TEARS IN THE TYPING POLL: ILM Artist Poll #114 - BROADCAST (Results Thread)

I feel like I should spend more quality time with Pram. They never quite clicked for me, but they endlessly feel like they might be about to do so.

I think I know what you mean about Haha Sound. Much of it sounds like a sequence of quite, er, small ideas. I mean, something like "O How I Miss You" is possibly the slightest thing in the whole world ever and yet... it's possible I've very nearly shed a tear over that thing!

the broadcast v stereolab narrative needs to knock it off

one of my favorite sounding albums ever--the sonic palette of primitive drum machines + sentient-fax-machine synths + Trish's sweet, stoic voice to me evokes an eternal, glowing future

Re Tender Buttons: this nails it really - I remember that it leaked very early (par for the course in 2005) and the sound of it was a real shock at first. It had a brace of springy pop songs (Black Cat, America's Boy, Corporeal, Michael A Grammar, Goodbye Girls) which definitely had the fizzy abandon that I'd always wanted from them. But, yes, Haha Sound had been their most cavernous album and yet this felt like their most minimalist. Tender Buttons and Young Marble Giants' Colossal Youth are both easily in my top 10 all-time albums, for similar reasons - stoic vocals over drum-machine bounce.

Loads of comments above regarding initial reactions to certain albums resonate with me. Broadcast have definitely become my favourite band over the past 25 years, and I've bought everything at the point of release since Book Lovers, but both TNMBP and Haha Sound did slightly different things than I'd initially anticipated

I had exactly the same initial reaction to TNMBP as emsworth outlines upthread; by the time the Pendulum EP came out I'd long since fallen in love with the chilly detachment of this prev album, but then the Pendulum tracks and parts of Haha Sound were so much about the newly gigantic and frenetic drums that my expectations shifted again. Both TNMBP and Haha Sound were massive growers for me and each new release completely changed my appreciation of the previous one.

I think I will be listening to Witch Cults for decades and slowly decoding it

Completely this, also - I guess it doesn't do what some people want from Broadcast, but it's so lush and dense and once you stop listening for tidy pop songs they do gradually emerge.

I feel like I should spend more quality time with Pram. They never quite clicked for me, but they endlessly feel like they might be about to do so.

Cool! Thanks. :)

Helium is very good too

c)If it is a concern, her politics seem to have been fine during their prime and she left years ago (the new records are great)
d) I am very partial to the telemetric melodies compilation

*takes notes*

Thanks people!

The one actual physical disc I plucked from a discount bin (but *still* don't know well) is apparently The Moving Frontier which I'm guessing is not immensely acclaimed...

btw, the chronology with Billy playing in Broadcast is obviously back to front, but if Plone had been eligible for this poll I would have given them hefty votes.

Tender Buttons was my #1 for albums, probably their most song-y release but

Oops

Tender Buttons was my #1 for albums, probably their most song-y release but also I think it also just showcases the various strengths of the band so well, you still get a lot of the psych feel/general strangeness on there as well.

I voted for the compilations rather than the individual EPs as that's how I know them but I should try giving them a listen separately, just to see how they flow in that format.

ok, (come on) let's go.

is 77 a bit too many tracks? possibly, but number 78 was somehow the highest ranked track with less than two votes, also it was me who had to make images and all 77 are done now, as of about 20 minutes ago. going this high also lets us sample a few different flavours which would otherwise be missing.

https://i.imgur.com/osFDaZ9.jpg

77. Locusts
From Come On Let's Go Single, 2000. Compiled on The Future Crayon, 2006
Fan-made video by Blue-Loire on YouTube
27 Points, 3 Votes

In a little yellow lemon tree, no less! A+ CaAL!

pictures look not so great at this size, will make some minor adjustments

What to say about Locusts? I like it a lot, but it flits from idea to idea, and only a few moments are truly special, so can understand it being overlooked.

https://i.imgur.com/G3VYeuf.jpg

76. Chord Simple
From Come On Let's Go Single, 2000. Compiled on The Future Crayon, 2006
Fan-made video by Muse Seymour on YouTube
28 Points, 4 Votes

I think I vaguely wondered out loud in the other thread whether this standalone version was likely to get any votes. Then I refreshed my memory. It did sound faintly more... unbuttoned than the other version? I did opt for the other one, however.

https://i.imgur.com/iMSJsd0.jpg

75. Microtronics 04
From Microtronics Vol 1, 2003
Audio on YouTube
29 Points, 2 Votes

I can reveal that this is the only Microtronic which we will be hearing today/

Haha. This is the one I kept on my ballot. I was delighted to see it receive further support!

One of the more Radiophonic Workshop sort of tracks.

Oh wait, that's 05 up there.

I, at least, hopefully voted for this one this one. :)

the broadcast v stereolab narrative needs to knock it off

― Western® with Bacon Flavor,

I only think of them like this when trying to figure out where to put them in my favourite bands list. Both somewhere in the top five but the order is tricky.

I didn't ever consider voting for any of the Mircrotronics tracks. It would be hard for me to pick out highlights.

Nine Microtronics tracks received votes - suspect all of them were throwing a single vote in its direction, only two votes ended up landing on the same one.

Apologies for posting the wrong video, will try not to make any more mistakes. Thankfully not so easy to confuse anything coming up.

Time for our first of two ties. An interesting pairing!

https://i.imgur.com/QGx20yh.jpg

=73. Bit 35
From Tender Buttons, 2005
Fan-made video by eataverysbones on YouTube
31 Points, 3 Votes

https://i.imgur.com/vveebvG.jpg

=73. Dead The Long Year
From The Noise Made By People, 2000
Fan-made video by Wonder Muddle on Youtube
31 Points, 3 Votes

Now I'm trying hard to figure out the relation between Colour me In and Hawk :)

These images are really working for me, CaAL!

Also: I'd forgotten how good the second #73 is. Should have been on my ballot somehow.

I'm plonking these in that Spotify playlist as well, and this quasi-random all-instrumental sequence is fab.

I will explain the images when the rollout is over, pretty sure there will be some questions before then.

idk i'm loving the inscrutability of the images, it fits the theme

also loving all the fan made videos

Yeah one of my favourite parts of this process has been finding these videos.

Having said that, here is our second and final tie, and neither of these has a fan-made video I can find.

https://i.imgur.com/QmcyZC1.jpg

=71. A Quiet Moment
From Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age, 2009
Audio on Youtube
32 Points, 2 Votes

https://i.imgur.com/OYwzmpB.jpg

=71. The Be Colony/Dashing Home/What On Earth Took You?
From Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age, 2009
Audio on Youtube
32 Points, 2 Votes

so far, i've voted for "locusts" (love the off-kilter 6/8 groove and the big swooping piano notes) and "dead the long year" (reminds me a of a roubaix-esque spy film score)

That basically sums up why Tender Buttons is not a favourite: it never really threatens to remind anyone of a Roubaix-esque spy film score lol

turns out i didn't vote for locusts lol, it was a late cut though

I didn't end up having any room for anything from Witch Cults, but Colony would have been my pick.

Bit 35 was one of the few Tender Buttons songs I didn't vote for. It's great obviously.

Witch cults token pop song in with a bullet at 71. the Be colony would sound glorious on any era broadcast lp and unfailingly lulls me into a false sense of security.

should say that this is not "The Be Colony" - it's "The Be Colony/Dashing Home/What On Earth Took You?"

Oh fab, the collage-y bit at the end, that's commitment.

I tend to forget that is the source of that wonky loop. It's somehow more associated in my mind with muffled recordings of their late live sets!

https://i.imgur.com/9a1ebYQ.jpg

70. I'm Just A Person In This Roomy Verse
From Mother Is The Milky Way, 2009
Audio on Youtube
35 Points, 2 Votes

https://i.imgur.com/jJJ5PzV.jpg

69. Let it Begin / Oh Joy
From Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age, 2009
Audio on Youtube
36 Points, 3 Votes

the middle part of this one (Oh Joy?), with the tape coming up to speed and the choir is just a beautiful & unique bit of sound collage

https://i.imgur.com/V0377po.jpg

68. What I Saw
From Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age, 2009
Audio on Youtube
37 Points, 3 Votes

think it should be fairly obvious why this track has this photo

https://i.imgur.com/mQlIIu4.jpg

67. A Man For Atlantis
From Extended Play Two, 2000. Compiled on The Future Crayon, 2006
Audio on Youtube
41 Points, 3 Votes

Tender Buttons was my #1 album. I love the harshness and sweetness of the sound world; it was such a pleasant shock when it came out. There was at the time a question: how are they going to do it as a duo? And TB answered: like this. Very satisfying and surprising.

Building the tracks selection did make me wonder if Haha Sound was not my real favorite, though; went with the legacy choice but it could have gone either way.

I also put Maida Vale Sessions high up — the sound and performances improve on their studio versions in nearly every case, or that's how I hear it.