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

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

45. Phantom
From Living Room Single, 1996. Compiled on Work And Non Work, 1997.
Fan-made video by Rune on YouTube
152 Points, 10 Votes

here's what I wrote about Phantom on the other thread

In early 1996 I was in the habit of buying a few 7" singles every week from Magpie Records in Worcester, sometimes from bands I'd heard on the radio, sometimes I just liked the cover, as I did with this one.
I liked 'Living Room' fine, but 'Phantom' just changed everything. Never heard anything like it before or since, that clockwork rhythm, it sounded like the 'fairground' demo tracks on my uncle's Hammond(?) organ, but with the Theremin(?) making it sound like it was possessed by mournful spirits. The portal for me not just to Broadcast but to avant-garde music.

CaAL I just watched your video and it’s perfect, upscale my ass, the crunchy gritty video and digital stutters make it magical. Completely nails the vibe of the track.

Some great stuff here. Make Him Sleep My Song is lovely and weird. Hammer Without A Master might have been the first Broadcast song I ever heard on that wonderful compilation CD. Voted it fairly high because nostalgia. Which I feel with this band is very, very appropriate. Love this. Thanks poll runners.

Ah no, looking at the dates I had Work And Non Work first

here's one some people will be happy about

https://i.imgur.com/QKWyRy9.jpg

44. Sixty Forty
John Peel Session 19/08/2003, Compiled on Maida Vale Sessions, 2022.
Audio on YouTube
159 Points, 8 Votes

It hadn't occurred to me that mine ("Inside Out") was the lowest ranking of all the first-place votes lol. But then I look to have voted for almost everything placing after I went to bed (around "O How I Miss You"), so it's hardly a shock.

Sixty Forty is wonderful and my number 2. It took me a while to figure out I rated it so high but there it is.

Shall I do it?

TOO LOW!

"Phantom" and "Ritual..." did alright CaAL!

To be fair I was boosting them something rotten in the other thread (also we are still outside the top 40 so glad I did (a lot) more than that)

This is a cover of a Nico song, right?

I had connection problems and then went to bed, so I got waaay behind on Spotify. I will again now. Here's the 'collaborative' link just in case anyone had been listening in real-time and was hankering for the ability to edit, etc:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/55SHnwBEbm0xw0z6b3WFB7?si=cda77ea7b1b04ed7&pt=fd13bfccba4f865d288f28ff94d04a3e

Posting fairly quickly now as I would like to be asleep by 1am if possible. These two go together anyway.

https://i.imgur.com/jAoxl46.jpg

43. Forget Every Time
John Peel Session 6/10/1999, Compiled on Maida Vale Sessions, 2022.
Audio on YouTube
159 Points, 10 Votes

this may be my favourite new discovery of the poll

This is a cover of a Nico song, right?

― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length)

Sure. Early eighties Nico. I should spend more time with the original. But this Broadcast version wow.

https://i.imgur.com/Hyke4Jk.jpg

42. Long Was The Year
From The Noise Made By People, 2000
Audio on YouTube
181 Points, 14 Votes

I expect there's going to be a moment in this rollout when things snap into strong melodies, rhythms, traditional songs.

Magnificent. Is Long Was The Year their song that sounded like it could have fitted on An Electric Storm the most.

BTW I'm also really enjoying listening to the Spotify playlist of the slightly more eccentric bubbles of music early in the rollout.

I played the playlist earlier and let it drift over me. I mostly voted for the more traditional, poppy tracks, but I was surprised how much I was pretty familiar with so far.

ok, last one for today as I really do need to go to sleep now, and it's another first place pick.

tomorrow I'll get started a little earlier and try to stick to schedule, we'll have numbers 40-21.

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

41. Hawk
From Haha Sound, 2003
Audio on YouTube
186 Points, 12 Votes, 1 First Place Vote

I should have voted for I'm Just A Person In This Roomy Verse.

Well. It's here now.

For the record, my “Sixty Forty” vote was for the recording on Warp20: Unheard. Possibly this was counted separately, and that version is outside the 77. To be honest I’m not wowed by ‘Maida Vale’ the way others are.

Fascinating roll out so far.

"Sixty Forty" versions were bundled together for counting purposes!

* goes to compare the two *

"Hawk" too low!

I think everything too low at this stage. Incredible band, really don't know what is popular from here

Great results today. I cut Sixty Forty and Forget Every Time from my list last minute purely because I hadn't known them for long and felt like I should give more spaces to my older favourites. I actually heard Forget Every Time for the first time a few years ago on the TV show Good Girls. Someone working on the show must be quite the Broadcast fan as their music appeared on the soundtrack a few times. It was quite a weird moment when that one appeared as I knew it was them , but couldn't place the song. This was years before Mada Vale sessions came out. The show got a bit repetitive so my wife and I gave up on it, but I was tempted to keep on going just to see if anymore of their songs appeared.

Going to go with a too low for Phantom (probably in my own list too). I remember someone (maybe my brother who is also following this poll) saying it sounded a bit like Ghosts by Japan. Made me love it even more.

I am really regretting not putting “Hammer without a Master” on my ballot

I keep giggling a little inside about offering voters more ballot slots than I have for any other artist after repeated suggestions that their output was too tiny to bother with a poll. And then CaAL opting for a gloriously comprehensive (and apparently faintly troubling lol) rollout!

They were a way more interesting band than even some strains of fans are accustomed to acknowledging. All along too: 'Accidentals' and Familiar Shapes & Noises sound like basically the same (freaky) band to me.

Incidentally, was Roj the main purveyor of samples in the band or something? They were less conspicuous in his absence. Before Witch Cults anyway.

I hadn't heard that Warp version of sixty forty before, it is fantastic, more of a measured studio take, I wonder when it was recorded? The melody line and lyrics sound so eerily like they could be a Broadcast composition, a slightly more minimal version would have fitted perfectly on tender buttons . Having said that, I love the way it condenses all the best aspects of spacemen 3 circa Playing with fire (thinking particularly Suicide) while the Broadcast-ness remains completely intact.

I think all my more marginal votes have now been placed so I am officially mainstream. Realising my secret hope is that no two people will vote the same number 1. Hawk was an amazing top choice.

Rollout while I'm on holiday and barely at a computer :-(

Following on my phone when I can. Loving the images!

Some quick notes -

Haha Sound my number 1 album - didn't know it at all before because I was an idiot, as I mentioned on the main Broadcast thread:

I've liked Broadcast for what, 20, 25 years now & it's always been a drifting in-and-out thing for me - always approving, occasionally loving tracks. But in the last few weeks they've become all I want to listen to - the soundworld I suddenly need - like I'm hearing just how good they were for the first time & wondering why I wasn't paying better attention even while having their albums on & just feeling that death should fuck off.

So Haha Sound was all new and sunk in deep - the melodies, the astonishing drums, the way the swirls of sound and distortion never quite swallow it but never quite let you settle. But the other two studio albums were no distance behind.

Going to throw a too low at I See, So I See So - find myself half-singing "Solar on the heel, solar on the keel" to myself as I walk the dog on sunny days. Endless pleasure in their melodies, and there are so many of them!

Love Long was the year too - such a way to open - seems so simple, like music for schools or something, so steady and clear. Even now it usually has me waiting keenly for that top line (countermelody?) that comes in.

And the small catalogue thing… I admit I thought I'd basically end up with about 20-25 songs off the three studio albums (plus some others). I'm pretty basic in my tastes and thought it'd just be the ones that are obviously songs - so Witch Cults and Mother… belonging in the albums.

But I kept falling in love, or like, with instrumentals and realised I was going to make 40 songs when I went from 'fine, a throwaway, slightly annoying' to 'hang on this is great' on listen 3 of 'A Man for Atlantis'. In the end 40 was pretty easy, & I missed stuff off & I'm pretty sure I'm going to find stuff I love when I go through the low end of this rollout on my return from this curséd holiday.

I hereby second "I See, So I See So" toolowness. And yes! "A Man for Atlantis", OTM. (Half my ballot is already too low, so I'll restrict myself to seconding/thirding at this point!)

Also: I nominated that fab "I See" clip in the recent music videos poll. I think it might even have attracted a second vote lol!

77. Locusts
76. Chord Simple
75. Microtronics 04
=73. Bit 35
=73. Dead The Long Year
=71. A Quiet Moment
=71. The Be Colony / Dashing Home / What On Earth Took You?
70. I'm Just A Person In This Roomy Verse
69. Let it Begin / Oh Joy
68. What I Saw
67. A Man For Atlantis
66. A Seancing Song
65. The Little Bell
64. Belly Dance
63. The Equestrian Vortex
62. Teresa, Lark of Ascension
61. The Aphid Sleeps
60. 'What You Want' aka 'Dulcimer Jam'
59. Elegant Elephant
58. Small Song IV
57. Mother’s Milk Means Music (At Home in the Universe)
56. O How I Miss You
55. Test Area
54. Distant Call
53. Make My Sleep His Song
52. Ritual / Looking In
51. Dave's Dream
50. You And Me In Time
49. In Here The World Begins
48. I See, So I See So
47. Inside Out
46. Hammer Without A Master
45. Phantom
44. Sixty Forty
43. Forget Every Time
42. Long Was The Year
41. Hawk

The distortion-drowned hum on Hawk is fantastic, combined with the addictive motorik drums and bell melodies, it's like a snowstorm in a teacup. Unique in its atmosphere, it really stood out for me and I should probably have put it higher than sixth song from HHS.

HHS is hella rad.

I just had a peek. 40-21 is frequently fabulous. I'll need to sleep through much of it, so please imagine me typing "too low!" in response to every second entry should things fall silent, kthx.

Planned to start at 12 but stuff came up. Anyway here we go!

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

40. We've Got Time
From Accidentals single, 1996. Compiled on Work And Non Work, 1997.
Fan-made video by DARI Graf on YouTube
199 Points, 10 Votes

Big TOO LOW on this one, such a beautiful song.

Groovy synth. Just occurred to me how sparingly the drummer was employed on this 1st single.

instantly regretting not voting for this one

https://i.imgur.com/i1MIySP.jpg

39. Still Feels Like Tears
From Pendulum EP, 2003. Compiled on The Future Crayon, 2006.
Fan-made video by theladycandicejuarez on YouTube
199 Points, 11 Votes

Hey all, I'm enjoying the thread greatly, thanks for all your effort, it's making me go back to those corners of the discography I don't often visit.

I made a folder with a couple of early gigs in it for those that may be interested.

I was at the London Forum one, and it was the first time I actually heard the band, they were supporting Stereolab iirc.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uwgy0ssya4gizht/AADAnEVGnNxjONweJc1Eukv3a?dl=0

Voted We've Got Time very high. It's really special to me, love that haunting synth melody and the building vocal melody

It could have been my number 1. On another day. I'm really surprised this wasn't top ten.