From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V11 #293 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Friday, October 28 2005 Volume 11 : Number 293 Today's Subjects: ----------------- newest songs from Allison Crowe ["Allison Crowe Music Mgmt" ] Blind's last show of the year and last show in US of A [Cyoakha ] Re:Bjork lovers check this out [Neile Graham ] Re: of extreme interest to my BLIND friends-Tuvan/Siberian Throat Singers plus Stephen Kent in Hawk Hill Tunnel in SF tom night!! [] Re: myspace & adware [ken_d.lists@comcast.net (Ken Descoteaux)] things and stuff and what have you [paul kim ] Re: Blind's last show of the year and last show in US of A [andrew fries ] Re: Bjork lovers check this out [andrew fries ] Re: of extreme interest to my BLIND friends-Tuvan/Siberian Throat Singers plus Stephen Kent in Hawk Hill Tunnel in SF tom night!! [] Average music spending 21,000 (pounds) [Karen Hester ] King of the Mountain not being released in Australia [Amanda Williams Subject: newest songs from Allison Crowe Effortless ~ http://www.allisoncrowe.com/Effortlesssomebgs.mp3 Skeletons and Spirits ~ http://www.allisoncrowe.com/skeletonsandspirits.mp3 In between her just-finished Canadian tour, and upcoming European tour, Allison has started to record some of her newest songs in her living room. Above are links to the first two songs she's committed to tape. Alley's now got two full-length albums nearly completed, and a third ready to start. Sometime, in the New Year, these can wrapped and released. For now, we hope you'll enjoy these lo-fi treats ( : cheers, Adrian ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 13:57:19 -0700 From: Cyoakha Subject: Re:Bjork lovers check this out not sure if this list is aware of Melissa from Splashdown but even though she's not my cup of tea, (I don't like "baby voices", can't help it, even if they are good vocally, it's the feminist in me that believes we need more kick ass women singers like me and less "ain't I sweet and young" female voices, but I know that those kind of voices are what the world prefers) I think many here on ecto may really like her, at least she is certainly different. Very Bjorkish (in voice, not innovation) and many styles to her cd, jazzy to ecto to folky with piano to full out. First couple of tracks are too pop for me but I know that I live out in left field with my "weird world music"....non pop folks keep moving down tracks, it gets better..and let me know what you all think of her. http://www.fonogenic.com/releases.php?r=176 cyoakha "left field" grace land of the blind edgewalking blind druid sisters tea party azigza ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 15:09:13 -0700 From: Cyoakha Subject: Blind's last show of the year and last show in US of A HI everyone I hope fall is beautiful wherever you are watching the change of seasons. EDGEWALKING BLIND is the new trio out of Land of the Blind, and we are up in Eugene for the 11th Annual Wow Hall Witches Ball on Halloween/Samhain Monday Oct. 31st. Why would a San Francisco band travel all the way up the rainy coast for a gig in Eugene? (a hint, it's not the money, it's a benefit for pagan group Cauldron of Changes) Because it's the most fun you can have on one night that is legal and doesn't require a condom. tee hee ABOUT THE BALL It's a huge group of friendly pagans, from families to freaks. There's a High Ritual, Community Spiral Dance, kids parade, adult costume contest and Blind, that's why! I always have so much fun this night I try to never miss it. Last year I played the Ball with my other band, Druid Sisters Tea Party, and before that, Land of the Blind played 6 years in a row. So this is Blind's 7th ball, my 8th! (sliding scale also, so all are welcome, young and old, rich and poor!) 7:00 doors, 8pm set 1 WOW HALL is located @ 291 West 8th, downtown Eugene, corner of Lincoln and 8th, right off I-5. mo info go to Wow's site below. EDGEWALKING BLIND trio features the fabulous and talented Regina LaRocca (M99 bass player, former Land of the Blind bass player for 4 years, on last 2 albums) on beautiful acoustic guitar, played very Middle Eastern style and she joins me, singer Cyoakha Grace and Krystov, original Land of the Blind member. I just can't blow my own horn, as an artist it makes me kinda sick, even though I know I am supposed to....so if you want to know all about my bio-awards/resume, go to my pro site (below) and hit bio ....but I can sure blow the horn for Reg and Krystov! Krystov (Didg Planet 3) plays didjeridu in this trio as the bass, locking in the big fat grooves and Reg floats around trancing you out while I wail like a Celtic Banchee. It's a mixture of World, Dance, Trance, Folk, Celtic, Middle Eastern and Goth, if I had to categorize our sound. We are also very proud to show Jen Delyth's "Beyond the 9th Wave", an excellent film of her beautiful magical Celtic art. wanna see some?(Jen's site below) TWO SETS We will perform two sets, very different, one around 8pm, folky and semi-mellow, trancey, more Land of the Blind style, mostly songs from our last two albums, and a few new ones. Second set, after the ritual, 10:30-midnight, is up and fun and dancey! These are all new EDGEWALKING songs and wildly fun.... RELEASING LIVE!!! Krystov and I have been working like dogs in order to have new music to release at WOW and we are proud to tell you we are releasing "Edgewalking Blind LIVE" Oct. 31, recorded live at a house concert at Michael's in Portland, "as is", nothing added, an amazingly beautiful concert featuring the Edgewalking trio & guest Blind's keyboardist Equinox! LAST CONCERT THIS YEAR/THIS COUNTRY! EDGEWALKING will next play in AUSTRALIA, on tour in Jan-Feb with my best witch buddy, the amazing aussie singer WENDY RULE!! Keep in touch and we'll let you know the venues, I know for sure we are playing Rainbow Serpent, Australia's Burning Man! Wendy is setting up our joint tour so check out her site below! so any fans/friends up north, Portland and Eugene, please join us at the Witches Ball! We'll have fun! love, CyOakHa Press Write up Come congregate and celebrate the Witches' New Year with music, dance and ritual. This year's ritual will be evoking the Goddess Hecate and honoring our ancestors with a dumb supper. Headlining the musical entertainment for the evening will be the magically spooky dance band Edgewalking Blind. Edgewalking Blind is the newest incarnation of Land of the Blind, the Portland and San Francisco-based world-trance band well known in the northwest as original innovators of trance world music. Pagans and Earth activists as well, they are proud to be a part of the large timeless gathering that is the Witches' Ball. "In this national time of war and disaster, it's good to be surrounded by people of Magic and Magical Music." leader Cyoakha says. Master musicians with strong intentions, the Blind describe their music as "Shamanic Electronic." Dance music gone Tribal with world dance beats, live layering and looping, killer vocals, earthy driving didjeridu, beautiful guitar, chants and shamanic lyrics. The band has been touring the northwest as a trio, but will appear here as a quartet: Cyoakha Grace (The Mad Mushroom Muse) on lead vocals, harmonium, flutes, percussion and live looping; Krystov (Didg Errie Doc) on didjeridu, sitar, dulcimer and chants; Regina La Rocca on Middle Eastern style acoustic guitar and additional vocals; and Gregorio (Shaman) intention holder & shakers, rattles and chants. http://www.cyoakhagrace.com go to bio http://www.wowhall.com/ hit "events" http://www.kelticdesigns.com/ great art! http://www.wendyrule.com/ hot witch! MY EMAIL CHANGE!! As of November 12th, my old email (cyo@landoftheblind.com) will be disconnected Please update you address book with my new email cy@landoftheblind.com which you can use immediately, thanks, (I just had to get rid of the 200 spam emails per day! So tired of penis drug ads and teenage hooker sites, they just aren't helping me on my spiritual quest for some reason!) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 09:55:41 -0400 From: robert bristow-johnson Subject: Re: of extreme interest to my BLIND friends-Tuvan/Siberian Throat Singers plus Stephen Kent in Hawk Hill Tunnel in SF tom night!! i know this is a late response... on 10/21/2005 19:27, Cyoakha at cy@landoftheblind.com wrote: > Hi Friends/Fans/Listeners of eclectic musica! > > for anyone in the sf area, I'm helping out at this very cool concert in a > tunnel with didgeridoo master Stephen Kent and Tuvan throat singers > tomorrow night, it's a one of a kind gig, no shit! > so if you are a sf fan, please > come and check this magic out! (and please excuse me for not having > Portland/Eugene list separated from SF list!) Sometime....when I have more > time, tee hee. Will be happy to see you there, love, cyo sorry, i'm at the "west coast of New England" (Burlington VT), but i would have loved to have seen/heard this gig. is there a web site or tour list for Stephan Kent? is he still associated with City of Tribes? also, are there any other Trance Mission freaks here on the ecto list? next year, i think in October 6-9, 2006, will be the Audio Engineering Society convention in SF. geez i hope that Stephan is playing somewhere locally during that time. > Saturday Oct 22 9:15pm > An amazing place for a concert in a resonant tunnel overlooking Golden Gate > Bridge! > A remarkable group of Tuvan throatsingers from Siberia playing traditional > instruments! > > Octave Alliance invites the Land of the Blind community to join us all for: > Chirgilchen + Stephen Kent = Karashay > It will be warm in the tunnel but bring layers, bring a > low low chair. Handicapped accessible. > > click here for tickets: (if it does not work just go to > www.octavealliance.org/tunnel) > http://www.jambasetickets.com/evinfo.php?eventid=9179 i'm just curious, how much were the tickets for this gig? - -- r b-j rbj@audioimagination.com "Imagination is more important than knowledge." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 15:23:30 +0100 From: Adam K Subject: a month in music (takes years off my life) Laid up at home with a viral eye infection and all-round crapness of feeling, so don't pay too much heed to any of this which, of course, comes with a huge IMHO attached. Oh, Ellen, I'm jealous, but I had my chance to see the gig, and passed on it. Was it full? I recieved Sigur Ros' Takk over a month ago, but haven't had time to sit down and do it justice. I don't think they're one of those acts that you can listen to on the move, so I've resisted ripping it onto my music player, and today I get my first real listen. I like it a lot, so far. Interestingly, I remember disliking () when it came out, finding it rather formless and ambling without the emotional peaks of their first, but critics were raving about it. Now that Takk is out, all the critics are saying, "Oh, it's much better than (), which wasn't very good at all" and even the band have said, "Yeah, we were having some trouble when we recorded that". comforting to know that I'm not always completely demented. Not completely. The story so far, however, has been a pretty dismal one, with artists I'd hoped more from turning out (yeah, IMHO) sub-standard albums, some pretty but forgettable, some just dismal. Michael Penn, La Pina, Eliza Gilkyson, Brian Eno (ugh!) and -- yes -- Dar Williams, who sounds so disconnected I wonder why she bothered (and "Comfortably Numb" is one of the most pointless covers I've ever heard anyone do) Oddly enough, my thrills have been in unexpected places: Someone gave me Antony and the Johnson's "Now I Am a Bird" for my b-day, and I approached it with caution, due to the critical hype and the Mercury Award, which I consider worthless. From the first song, I was enchanted. This is a brave, beautiful, heartbreaking album, full of soul and funk and just...wonderful. I've also come in possession of an album by Meredith Meyer, "Items You Won't Find Elsewhere", which is very, very good. It doesn't maintain the excellent momentum the first four or five songs set up, and her voice could do with a bit more whallop, but it says something that, within one listen, I couldn't get "The Stars Kiss Me Goodnight" out of my head. And, so far, Veda Hille's Return of the Kildeer is my absolute fave album of the year -- and she's coming to London!!! I seem to be wallowing in nostalgia, recently, scouring Amazon marketplace for albums of my youth that I've only had on vinyl.: Gentle Giant re-masters (hmmm...no notes or photos, just "remastered") Steve Hackett's first two solo albums, Dan Fogelburg's "Souvenirs" (one of the first albums I bought) and lots of Roy Wood in various incarnations. I finally got my hands on his superb second solo album, "Mustard", which I can't praise highly enough. This is one nostalgia trip that didn't disappoint, as it 's still a lot of fun. There's a load of bonus tracks, some of which cropped up on the "Outstanding Performer" collection, but some have to be heard to be believed, including one instrumental that includes a massed oboe break. Nobody quite does the earthy combination of jazz/swing/Beach Boys/Phil Spector/Lennon-McCartney quite like Roy Wood does, and I was also pleased to get the last album by his "Wizzard" band, Main Street, recorded in 1976 and not released until 2000. An exceptional, inventive and playful album, the suppression of which doubtless had a bad effect on Wood, who now seems to have retreated into self-production and nostalgia tours. One of music's great losses, I think, and I really hope that they release his first solo, "Boulders" which is fantastic. Imogen Heap's new one is also very good, by the way, but requires further listening. I suspect it may be a bit samey and very much frou-frou like (in itself, not a bad thing) but on my first two listenings it is both beautiful and enthralling, which is all I ask of an album. Time for more drugs... adam k. nr Cloud Atlas/David Mitchell -- absolutely,jaw-droppingly stunning. Highly, highly recommended. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 09:43:57 -0700 (PDT) From: Neile Graham Subject: Re:Bjork lovers check this out Wow, I'm really surprised you consider Melissa Kaplan's voice a "baby voice". Shocked, even. She's no Alison Shaw (of the Cranes) or Claire Grogan (of Altered Images) or Lisa Cerbone (of, er, Lisa Cerbone). Now _those_ are baby voices. Melissa's voice is fuller, richer, more grown-up than that, and she does way more belting it out than whispering girlishly. She doesn't sound sweet to my ears (young, maybe) or fit in my baby-voice category at all. Rather than Bjork, her voice reminds me most of Katharina Franck of Rainbirds. BTW, the album that Cyoakha's link below points to is Universal Hall Pass's _Mercury_, which has had some comment on this list. For me it's not as great as Splashdown, but definitely worthy of note and is good listening. There are samples at Universal Hall Pass's site: http://www.universalhallpass.com - --Neile On Wed, 26 Oct 2005, Cyoakha wrote: > not sure if this list is aware of Melissa from Splashdown but even though > she's not my cup of tea, (I don't like "baby voices", can't help it, even > if they are good vocally, it's the feminist in me that believes we need > more kick ass women singers like me and less "ain't I sweet and young" > female voices, but I know that those kind of voices are what the world > prefers) I think many here on ecto may really like her, at least she is > certainly different. Very Bjorkish (in voice, not innovation) and many > styles to her cd, jazzy to ecto to folky with piano to full out. First > couple of tracks are too pop for me but I know that I live out in left > field with my "weird world music"....non pop folks keep moving down tracks, > it gets better..and let me know what you all think of her. > > http://www.fonogenic.com/releases.php?r=176 > > cyoakha "left field" grace > land of the blind > edgewalking blind > druid sisters tea party > azigza > > - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- neile@drizzle.com / neile@sff.net .... http://www.sff.net/people/neile Editor, The Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music . http://www.ectoguide.org Workshop Administrator, Clarion West ...... http://www.clarionwest.org ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 10:58:48 -0700 From: Greg Bossert Subject: Re: of extreme interest to my BLIND friends-Tuvan/Siberian Throat Singers plus Stephen Kent in Hawk Hill Tunnel in SF tom night!! i've attended a couple of the previous Hawk Hill concerts put on by the Octave Alliance, and they have been mind-blowing in a very mellow way. the tunnel is part of a WW2 gun emplacement in the Marin headlands, looking down onto the golden gate and across San Francisco - -- it's a stunning location that is usually off limits at night. Steven Kent is pretty active around here. he does frequent Didj workshops at the wonderful Clarion Music Center. i'm an AES member too -- remind me in a year or so and i'll see if Steven has anything scheduled during the meeting... - -g - -- greg bossert -- bossert@iceblink.com -- Ice Blink Studios -- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 18:45:54 +0000 From: ken_d.lists@comcast.net (Ken Descoteaux) Subject: Re: myspace & adware I use multiple methods to maintain control of my browsing Firefox + Adblock plugin + userContent.ccs from http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/adblock.html + Privoxy The only problem using a setup like this is if you need to unblock something, it can be difficult to figure out which tool is blocking it. And the other major way to avoid adware, is not to install stuff that you don't know is reputable. - -Ken > > From: "Xenu's Sister" > > MySpace may > > be a memory sink with computer-slowing adware abounding > > (seriously, I have to run Ad-Aware and re-boot every few hours) > > but it's the best thing for people, musicians mainly, > > discovering Happy ever. > > I haven't had any problem like that, I'm using the Firefox browser and > AVG anti-virus (for any Windows users I'd recommend those as well as the > Thunderbird email client) I've also got a Gig of RAM, so that might help. > Yeah, Myspace has it's bad points, but it is a great resource for musicians. > Vickie's done a lovely job on Happy's page, everyone should have a look. > > dave ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 12:54:16 -0700 From: paul kim Subject: things and stuff and what have you Comments (particularly Joann [happy belated birthday!]) sparked me to write. - -Saw Terami Hirsch a few weeks ago, performing at a restaurant in Hollywood. Her new album was mixed by a guy that i used to work with at a studio in L.A. She has a cd preview/release show in Burbank on the 12th of November which I get to go to, and then an official release show at the new expanded Hotel Cafe in Hollywood at the end of the month. - -Kim Fox came out of hiding last week to play a show (lovely as ever) at the Hotel Cafe. It's been 2 years since last she played, and this time, she had a full band. They're shopping for a deal of her album which she spent most of last year working on. She's also been doing non-music stuff, which has kept her out of the limelight. Hopes are to have the album out the beginning of next year. - -Tried to get into the Imogen Heap solo show at the Hotel Cafe (gee, i go there a lot, don't I?) last night. Impossible. She has lots of fans here in L.A. thanks to support on KCRW from Nic Harcourt and Jason Bentley and the exposure she got while in Frou Frou (Garden State, The O.C.). Her performance on Morning Becomes Eclectic yesterday morning was delightful and can be seen and heard at kcrw.com. Because I tried to get into her show and failed, I also missed shows by The Like at the El Rey, Wendy and Lisa (Melvoin and Germano) at Largo, and John Cale at Amoeba Records. - -The Like's album is good. If you've heard the e.p.s, about half the songs come from there, but in a more polished state. Happily, polished doesn't mean they added all sorts of craziness to the songs; they just got better sounds and performances from the girls. I wonder if the days of seeing them at the 150-250 capacity joints around town are over. - -Kyler has a new live-ish album out. Beautiful songs. Her guitarist from New York is currently touring with Dar, so she got us on the guestlist for Dar's show at the El Rey earlier this month. It's been 5 years since I last saw Dar at the Sommerville Theater in Boston (back when her guitarist was atrocious...you know what I'm talking about, Meth and Woj), and 10 years since I FIRST saw Dar at Pearl Street in Northampton (my first year of college...holy crap, that means it's been 10 years that I've been on Ecto). The mix wasn't too good as her vocals were often drowned out by the band, but the band itself was tight as hell, and they gave her songs new life. It wasn't until the end of the show that she pulled out songs from her back-catalog, but what a wallop as she finished with Are You Out There?, February, Iowa, and Cool As I Am (which totally rocked my butt). - -Girlyman suffered from sound mix issues as well, but still won over a lot of people with their energy and harmonies and humor. This was my first time seeing them and hearing their music, but not my first time hearing them, as they had recorded some harmonies and instruments for one of Adrianne's songs that I mixed on her live-ish album. - -Speaking of stuff that I worked on, my friend Victoria's Ukulele album is finally done and you can buy it if you wish from her website www.victoriavox.com Also, one of the songs for which I did a string arrangement (and i'm sad because I'll probably never do a string arrangement that good ever again) is being used for an episode of a new series on A&E called Random 1. *clapping hands excitedly* - -I just plopped the cd "the faraway flying of broken beating" from Philly group The Weeds back into my cd player and was reminded of how much it sounds like Feist. I think I wrote about them here back in April when I saw emily ann zeitlyn perform in L.A. with Angela Correa. Really really good cd...no idea what Emily or the band are up to these days. http://www.theweedsmusic.org/mp3.html Paul ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 09:39:16 +1000 From: andrew fries Subject: Re: Blind's last show of the year and last show in US of A Cyoakha wrote: > LAST CONCERT THIS YEAR/THIS COUNTRY! EDGEWALKING will next play in > AUSTRALIA, on tour in Jan-Feb with my best witch buddy, the amazing > aussie singer WENDY RULE!! Keep in touch and we'll let you know the > venues, I know for sure we are playing Rainbow Serpent, Australia's > Burning Man! Wendy is setting up our joint tour so check out her site > below! That's great news for us down under and I hope you'll enjoy Rainbow Serpent, I know it takes place in a very nice area not far from Melbourne. But do you think you'll get to play any gigs in Sydney? Wendy's website doesn't have any details yet. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 10:34:49 +1000 From: andrew fries Subject: Re: Bjork lovers check this out Neile Graham wrote: > Wow, I'm really surprised you consider Melissa Kaplan's voice a "baby > voice". Shocked, even. She's no Alison Shaw (of the Cranes) or Claire > Grogan (of Altered Images) or Lisa Cerbone (of, er, Lisa Cerbone). Now > _those_ are baby voices. I never considered Melissa's voice a 'baby voice' either; perhaps if she used it in some other context the 'babyness' would stand out more, but in Splashdown... no, never. Either way, I'm a big fan of Splashdown and therefore all things Melissa so I was very happy to learn of Universal Hall Pass (if it was mentioned before I missed it, somehow). And joy of joys, 'Mercury' is carried by my beloved CDBaby, so I could order a copy. It got even better! I don't usually do this, but for once I tried one of those suggestions they offer based on what you order. In this case, it was a band called "Moonraker". Wow, great stuff and for once the recommendation was spot on: Moonraker really should appeal to fans of Splashdown/UHP, or Two Loons For Tea. In other words, Neile :) I grabbed four of their disks, that's how much I liked the samples. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 18:00:47 -0700 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: of extreme interest to my BLIND friends-Tuvan/Siberian Throat Singers plus Stephen Kent in Hawk Hill Tunnel in SF tom night!! Greg Bossert wrote: >i've attended a couple of the previous Hawk Hill concerts put on by >the Octave Alliance, and they have been mind-blowing in a very mellow >way. the tunnel is part of a WW2 gun emplacement in the Marin >headlands, looking down onto the golden gate and across San Francisco >-- it's a stunning location that is usually off limits at night. > Yeah, it's a wonderful place. On my first visit to San Francisco, I met a friend of a friend (now a close friend herself), and we went off to the tunnel to do some recordings on voice, shakuhachi (her, not me), and found percussion. The space sounded wonderful (though there was too much wind noise for us to do much with the resulting recording. And that event led, in a circuitous way, to my living out here now. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 14:56:43 +1300 From: Karen Hester Subject: Average music spending 21,000 (pounds) Interesting short article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4356972.stm "Music enthusiasts are likely to spend more than double that, parting with just over 44,000 pounds in a lifetime, according to insurer Prudential." "The average person owns #891-worth of equipment to play music on and spends around #425 each year on CDs, gigs and magazines." "Some 50% of those questioned, claimed they did not spend money on music, yet still managed to splash out #250 a year." I don't want to do the maths on myself, but I sure don't spend NZ$1200 on cds, gigs and mags a year. Maybe clubbers who drink lots bring the average up. Karen ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 15:40:04 +1000 From: Ms Heidi Maier Subject: kate bush interview. http://www.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,16373,1601608,00.html 'I'm not some weirdo recluse' After more than a decade in the wilderness, Kate Bush is back. What has she been up to all this time? The singer reveals all to Tom Doyle Friday October 28, 2005 We have been waiting for Kate Bush. For 12 years, she has been missing, Garbo-like, from public life, leaving tabloid reporters to rattle up frothing reports, and patient fans to gratefully absorb every molecule of drip-fed information. Until very recently, EMI Music's directors were chewing their nails down to their elbows wondering if their most elusive signatory would ever finish making her eighth, long-gestated record, Aerial. The rest of us could rely on nothing but whispered rumour, adding to an already towering myth. Article continues - ----------------------------------------------------------------------- - --------- - ----------------------------------------------------------------------- - --------- Yet here, in Kate Bush's home, there is a 47-year-old mother of one, the antithesis of the mysterious recluse, dressed in a workday uniform of brown shirt, jeans and trainers, hair clipped up in practical busy- busy fashion, all wary smiles and nervous laughter. We shake hands, tentatively. She seems tiny (five foot three-and-a-half inches) and more curvaceous than the waif-like dancer of popular memory. Famously, Kate Bush hates interviews - the last was four years ago, the previous one seven years before that. So the prospect of this interrogation, the only one she has agreed to endure in support of Aerial, must fill her with dread. Around us there is evidence of a very regular, family-shaped existence - toys and kiddie books scattered everywhere, a Sony widescreen with a DVD of Shackleton sitting below it. Atop the fireplace hangs a painting called Fishermen by James Southall, a tableau of weather-beaten seadogs wrestling with a rowing boat; it is soon to be familiar as part of the inner artwork of Aerial. Balanced against a wall in the office next door is a replica of the Rosebud sledge burned at the dramatic conclusion of Citizen Kane, as commissioned for the video of Bush's comeback single, King of the Mountain, and brought home as a gift for her seven-year- old son Bertie. Can she understand why people build these myths around her? "No," she begins, apprehensively. "No, I can't. Pffff. I can't really." You once said: "There is a figure that is adored, but I'd question very strongly that it's me." There is silence. A stare. You did say it ... "Well supposedly I said that. But in what context did I say it?" Just talking about fans building up this image of you as some kind of goddess. "Yes, but I'm not, am I?" So, do the rumours bug you? That you're some fragile being who's hidden herself away? "No," she replies. "A lot of the time it doesn't bother me. I suppose I do think I go out of my way to be a very normal person and I just find it frustrating that people think that I'm some kind of weirdo reclusive that never comes out into the world." Her voice notches up in volume. "Y'know, I'm a very strong person and I think that's why actually I find it really infuriating when I read, 'She had a nervous breakdown' or 'She's not very mentally stable, just a weak, frail little creature'." This is how 12 years disappear if you're Kate Bush. You release The Red Shoes in 1993, your seventh album in a 15-year career characterised by increasingly ambitious records, ever-lengthening recording schedules and compulsive attention to detail. You are emotionally drained after the death of your mother Hannah but, against the advice of some of your friends, you throw yourself into The Line, the Cross & the Curve, a 45-minute video album released the following year that - despite its merits - you now consider to be "a load of bollocks". You take two years off to recharge your batteries, because you can. In 1996, you write a song called King of the Mountain. You have a bit of a think and take some more time off, similarly, because you can. Two years later, while pregnant, you write a song about artistic endeavour called An Architect's Dream. You give birth to a boy, Albert, in 1998 and you and your guitarist partner Danny McIntosh find yourselves "completely shattered for a couple of years". You move house and spend months doing it up. You convert the garage into a studio, but being a full-time mother who chooses not to employ a nanny or housekeeper, it's hard to find time to actually work in there. Bit by bit, the ideas come and a notion forms in your mind to make a double album, though you have to adjust to a new working regime of stolen moments as opposed to the 14-hour days of old. Your son begins school and suddenly time opens up and though progress doesn't exactly accelerate ("That's a bit too strong a word"), two years of more concentrated effort later, the album is complete. You look up from the mixing desk and it is 2005. If the outside world was wondering whether Kate Bush would ever finish her long-awaited album, then it was a feeling shared by its creator. "Oh yeah," she sighs. "I mean, there were so many times I thought, I'll have the album finished this year, definitely, we'll get it out this year. Then there were a couple of years where I thought, I'm never gonna do this. If I could make albums quicker, I'd be on a roll wouldn't I? Everything just seems to take so much time. I don't know why. Time ... evaporates." There was a story that some EMI execs had come down to see you and you'd said something like: "Here's what I've been working on," and then produced some cakes from your oven. True? "No! I don't know where that came from. I thought that was quite funny actually. It presents me as this homely creature, which is all right, isn't it?" Even if apocryphal, it's a nugget that reveals something about Bush's relationship with a record label she signed to 30 years ago. For a long time now, she hasn't taken a penny in advances and refuses to play them a note of her works-in-progress. In the latter stages of Aerial's creation, EMI chairman Tony Wadsworth would come down to visit Bush and leave having heard nothing. "We'd just chat and then he'd go away again," Bush says. "We ended up just laughing about it, really." If the completion of Aerial put paid to one set of anxieties for Bush, then its impending release has brought another - not least, a brace of newspaper stories keen to push the "rock's mystery recluse" angle. It seems the more she craves privacy, the more it is threatened. "For the last 12 years, I've felt really privileged to be living such a normal life," she explains. "It's so a part of who I am. It's so important to me to do the washing, do the Hoovering. Friends of mine in the business don't know how dishwashers work. For me, that's frightening. I want to be in a position where I can function as a human being. Even more so now where you've got this sort of truly silly preoccupation with celebrities. Just because somebody's been in an ad on TV, so what? Who gives a toss?" A clock somewhere strikes two and the chipper, ever attentive McIntosh arrives with tea, pizza, avocado with balsamic vinegar and cream cake for afters, only to be playfully admonished by his partner, who protests: "I can't eat all this shit!" If there is perhaps less mystery to Kate Bush than we might have expected, her music remains reassuringly the same ecstatic alchemy of the humdrum and otherworldly. Recalling the hello-clouds wonder of The Big Sky from 1985's Hounds of Love or the frank paean to menstruation that is Strange Phenomena from her debut, The Kick Inside, Aerial finds Bush marvelling in the magic of the everyday: the wind animating a skirt hanging on a clothes line, the trace of footprints leading into the sea, the indecipherable codes of birdsong. But the one track on Aerial that best bridges the divide between Bush's domestic and creative existences is the haunting piano ballad Mrs Bartolozzi, in which a housewife character drifts off into a nostalgic reverie while watching clothes entwining in her washer- dryer. It's also the one track set to polarise opinion among listeners, with its eerie, unhinged chorus of "washing machine ... washing machine". Bush acknowledges as much. "A couple of people who heard it early on," she says, dipping a spoon into her avocado, "they either really liked it or they found it very uncomfortable. I liked the idea of it being a very small subject. Clothes are such a strong part of who a human being is. Y'know, skin cells, the smell. Somebody thought that maybe there'd been this murder going on, I thought that was great. I love the ambiguity." The shiver-inducing stand-out track on Aerial, however, comes at the end of the first disc. A Coral Room is a piano-and-vocal ballad that Bush admits she first considered to be too personal for release, dealing as it does with the death of her mother, a matter that she didn't address at the time in any of the songs on The Red Shoes. "No, no I didn't," she says. "I mean, how would you address it? I think it's a long time before you can go anywhere near it because it hurts too much. I've read a couple of things that I was sort of close to having a nervous breakdown. But I don't think I was. I was very, very tired. It was a really difficult time." Kate Bush begins to tidy up the plates and cups and get ready for Bertie's arrival home from school with his dad. Before I go, however, there is one last Bush myth to bust. Apparently, when she attended a music industry reception at Buckingham Palace this year, she asked the Queen for her autograph. Is that true? Instantly a grin spreads across the face of the Most Elusive Woman in Rock. "Yes, I did!" she exclaims, only half-embarrassedly. "I made a complete arsehole of myself. I'm ashamed to say that when I told Bertie that I was going to meet the Queen, he said, 'Mummy, no, you're not, you've got it wrong' and I said, 'But I am!' So rather stupidly I thought I'd get her to sign my programme. She was very sweet. "The thing is I would do anything for Bertie and making an arsehole of myself in front of a whole roomful of people and the Queen, I mean ... But I don't have a very good track record with royalty. My dress fell off in front of Prince Charles at the Prince's Trust, so I'm just living up to my reputation." 7 This is an abridged version of an exclusive 16-page interview with Kate Bush that appears in the next issue of MOJO magazine, on sale on Wednesday November 3. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 15:16:18 +1000 From: Amanda Williams Subject: King of the Mountain not being released in Australia Hi there Like every good little KaTefan, I placed my order with my favourite local record store (Readings) for both KOTM and Aerial, and signed up to receive announcements at www.katebush.com. I was informed from the latter that KOTM was being released today, and rang Readings up to see where my order was at. Only to find that KOTM is not being released in Oz. We are too much of a backwater, and singles are quite often not released here. So, I have decided to throw myself at the mercy of my wonderful colleagues on Ecto. I have also become greedy, and now want the special edition picture disc that is being released. I would be happy to trade for something of equal value. I am not sure how much the picture disc costs. Hope everyone is enjoying their day/night (depending on what hemisphere you're in) Amanda ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V11 #293 ***************************