News about the upcoming Björk album Volta.

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I dunno, I don't mind it in total... but I can easily wait for the CD single over the extra 00.3% fidelity I might enjoy getting a sodding .aac (ack?) to tide me over the next month :p

― fandango, Thursday, 12 April 2007 14:21 (seventeen years ago) link

I want PLUTO vocals and heavier beats

I think the EI lyrics stand up pretty well against Pluto. But Pluto is pretty fucking fantastic.
It sounds exactly how I was hoping it all would! Now that she is back playing festivals it makes alot of sense. Opera houses couldn't really contain it.

― o-ess, Thursday, 12 April 2007 16:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I think o-ess is right, Vespertine live was really beautiful (at least it is on the DVD, sigh.) but it seems like Bjork is really going back to something, I don't know what. I remember on the Medulla DVD she says something about going back to a certain time when she was listening to a lot of metal especially Swans and wanting to recreate a certain feeling etc. It just feels like there's a new type of energy that wasn't there before, less glacial, more fiery.

I remember now, she was talking about becoming a mother, that's when she got all hardcore, when she was pregnant. And being pregnant againd...

But there's something earthier about this one, I think. Something about the way she can sing so beautifully, but her voice is aging a bit now, I listened to Birthday the other day and you can just hear how her voice could just do anything, not exactly disciplined, just kindof expanding or, I don't know. But now, her voice can't do everything. I just think its the first album since she realised she had to start trying harder, that it wasn't all as natural, that it just has this burst

I can't wait to see it outdoors, I hope it lifts off.

― I know, right?, Friday, 13 April 2007 22:11 (seventeen years ago) link

is it nu rave?

HOW DO I SHOT GUARDIAN?

― fandango, Friday, 13 April 2007 23:56 (seventeen years ago) link

AND NME, ONE BULLET...

― fandango, Friday, 13 April 2007 23:59 (seventeen years ago) link

I like EI, but I'm struck by how much the opening drums sounds like this drum loop I have on a loop CD from a few years back.

― Michael F Gill, Saturday, 14 April 2007 07:19 (seventeen years ago) link

live performances on the Debut live DVDs have a similar vibe to them. Quieter though...
EI still feels separate from the rest of her songs in my collection, which is great. onwards to volta.

― o-ess, Saturday, 14 April 2007 22:59 (seventeen years ago) link

I like EI, but I'm struck by how much the opening drums sounds like this drum loop I have on a loop CD from a few years back.

-- Michael F Gill, Saturday, 14 April 2007 07:19 (15 hours ago)

that's timbaland for ya!.
but, yeah, this song still kick ass. can't wait to hear it within the album.

― funny farm, Saturday, 14 April 2007 23:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Bjork's gonna be on Saturday Night Live on April 21st I think

― curmudgeon, Sunday, 15 April 2007 13:19 (seventeen years ago) link

OMG 'DECLARE INDEPENDENCE'

― lex pretend, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:58 (seventeen years ago) link

regardless of fidelty, and the quality is quite shockingly bad, almost like a cheapo, bodiless hip hop or R&B mixdown, the song itself doesnt really stand up. its modern 2007 timbo on autopilot sadly, not really moving that much away from what hes been giving everyone else lately. its just another timbo beat+ bjork which is something that should have been much more special and unusual and peculiar than what the actual thing is.

― titchyschneiderMk2, Monday, 16 April 2007 18:05 (seventeen years ago) link

i might agree with that, you know, the idea that we shouldn't have to settle for something "ok, i guess i like it"

given that it IS these 2 artists.

haha i'm trying to speak.

― Surmounter, Monday, 16 April 2007 18:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Why reduce this to a Timbaland thing? He obviously did part of the beat, but the konono thumb piano stuff isn't his, and it's pretty obvious Bjork took a segment of his beat and tweaked it. Playing it off as his, or weak because part of it is his, isn't really a fair assessment of him or Bjork (or anyone else who contributed, ffs!). I think it sounds a little light as a first single because there's nothing that really punches through (repeating "earth intruders" in a sing-songey voice followed by Bjork vocal screaming, repeat) to be catchy. I think it works fine, sound-wise.

― mh, Monday, 16 April 2007 19:06 (seventeen years ago) link

just saying that given bjork and timbaland, it seems like it could have done more than "work fine, sound-wise."

personally, i think the sound of the song is really beautiful. i just think the lyrics are crap, and the melody isn't that spectacular either.

― Surmounter, Monday, 16 April 2007 20:05 (seventeen years ago) link

but timbos identity is all over it. its not just that he contributed to it subtly, the whole track is basically built around one of his beats and it sounds like it. its not as integrated as her interview on PFM made it sound. i thought it was going to be something like timbalands beat being ripped to its skeleton and bjork and co kinda rebuilding it to make it more melodic or song-y or something, but its basically like timbaland beat+bjork+ a bit of musicianly adornment. im dissapointed, personally.

if you guys wanna hear timbo working with someone out of his usual realm, check out the remake of diamond dogs he did with beck. thats how a timbo+pop auteur-type artist should go IMO.

― titchyschneiderMk2, Monday, 16 April 2007 20:14 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah the melody is what i found most dissapointing, but then what can you do, when the beat is pretty regimented.. its hard to tell properly with this mp3 but bjork doesnt really sound that inspired to my ears.

― titchyschneiderMk2, Monday, 16 April 2007 20:15 (seventeen years ago) link

no she doesn't really. i mean i don't really get what the song is about. it's like she's just talking about how humans are invading the earth?

that seems so uninteresting to me, like cliche, redundant uninteresting.

for me it's the vocals at large that i don't like. the lyrics, the voice quality, the melody. none of it on this track excites me very much at all

― Surmounter, Monday, 16 April 2007 20:22 (seventeen years ago) link

the beat and the adornment i think sound great tho.

― Surmounter, Monday, 16 April 2007 20:23 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah, its almost like bjork heard it, knew it was redundant and timbo had already shot his load with everyone else (and even with them, hes done it all before and better), but went ahead with it anyway and fed offf timbos own lack of inspiration channelling that same ennui into her own performance.

― titchyschneiderMk2, Monday, 16 April 2007 20:30 (seventeen years ago) link

ok so the album is pretty damn sweet!

'dull flame of desire' is an absolutely amazing 7 1/2-minute ballad feat. antony, whose singing i really enjoy for the first time (restraining the tremolo &c) - builds up to astonishing climax of drumming.

'declare independence' is the other standout on a couple of spins - this is the NOISE one i think, it is dedicated to greenland and the faroe islands, it reminds me of 'pluto' most - hardcore squawking, "DECLARE INDEPENDENCE! DON'T LET THEM DO THAT TO YOU! RAISE YOUR FLAG! HIGHER HIGHER!"

the other two timba tracks are 'innocence', which is a bit banging, clearly meant to be another big pop moment, and 'hope' which is a lot more laid back and which i kind of prefer - actually sounds more like a neptunes beat (from back when they were good), there's that drum loop i don't know how to technically describe but it reminds me of...'good stuff' by kelis and 'ride wit me' by nelly! and there is harp over the top, it's laidback and beautiful.

diff mix of 'earth intruders' which somehow sounds muddier than the low-bitrate mark stent edit i've been listening to.

on first listen i was like "hmm where are the tunes then" but then i remembered that i'm usually like this for most albums - after a couple of listens the tunes are beginning to sink in.

― lex pretend, Monday, 16 April 2007 20:32 (seventeen years ago) link

caveat = i have listened to it TWICE and inevitably will rescind everything i think now in five months' time :D

― lex pretend, Monday, 16 April 2007 20:33 (seventeen years ago) link

//skips album review for now//

"the whole track is basically built around one of his beats and it sounds like it."

utter bollox. though I wish it did.

― fandango, Monday, 16 April 2007 20:34 (seventeen years ago) link

"Earth Intruders" is yoga flame. u r all teh sux

― The Reverend, Monday, 16 April 2007 21:46 (seventeen years ago) link

"but timbos identity is all over it. its not just that he contributed to it subtly, the whole track is basically built around one of his beats and it sounds like it. its not as integrated as her interview on PFM made it sound. i thought it was going to be something like timbalands beat being ripped to its skeleton and bjork and co kinda rebuilding it to make it more melodic or song-y or something, but its basically like timbaland beat+bjork+ a bit of musicianly adornment. im dissapointed, personally. "

I always find this critical line a bit amusing - if Bjork went to all the trouble to commission a Timbaland beat only to have it "ripped to its skeleton", why bother getting Timbaland in the first place? There's only so much you can really do to someone else's groove until it gets to the point where you may as well have just started from scratch by yourself. Why wouldn't a Bjork + Timbaland collaboration sound like... Bjork + Timbaland?

As it is it does sound very different to any other Timbaland based single, it's very rare that one of his beats will be so buried in the mix. It could have been, e.g. "Say It Right" with Bjork singing on top.

― Tim F, Monday, 16 April 2007 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link

because, timmy, that would mean it wouldnt be the typical 'timbaland exerting his person all over the track' and would simply be a contributor rather than the over dominant super producer whos ego is so great he has to dwarf the vocalists on his productions.

― titchyschneiderMk2, Monday, 16 April 2007 22:57 (seventeen years ago) link

i think it's just a difference of

it could have sounded like bjork featuring timbaland

or it could have sounded like bjork with a dash of timbaland to kick things up.

― Surmounter, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 00:30 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm honestly just surprised she didn't have anything more interesting to show us as a first single, timbaland or not.

― Surmounter, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 00:37 (seventeen years ago) link

See, I think it already sounds like the second of those (x-post)

Or, if you tried to decrease the amount of Timbaland in there it would no longer be noticeable at all - it's just a drum loop as it is! Unless a clearer mix will suddenly reveal some beatboxing as well...

Discounting Medulla, which I've only heard fleetingly, I don't think Bjork has ever really collaborated with producers in such a way that their imprint wasn't clearly etched and immediately obvious - if anything i'd say her work with Mark Bell sounds more obviously like Mark Bell than "Earth Intruders" sounds like Timbaland. If this is less true for, say, Tricky, it's only because at that stage in his career Tricky's own sound wasn't quite as immediately identifiable as Timbaland's is - but tell me "Enjoy" wouldn't have fit easily onto Maxinquaye...

The main exception to this is Nellee Hooper circa Post, perhaps because he and Bjork were clearly trying to gel with the other "dominant super producer egos" in the mix - Tricky, Graham Massey... The Hooper tracks on Post generally sound like a halfway house between Debut and the non-Hooper Post tracks (this is not a criticism btw, those tracks generally sound amazing) - and more generally because Hooper by the mid-nineties was more of a chronicler of developments external to himself (a Scott Storch if you will) rather than the generator of them. You can argue that it would have been better for Timbaland to take a Scott Storch role, but then if that's what would have worked Bjork should have gone straight to Scott Storch.

― Tim F, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 00:46 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm sorry, before i read the rest of your post tim, i'd like to say i think it sounds like the second of those as well. i just think the two of them together could hav come up with something more mindblowing. i'm onna keep reading now.

― Surmounter, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 00:50 (seventeen years ago) link

It seems that the detractors are complaining about lack of subtleties, but really, this song is all about brute force and does brute force well.

― The Reverend, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 03:18 (seventeen years ago) link

ok, fair play tim, thats true enough. like surmounter though, i too "just think the two of them together could hav come up with something more mindblowing."

cant wait to hear the album though. hope bjork sounds a bit more interested/interesting on there.

― titchyschneiderMk2, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 08:50 (seventeen years ago) link

I just heard "Innocence" on myspace. Hey-- is that the grunt from Scott Walker's "Clara", when the meat gets whacked?

― Rich Smörgasbord, Friday, 20 April 2007 03:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Ugh. I never want to listen to "Innocence" ever again.

― Turangalila, Friday, 20 April 2007 04:44 (seventeen years ago) link

(It's Alarm Call's more evil twin.)

― Turangalila, Friday, 20 April 2007 04:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Bjork on this week's SNL, guys. (ScarJo host)

― marmotwolof, Friday, 20 April 2007 05:01 (seventeen years ago) link

(oops curmudgeon already said that)

― marmotwolof, Friday, 20 April 2007 05:03 (seventeen years ago) link

weird.

http://unit.bjork.com/innocence/bjork.jpg
http://unit.bjork.com/innocence/bjork2.jpg
http://unit.bjork.com/innocence/bjork4.jpg

(from the Innocence video contest page )

― StanM, Friday, 20 April 2007 07:44 (seventeen years ago) link

so, it's a giant christmas tree ornament?

― funny farm, Friday, 20 April 2007 07:50 (seventeen years ago) link

I can recognize the grunt, but not only that.. I'm sure that the silencer sound from Counter Strike(USP) is in it. That or some other game. Liked Innocence better than Earth Intruders

― MRZBW, Friday, 20 April 2007 10:07 (seventeen years ago) link

the odd thing about the much-vaunted bjork/timba meeting-of-genius is that timba may as well not be there for 2 of his 3 tracks - 'innocence' is v v much like a slightly more focused 'alarm call', the 'earth intruders' beat wouldn't have made me think of him if i hadn't known he was on it (it's a bit 'human behaviour' actually!). it's the relatively subtle 'hope' which actually seems like an equal collaboration - have now pinned down what the beat reminds me of, it's like a very laidback 'southern hospitality'

― lex pretend, Friday, 20 April 2007 10:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Wow, "Innocence" is so... awful.

― The Brainwasher, Friday, 20 April 2007 17:39 (seventeen years ago) link

And totally lacking any sort of tune whatsoever.

― The Brainwasher, Friday, 20 April 2007 17:40 (seventeen years ago) link

the odd thing about the much-vaunted bjork/timba meeting-of-genius is that timba may as well not be there for 2 of his 3 tracks

OTM. That's exactly what I meant upthread when I asked why hire Konono and Timba (and CORSANO for that matter) if they didn't really need to be there for these songs to exist.

The only track I'm looking forward to is "Wanderlust," which I think Nico Muhly made the brass arrangements for and sounds lovely so far!

― Turangalila, Friday, 20 April 2007 19:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah "Waqnderlust" sounds great, also I think "Hope" is going to be a fave of mine.

― The Brainwasher, Friday, 20 April 2007 20:47 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuhRlhaKX_0&NR=1

'Earth Intruders' video. Not that good.

― o-ess, Sunday, 22 April 2007 00:02 (seventeen years ago) link

So, some posters are saying Timbaland egotistically dominates his tracks and others say he may as well not be there, and both are using this to criticise the songs...

― Tim F, Sunday, 22 April 2007 00:44 (seventeen years ago) link

I thought she was pretty good on SNL tonight

― Michael F Gill, Sunday, 22 April 2007 05:03 (seventeen years ago) link

"Wanderlust" is incredible.

― The Brainwasher, Sunday, 22 April 2007 05:08 (seventeen years ago) link

who the hell was backing her up on SNL? i don't think i've ever seen so many people onstage and not been able to hear half of them. the first song was pretty good.

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Sunday, 22 April 2007 11:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Corsano was in the band last night...I don't know who the other people were. Based on those two songs, I'm not really looking forward to this record as much as I was initially. I'm coming to the conclusion that for me anyway, Björk records are always better in theory than practice.

― unperson, Sunday, 22 April 2007 14:41 (seventeen years ago) link

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