Scritti Politti: Classic Or Dud

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It's been days and days since I started a thread, so time to ease myself back in with a C-o-D. Four fairly distinct eras to roam over and a fairly divisive pop vision. Is it is it wicked? I say YES. (i.e. Classic, sorry.) Will explain why below probably.

― Tom, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I nearly bought Anomie and Bonhomie today. Anyway - I can't say that I've followed them that closely, but I've always filed them under "kind of good to have around". "The Sweetest Girl" is genius and Songs to Remember is also pretty good although a little too knowingly clever, although I haven't heard it in 10 years. Whilst no doubt intelligent and classy, the remainder of their 80's work left me cold - I wouldn't mind a re-listen to see if I was wrong. A best- of would be my ideal entry point, but as far as I know there isn't one, is there?

I guess the problem is that I've always found that the likes of Scritti and Prefab Sprout musically just TOO close to the middle of the road to grab my attention for long enough.

The VERY early stuff, "Skank..." etc was good.

― Dr. C, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I don't know much about their (his ?) music, but you gotta give props to a guy who starts out with this obscure political punk-reggae thing on a small indie label ("Skank Bloc Bologna" should have made my ILM Top 100 ballot) and ends up 6 years later in Billboard's R&B chart, AND covered by Miles Davis.

― Patrick, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

At the time of release I loved the singles "Wood Beez", "Absolute", and "The Word Girl", and bought them all. Apart from anything else they represented 'state-of-the-art' to an 80's productianophile like me.

― David, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

loved the singles David refers to - but not as much as the last track on 'ANOMIE AND BONHOMIE' -'BRUSHED WITH OIL, DUSTED WITH POWDER'- GORGEOUS REST OF ALBUM SOSO- fact is I only got to hear it coz of the POPART cover - missus lecturing - got it out of central library.

(i've just heard about Hearsay causing bad vibes by shock appearance at WOW festival on THE ONLY DAY I DIDN'T GO - supposedly lots of drunken aggro ensued )

― geordie racer, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Good call, David. I adore the _Cupid and Psyche '85_ singles and have listened to them consistently these last few days. Indeed I very nearly, uncannily, posted a thread with exactly this subject line a while back.

They are, as you say, fantastic-*sounding* records; among the pop singles which I can listen to over and over again and still expect to be finding something new. I can barely describe the excitement "Wood Beez", especially, inspires in me; it's almost falling over itself with interest in, and fascination with, love and pop.

"Jacques Derrida", "Skank Bloc Bologna", "Perfect Way" (*how* could that single have missed the UK Top 40?), "Oh Patti" and "Prince Among Men" as well. So, yeah, classic in excelsis.

― Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I draw everyone's attention to Simon Reynolds' superb piece on the Gartside man in the new Wire ("Epiphanies"). Whatever DID happen to Tom Morley?

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

The exact *day* I moved to London, I saw Tom Morley on a bicycle in Notting Hill.

(Actually from my mate Dunc's car, I mean: I was still in transmit...)

I believe this was the last anyone saw of him anywhere ever.

― mark s, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I love 'Cupid & Psyche' and "Boom! There She Was," the single they did with Roger Troutman. Both fey and hard. In many ways, their sound (of their dance-pop period, which is what matters most to me, though "Sweetest Girl" is great too) was a precursor to Destiny's Child and Timbaland: lots of jagged edges and chick-a chick-a ssss tat-tat kind of stuff. (This also makes Green a precursor to Blaque and Pink.)

― s woods, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

The '4 A Sides' 12" EP is one of my favourite records - it's still got that fairly lo-fi intricate 3 piece sound of the other early singles (which I love as well) but you can hear Green starting to enjoy the melodies more than anything else.

'The Sweetest Girl' is just terrific (although it wouldn't be half as good if Robert Wyatt wasn't noodling away on organ in the background) but most of the rest of the first album is pretty ordinairy.

The other three LPs have all got some shit but the other great songs on them more than make up for the lapses.

― philT, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Scott's point about Timbaland is EXACTLY why I asked the qn - was listening to "Wood Beez" the other day and was just transported by the production, the mad number of sounds, ideas, drop-outs, come- backs, tricks and twists in it. It seemed such an obvious precursor of the production schools we know/love on this board, and then it was all sewn up by Green's lacy, white-chocolate (much underrated) voice. Listening to that - and the rest of the album, but particularly on that day "Wood Beez" - they just sounded like the most fabulous band ever.

I don't know the earliest stuff.

― Tom, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Who produced "Wood Beez" and all that good stuff?

― Dr. C, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Wood Beez and Absolute were produced by the legendary Arif Mardin, but Cupid + Psyche 85 is mostly produced by the band themselves. It was the first LP I ever bought. It only has sentimental value to me nowadays as the overblown eighties production makes the album almost unlistenable to me. Although I can't find it anymore in my house, I guess Songs To Remember doesn't have that problem. I remember that having great songs on it. Although I did get the Oh Patti single (with Miles Davis, no less), I, huge Scritti fan at the time, didn't buy the follow-up to C+S. (one of my first big pop disappointments - which would make for good thread in itself). The album that came out last year was pretty ridiculous, with its Foo Fighters influence and misplaced Mos Def guest appearance, and a complete flop.

― JoB, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I played Scritti's 'She's a woman' to death and still love it. Scritti plus Shabba Ranks, BEF production and William Orbit's remix - this was Green's absolute peak. As a great Beatles cover it equals Siouxie's.

Otherwise? I love the sound of Scritti more than the performances - Green is too dispassionate for me. He should have been funny - a Ferry /Eno synthesis, but as the only romantic new-romantic he took himself far too seriously.

― Guy, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Here's a link for a Perfect Sound Forever article on early Scritti Politti

― philT, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

hmmm >> http://www.furious.com/perfect/scritti.html

― philT, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

The idea of being thrilled by Arif Mardin's production touches seems just as 'muso' as enjoying a John Squire guitar solo. No doubt someone will tell me it's not.

― Dr. C, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Well yeah it is, except - Squire is about real-time 'chops' and the reproduction thereof whereas production thrills are about painstaking assemblage of sounds. For me, neither are muso in the sense of one technician appreciating another, as I'd have no idea how to do either of them.

Also like a good solo the Arif Mardin trickbox is in the service of a greater whole - "Wood Beez", though the chorus is a bit coy, *moves* me.

― Tom, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

The production *is* thrilling, but through its clever use of new technology, not because of any reverence for Arif Mardin's reputation or previous achievements. At least that was my response to it.

― David, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Oh, classic.

I'm a bit ignorant of the early singles, but what I've heard is appealling scruffy and knotted. After that, of course, Green runs a mighty steel comb through the music and it's all midday sun gleaming off polished girders. "The 'Sweetest' Girl" is magnificent; I've never quite been able to decide whether it's "Wood Beez" or "Absolute" that stands as the asphyxiating pinnacle of 'Cupid & Psyche'. The collaborations and odd singles are mostly terrific; just as I'd never heard of Bermondsey before Peter Tatchell brought it to my attention, I suspect GG introduced me to Miles Davis.

Which leaves 'Anomie and Bonhomie' - which I like more in theory than practise, and a whole lot more than the fellow who lent it to me*. The gas-croon is still intact, and even the guitar-heavy moments have this cut-glass quality. Hyperventilating hyphens! Lysergic dandy axis!

(* - badly structured sentence; I don't like the LP as much as the *person* who lent it to me. He's funnier.)

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Tom, if I've felt that way about the production on "Wood Beez" lately, I've felt it a thousand times.

I quite like the early tracks I've heard ("Skank Bloc Bologna" and "Messthetics"). They sound like a band with *ambition* to move away from the post-punk rabble, and a more precise ambition (not better or worse, just different) than that being displayed at the time by, say, the Fall.

― Robin Carmody, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Guy: yep, "She's A Woman" and Green's take on "Take Me In Your Arms And Love Me", two very underrated singles from that lost period in the early 90s.

― Robin Carmody, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

As with "Loveless" ILM (probably Tom and Robin this time) has caused me to flip a long-standing opinion. This time it's Scritti Politti - specifically "Provision", bought for a quid a few weeks back. The ridiculous inner sleeve featuring a bow-tie clad Green and two session fops would have consigned the album to the bottom of the pile for at least a decade had I not been intrigued by some of the Scritti- comment on ILM. (Yes I know, Cupid and Psyche '85 is REALLY the one to get...) Similarly the opening Simmons-drum rolls of "Boom! There She Was" would usually receive a mandatory 5-stretch without parole. (I hate the Simmons drum sound - usually).

Anyway, Holy shit! It's fantastic. The surface gloss is in fact made up of a billion clever bass 'n percussion 'n keyboard speaker- twisting studio-tricks which sound fresh and fun. Three of the songs (Oh Patti, First Boy in This Town (Lovesick) and Philosophy Now) have better pop hooks than I've heard for years. So, Cupid and Psyche next - might be prepared to spend £1.50 this time!

― Dr. C, Friday, 21 September 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

I have C+S now (I spent $10 on it). First reaction - not as good as Provision, but still fantastic. It just sounds SO nano-engineered, so 'fabricated in a silicon wafer plant' that it's one of the most extreme *sounding* records I've heard. Nothing quite moves me like Oh Patti, but it's early doors yet.

I love the way that the Mardin productions and the band productions *sound* completely different yet meet the same spec. of precision and accuracy.

― Dr. C, Wednesday, 9 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

i wonder if tom will give dr. c as much shite as he gave me for basically the same comments re. c&p 85. ;)

i recently burned myself a comp of 15 or so of the earliest SP songs (basically the first 4 singles/peel sessions.) it's been about all i've wanted to listen to while sick. "skank" and "messthetics" in particular have been oddly soothing.

― jess, Wednesday, 9 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Provision's overbearing production gloss completely ruined it for me - I listened to it in its entirety once and couldn't imagine ever pulling it out again. The same thing almost occurred with Prefab Sprout's From Langley Park... but I still love dipping into that one on occasion.

― electric sound of jim, Wednesday, 9 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

Still classic?

― Cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 20 March 2003 23:35 (10 years ago) Permalink

I would say their 80s material is classic (particularly "Cupid & Psyche '85", while "Anomie and Bonhomie" was a major disappointment. And this is not because of the rapping (which works fine, in a way), but more because of the fact that all those "conventional" instruments just don't fit them well.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 20 March 2003 23:37 (10 years ago) Permalink

Btw. Scritti Politti is IMO the only act ever to manage to improve on a Beatles original. All other cover versions of Lennon/McCartney songs are inferior to the originals, but Green's genius cover version of "She's a Woman" has got everything the original doesn't

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 20 March 2003 23:40 (10 years ago) Permalink

All covers of Beatles songs are better 'cause they're newer Geir.

― Cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 20 March 2003 23:42 (10 years ago) Permalink

Old music is usually better than recent music. At least it has been during the past 15 years.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 20 March 2003 23:43 (10 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

Please revive!

― AdamL :') (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 04:04 (8 years ago) Permalink

Wood Beez-oh god, just leave me alone in a vacuum with this music forever. Thanks.

― AdamL :') (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 04:07 (8 years ago) Permalink

Best Voice Ever

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 04:16 (8 years ago) Permalink

I want them to play Scritti Politti at my funeral. what song should it be?

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 04:19 (8 years ago) Permalink

i must drag out C&Ps again, one of the first records i bought. When i was about 12 i used to do special remixes (extended versions in those days) with the pause button of my tape player. I think i spun Wood Beez out to about 12 minutes, hehe, i loved it so much. of Its all about the 4ASides for me now though. I'd love to hear my 12 minute "version" of Wood Beez again.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 05:12 (8 years ago) Permalink

we need to find the thread with tom's theory that scritti's career is a secret precis of green gettig better in bed

― benito mussolinington (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 09:48 (8 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, but he started by singing "In and out, the Western world"

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 10:04 (8 years ago) Permalink

he was up with Michael Jackson in terms of actual technical prowess by '85, and that album is my favourite, in that i just want to keep listening to it more and more,

but i think he was just as clever on the first albums/stuff,

i never got to hear the first songs in any form until very recently, except for the poltical excesses of NME interviews circa early scritti stance, which made for entertaining rock stars, and i'm getting my head around those songs and they're sinking in just like the other two records

i think of the 4 A sides stuff as content art-punk, so the beautiful pop charms of the arty '85, not short on content as crafted pop songs with good hooks and construction, i suspect some people find it sexy

― george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 15:19 (8 years ago) Permalink

I'd just like to point out that Green was one of the nicest, most full-of-interesting-things-to-say people I've ever interviewed. I wish he made more records.

― Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 15:43 (8 years ago) Permalink

we need to find the thread with tom's theory that scritti's career is a secret precis of green gettig better in bed

Well, I've read every Scritti thread recently so here you are:

The sound of Scritti Politti 1978 to 1985 is essentially the sound of Green Gartside getting better in bed.

-- Tom (ebro...), December 3rd, 2001 7:00 PM.
(Scritti Politti)

― artdamages (artdamages), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 15:56 (8 years ago) Permalink

i wish he did more interviews too; i wish more was known about the whole story, a book, perhaps .. another Welsh rock'n'roll mystery for me; that "epiphany" was good.

yes, i got the impression Green was a fun person to be in the company of -- i read numerous new wave articles in the NME at that age as a matter of daily routine, so it's with some pleasure that i actually remember a particular NME feature (i was very young), since not having had much money as a kid, i'd been handsomely rewarded with both their/his records.

― george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 15:59 (8 years ago) Permalink

yes, i got the impression Green was a fun person to be in the company of

you got it wrong. the most disappointing meeting with someone who was and still remains a bit of a hero of my youth possible. smug and arrogant is the way i'd put it.

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 16:01 (8 years ago) Permalink

perhaps i should stick to the little bits of info i have and just the music

was the unpeasantness there in the early phase ? was it bought out later with his subsequent success ? (Michael Jackson associations ?)

(will this gossip just lead to "i didn't want to know that stuff since yeah he was a kind'a cool hero", Dave ?)

― george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 16:11 (8 years ago) Permalink

i met him, he was rude in an almost verbatim "you know who i am" kinda way. it was disappointing as his music meant/still means quite a lot to me and i expected much better. he still drinks in my local pub, i don't talk to him.

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 16:18 (8 years ago) Permalink

Why is he so lazy?

― AdamL :') (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 16:23 (8 years ago) Permalink

Just put on C&P 85 for the first time in years -- god, this is summertime incarnate.

― Sean Thomas (sgthomas), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 16:27 (8 years ago) Permalink

(wish I knew, Adam!)

― Sean Thomas (sgthomas), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 16:34 (8 years ago) Permalink

I managed to accidently delete "Sweetest girls" and "Skank Bloc Bologna" from my hard drive.

If anyway would burn the early stuff onto CD for me I'd be forever grateful.

― artdamages (artdamages), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 16:57 (8 years ago) Permalink

i can send you both those tracks if you like.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:03 (8 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 36 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I bought "A Perfect Way" when it was a single in America, I still have the 45. I must've been 11. I didn't buy a lot of "pop singles" or any kind of records back then but I thought that was the greatest song. And I remember listening to the dance mix on the b-side and thinking, "This sucks, it's the same song but they play this one part over and over and over again. That's dumb."

― Chris Dahlen (Chris Dahlen), Friday, 25 February 2005 14:34 (8 years ago) Permalink

Just for the record, I've interviewed him twice and met him a few times in (what used to be) my local in Dalston and I've always found him an utterly charming, rather amusing and very polite fellow. So there. Incidentally, Green mentioned his cats in a Time Out interview recently: it provoked a reply in the letters page from one a neighbours complaining of Green's excessively militant moggie bullying the other cats in the street.

― john lewis (johnnylewis), Saturday, 26 February 2005 00:36 (8 years ago) Permalink

my fave sp mixes are on virgin hit pack compilation
perfect way (extended version)
mastermind mix9wood beez/absolute/hypnotize)

― aretha franklin, Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:23 (8 years ago) Permalink

Ned quoted some bits from it above but Green's bafflingly negative assesments of the stuff contained on "Early" are worth typing out in full here, i think.

"It's been a long, long time since i heard this stuff. It sounds like an anti-produced labour of negativity, kind of structurally unsound and exposed, by design and default, If you felt generous you might say it was music with the questions built in and the assurances left out - otherwise you could just judge it gauche and technically unaccomplished. Whatever.

These are the first songs i wrote, recorded by the first Scritti Politti line up of Tom Morely (drums and drum machines) Nial Jinks (bass) and me, Green Gartside (vocals and guitar). We were living in a tiny squat in Camden Town at the time. Tom and I had just left School where the 'conceptual art' thing had led to a deeper interest in philiosophy. Nial and I had been together since schooldays, his marxist background was where our critical thinking began. We were united by our love of pop music (all terms used advisedly here). Inspired by seeing the Clash, Pistols, Damned and the Heartbreakers on night and Galvinised into action by d.i.y. pioneers "The Desperate Bicyles - we formed a group and started to play.

Although this music doesn't seem equal to conveying the ides and influences that informed it, perhaps a gereral drift and shifting of Musical Passions and theoretical passions is discernable, I think in the final minutes i can definately hear one place, one voice, one life being left and another being entered - blimey!

It's murky and frail stuff cut from old vinyl (the masters are long lost) i found it evocative of extraordinary times and a bit wiceworthy. Hopefully you'd find it at least - um - interesting. There's some nice bits especially the drumming and bass playingand Robet Wyatt's keyboards on "The Sweetest Girl" alone are worth your attention.

see you later.

Green Gartside"

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 26 February 2005 19:36 (8 years ago) Permalink

that's from "early"s liner notes btw.

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 26 February 2005 19:37 (8 years ago) Permalink

the very first day i moved to london in 1983 i saw tom morely on a bicycle!!

i have never seen or heard of him since

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 26 February 2005 19:40 (8 years ago) Permalink

"wiceworthy"? Why not.

― mark grout (mark grout), Saturday, 26 February 2005 19:43 (8 years ago) Permalink

Bought Early last night. Had already heard the music on it, but it's real real nice to have a CD of this stuff. And it sounds great! I couldn't discern that it was mastered from vinyl.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Saturday, 26 February 2005 19:51 (8 years ago) Permalink

yeah i'm happy to have it now rather than just on .mp3 - i can hear so much more detail, lots of things i had missed.

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 26 February 2005 19:53 (8 years ago) Permalink

Your search - wiceworthy - did not match any documents.
No pages were found containing "wiceworthy".

Suggestions:

- Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
- Try different keywords.
- Try more general keywords.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Sunday, 27 February 2005 02:35 (8 years ago) Permalink

:-(

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 27 February 2005 02:49 (8 years ago) Permalink

I used to have a rare 12" of a toasting version of "The Word Girl" by Tippa Irie or someone which I bitterly regret losing, if anyone by any chance has a digital version of it I'd be eternally grateful.

― rwillmsen (rwillmsen), Sunday, 27 February 2005 03:27 (8 years ago) Permalink

The toasting's by Ranking Ann. It's on the cd version of Cupid & Psyche.

― robertw, Sunday, 27 February 2005 19:49 (8 years ago) Permalink

cupid and psyche is one of my favorite albums ever. it's so bright and shiny and capitalist sounding. it reminds me of nyc for some reason. every once in awhile i'll pull it out and it turns into a brief obsession of superlatives in my head. i haven't heard any other scritti albums though.

― basquiat (disco stu), Sunday, 27 February 2005 23:40 (8 years ago) Permalink

Love love love them. Have had C+S since it came out, first on casette and then on CD, one of the few bands I have continued to be a fan of from early teen years.

Say, I have a 7" pressing of "Jacques Derrida/Asylums in Jerusalem", and of "Faithless" (both Rough Trade original pressings) - would they be worth anything at all? I always figured not really.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 28 February 2005 00:46 (8 years ago) Permalink

Put C+S'85 and a few songs off Provision on a cd the other day and it was
so great to listen to them again. God, I love(d) that band. The arrangements and production still awe me.

One of my best memories from my last job (recording studio) was telling Tawatha Agee, Fonzi Thornton and BJ Nelson (background vocalists) how much I loved them on the Scritti records (among others). They seemed pretty amazed I knew about their work on them.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Monday, 28 February 2005 03:43 (8 years ago) Permalink

I was going to play "Songs to remember" in the car this morn,off the minidisc I made (with the 12" Faithless substituted). But I left it at home.

― MG, Monday, 28 February 2005 10:29 (8 years ago) Permalink

I just heard "Jacques Derrida" for the first time last night, and have since downloaded some other songs, and Scritti Politti sounds almost nothing like what I'd expected. I was thinking something very much along the lines of the Human League or Depeche Mode.

Closer to Steely Dan or something (not exactly of course). The singing is way more palatable than I'd expected.

It's really weird that I somehow never knowingly heard anything by SP, considering how much college radio I was listening to at the time they would have been active.

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 14:55 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Jacques Derrida" sounds like Simon and Garfunkel and the Beatles (and others), but also like nothing else.

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 14:57 (8 years ago) Permalink

Yes.

p.s. Dat Da Dat da do be do hoo hoo

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 15:07 (8 years ago) Permalink

Is anyone else the proud owner of Scritti Politti - Early. I just picked it up today and it's my first exposure to the band.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Saturday, 12 March 2005 01:08 (8 years ago) Permalink

No one ever said if my 7" singles were worth owt :(

― Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 12 March 2005 01:11 (8 years ago) Permalink

They are worth owt.

― mark grout (mark grout), Saturday, 12 March 2005 11:42 (8 years ago) Permalink

Also ILM please STFU about Scritti Politti. It's annoying to read about this poncy 25-years-ago band over and over. Thanks.
-- KENNY LOG IN (____________...) (webmail), March 15th, 2005 1:07 PM. (link)

(From the Alex NYC KJ fixation thread.)

How annoying, exactly?

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 17 March 2005 08:58 (8 years ago) Permalink

300 new posts by tomorrow please

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 17 March 2005 11:41 (8 years ago) Permalink

i know it's cheeky to request outside of request threads but can anyone mail me 'She's A Woman' if they have it? yes i am aware it is rub

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Thursday, 17 March 2005 11:48 (8 years ago) Permalink

It's not rubbish - I'll take it any day over the original.

― Jedmond (Jedmond), Thursday, 17 March 2005 13:03 (8 years ago) Permalink

I like this thread.

― mark grout (mark grout), Saturday, 19 March 2005 19:07 (8 years ago) Permalink

So did most people GET Green's post-structuralist tricks in 1985 or did he have to explain it to them? How big was the album in the US? I remember hearing "Perfect Way" back then and just loving that twitchy beat and synth-bass; it took me years for me to marvel how he'd managed to smuggle "interrogative" into a pop song.

The album hit #50. Provision topped at #113. "Perfect Way" was #11, "Wood Beez" #91 or something like that, and "Boom! There She Was" made it to #54 or somewhere around there.

Is anyone else the proud owner of Scritti Politti - Early. I just picked it up today and it's my first exposure to the band.
Bought it as soon as it came out. Went straight to Vinyl Fever after school and bounced like I was on a pogo stick when I had it in my hands. I ended up buying another copy later on that day at another store (as I had pre-ordered it but they didn't tell me it was in yet) and gave it to my friend Courtney because she is the only person I know around here who'd appreciate it and I wanted to share the experience with someone I knew. She quite loves it. "Doubt Beat" makes her smile.

"Jacques Derrida" sounds like Simon and Garfunkel and the Beatles (and others), but also like nothing else.
To me it starts out like a gentler version of The Monochrome Set before exploding into something that seems to have been left off of Prince's Dirty Mind for not being sparse enough.

Say, I have a 7" pressing of "Jacques Derrida/Asylums in Jerusalem", and of "Faithless" (both Rough Trade original pressings) - would they be worth anything at all? I always figured not really.
Fuck, keep those, they're fabulous. I certainly wouldn't sell them!

― What we want? Sex with T.V. stars! What you want? Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Ma, Thursday, 31 March 2005 21:20 (8 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

Best Voice Ever

Not Even Better Than George Michael

(OK, the "Wood Beez" vocal is pretty good.)

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 10 August 2006 06:16 (6 years ago) Permalink

Reynolds on Cupid and Psyche 85 era music: "A mosaic of hyper-syncopations and micro-rhythmic intricacies."

Totally overblown overstatement.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 10 August 2006 20:16 (6 years ago) Permalink

I really love "Cupid & Psyche" and the underrated "Provision". As for "Songs To Remember", I do like "The Sweetest Girl", but I still think Madness did it better.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 10 August 2006 23:36 (6 years ago) Permalink

I was pondering your love for the album, actually! It is not all that "melodic." Sounds maybe like average '80s soul/R&B album filler compositions (though I like the two singles OK).

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 10 August 2006 23:56 (6 years ago) Permalink

There isn't an older album I've heard this year more often than CAP '85. Reread Simon, Tim: he's quite ambivalent about Mega Pop Green, which makes his advocacy of White Belly Black Beer curious.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 11 August 2006 00:07 (6 years ago) Permalink

Looking at it again, I find that section peculiar (end of Ch. 21 in the UK edition). Everything is praised and spun positively until the end when it is all questioned on political (and presumably aesthetic also) grounds.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 11 August 2006 00:53 (6 years ago) Permalink

Sounds maybe like average '80s soul/R&B album filler compositions

OK, no. Sorry - listening to it for the first times after buying a copy for a dollar. Am not the biggest lyrics guy in the world. Listening to it for the second time while paying attention to the lyrics (which I didn't do first time), the compositions "sunk in" more.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 11 August 2006 02:32 (6 years ago) Permalink

5 years pass...

We got a bit carried away (assuming it would sell out instantly and at most one of us would succeed in getting tickets) and bought one more pair than we needed for the Thursday night of this:

http://www.scritti.net/

So if anyone wants two tickets at face value, let me know.

― toby, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 19:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

Go on I'll have em...not likely to see Scritti at a venue this small in a hurry...

― The Pastiche Liberation Front (sonnyboy), Wednesday, 2 November 2011 20:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

Cool - webmail sent.

― toby, Thursday, 3 November 2011 06:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

10 months pass...

Scritti are playing live with Michael Clarke at the Tramway in Glasgow for his new work.... i got tickets for two of the three nights, i thought all three would be excessive.

The Work is on at the Barbican too from the 17th-27th of october but I can't confirm Scritti's live presence that night.

― jed_, Thursday, 27 September 2012 17:15 (7 months ago) Permalink

those nights, rather.

― jed_, Thursday, 27 September 2012 17:21 (7 months ago) Permalink

Do you have a link?

― 'Separate Lives', by Phil Collins & Marilyn Manson (PaulTMA), Thursday, 27 September 2012 17:43 (7 months ago) Permalink

via the Tramway facebook page:

Really exciting news just announced: Scritti Politti will be performing live as part of Michael Clark Company’s world premiere performance of New Work 2012 at Tramway next week - can't wait!

http://www.tramway.org/events/Pages/Michael-Clark-Company-New-Work-2012.aspx

no confirmation one way or the other re the barbican shows.

― jed_, Thursday, 27 September 2012 17:47 (7 months ago) Permalink

i know that this work has been in development for a while, including a dry-run (sort of) in glasgow earlier this month. scritti composed part of the score for this dry-run but on those shows the score was played over a PA. they'll be playing live in glasgow with michael clarke but (i've just checked) they are on tour at the time of the barbican shows so live sets there on any of the nights are unlikely.

― jed_, Thursday, 27 September 2012 17:54 (7 months ago) Permalink

Ah shite, I'm in London then.

― 'Separate Lives', by Phil Collins & Marilyn Manson (PaulTMA), Thursday, 27 September 2012 18:22 (7 months ago) Permalink

When I heard "Perfect Day" on the oldies station a couple weeks ago I made ridiculous hand movements and head thrusts sitting in traffic.

― taking tiger mountain (up the butt) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 27 September 2012 18:28 (7 months ago) Permalink

I was thinking The Saints there.

That's not my fault, it's Perfect Way, innit?

― Mark G, Thursday, 27 September 2012 19:11 (7 months ago) Permalink

He's playing with Saint Etienne in December too, glad to see that he's finally got over his stage fright.

― fun loving and xtremely tolrant (Billy Dods), Thursday, 27 September 2012 19:23 (7 months ago) Permalink

i met GG last night. so cool. he looks truly amazing for 57. if i didn't know who he was and was told he was early 40s i would believe it easily.

― jed_, Sunday, 7 October 2012 19:28 (7 months ago) Permalink

Okay so, I know hongro-bashing can seem pretty played-out, but this:

Old music is usually better than recent music. At least it has been during the past 15 years.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 20 March 2003 23:43 (9 years ago) Permalink

is pure gold

― beta male misogyny is here to stay (bernard snowy), Sunday, 7 October 2012 19:54 (7 months ago) Permalink

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