The Sound - Classic/Dud/Search/Destroy

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I really like "Coldbeat".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 9 September 2004 21:58 (8 years ago) Permalink

I finally got the BBC collection. Great stuff indeed.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 10 September 2004 07:03 (8 years ago) Permalink

7 months pass...

Finally scored From the Lion's Mouth (damn their albums are difficult to obtain without being able to convert currencies of use PayPal -- I had previously ordered All Fall Down from Vinyl Fever here and it took three months to arrive). It's cohesively great. I'm not sure whether I like it more than All Fall Down or not but time will tell. "Sense of Purpose" kills. I direly want the BBC Recordings, Jeopardy, and In the Hothouse.

― Ian Riese-Moraine. To Hell with you and your gradual evolution! (Eastern Mantra), Sunday, 10 April 2005 23:42 (8 years ago) Permalink

Live version of 'Sense of Purpose' on Hothouse is one of the high points there, what it lacks in poise it makes up for in sheer urge to splurge.

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 11 April 2005 07:17 (8 years ago) Permalink

8 months pass...

...

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 December 2005 21:01 (7 years ago) Permalink

now i'm winning

― cutty (mcutt), Saturday, 24 December 2005 21:03 (7 years ago) Permalink

if we don't act now

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 24 December 2005 21:17 (7 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

"Who the hell makes those...MISSILES?"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 20:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

Ned - heard The Outsiders? I think it is all of our duties to bombard Renascent with requests for a 2CD retrospective of both their albums and the singles/EPs. AND the Kevin Hewick/Sound EP.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Thursday, 23 February 2006 08:16 (7 years ago) Permalink

Bands that maybe could have become the next U2 but thankfully didn't:

The Sound
House of Love
Chameleons
Echo and the Bunnymen

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Thursday, 23 February 2006 14:28 (7 years ago) Permalink

uh, comsats?

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 23 February 2006 14:34 (7 years ago) Permalink

what are the members of Easterhouse up to these days? i admired the commie bombast of their first album. i don't know if they wanted to be U2 or not though. Not like the Alarm wanted to be U2 anyway.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 23 February 2006 14:42 (7 years ago) Permalink

Ned - heard The Outsiders? I think it is all of our duties to bombard Renascent with requests for a 2CD retrospective of both their albums and the singles/EPs. AND the Kevin Hewick/Sound EP

Sounds like a plan to me!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 23 February 2006 15:03 (7 years ago) Permalink

Ha! I finally bought Propaganda yesterday. Haven't played it yet, but I had a look inside the packaging and was kind of unprepared to see Adrian's sleeve notes. I had forgotten that he died just after the first few of these reissues hit the shops. Still very, very sad.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 24 February 2006 08:24 (7 years ago) Permalink

Obv I hadn't forgotten that he'd died, just what the chronology was wrt these reissues.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 24 February 2006 08:25 (7 years ago) Permalink

All Fall Down is simply genius -it's my favourite because they took a risk and changed their sound exactly at the point where everyone expected a transformation into U2/EATB style 'epic-ness'. A work of real bravery and emotion with one of THE greatest songs ever written in 'Monument'.

Am listening to All Fall Down this very second and "Monument" just finished. Dr. C said it a couple of years ago so I don't have to.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 16:21 (7 years ago) Permalink

I listened to Propaganda this morning - how can something this great have been buried for 20+ yrs? Physical World in particular deserves to be blasted out of radios across the globe.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 17:10 (7 years ago) Permalink

Ned, did you ever hear our awful cover of "Total Recall"?

― San Carlos, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 19:49 (7 years ago) Permalink

Apparently not, ergo you must post or share.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 19:56 (7 years ago) Permalink

Um, please.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 19:57 (7 years ago) Permalink

Sorry for the delay. Last one listed.

http://www.myspace.com/magicbullets

― San Carlos, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 21:07 (7 years ago) Permalink

:-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 21:08 (7 years ago) Permalink

Now listening to In the Hothouse and all the relistening over the past few days leads me to address a point way upthread:

I suspect I'd probably think Winning was a lot nicer if the 'I'm gonna make it after all!' sentiment wasn't offet by the 'Hang on a minute, this guy jumped in front of a train three years ago!' realisation

In my case, I now realize that I have the exact opposite feeling about the Sound and Adrian B. -- when it comes to figures like, say, Jim Morrison or Ian Curtis, their sound and the post-death cults (for lack of a better word) combine to create a resultant expectation that is often hard to properly escape, especially if like me you encounter them well after the fact.

Admittedly I did the same with the Sound as well, hearing them first well after their breakup but before Adrian died, but like, say, Billy Mackenzie and the Associates, when I hear the Sound I hear life, I hear exultance for lack of a better word. For all the most intense moments that Adrian can create with his words and singing, there is a grace and soaring resonance that causes me to rise, not sink. The comparisons with U2 and Bono don't work for me because there is something here that is strong but not overbearing, a true warmth -- and the more I think about so many of the band's contemporaries, the more that seems to be near unique, that the lighter singing voice (if only by degrees in some cases) compared to others is what gives the Sound its unique feel still for me.

I hear the Sound and I hear an embrace, not hectoring or rabble-rousing. That to me is a true gift.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:31 (7 years ago) Permalink

when I hear the Sound I hear life, I hear exultance for lack of a better word. For all the most intense moments that Adrian can create with his words and singing, there is a grace and soaring resonance that causes me to rise, not sink.

That for me is spot on, and nicely put to boot.

― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:36 (7 years ago) Permalink

Raggett OTM, I have long since recanted my Sound ambivalence, at least as far as the two albums I'm most familiar with. That one line in "Winning" that says "something won't let you stop" always kind of sticks out even despite the bleak tone.

Also, that sort of warmth you talk about is really evident on "Fatal Flaw" - that sort of falling-into-place moment when it reaches the motif that repeats to the end is one of my favourite drawn-out repetitive outros of ooh, ever.

― Michael A Neuman (Ferg), Thursday, 2 March 2006 17:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

Aaaalso great: the BBC session of "Hothouse", where the original chorus is replaced with sulky instrumental noodling, only to have the original passage redeployed as this massive ecstatic release at the end of the song.

― Michael A Neuman (Ferg), Thursday, 2 March 2006 17:53 (7 years ago) Permalink

**I suspect I'd probably think Winning was a lot nicer if the 'I'm gonna make it after all!' sentiment wasn't offet by the 'Hang on a minute, this guy jumped in front of a train three years ago!' realisation*

You'd have hoped that he'd weathered the storm, but by all accounts he got more ill as time went on.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 3 March 2006 10:51 (7 years ago) Permalink

Ah! I've only realised recently there's a connection between The Sound and my favouritest band of all time, Cardiacs. Turns out the early line-ups of both bands shared a few members - Colvin "Max" Mayers, Mick Pugh and Borland himself(briefly).

"It's 1976 and Tim and his pal Adrian Borland (who at the time was in a punk band called 'The Outsiders' and later on fronted a band called 'The Sound') and an amazing rock drummer called Bruce Bizland (no one knows what happened to him) make a band and do about two gigs then stop...they sounded a bit like the rocky instrumental bits on that David Bowie album 'The Man Who Sold The World' didn't they. They never gave their band a name either."

I've often meant to investigate The Sound but never got round to it. Maybe sometime I will.

― Philip Alderman (Phil A), Friday, 3 March 2006 14:27 (7 years ago) Permalink

Tim and Sara Smith of the Cardiacs play on Shock of Daylight too. Don't know why there's not more love for that particular record. It's actually my favourite one, I think.

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 3 March 2006 14:37 (7 years ago) Permalink

I ought to listen to Shock and Heads & Hearts again, not that I have them anymore. I found them a bit polite compared with the first three, but could be wrong. Thunder Up, the last LP was a good 'un.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 3 March 2006 15:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

"Who the hell makes those...MISSILES?"

What a great song... I wish he had sung all screamy like that more.
Great great band.

they were v.good live - I must have seen them 10 times or so
Ahhhh! $*#@&!!!

― giantBehemoth (makelove), Thursday, 16 March 2006 07:30 (7 years ago) Permalink

Sorry. I'm old.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Thursday, 16 March 2006 08:11 (7 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

Holy heck. Click here:

http://www.renascent.co.uk/

...then go down to the albums section. Please to note the *FIVE* live Sound albums from 1981 to 1985 now available -- they're all taken from Dutch radio broadcasts, and all are midpriced at that.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 23 June 2006 13:25 (6 years ago) Permalink

I got the email on this too. I can't wait to snag these...

― Fsck Washing Ong's Hat (Chris Barrus), Friday, 23 June 2006 15:02 (6 years ago) Permalink

I heard they were going to be cheapo i.e about five quid, for a while at least!

― Dr.C (Dr.C), Friday, 23 June 2006 16:40 (6 years ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

I got mine in the mail a couple of days ago - holy fucking shit. They're just ripping me to shreds.

― Ricki Belloni (Pangolino 3), Thursday, 13 July 2006 03:20 (6 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

OGWT Sense of Purpose. I've never seen this before. Holy shit.

― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 20 September 2006 01:07 (6 years ago) Permalink

8 months pass...

That thread on Crawling Chaos reminded me of these guys; I saw that same OGWT clip linked above on one of those late night 'Whistle Test Years' programmes a few years ago, and they blew me away. But I never got around to picking up the Renascent reissues, and they're out of print now as the licence expired. Supposely Warner Bros is supposed to be re-releasing them, but when? Anyone heard anything?

― MacDara, Sunday, 20 May 2007 22:34 (6 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

Listening to All Fall Down today and am convinced that it was way ahead of it's time - while simultaneously being a spiritual successor (however you wish to define that) to Scary Monsters

― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 00:41 (4 years ago) Permalink

classic

a. party of the mind is an amazing song
b. total recall is one of the best-ever semi-bitter post-breakup songs
c. some of adrian borland's solo stuff is heart-breaking

― dell, Friday, 1 August 2008 00:20 (4 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

Too little discussion about this amazing band that seems destined to remain lost in time. Their catalog was out of print for years, back thanks to Renascent and now back out of print and going for stupid money on Amazon (except the live albums, which is better than nothing). Looks like their last album, "Thunder Up" is on eMusic. Wasn't Warner supposed to reissue their first 3 albums?

Anyway, The Sound surely kept me sane when I was young - such passionate music, and lyrics that kept saying "Keep going!" "Winning" still revs my engine. Any other appreciators of the sadly missed Adrian Borland?

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 26 January 2010 20:29 (3 years ago) Permalink

Classic because I made a killing on Lion's Mouth; wasn't fussed by the music, sadly. Still, the profit meant I could buy more records.

― brain thoughts (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 26 January 2010 20:32 (3 years ago) Permalink

love of all their record to death

― sir ilx-a-lot (cutty), Tuesday, 26 January 2010 20:33 (3 years ago) Permalink

I have the renascent reissues of Jeopardy and FTLM. I like them. They do the Joy Division-y impending doom thing well but with an optimistic twist (Winning especially). On one of the live bonus tracks, to gee up the crowd, he introduces it by saying something like, "c'mon! let's get indigestion!". That's definitely classic.

Are the renascent reissues valuable?

― cajunsunday, Tuesday, 26 January 2010 20:57 (3 years ago) Permalink

people are overcharging for them secondhand, yes

― mintox plus oral (electricsound), Tuesday, 26 January 2010 22:39 (3 years ago) Permalink

SECOND LAYER!

― guammls (QE II), Tuesday, 26 January 2010 23:06 (3 years ago) Permalink

had all of these on record

sold them for $$$

― I think ur a probotector (cozen), Tuesday, 26 January 2010 23:28 (3 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, listening to some minimal synth today thinking, "This is good but Second Layer one one of the best and creepiest". Out Joy Divisioned Joy Division at times.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 27 January 2010 00:19 (3 years ago) Permalink

indeed, and holy smokes, i just saw that cherry red actually reissued "world of rubber" last year whoaowowo

― guammls (QE II), Wednesday, 27 January 2010 00:22 (3 years ago) Permalink

love the tension/release in "i can't escape myself"

really jarring

― sir ilx-a-lot (cutty), Wednesday, 27 January 2010 00:27 (3 years ago) Permalink

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