From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V5 #234 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Thursday, October 13 2005 Volume 05 : Number 234 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] Danish paisley [Jack Lippold ] [loud-fans] FW: Cecil explains Rosicrucianism ["John F Butland" Subject: [loud-fans] Danish paisley Here's a translation of this URL I sent a while back: http://www.undertoner.dk/article/articleview/1508 It was done by a retired 80-something Danish professor whom I haven't met who is an acquaintance of someone I know. Because he is of a different generation, he questions the context of the word "acidic", but, of course WE can make perfect sense of it. >Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:26:19 -0500 (US Eastern Standard Time) >From: John R Krueger >To: jacklip@charter.net >Subject: Danish translation >X-X-Sender: jokruege@imap.iu.edu > > >================================================================= > >Classics of the month: GameTheory > It is hard to say anything about GT's masterpiece LN from 1987, > without making it sound like criticism. The record has typically been >called things like epic, ambitious, grandiose , prominent and even sym- >phonic. Heaven only knows that those concepts are as a rule used to >describe problematic music. But there is something almost unreasonably >successful with GTs way of getting hold of that stuff. LN is a coll= >ection of 27 numbers, where there are tapeloops, psychedelic, spheric >sound-experiments are mixed with cryistalclear 60's pop-songs of >world-class. Regardless of what the group flings itself into, it is >so strong that one can almost do nothing else than let your chin hit >your knee . > > Class-producers right from the start >GT was created in Calif. in 1982 by singer and guitarist SM and was part >of the so-called Paisley UG-scene, which among other things included more >or less sixties-inspired bands like the DS, the B and ThWhR. > At the beg. of the 80s the group got a certain attention from >the underground with a series of EPs , of which some were produced by >another Paisley-personage, namely M.Q. from Salv.A.Threeo'clock. > In 1985 GT produced their first real album, Real Nightime >which a year later was followed by the BigDShChor. The group >at that time had linked up with producer M.Easter, a man in whose hands >everything turned to gold and silver (for ex. the first records with >REM). > Both recods are dominated by tinkling guitars, crystal-clear >production and SM's light and penetrating singing-voice, which it is >almost impossible to stop for, even if his texts may have a tendency to >be literally incomprehensible. > The records are sprinkled with well-worn pop songs, and >got good reviews. But from inscrutable reasons GT could not really >penetrate to a broader audience. It's really remarkable bec. >even tho Miller is far from being any conventional songwriter many of the >numbers on RNgtime and BigShot are anyway immediately >catchy enough to appeal to the taste of many. > > Lack of success hit the band hard, and many times it broke >up and then arose again with a new crew, and SM relates that at times >he was on the point of putting the whole shebang on the shelf and to >dedicate himself instead to a career as electrical engineer. Fortun- >ately things didn't get to that point. Instead in 1987 he reformed >the group anew to play Lol.Nat. > > Psychedelic and really catchy > > THis does not mean that SM set out to (something} firmly to >reach the top of the hit parades. LN is certainly no easy record >to go to. Many of the numbers are really long but many of the numbers >are really far out, both in terms of the sound and as well in text and >title terms fr'instance No. 23 on the track-list. But >that doesn't mean one is frightened away on first hearing it thru . >Above and beyond the psychedelic sound-experiments that record contains >many definite hits, which can be soundtrack for all kinds of possible > pleasant situations such as love (We Love you....ten years), conscious- >ness-expanding (the Waist ...Sheila) and car-driving (Look away...Man) >GT also got a regular college single-hit with the Catchy Chardonnay , and >LN sold rather many copies, when one considers how inaccessible it is. > > One of the strongest things about the record is that it isn't >just S.M who is inspired by genius. The other band members are also quite >fantastic, not the least Sh.LaFr. whose synthesizer-playing takes the >cake as some of the most original things which happened within popmusic >in the 80s. She has sublime ability to balance between meaningful melo- >dies and acidic [?] effects. > > Guitarist D.Th. reveals herself to be a really outstanding >singer and songwriter. Her catchy popsang Look Away is among the] > absolute highpoints of LN and will without doubt would have sold a > million copies had it been the Bangles or Gos who had played it. > > Quite simply, a perfect record. > When you have listened to the record a few times and gradually >have gotten acquainted with the sparkling popsongs, a whole new uni- >verse opens up in the form of the more experimentalizing and limit- >seeking numbers. These two sides of LN comprise a perfect symbiosis , >where the pop songs give a feeling of structure, whereas the (acidic ?) >numbers give a feeling of a psychedelic trip to heaven, which prevents > the whole thing from being entirely too (word). There is a really strong >balance between the top-ten hits and a swerving structurelessness , and >that means that one can really never get tired of listening to the record. >You are never allowed to lean back with a fixed preconception about >what kind of record that is that GT has made. Even after countless >replayings one discovers new pages, and LN stands out as one of the >absolutely most strong records from the Pais.UGr world-era. > > Dozens of numbers on the LN have the clear potential to become >world-hits, and moreover it is a whole a definite and unique classic. >Hence one can wonder a bit that the record retains a rather peripheral >status. He has been reproduced on CD at the beginning of th e90s , but >the CD-issue has long since been sold out and at present is essentially > impossible to get your hands on. == that's the way it is moreover > with all the GT records. Fortunately you can get it used on LP at >more reasonable prices (which perhaps is owing to the fact that the >cover is so unappealing, that the record dealers were compelled to >sell it cheaply. If powerpop should become the big new trend , and >many things point in that direction, it might not be unreasonable to >prove to be the case. Thus my advice has to be: Get as quickly as >possible that unambiguous masterpiece. Only a few records are >more perfect. > > TRACKLIST. No need to translate that. > >=============================================================== > > Well, this WAs a free-will voluntary offering but if you >wanted to DO something nice for me, well I don't know what it would >be - Everyone loves money, but I don't DO things that way. It would >be silly to send a box of cookies, how would you know what I like? > This took about an hour or a little more. Do as you like. > >I do think I'll ask a local Danish buddy about that missing 5-6 words; >also that word "syrede", literally, sourish, acidic, etc. If so, >will advise. > J.Krueger, tired and re-tired. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 18:35:39 -0300 From: "John F Butland" Subject: [loud-fans] FW: Cecil explains Rosicrucianism http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mrosicrucian.html Best, JFB ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V5 #234 *******************************