― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Friday, 10 September 2004 04:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― Hanna (Hanna), Friday, 10 September 2004 13:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 10 September 2004 13:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― Hanna (Hanna), Friday, 10 September 2004 13:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Friday, 10 September 2004 13:42 (nineteen years ago) link
this is a request from the swedish singer stina nordenstam.
i am working on new material for my 7th album and want alien contribution. i want strangers to send loops, bits and pieces of non-musical sounds, documentary, everyday sounds - as well as beats. naturally it is potentially more interesting with sounds i can't associate to. the other thing i will be looking for is how the loops are constructed, put together. i don't want to be too specific as a lot of time the best is in the unexpected. so, i am not asking for any particular style. i want things out of the ordinary, with character, inspiring. in any way. i don't want songs. i don't want harmonies. i want construction pieces.
stina nordenstam
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Friday, 10 September 2004 16:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 10 September 2004 17:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Friday, 10 September 2004 17:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― ian g, Friday, 10 September 2004 20:48 (nineteen years ago) link
A friend of mine hooked me up with an album track as well and it's amazing.
― Avi (Avi), Monday, 13 September 2004 16:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 02:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Angie, Tuesday, 14 September 2004 17:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― the todster (the todster), Thursday, 16 September 2004 11:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 16 September 2004 12:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 16 September 2004 12:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Thursday, 16 September 2004 12:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Thursday, 16 September 2004 12:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Thursday, 16 September 2004 12:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:02 (nineteen years ago) link
Wow it's eight years since Dynamite. That was a fucking formative record for me in retrospect.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:16 (nineteen years ago) link
On another note, Stina is one of the few artists where I often have to emotionally prepare myself to listen to.
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:21 (nineteen years ago) link
When I visited the UK about seven years ago, this was one of the things I specifically searched out (The Vulgar Boatmen's Opposite Sex being the other). I have listened to it once, maybe twice the whole way through. If I didn't go all that way for it, I'd have sold it a long time ago. Personally, I think it lacks the production that made her next one so special. The songs are kinda, eh. Download it.
― frankE (frankE), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:40 (nineteen years ago) link
and she closed her eyes
― frankE (frankE), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― frankE (frankE), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― frankE (frankE), Thursday, 16 September 2004 13:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Thursday, 16 September 2004 14:10 (nineteen years ago) link
it took me a long time to warm to This is; I was disappointed when it came out, but when I went back to it a year later with fresh ears I found more to like. It's much more pop in many ways. I didn't even realize until yesterday that was Brett Anderson on it.
― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 16 September 2004 14:16 (nineteen years ago) link
(the other one is now taken down)
― Avi (Avi), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:22 (nineteen years ago) link
Thanks
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― the todster (the todster), Saturday, 18 September 2004 06:54 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm tempted to hear the new album now, but I'm going to wait until I buy it. I'm going to buy it, regardless, but I've realized how unhappy I am when all the albums I want to buy I've already heard. There's just no excitement in that. I trust, of course, that I'll be able to find the album when it's out... maybe I'll just bring my Stina list to Scratch and get them to order everything.
― derrick (derrick), Saturday, 18 September 2004 07:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 27 September 2004 12:19 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.v2music.com/site/audioVideo.asp?avType=11
(scroll down to "S")
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Sunday, 24 October 2004 04:50 (nineteen years ago) link
The combo of "From Caymen Islands With Love" and "The Morning Belongs To The Night" is particularly affecting.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 8 November 2004 06:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― derrick (derrick), Monday, 8 November 2004 08:18 (nineteen years ago) link
The arrangements on the album are spectacular, clearly the best in her career so far. The string quartet pieces are definitely one of the main attractions for me, it's almost as if she is reinventing "Dynamite" in neoclassical form.
Derrick it is on Stina's own label, and is being distributed by V2 in Europe. No North American release planned as far as I know.
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 8 November 2004 16:03 (nineteen years ago) link
"The arrangements on the album are spectacular, clearly the best in her career so far. The string quartet pieces are definitely one of the main attractions for me, it's almost as if she is reinventing "Dynamite" in neoclassical form. "
What I find interesting is that despite this reinvention it still sounds a lot like Dynamite (only without such an explicit post-punk vibe) or a more melodic, big budget version of People Are Strange - you'd think that with such a strong string quartet presence and so many jazz affectations the music would sound much closer to, say, the fuller pieces on And She Closed Her Eyes, but i think in the last ten years Stina's honed her arranging skills into such a distinct and purposeful weapon that she now rarely if ever sounds like she's performing in a particular style or genre.
Also, the press release says this is an upbeat record but in truth it is, as one would expect from Stina, a deliciously melancholy affair.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 8 November 2004 22:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 11:10 (nineteen years ago) link
Dynamite did this too, for all its grinding, and my favourite tracks on that album are similarly the ones that feel like they could go on forever - the title track, "Almost A Smile', "CQD", "Down Desire Avenue". Listening to that album agian, what leaps out at me right now is how the guitar is actually rarely particularly physical, for all its buzziness: it's the grain and the texture of that dirty guitar sound that Stina's focused on. The guitar is actually the most "soundscape" like aspect of the music, allowing the strings and the slow-groove rhythms to give the songs body and momentum. I think this is part of what makes them sound so compelling - the songs sound like they've been sculpted out of raw material, rough-hewn rock. The World Is Saved shares that feel, although it's softer, perhaps earth and clay.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 13:22 (nineteen years ago) link
That's exactly why I feel Dynamite is the more pertinent comparison for The World Is Saved, even though it's soft-focus and easy on the ear like This Is...: most of the time, when the melody and the voice and the instruments all gel, there's a real sense of musical unity, whereas with This Is... youwere always aware of the disparate components to each song. Which I suppose goes back to what you were saying about Stina's arrangement skillz - I can't remember if she produced Dynamite or not? Even the most This Is...-esque song on The World Is Saved, "Butterfly", sounds very natural, while the best songs - "Parliament Square", "From Cayman Islands With Love" just take that to another level.
― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 13:49 (nineteen years ago) link
I feel like there's a big jump in skill and quality between albums one and two - And She Closed Her Eyes really codifies some qualities that define her subsequent work despite the massive stylistic shifts.
Like, the voice is the same but from the first line of "When Debbie's Back From Texas" you can hear how much more aware and deliberate her use of it is - this Rickie Lee Jones in an iron lung quality, superficially blank and stripped (or evacuated) of affect, yet perversely affecting. A quality that extends to her suddenly incredibly sharp lyrical economy, conveying entire worlds and personas with the smallest number of words possible.
"From Cayman Islands With Love" from The World Is Saved is a great example of this:
Half a day behind and miles awayI'm on a beachThe only one around I know who can'tEnjoy the heatI bought the postcardNow I have to write the wordsI left the countryThere's a chance you may have heardGrand Cayman is greatOf course it isWeather like thisLiving is greatOf course it isWhat else did you thinkWhat else did you thinkI said I want a man and not a boyYou left the roomThe Caribbean sun so leaves me coldYou never doI want to see youEven want to see you bleedI can't believe I paid for thisThere's nothing here I needGrand Cayman is greatOf course it isWeather like this?Living is greatOf course it isWhat else did you thinkWhat else did you think
... The deliberateness emptiness of "weather like this?"... I love it.
― Tim F, Friday, 26 February 2021 00:00 (three years ago) link
... That said, the last two tracks of Memories of a Colour are the best on the album, so if you listen to the first albums back to back it's like Stina is gearing herself up.
― Tim F, Friday, 26 February 2021 00:01 (three years ago) link
I bought "And She Closed Her Eyes" in 1994 when I was in high school - I think I bought "Park Life" (!) in the same haul. Mark Radcliffe had been playing "Little Star" every night on his Radio 1 late show.
Anyway, it's just the most beautiful record - I think it might be favourite ever album, the only album I've never gotten bored of listening to. I used to put in on with "Five Lives Left".
I can't believe The World is Saved was released 16 years ago. And look at idiot me above, thinking ten years was a long time.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 26 February 2021 00:33 (three years ago) link