New Scott Walker album: 'The Drift'

Fuck, another nightmare surprise! A screaming orchestra! It's terrifying!

There was an interview, way back in 95 when TilT was out, where he said he was listening to Nine Inch Nails and PH Harvey at that time.
I think the interview was in WIRE, but I am not sure.

oh really? hm.

am excited abt it, to see more of scott and in the studio, but not terribly looking forward to people who I don't, necessarily, dislike but saying a lof of v uninsightful stuff, etc

Well of course you have. As people keep reiterating, the Culture Show is intended as a topical "sampler" of what's going on across the board in the midbrow arts world. If you want specifics, go elsewhere. Or come here.
As for Scott: yeah, he came across as a witty, approachable fellow. But the new music sounded bloody awful.

Please share, will buy the original on the day of release.

-- Momus (nic...) (webmail), Today 4:32 AM. (Momus) (later)

(X-post to Marcello)

That's actually the tubax, a saxophone the size of a tuba. But yes, fucking amazing sound.

put it this way: after listening to The Drift for a long time and then going back to Tilt, i was surprised at how melodic Tilt was.

also, almost everyone associated with scott is referring to this as "rockin" or "his rock record". it's a silly bit of spin, but be prepared.

*cries of joy*

Seth, that seems to me the key problem with Tilt and the little of Drift I've heard. The vocal lines seem all but arbitary, floating around in that ghostly register he seems to use

I agree, Lee. However, as someone else stated......TILT seems downright melodic compared to THE DRIFT.

Not released for another month, and yet the backlash has already begun!

The Drift is incredible.

The vocal lines in Tilt and Drift are about as far from "arbitrary" as you can get. EVERY word and EVERY sound on this album has a place.

And for those hankering after more melody, give it up! There is plenty melody – however brutal some of it may be. Anyway, why is melody so important? Do you only watch films with a clearly defined plot or a happy ending?
These songs work within the medium of music better than almost anything else I can think of. For decades now, Scott Walker's music has been about context and appearance but once you go deeper you find that it is also dealing with how it achieves that appearance [Thanks Jim]

It's not the lack of a melody, it's the fact that the melodies are frustratingly narrow in compass, and don't sound written (to me at least). The analogue with films is misleading. Films that work always seem to have an interior logic that make them work (Lynch, Bergman, Tarkovsky) even if that logic remains hidden to the viewer.

In other words, I never felt on Tilt that one day I was just going to 'get' the tunes. I just thought they were weak (and I don't mean 'not poppy'...), although often the music compensated. But not always. That said, I've heard ONE track from Drift, so I really ought to be quiet now.

I'm not sure what Tarkovsky has said about hidden logic but both He and Lynch seem to deal in dream language and metaphors for the human condition.
I agree with Lee Ward about the interior logic (Tarkovsky talked about Rhetoric and Haiku) but I hear this same integrity in Tilt and The Drift.
On a side note, didn't Tarkovsky aslo struggle with his spirituality – something Scott Walker described in a 1995 interview for The Wire.

I am curious how a melody can "sound written", I don't mean to provoke, I would really like to know.

k