From: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org (idealcopy-digest) To: idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Subject: idealcopy-digest V1 #38 Reply-To: idealcopy@smoe.org Sender: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk idealcopy-digest Thursday, April 23 1998 Volume 01 : Number 038 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: FWD: RE: Colin's solo stuff [james flodin ] Re: Colin Solo Opinions... [Craig Grannell ] Re: FWD: Re: Recent postings and suchlike ["Thom S. Heileson" ] Re: Colin's solo stuff (consolidated reply) [Thom Heileson Subject: Re: FWD: RE: Colin's solo stuff At 09:29 PM 4/21/98 -0500, Miles Goosens wrote: >The second of two bounces... > >From: Craig Grannell >To: idealcopy@smoe.org >Subject: Re:Colin's solo stuff >Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 18:51:40 +0100 > >> I recently picked up a copy of Newman's "Provisionally Entitled The Singing >> Fish" and have been enthusing about it ever since to anyone who'll listen. >> Can anyone recommend any other Newman solo releases of a similar vein? >> >I have four of Colin's LPs and so here's what I think of them - > >A-Z(80) >Following on from Wire but in a more 'pop' manner. Probably Colin's >most mainstream work and it is not always enhanced by the OTT >keyboards. A couple of tracks stand out, notably ALONE which was >in Silence of the Lambs. Dead cheap in the UK (about six pounds) but I >don't know about elsewhere ... > >SINGING FISH(81) >Well, it's okay but lacking something. Fish one is great but some of >this is too understated. I reckon this album came out in the wrong >decade, had it have been done now with samplers etc I reckon it'd've >been a lot better. > >NOT TO(82) >Better than most Wire albums in my view. Bloody good. In fact You Me >and Happy is my seond favorite Newman track ... > >BASTARD(97) >... after Orange House and Blue House off this, Newmans best in my >view. This LP, his CN SWIM debut is fantastic and probably also >the closest to Fish musically (it's instrumental and very rhythmic). > >Buy it! > >BTW, if anyone on this list has either a copy of It Seems or Commercial >Suicide on CD that they don't want anymore then please mail me! > >----- >Craig Grannell >c.n.grannell@uwic.ac.uk >"It's just for now ... " >----- > >====================================================================== >"If a million people say a stupid thing, it is still a stupid thing." > -- Anatole France > >Miles Goosens >outdoorminer@mindspring.com > >http://www.mindspring.com/~outdoorminer/miles >====================================================================== > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 11:49:00 +0100 From: Craig Grannell Subject: Re: Colin Solo Opinions... On Tue, 21 Apr 1998 20:12:54 -0700 Chad Wilson wrote: > > Bastard - Uhhhh... ok... The music is pretty good, but nothing ground > breaking really. I am not into "electronic music" so this one exited the cd > player after about 2 passes. What really did it in for me was the lack of > any vocals. We can go back and forth as to the artistic merit of this, but > the fact is I don't like it so... 3 Stars! I find it hard to be moved by > classical and other types of music with no vocals. It is REALLY hard to get > moved by sequencers and keyboards bouncing around without a story in them. > 3 stars?! Shocking! I was surprised by the lack of vox at first but agree with Colin's comments on their removal in that they so often distract from the 'other bits'. One ends up listening to the words rather than the song. Personally I am quite happy to listen to the bulk of Wire and related stuff and any other music for that matter regardless of lyrics. I feel that the music / sounds can evoke an atmosphere that becomes universal to anyone that listens to it. If the listener does not understand English they may get some of the emotion in a Wire / CN etc track but not any content. With instrumentals this isn't a problem. If we're going for stars now I'd say the following: A-Z (7) Fish (5) Not to (8) Bastard (9) Mind you, it's all personal taste. ;) - ----- Craig Grannell c.n.grannell@uwic.ac.uk ST95010024@uwic.ac.uk "It's just for now ... " - ----- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 10:06:32 -0800 From: "Thom S. Heileson" Subject: Re: FWD: Re: Recent postings and suchlike > As for the rhythms - I reckon both 'So and Slow' and 'Big Glue Canal' > are blinding. 'It continues' sounds like a sample from Ambitious tho'. Actually, it sounds even more like the beat from "What Do You See?" (off Manscape), doesn't it? So much so to my ears, the I almost wondered if there was some self-referential thing going on. - -- _ _ _ Thom Heileson //)) //^~ heileson@u.washington.edu ((// // http://weber.u.washington.edu/~heileson University of Washington School of Art Center for Advanced Research Technology in the Arts and Humanities [CARTAH] 206.543.4218 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 16:10:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew N Westmeyer Subject: there they went, it's a shame Heyo, Some issues of availablity have come up lately, especially with Commercial Suicide and It Seems. If you can't find the stuff in the stores or through WMO, then check out the list of online stores I put on the web page. It's in the "faq" section, which you get to by clicking on the band picture at the front door. I went through a ton of stores (it took about 2 weeks!) to find "Wire" stuff, and I made a list of the ones with reasonably fast connections and a good selection. And if that doesn't work (please try it first), then email me and I'll see if I can dig up a copy somewhere. (A)ndrew Westmeyer qwerty@cmu.edu www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~qwerty "What a blessing that so much of humanity is able to be alive at the same time as myself." -Cecil Adams ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 15:21:37 -0700 From: Thom Heileson Subject: Re: Colin's solo stuff (consolidated reply) Miles Goosens wrote: > > A-Z(80) > Following on from Wire but in a more 'pop' manner. Probably Colin's > most mainstream work and it is not always enhanced by the OTT > keyboards. A couple of tracks stand out, notably ALONE which was > in Silence of the Lambs. The version of "Alone" in Silence is a cover by 4AD project This Mortal Coil, and it's an amazing cover. It's on TMC's 1986 album Filigree and Shadow, which is one of my all-time favorites: deeply moving, quirky, sonically playful. TMC also covered Colin's song "Not Me", on their '84 record It'll End In Tears (also recommended, only partly for that song, which is sung by the guy from Modern English and is nice but not incredible)... I think "Not Me" is also off A-Z, but can't remember... > SINGING FISH(81) > Well, it's okay but lacking something. Fish one is great but some of > this is too understated. I reckon this album came out in the wrong > decade, had it have been done now with samplers etc I reckon it'd've > been a lot better. When I first heard Singing Fish - it was 1992 - what struck me was how ahead-of-its time the album was in terms of some of its more "ambient" works, in light of recent ambient music trends. One person's ambient is another's understated, I guess. (imo, the same kind of ambient ahead-of-time-ness can be heard on Dome's first two albums... yes, Eno did a the ambient stuff earlier, but the Dome/Newman amount to fairly original takes on the genre I think) Above all though, I love the sense of free exploration, and eclecticness, in Singing Fish... Chad Wilson wrote: > > CN1 - Neener neener neener! I have this little gem! 5 single released only > with 4AD CAD 108/201 CD (US release of singing fish / not to, first run, > only 3 thousand released...) Again, I always treated it as part of singing > fish / not too, because that is how it was introduced to me! Another 10 > Stars! Good luck finding it! Before it was found for me by my best friend, > I was offering over 100$ on the net for it for over a year! Weren't these 5 tracks included on some CD copies of A-Z? I remember seeing an A-Z CD some years ago with extra tracks... (the kicker is that I didn't buy it! as in, I've been kicking myself since...) > Commercial Suicide - Another 8 stars here. Great music, with real > musicians. Tons of horns and no percussion, done RIGHT. My favorite track > would be the last track, which I don't have the name of in front of me... > It goes... "Your heartbeat, your heartbeat..." But I don't think that's the > name of it! "I Can Hear You"... Yes, that's a great song, and a great record... "2-Sixes" (did I get that title right?) is one of my very favorite songs, probably my fave Newman song, with its haunting minimal guitar mantra and oscillations from dark to light... Aaron Mandel wrote: > > On Tue, 21 Apr 1998, Thom S. Heileson wrote: > > T&S? > > Turns & Strokes! D'oh! Of course. Craig Grannell wrote: > > On Tue, 21 Apr 1998 20:12:54 -0700 Chad Wilson wrote: > > > Bastard - Uhhhh... ok... What really did it in for me was the lack of > > any vocals. > > > 3 stars?! Shocking! I was surprised by the lack of vox at first but > agree with Colin's comments on their removal in that they so often > distract from the 'other bits'. One ends up listening to the words > rather than the song. Personally I am quite happy to listen to the > bulk of Wire and related stuff and any other music for > that matter regardless of lyrics. I feel that the music / sounds > can evoke an atmosphere that becomes universal to anyone that > listens to it. If the listener does not understand English they > may get some of the emotion in a Wire / CN etc track but not any > content. With instrumentals this isn't a problem. Wir/e have always had a knack for great lyrics, but also for strong 'sound sculpture' sans vox. See: the instrumentals on the The Drill EP (intricately woven electronic textures that really suck me in [again])... "Naked, Whooping and Such-Like"... (even without the amazingly great speech/poem before the music starts... Hey, anyong have details on whose voice this is??? I've always pictured some odd pub acquaintance of a Wir-ite telling a bizarre story in said pub... the voice sounds too old & scratchy to be Bruce...) - -- _ _ _ Thom Heileson //)) //^~ heileson@u.washington.edu ((// // http://weber.u.washington.edu/~heileson/index.html Center for Advanced Research Technology in the Arts and Humanities [CARTAH] 206.543.4218 "I'll give you an example, typically It's less complicated than it simply should be" - Wire (the list has inspired me to re-attach my fave Wire quote to Le Sig) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 19:28:27 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew N Westmeyer Subject: Re: Colin's solo stuff (consolidated reply) Excerpts from mail: 22-Apr-98 Re: Colin's solo stuff (con.. by Thom Heileson@u.washingt > The version of "Alone" in Silence is a cover by 4AD project This Mortal > Coil, and it's an amazing cover. OK, so I was wrong about there being no live tracks on BTC, but this time I'm sure... :) The version in _Silence of the Lambs_ is *definitely* by Mr. Newman. The version by This Mortal Coil is fantastic though (as is the rest of F&S). > > CN1 - Neener neener neener! I have this little gem! ... > Weren't these 5 tracks included on some CD copies of A-Z? The 5 bonus tracks on the A-Z CD were "The Classic Remains", "Alone On Piano", "This Picture", "Not Me", and "Don't Bring Reminders". So far as I know, CN1 is only available on CN1! Maybe it'll be on Vox Pop? > "Naked, Whooping and Such-Like"... (even without the > amazingly great speech/poem before the music starts... Hey, anyong have > details on whose voice this is??? I've always pictured some odd pub > acquaintance of a Wir-ite telling a bizarre story in said pub... the > voice sounds too old & scratchy to be Bruce...) I don't know who's voice it is, but on the cover by Pro-Seed it is done by Graham Lewis! I promised the fine people at Recordings Under Construction that I would spread the word about this CD ("Acoustic Agenda"). The cover version is not at all electronic, if you can imagine that. (A)ndrew Westmeyer qwerty@cmu.edu www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~qwerty "What a blessing that so much of humanity is able to be alive at the same time as myself." -Cecil Adams ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 18:32:00 -0800 From: "Thom S. Heileson" Subject: Re: Colin's solo stuff (consolidated reply) > > Weren't these 5 tracks included on some CD copies of A-Z? > > The 5 bonus tracks on the A-Z CD were "The Classic Remains", "Alone On > Piano", "This Picture", "Not Me", and "Don't Bring Reminders". So far > as I know, CN1 is only available on CN1! Maybe it'll be on Vox Pop? Theses were indeed the extra tracks on that A-Z CD I saw, btw... so there is at least one out there... > > "Naked, Whooping and Such-Like"... (even without the > > amazingly great speech/poem before the music starts... Hey, anyong have > > details on whose voice this is???) > > I don't know who's voice it is, but on the cover by Pro-Seed it is done > by Graham Lewis! I promised the fine people at Recordings Under > Construction that I would spread the word about this CD ("Acoustic > Agenda"). The cover version is not at all electronic, if you can > imagine that. I can't, and as a result I'm dying to hear it! Can you supply more info about this CD? (is this a compilation, or an album by Pro-Seed?) - -- _ _ _ Thom Heileson //)) //^~ heileson@u.washington.edu ((// // http://weber.u.washington.edu/~heileson University of Washington School of Art Center for Advanced Research Technology in the Arts and Humanities [CARTAH] 206.543.4218 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 22:41:48 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew N Westmeyer Subject: Re: Colin's solo stuff (consolidated reply) Excerpts from mail: 22-Apr-98 Re: Colin's solo stuff (con.. by "Thom S. Heileson"@u.was > > > "Naked, Whooping and Such-Like"... (even without the > > > amazingly great speech/poem before the music starts... Hey, anyong have > > > details on whose voice this is???) > > > > I don't know who's voice it is, but on the cover by Pro-Seed it is done > > by Graham Lewis! I promised the fine people at Recordings Under > > Construction that I would spread the word about this CD ("Acoustic > > Agenda"). The cover version is not at all electronic, if you can > > imagine that. > > I can't, and as a result I'm dying to hear it! Can you supply more info > about this CD? (is this a compilation, or an album by Pro-Seed?) OK. The band is Pro-Seed and the album is "Acoustic Agenda" which is *not* a compilation. Graham sings on 2 tracks, including "Naked Whooping And Such-Like". The catalog number is RUCD 01. If you want to order it, here is a contact: Erik Soukkan Recordings Under Construction Heleneborgsgatan 38 117 32 Stockholm Sweden Tel: +46 8 84 80 20 Fax: +46 8 84 80 10 Internet: erik@8noll2.se Personally, I like the album. It's very low-tempo, and almost entirely bass and drums (acoustic, not electric). Almost blues-y. It fits in very well with Graham's recent work. (A)ndrew Westmeyer qwerty@cmu.edu www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~qwerty "What a blessing that so much of humanity is able to be alive at the same time as myself." -Cecil Adams ------------------------------ End of idealcopy-digest V1 #38 ******************************