what was going on sonically. The first half of the show concentrated on dead people she knew: her grand- mother, her father, John Cage, and others. Songs from _Bright Red_ appeared here, including "Bright Red", "Speechless", "Speak My Language", and "World Without End". She even delved into _Tightrope_ with "Night In Baghdad". She also introduced the thematic thread which connected both halves of the show: "Are things better now than they used to be, or worse?" She didn't pretend to answer this question, but explored its possibilities, especially in the second half. She told some old stories, such as the one about when she taught art history at CUNY and made up what she didn't know, then got caught when her students went to other teachers the next semester; and many new ones, mostly about her time touring in Europe during the Gulf War, and her more recent trip to Israel, during which time she spent a day setting off bombs in a parking lot with her Israeli promoter, who spent his weekends in a military reserve bomb squad. She spoke of the irony: "Here I was, a citizen of the largest arms seller in the world, with a citizen of the second largest arms buyer in the world, setting off terrorist bombs in a parking lot, and having a great time." During intermission I stood in line for the bathroom in front of an older woman and another woman who was probably her daughter. The older woman was saying, "It's strange, when you're in her apartment it's so easy to forget that she does this for a liv- ing, because it's a perfectly normal place in a part of town you wouldn't expect someone like her to be living in, and if you didn't know better you would be totally shocked to hear that this is the stuff she does for a living. I mean, this is the first time I've ever come to see one of her shows, and I gotta tell ya, it's not what I expected *at all*. I mean, it's so weird!" Then she and her daughter went on to rant and rave about how her little bit about the bombs in Israel deeply offended the both of them ("It's not funny. When I was living there knowing that I could be blown up any time, it wasn't a laughing matter"), but they decided to stick it out until the end "because we came all the way out here to finally see her do a show, and it's the least we can do." Whoops. I also heard many other older women in the line saying things like, "I just don't get it. Is there anything to get?" Erm, yes, as a matter of fact... :) The second half was a bit brighter in tone than the first. She included songs like "Poison", "Muddy River", "Tightrope", "The Puppet Motel", "Coolsville" (the visuals for this were the same as in the Empty Places show), "Same Time Tomorrow" and snatches of "In Our Sleep". It began with the screens removed from the stage, and two objects hanging over the stage like a moon and a cube (woj thinks she was deliberately using the Electronic Arts logo :) upon which images were projected (the moon looked like a clock at one point, etc.). The screens soon came back, but the objects remained there for the rest of the performance. She concentrated on the "are things better or worse now" theme here, and in the middle did a bit on the Internet that was truly classic. It looked like she had logged a WWW session, then taken the URLs and other net.addresses and put them together to make the visuals. She began by saying, "You know, the thing I like best about the Internet is the rumors." She then went on to recount the whole "Microsoft has bought the Vatican" thing, which, it was clear, everyone in the audience but us thought she had made up. :) The show ended with her playing her violin madly in front of a wash of green laser light, walking down a walkway toward the back of the stage until she seemed to disappear. It was a cool effect. She got a partial standing-O (definitely from us!), and a lot of appreciative applause. I think people enjoyed it quite a bit -- I know I did. I wonder if she's going to change anything for the actual tour... I guess I'll just have to check it out and see. :> It's a shame that the tour got postponed and not the release of the album, because _Bright Red/Tightrope_ really didn't make much sense to me until I saw the show and it all came together. I imagine other people are thinking the same thing. I'm also glad the tape came out, because it's taken another listen to fully realize just what was going on. I suppose I'll have to see the show again when it comes to NYC, just to make sure I got it right. ;) If this show is coming to your area, GO. That's an order. Laurie Anderson is one of the most accessible performance visionaries of our time, and the stuff she does is simply incredible. Besides, she really does know how to tell a good story. +==========================================================================+ |Meredith Tarr meth@delphi.com| |Boonton, NJ USA finger info at: mtarr@eagle.wesleyan.edu| +==========================================================================+ |Excuse me Newt, but I don't recall being asked to sign on any dotted line!| +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ From: elisheva@netaxs.com Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 00:40:14 -0500 (EST) Subject: Jewel of Denial [APOLOGIES IF THIS WAS ALREADY SUBMITTED BY SOMEONE ELSE, I JUST JOINED ECTO TODAY.] Hot diggity dental dams! I heard this AMAZING new singer/songwriter tonight, and people on this list would just freak over her. Her name is Jewel Kilcher (Rilcher?), and according to the gospel of St. Milla the Cyrillic, she goes by her first name, "Jewel". She is from ALASKA, and she looks about 20. So I get to my favorite coffeehouse, ya know, the one with the coffee, on 13th St, and I'm not expecting anything, because usually the performers there are umm delightfully horrible, with names like "Melvin and the Spatulas" and "The 3-chord Hippie Nuggets featuring Agnes Dayee", and then Jewel takes the (pathetically) tiny stage, with her guitar, and DAMN! She's GREAT! It's rare when a singer can bring tears to my eyes like she did. If I had to describe her sound, it would be thus: "A filet of Sarah McLaughlin marinated in Joni Mitchell, sauteed in a lovely Tori wine sauce, served with a side of lightly seasoned Milla chips and a vintage bottle of Rickie Lee Jones." Since these are all ectoesque singers, you can see why I wanted to share this. And no MSG, folks! She has this wonderful diverse voice, powerful, precise, artistically perfect, and with the honesty and emotional intensity of Tori. Her songs are very diverse, some are hilarious, some are emotionally in-your-face and brutally honest, some are just beautiful. She sometimes has this half-talking half- singing melismatic thing. And she reminds me an awful lot of Milla - similar looks, facial expressions, mannerisms. She talks to the (coffee-saturated) audience between songs, for minutes at a time, and has this little-jaded- girl hilariousness thing happening. Alas, I ramble. Anyway, her first CD is being released on Atlantic Records on February 29, so go buy it. Don't be deceived by the tacky album cover. (or her tacky name) And, since she's on tour, try to catch her live. For Philly people, she's playing here 3 more times this month - - email me for info. /~\ C oo Jon Held DISTRIBUTION: apartment _( ^) elisheva@netaxs.com / ~\ "Internet, on a stick!" *THIS MESSAGE WAS TRANSMITTED ON 100% RECYCLED ELECTRONS* ------------------------------ From: dkastens@titan.rz.Uni-Osnabrueck.DE (Dirk Kastens) Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 08:55:15 +0100 Subject: Maire Brennan Hi, talking about Joni Mitchell, I've just bought the new Maire Brennan album Misty Eyed Adventures. It contains a cover of Joni's Big Yellow Taxi. I don't know the original version, but this one is brilliant. Maire really sings like Joni (only on this song, of course). The whole album is just wonderful, although it's very similar to her first solo album. If you like this kind of music, I highly recommend it. - -- Dirk ______D.Kastens@rz.Uni-Osnabrueck.DE______ ------------------------------ From: S.L.Fagg@bnr.co.uk (Nightwol) Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 09:52:49 +0000 Subject: Toyah (was: Re: Squonk Opera) At 8:30 am 2/2/95 -0500, Sam Murgie wrote: >larne, >> I must admit I haven't heard anything else Toyah's done, although I >> think I had a discography at some point. Got any recommendations? > >to tell you the truth, i've not heard alot of toyah's work as it is >extremely hard to find in the USA. but i do own several import 45's - >they all border on punk but in an interesting way (i'd be hard pressed >to recommend them, though). i also own Sundays All Over the World, toyah's >collaboration with hubbie bob fripp - i like it - it's sort of king crimson >meets concrete blonde (both of whom i like). toyah has put out two albums >in the last couple of years but i have been unable to find them. anyone >in ectoland actually listen to these and/or could tell me where to find >said albums?????? Nowadays Toyah's albums are quite hard to find even here in her native UK. As Sam says her early efforts were products of the post-punk renaissance of British pop music in the early '80s, but the rough edges of were smoothed off during her years of riding high in the UK pop charts with an impressive string of big hits. After this phase of her career her recording has been sporadic and the quality of the albums very variable. Also no two recent albums are remotely similar. I have all her albums (except the 'Sundays All Over the World' collaboration with Fripp which I have been looking out for ever since its release without success) and the vast majority of the singles from her early and middle periods. Her albums are: * 1979 Sheep Farming in Barnet * 1980 The Blue Meaning * 1980 Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! (live) - -- these three are her early, raw, post-punk period * 1981 Anthem 1982 The Changeling 1982 Warrior Rock (live double) 1983 Love is the Law - -- these are from her chart success days, which were all but over by 1983 * 1985 Minx * 1987 Desire * 1988 Prostitute * 1991 Ophelia's Shadow * 1994 Dreamchild A '*' indicates that the album has at some time been available on CD (though I do not own a CD copy of 'Anthem' much to my chagrin). In the UK a compilation CD was released last year (with the stunningly original title of 'Best of Toyah') which is an excellent 16-track survey of her career to 1983 including several non-album singles and B-sides. As for her recent albums... As I said, in my 'Top 10 of 1994' posting, about 'Dreamchild': "for this outing she teams up with a very modern-sounding dance-oriented production team and the tracks are all very similar in sound and approach, but her quirky voice still attracts me and it is clear that she is enjoying herself here". I saw her on tour in support of this album. She performed the album to backing tapes in the first half (with a backing singer) then brought on a band after the interval to perform a set of old favourites that demonstrated that (a) the songs really were as good as they had seemed ten years ago, and (b) Toyah is still an amazingly powerful performer with unbelievable energy and a charismatic stage presence. 'Ophelia's Shadow' is a rather variable collection of self-penned songs (with various collaborators - including two with Fripp) all of which seem to be more or less inspired by Toyah's response to the character from 'Hamlet'. (Anybody know if she played Ophelia at around this time?). Should anybody be interested in a swap, I happen to have a spare copy of this CD. 'Prostitute' is decidedly wierd. I would not recommend it to anyone other than Toyah completists. It is a very noisy and at times almost incomprehensible through-composed album on the topic of prostitution. 'Desire' is probably her most approachable album for several years. It is a mixture of new songs two cover versions (Martha & the Muffins' 'Echo Beach' and Donna Summer's 'Love's Unkind'). The last two songs, 'When a Woman Cries' and the title track (the latter co-written with Fripp), for me rank amongst the best things Toyah has ever recorded. Recomended. 'Minx' has just five originals (two singles (which flopped) and their B-sides amongst them) and seven cover versions. The performances are not at all bad but I'm notvery keen on many of the songs she choses to cover. When 'Love is the Law' was recorded Toyah was at the peak of her chart success but this album and the singles from it failed to maintain that run of big sales. It is a rather tired and routine set of songs more or less in the same mould as the two preceding studio albums, but an extra veneer of sophistication does not compensate for the obvious fact that by this time the inspiration was drying up. The live double 'Warrior Rock' (recorded over two nights at London's Hammersmith Odeon (now the Hammersmith Apollo) - yours truly being among the wildly enthusiastic sell-out crowd) was the culmination of a long, triumphant tour and the power of the band is well caught on the recording - superb stuff! 'The Changeling' was the second part of Toyah's one-two knockout. A worthy followup to 'Anthem' and every bit as essential in my opinion. No resting on the laurels of her by-now massive chart success for Toyah. 'Anthem' was the album that broke Toyah into the big time in the UK. It demonstrated that there was a lot more to her than the hit singles (brilliant creations though they were in their own right). Not as raw as the first two albums but by no means less quirky and original. Many would say this was her best ever album. 'Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!' says it all about the early Toyah. All the best songs from the first two albums and a couple of non-album singles tracks are given extraordinarily powerful and energetic live renditions before an enthusiastic crowd. The electricity is tangible. A classic. 'The Blue Meaning' is pretty much the mixture as before. Includes the original version of the classic Toyah anthem 'IEYA'. 'Sheep Farming in Barnet' is raw post-punk new-wave energy. Angry and urgent, her vocal delivery is forceful and uncompromising, the songs are decidedly quirky and at times downright peculiar. It still sounds fresh and original fifteen years on. OK, so I lied and didn't restrict myself to the "recent" albums! :-) - -- Steve Fagg a.k.a. Nightwol ( 'phone: +44-1279-402437 ) ( s.l.fagg@bnr.co.uk (work) nightwol@dircon.co.uk (home) ) *** We tried to add it all up and got merely sunrise. *** *** Try putting that in a letter to someone in exile. *** ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V2 #15 ************************* ======================================================================== Please send any questions or comments about the list to ecto-owner@nsmx.rutgers.edu