New Scott Walker album: 'The Drift'

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Time to stop looking at this thread, I think. Will buy it when it comes out. Nice to have things to look forward to, y'know?

I think I agree. I'm getting tired of thinking about what it might be like. I don't want to ruin it for myself.

― jz, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 15:46 (twenty years ago)

eally a donkey braying or some kind of brass instrument on "Jolson and Jones"...?

it's definitely a donkey, taken from a sound effects record. i have it on very good authority. ahem.

"Caligula proclaimed his horse senator, but his horse never took his seat"

i've listened to this 50 - 60 times, and i still have no idea what it means. the song is meant to juxtapose the reign of milosevic with the evolution of the horse. that's fine as a guiding principle, but i have no clue how to apply it. yet.

Some questions- what the fuck is that ducknoise thing on "The Escape" all about? Its completely obscene and absurd....

the song opens with a slide guitar, which is meant to call to mind the Warner Bros/Loony Tunes theme song. again, no idea how these fragments contributue to the overall meaning of the song. been working on it for a whiiiile now.

the last song might be my favorite on the record. it's definitely the most melodic, but also weird and halting because of all the "psst! psst!"

― PeopleFunnyBoy (PeopleFunnyBoy), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 15:52 (twenty years ago)

hear hear...

I liked it better pre-Internet, when albums just appeared...(like "Tilt", for instance)...very few things just come out of the blue anymore, and nothing ever lives up to the hype...

― hank (hank s), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 15:53 (twenty years ago)

PeopleFunnyBoy:

Agreed on the donkey business...

In context of the quote itself Milosevic is basically saying that a declaration means nothing, its the taking (the horse to the senate, bosnians taking control etc). Hmm... a difficult one.... and the evolution of the horse....?

The further the album goes on the more opaque its lyrical matter becomes...

― gek-opel, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 16:01 (twenty years ago)

gek - ah, i see. and i agree on the lyrical opaqueness.

all - sorry for spoiling the fun, i've just been dying to discuss some of this...

― PeopleFunnyBoy (PeopleFunnyBoy), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 16:07 (twenty years ago)

Yes! It demands to be discussed (worked at), its not passive, if you listen passively your ear just slides off it...

― gek-opel, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 16:12 (twenty years ago)

"Caligula proclaimed his horse senator, but his horse never took his seat"

Ha ha, maybe he just thought, "That's a funny line, I'll just stick that one in there for big yuks"

― Nadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 16:19 (twenty years ago)

The only other duck-noise reference I could think of – and one that is equally as disturbing – is the murderer in the Lucio Fulci film The New York Ripper who makes similar twisted Donald Duck noises as he brutally mutilates his victims.

I know it may not be a reference but what intrigues me is how both examples decided to use such a ridiculous sound in such a frightening way.

What with the sexual interpretation of donkey punching and the content of The New York Ripper, the album could be heard rather differently. THIS FILTH MUST BE BANNED.

― Peak Lupe (Peak Lupe), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 16:19 (twenty years ago)

I seriously don't think the donkey thing is connected to sex thumping.

But yes, when I heard that Caligula line, I burst out laughing cos its the most twisted and weird sentence. But I'm sure using it as a frame must mean something in the context of the rest of the song.

― gek-opel, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 16:29 (twenty years ago)

'tis true, it's gauche to share.

but also rude to be left off promo lists.

― Wrinklepaws (Wrinklepaws), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 16:41 (twenty years ago)

I suspect asides from a very few (chosen) people, most have got it from searching message boards for YSIs, or its on OINK. Not that most people have invites to OINK, but thats another matter... it'll be on the seeker of souls soon enough...

― gek-opel, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 16:49 (twenty years ago)

Maybe the donkey punching is a sly reference to Mongo in Blazing Saddles. Then again, probably not.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 17:02 (twenty years ago)

Some people just work in the right offices where random Scott Walker promos lie around on desks.

― Peak Lupe (Peak Lupe), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 17:11 (twenty years ago)

i will clam up until 5/9. sorry. but anyone who wants to keep talking about it can hit me offlist.

― PeopleFunnyBoy (PeopleFunnyBoy), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 18:08 (twenty years ago)

the only promos out, in the states anyways, are cdrs.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 18:38 (twenty years ago)

Hi,
does anyone have the lyrics of The Drift?
Is it possible to post the lyrics in this forum or to send to my Email address?
Thank Y so much...

― Bettina Wagner, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 19:32 (twenty years ago)

There are more electro-acoustic elements to it. The start of Clara nods to Xennaxis's electronic works. He seems to be consiously moving for more electronic manipulation, but still with that natural aesthetic intact. This work has blown my mind.

― Paul Baran, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 19:43 (twenty years ago)

In fact the strings betray a lot of Xenakis influence too... never staying steady, sliding up and down, (tho probably without all that mathematics undepinning it.. still, creates a mean sound-mass tho).
This album is mangling my mind. I think Scott has finally moved fully from Scott 4 (regurgitating the plot of The Seventh Seal over relatively conventional music) to creating cinema for the ear- not in the cheesy soundtrack-to-a-film-never-made sense, but in the way it turns music from a one dimensional or two dimensional artform (in pop- chords, timbre lyrics, and rhythm but most of these are within certain bounds) to a multidimensional one like cinema, where all the various artforms yoked together give you the different angles on the whole...

Can we not just start a new thread to discuss it, or will that irk the multitude?

― gek-opel, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 20:05 (twenty years ago)

Yes we can if you want. Iannis Xenaxis's music reflected the mathematics of chaos in the last Century. Walker applies that to to the song form as well? The orchestra moves in a Metastasis shifting the screen of black and light, as humans, we are trying to grasp the light in the alienation of the dark. The lyric in Clara with the dead sparrow is heart-rending (A bird suffers as much as the beating of Clara Petacci and Il duce). He show us the complete confusion of our world to our ears and faces.
As for multi-dimensional, yes I completely agree with that. You have the Caligula symbolism from the newsreader on the radio on "Buzzers", leaping and defying space-time, the almost satanic juxtoposition of Donald Duck/Donald Rumsfield in "The Escape". It's so complete as a work of Art that I feel that my stupid words just barely register it. The nearest cinematic equivalent, I can think of is the final scene of Pasolini's Salo, where the inhabitants are tortured and mutilated by the Fascisti, it packs that aural punch.
" Hand's me up" seems to be ridiculing that low-brow, cleebrity based culture we are subjected to day and day out, but I also got the sense that he was ridiculing the " applause ... after nine years" of his own audience.... what do you think?

― PaulBaran, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 21:06 (twenty years ago)

"Clara" is absolutely brilliant.

― ross, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 21:29 (twenty years ago)

Yes it certainly is. The whole album just redefines what song should be...

― PaulBaran, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 21:39 (twenty years ago)

I've no idea why you would want to start another thread already to discuss the record in depth although, since you call everyone else on the thread "the multitude", maybe it's for the best.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 21:40 (twenty years ago)

He show us the complete confusion of our world to our ears and faces.

Oh lord.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 21:43 (twenty years ago)

the scott walker thread and the kate bush thread are going to have to face off at some point

― boychild, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 21:46 (twenty years ago)

whose fanboys can gush hardest?

― boychild, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 21:46 (twenty years ago)

That Kate Bush lovefest has nothing on this one.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 21:51 (twenty years ago)

god, this might as well be the Grup National Anthem

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 21:58 (twenty years ago)

i don't know... noone has yet compared the drift to a monolith stretching miles into the sky.

― boychild, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 21:59 (twenty years ago)

...yet.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 22:08 (twenty years ago)

Donald Duck/Donald Rumsfield

i'll cop. i didnt pick up on this at all.

― PeopleFunnyBoy (PeopleFunnyBoy), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 22:09 (twenty years ago)

so many stupid words

― D. Duck, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 22:45 (twenty years ago)

Iam sorry folks. I didn't mean to come across like a pompous, pretentious asshole. Enjoy the album. Have fun.

― PaulBaran, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 23:27 (twenty years ago)

My enthusiasm went too far. After reading some of my posts, I realise that I come across as being up my own anus. I will keep my posts shorter and more to the point in future.

― PaulBaran, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 23:32 (twenty years ago)

don't sweat it dude! i'm dying to hear the album and i hope it makes me gush as much as you

― boychild, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 23:33 (twenty years ago)

It will, but not to Kate Bush proportions... lol

― PaulBaran, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 23:35 (twenty years ago)

Rapidshare, please ;-)

I've yet to come across a link that's still working in any of the blogs/forums I've just visited.

― Scott fan, Wednesday, 5 April 2006 05:01 (twenty years ago)

Please don't ask. We've already established that "asking for shares is really, really gauche".

(I am agreeing with you hstencil, not mocking you)

― Peak Lupe (Peak Lupe), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 06:21 (twenty years ago)

guache because....?

― lee ward (lee ward), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 06:59 (twenty years ago)

"Gauche" because if you are planning to steal something, it's a bit clumsy to publicly ask for help or for advice on how to do it.

― Peak Lupe (Peak Lupe), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 07:44 (twenty years ago)

Steal? I'm going to buy The Drift on the day of release.

― Scott fan, Wednesday, 5 April 2006 08:21 (twenty years ago)

I Love Music FAQ
What sorts of things are frowned on?
"Illiteracy, treating ILM as your personal music bank and forum for piracy"

― Peter Andre, Wednesday, 5 April 2006 09:20 (twenty years ago)

Scott Fan, I am not condemning you for wanting to steal/borrow an early copy of The Drift, but this is not the place to ask.

― Peak Lupe, Wednesday, 5 April 2006 09:29 (twenty years ago)

Differences from Tilt--- less songy

Christ.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 10:46 (twenty years ago)

Donald and donald- the escape about exit strategies from Iraq or what... kinda thought from the title that might have something to do with it...

Hand Me Up also ends on him feeling like christ... the nails going into his feet and hands... so yes, mocking himself and the way he is perceived, (the tortured artist is all an audience wants) or just the way no-brow sleb-culture in the end wants only to crucify those it once celebrated, it wants them dead (see Pedro Doherty et al...)

Psoriatic refers in part to "the silver people" (the term for people who suffered with psoriasis in medieval times) which I read elsewhere as being a subject Scott has written about before (a piece for his Meltdown Festival back in 2000 was it?)- but I don't know what all the blanket stuff is about...

Cue and Jolson and Jolson evade my grasp at present, but the fat black crocodile on the sandbar is a nice image...

― gek-opel, Wednesday, 5 April 2006 15:52 (twenty years ago)

the escape about exit strategies from Iraq or what

see, i got that in Psoriatic ("anthrax, jesus.../ pulling out won't be slow") but didnt get it in The Escape.

― PeopleFunnyBoy (PeopleFunnyBoy), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 16:12 (twenty years ago)

I missed that pulling out line... the need for a proper lyric sheet is chronic.

― gek-opel, Wednesday, 5 April 2006 16:33 (twenty years ago)

Yes, I agree, I want to write about this record so badly but I don't want to get the lyrics wrong.

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 16:59 (twenty years ago)

Iam trying to aim for the feel and the lyrics too. But he operates on multi-levels...

― PaulBaran, Wednesday, 5 April 2006 17:19 (twenty years ago)

I've heard that if you lay all the lyric end to end, they spell out the meaning of life.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 17:20 (twenty years ago)

I'm sure it will inspire reams of florid prose, but fuck it, its so content heavy (deeply coded) its completely appropriate. Feeling the mainstream press wil utterly slate it tho? (not that that matters in the grand scheme of things... just that it would be slightly unfortunate...)

― gek-opel, Wednesday, 5 April 2006 17:23 (twenty years ago)

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