New Broadcast (RIP Trish Keenan Jan 2011)

(Me no like Ladytron 'cept for one single when they do an ace rip off of the Human League :-P )

sigh, isn't it GREAT?!

I feel the need to convert the whole world to this one. I'm in orrr-bit...

I'm gonna write something big on this, I fear. Even if I can't make out the lyrics you can't make out either.

The EP will be followed by the band's second proper LP, 'hahasound', due for release in August. The Birmingham group's acclaimed debut album 'The Noise Made By People' was released in 2000.

Broadcast play a string of US dates in May before commencing their UK tour. The dates are:

Glasgow Academy 3 (May 27)
Manchester Hop and Grape (May 28)
Cambridge Boatrace (May 29)
London ULU (May 30)
Brighton Pavilion (June 1)

Support comes from Imitation Electric Piano, except for Brighton Pavilion which is co-headlined with Alfie. The Projects also provide support at the ULU show.

For ticket availability

i will be at the ULU gig defo - got ticket already, see you down the front for a good heavy session of, erm, sage nodding

and yeh Tag i put that up, i got it from a friend who's into everything in the Warp vein - i recorded an MD round his house but we forgot to keep track of what was going on the disk - loads of Broadcast on there so i mistook it for one of their tunes for ages. i keep meaning to play it to this guy and hopefully he will remember what it is and i'll finally get around to that this week so the mystery will be solved.

as far as I understand it: not really. they were in love with new technologies. But of course new technologies => could be a really kule sound making machine or new 'weapons of mass destruction' so it was fuzzy logic.

I still don't know where that is in relation to ULU! (I'd already guessed you didn't mean the one in Hoxton...)

I'll be the fule in the...oh I dunno, who organises these things in advance? A ninetynine t-shirt, probably.

"we want to re-enter life"

but I had to leave straight after "Unchanging window" - what did I miss? Goddamn livingoutsidelondonness - anyone need a house-sitter between now and the end of july?

s'not with it's successes tho: i think it was marcello who chided boards of canada for lazily appropriating abstract loveless sound smear in place of other ideas please, but "valerie" is one of the few songs i've heard that's really learnt the (RIGHT!) lessons of "to here knows when" (the only exceptional mbv song/vacuum cleaner preset in my humble estimation). when that queasy keening dips into pure corrupt-hard-disk density.. sigh. and "the little bell" has that NASA-processing alien information sound in the background, that stuff always kills me - some impossibly urgent message fighting against the technology of its medium to be heard, a staged battle of signal vs noise (cf. "pen expers", "to here knows when" again). those impossibly prickly sounds at the end of "winter now" set against the blurry strings. the interrupted verses and the interrupting chorus of "man is not a bird".

i think it'll be a grower.

review: BROADCAST - Haha Sound
http://www.themilkfactory.co.uk/reviews/broadcast_hahasound.htm

Broadcast interview
http://www.themilkfactory.co.uk/interviews/broadcastiw_1.htm

a couple listens in i feel like "pendulum" is what had been promised from the beginning and from here the only places to go are back to the radiophonic workshop or in circles round add n to x and middling twee pop. :(

Monday 18.08.03 on xfm (10.30 pm to 1 am, I think)

Tuesday 19.08.03 on John Peel/BBC radio 1 (10 pm to midnight)

'Man Is Not A Bird' echoes 'Pendulum' rhythmically but the vocals are less urgent, more sullen and melancholic - just as haunting overall

'Minim', 'Lunch Hour Pops' and 'Hawk' are my other favourites...i'm not sure its quite as good as 'The Noise Made By People' but i don't know how to rationalise that - i think mitch may have been otm regarding they've pedestrianised things a little with the song structure and the starkness and sheer celebration of sonics inherent in previous work has been a little obscured here by sweet lyrics and dulcit unintrusive tones. i think i like Trish Keenan's voice because of that 'unintrusiveness' aspect - often it just seems like she's there observing and commentating on the song or its scenery rather than really pushing some kind of soul-baring introspection ala Beth Gibbons or whoever. but then if you think back to 'Papercuts', 'Message From Home' or even something like 'Living Room' which sounds more like Sean Lennon singing (may not have been Keenan but hard to tell!) it seems that there was more 'effort' in the singing but acceptance seems to have set in that there's a restricted range to her voice and the new songs have been written with that more in mind (considering the vastness of their forthcoming American tour perhaps this was a good idea). but i don't really know enough about singing to judge her like that. i'll keep listening and loving it anyway.

one thing tho - listen to Broadcast's remix of St Etienne's 'Angel' and perhaps compare Cracknell's vocals on that to Keenan's to see whether a voice more like Cracknell's would work better on other Broadcast material?

Kerrrrrrrazily I HAVE come to love TNMBP over last couple of months and am currently playing it near-constantly, so I dunno. Broadcast may be the ultimate grower group ever ever, although they've had enough hugely-immediate moments (Come On Let's Go, The Book Lovers, etc etc) to suggest that this isn't the case. Haha Sound is fantastic though and I can only see myself getting more into it, rather than going off it.

C'mon don't put a 36 song release on streaming with ONE song available and we have to wait till May?

Cruel.

One sample song is beautiful of course and one can only wonder what could've been.

Holy cow!

woah new song sounds great, all in on this

yeah new song great but "Tears In The Typing Pool" (demo) also amazing... seemingly effortless to have a melody and structure like that already fleshed out from the start.

that new song is stunning, amazing how hypnotic and compelling and complete it sounds with just three (?) elements - it makes me think of how tender buttons was an unfinished recording that was actually perfect, similar (much sadder) vibes here

it’s going to kill me, I expect. it must be very hard for James to put these out. I love the cover art as well.

Gee, it really is two discs. September (!) for the 2000-2006 volume lol. Wasn't sure how to interpret the cover images on a certain Context-Free Streaming Platform. Only got as far as digging that photocopier aesthetic.

Both are coming out in May, a couple of weeks apart. Unless you mean vinyl?

Never mind I didn’t read the small type properly. Dammit, seriously, September?!

Duh. Distant Call is coming out on Trish’s birthday — what a beautiful way to wrap up this tradition, and the whole story.

There's something very final (obviously) but probably healthy about "This will be the last music from Broadcast".

had a look at the Spell Blanket track listing and nothing seemed to be obviously ‘Eyes Open’ or ‘Dulcimer Jam’… but i guess time will tell

Spell Blanket now streaming (and my physical copy just arrived)

Joy and unbearable ache in equal measures

spell blanket is well titled. some absolutely beautiful songs, all of it is mesmerizing. almost like the acapella sketches more than the finished ones.

"i run in dreams" is an instant pantheon one for me: https://broadcast.bandcamp.com/track/i-run-in-dreams

Mondrian child let loose with the pen <3

this is great

yeah, this is really fantastic. not that I expected them to be barrel scrapings or something, but still found myself frequently amazed at how gorgeous some of these are!

Why, a professionally shot video recording of an Italian show from 2010 on the Investigate Witch Cults tour? I'm glad you asked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rntWJcQFhbM

that tour was the only time I ever was able to see them live! i was just scanning through the setlist and it suddenly reminded me why i couldn't remember 90% of the songs they were playing.

I didn't realize they were doing shows at that point.

Watching open-mouthed

I saw this. Was a big CMJ show in NYC with Atlas Sound. Opened with a 20 minute Julian house movie they played along too.

if this is any indication, the new demos compilation will be well worth checking out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCDOtflaJBY

that's from the collection that's already available, but I am excited about the next one

yeah it came out in may, didn't know there's another on the way

i guess new wasn't the best word, i suppose i meant to say that the demos comp from this year will be fun for me to check out based on my reaction to that track

yep, the 2nd part Distant Call, which covers 2000-2006 will be out on Sept 28

Spell Blanket is indeed very good and well worth your time, probably one of my favorites of the year so far, kind of hard to believe they had so much high quality material that never came out

MORE: https://broadcast.bandcamp.com/album/distant-call-collected-demos-2000-2006

They were so good.

If Distant Call is truly the final release then I suppose there will never be a home for the unreleased tracks they performed on their last tour.

I love this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPPvcm0cw6U

Distant Call is beautiful, if a bit damned intimate. It was a bit of a shock hearing what it was because of that. I wasn't even sure I liked it at first, or if I needed to hear it. But I'm completely won over now. It is going to be a classic bit of Broadcast for many.

A little bit tearful actually.

This is incredible if, yes, almost too intimate.

I love Spell Blanket but still haven't fully got my head round it, like it's got that fragmentary, in and out of focus feeling of Witch cults/BBS/Mother and like them it's working in bit by bit. I hadn't really looked at the track listing for Distant Call so expected more of that and it basically jumped me with all these songs I know well in this bare form.

They're a beautiful pair of releases, complementary, clearly put together with love. It feels like the right way to end. Makes me want to send a thank you note.

Just heard Distant Call and was completely floored. It sounds like some lost private press album from the 60s.

Distant Call is great, but I like Spell Blanket even more.

Close your eyes and let the baby
Darkness come alive

I am the bridge between the living
Through my eyes and through my giving

if the sun shines inside
the sun shines outside