what is the blue Dave Marsh book? A book of his reviews?
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 14:15 (nineteen years ago) link
Black Sabbath - (First 11 albums) * each"These would-be Kings of English Heavy Metal are eternally foiled by their stupidity and intractibility."
Blackmore's Rainbow - Rising *"Disgraceful slothfulness and thorough lack of imagination"
X - Los Angeles **"directionless and abrasively unemotional"
Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen - Live in Texas ****
Fern Kinney - Groove Me ***
Steve Winwood - Arc of a Diver *****"stunning conceptual unity"
Randy Newman - Sail Away *****"Newman's triumph."
You get the picture -- it's a gas, a stunning portrait of record reviewer conceits circa 1980, in which the taste and discerning ear of Trouser Press is taken to task at least once.
Because it was the only rock book in many high school and public libraries during the 1980s, it was uniquely oppressive. Yeah, all of a sudden "abrasively unemotional" sounds awesome.
― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 02:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 02:22 (nineteen years ago) link
"Hmm. Interesting. The opening track, 'The Eye,' consists of some vaguely spooky noises over which British foreign secretary Robin 'Shagger' Cook rambles on about the historic opening of the Gaza Strip border. Oh, hang on. I've left the radio on. That's better. So, just some vaguely spooky noises, then. How interesting. No, really. How FUCKING interesting.
"Moving rapidly along, 'Square Rave' doesn't so much 'bang' as sort of rattle around like an insecticide-overdosed late-summer wasp trapped in a large paper lampshade. Far out! 'Dedicated Loop' is the sort of sucky ambient soundtrack that sucky film students choose for their sucky time-lapse Warhol pastiches. Hilarious! 'Tomorrow World' is Enya gone drum'n'bass. Groovy! 'Cool Veil' is ten seconds of aimless muso-masturbation. How witty! 'Schizm Track #1' is like 'The Rockafeller Skank' heard from the bottom of a 200ft-deep shit-filled pit. Great! Oh sweet Jesus! Do we have to go on!?
"Look, synthesisers, sequencers, samplers and drum machines are fab, gear and groovy. Hey, the Prodge, Atari Teenage Riot and Fatboy Slim swear by them! But what if this new tecknologie were ever to fall into the wrong hands? What if it were used to produce evil music? Like, music with no balls, soul, energy, aggression, passion, tune, danceable beats or apparent function? You know, the sort of pointless, irritating, self-indulgent, avant-garde-a-fucking-clue bollocks that a certain sort of especially annoying student pretends to be 'into' in order to look 'cool' shortly before he (and it's nearly always a he) gets a job in vivisection, Conservative politics or the music press? What, in other words, if these wonderful, shiny, new instruments were used to make art-wank jazzzzzzzzzzzz?
"Oh, wait! This is a pisstake, right? I'll bet this 'Tom Jenkinson' doesn't exist at all, does he? I bet it's those wacky blokes from The Fast Show who've slung all the ropy cack they recorded for their hilarious Jazz Club sketches onto a CD! Ha! You wags! You really had me going there! For a minute. I will kill anybody who plays any track off this CD in any building where I am present. You have been warned."
So, of course after I read that I immediately downloaded it. Sadly, it sucks!!
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 04:27 (nineteen years ago) link
"Once upon a time Mark Hollis was the intense-eyed ranting lad who shouted 'All you do is talk talk!' Then he became the anthemically melancholy lad who moaned 'Its my life!' and never looked back from a life of anthemic melancholy.
"As time goes by, Mark Hollis' music has slipped into a vat of dark, brooding melancholy so deep that even David Sylvian would join Right Said Fred rather than partake of its glummo brew.
"In despair did EMI release an anthemically melancholy singles album and in more despair an anthemically melancholy dance remix album - an act on a par with releasing an Ambient House mix of Sham 69's 'Hurry Up Harry,' only not as interesting.
"Now Hollis has gone to Verve and recorded 'Laughing Stock' with 23 acoustically-oriented bass and organ and drum people. There is a slight jazz feel to this record. There are elements of soundtrack ambience. There are songs called 'After The Flood.' There are lyrics like 'A hunger uncurbed by nature's calling.' The whole thing is unutterably pretentious and looks over its shoulder hoping that someone will remark on its 'moody brilliance' or some such. It's horrible."
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 04:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 04:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 05:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 08:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― dave q, Wednesday, 29 September 2004 02:12 (nineteen years ago) link