From: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org (idealcopy-digest) To: idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Subject: idealcopy-digest V10 #432 Reply-To: idealcopy@smoe.org Sender: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk idealcopy-digest Wednesday, July 23 2008 Volume 10 : Number 432 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [idealcopy] Abject 47 [Fergus Kelly ] [idealcopy] Re: idealcopy-digest V10 #431 ["Mitchell Dickerman" Subject: [idealcopy] Abject 47 Seems like The Wire aren't too enamoured of the Wire album: "For all that Wire of Gang Of Four were ahead of the curve the first time round, it feels like the recent reactivations of both groups are behind it, with the sudden explosion of interest in post-punk cooling off in the last year or so. Object 47 (so named because it's the 47th item in the Wire discography) is particularly baffling, with a sound and feel reminiscent not of 2012, nor even 2008, but middle of the road 90s indie. It makes you question their brilliant trio of Pink Flag, Chairs Missing and 154. Did they really take the basic building blocks of rock and reassemble them in subtly unfamiliar ways, using skewed melody, Situationist humour, punk energy ? There are glimmers of these albums here: covert turns from abrasion into pop song; the odd textural twist. But texture is a real problem on Object 47. Newman's distorted guitars don't sound incisive or buzzsaw, just mushy and indistinct. Filtered and processed they start to sound like mid-90s musical cul de sac Garbage. Robert Grey's drums settle into a bland punk-pop briskness, a groove so well worn, they disappear into anonymity, almost inaudibility, before your very ears. Patient Flees feels briefly like a slow burning fuse - but then it fails to go off. Instead it veers into a peculiar litany - Inspiration/intoxication/provocation/subjugation/discrimination/motivation - delivered in a seesaw leer, which a friend of mine likened to something Peep Show's Super Hans might write. Perhaps most frustrating is the sense of listening to a group convinced of its own edginess; by the closing track on Object 47, All Fours, Wire have rehearsed plenty of old poses, but engaged with few new ideas." Review by Sam Davies http://www.roomtemperature.org http://www.asullenrelapse.blogspot.com http://www.myspace.com/ferguskellyrecordings http://www.flickr.com/photos/55867717@N00/sets/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:00:55 -0400 From: "Mitchell Dickerman" Subject: [idealcopy] Re: idealcopy-digest V10 #431 Thanks Colin! I should've noted I was being cheeky about "One Of Us". Of course it's about a pub meeting with Mark E Smith and one of his fans. But, hey, 1/3 isn't bad! > Mitchell Dickerman wrote: > > Ok, let's play this little game: > > "One Of Us" - this about Bruce > > "Mekon Headman" - Jon Langford? > > "Perspex Icon" - I'd say Robyn Hitchcock that's probably pushing it. > > > > Colin has responded to this thread on the Forum: > > > "re- comments on IC list. > 1. "One Of Us" is most definitely NOT about Bruce. > 2. "Perspex Icon" is about the art market (amongst other things)" ------------------------------ End of idealcopy-digest V10 #432 ********************************