Come On Let's POLL - ILM Artist Poll #114 - BROADCAST (Polling and Lobbying Thread)

Well aware that I haven't even sent in my ballot yet! Much to do on the ordering. I can report that Seeland and Raj, while lovely, will not be on my there, due to "not being Broadcasty enough" - some of the same ingredients are in there, but the recipe is very different. Still glad to heat though, some excellent stuff. Can anyone tell me what this sounds like? - it's been driving me crazy, sure I know this tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJSRho0kVvM

Roj not Raj! Good old autocorrect working its magic again.

There really is no "Valerie" acknowledgement on the Haha sleeve is there! (Unless eyestrain defeated me. I'm not sure it had occurred to me that House works quite so vigorously against the communication of real world facts lol.)

There's an "All tracks written and recorded by Broadcast". Disappointing.

They didn't credit Al Stewart on Message From Home either, despite nicking the arrangement from his version of Turn Into Earth!

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

It's a bit like Stereolab and their many steals, if they started acknowledging all the blatant lifts from other tracks it might've opened a big can of worms, so it's probably a case of keeping quiet and hope the copyright police never notice.

Seemingly not just oversights on the sleeves either. eg. https://www.ascap.com/repertory#/ace/search/workID/520271412

I thought I remembered them openly discussing the 'Valerie' source at the time so...*shrugs shoulders*

Regarding Roj: I gave his album some points. But yeah, at most it sounds like he's using the same gadgets he used in Broadcast. Even less song-y than the least song-y Broadcast but meandering burpy electronics + bongos is sometimes a fine thing lol!

I imagine it was a case of "if you credit then this will be held up for ages, maybe forever, so either don't credit or leave it off the LP"

I thought the Roj stuff was great tbh, just need stuff to leave off in order to put a ballot together!

I love the psychedelic blur that stitches together the Broadcast tapestry, but if I’m going to pick them apart track by track then no, I’m not voting for microtronics or most of the later stuff. The sum is better than the parts.

― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Saturday, May 14, 2022 2:45 AM (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I know what you are saying here - I will be voting for later works higher in LPs than in tracks for sure.

However, let's have a look at Witch Cults for a moment, it's very much a whole-LP-experience, but there are still a few tracks I would point towards for consideration:

The Be Colony - If there is a "hit" on the LP it's this, it may be most Stereolabby thing they ever did.
I See, So I See So - Can only describe this as "A lost track from The Wicker Man OST based on My Pal Foot Foot"
Ritual/Looking In - I know people are hesitant about looped instrumentals, but there is something just incredible about this, just that dragging, stuttering motion and the flute.
Make My Sleep His Song - Theme to an Eastern European experimental James Bond film

Yes! What you said!

"Make My Sleep His Song" is the one track I've been contemplating squeezing onto my theoretically finalised ballot for weeks. (Since *checks* Western With Bacon Flavor raised it.) I guess I've been vaguely trying to resist a second breach of my entirely arbitrary and unworkable "try to vote before seeing anyone else's ballot" rule!

Speaking of which: if anyone else want to adjust anything, it's easily done!

So... about 6 days left. 75 distinct tracks have appeared on ballots thus far. And 15 LPs/EPs.

Here's one (not very) random album track I don't think has been mentioned here yet: Winter Now.

I distinctly remember hearing to this the day Keenan died. (Amongst other things, I guess, but the memory is most concrete for this one.) Actually, it was almost certainly this CBC footage in particular.

Also: that Al Stewart track has been swimming around in my head for 12 hours now. Thanks Pheeel!

voted

Okay, I believe we're safely into double digits now. Feels like a quorum lol!

Five-ish days left. Everything must go. Kerrazy deals in your email client, etc.

Meanwhile I'll post possibly my last EP oddity: A Man For Atlantis

The transitions to that waltzy bit from that splatter of other stuff is rather pleasing to my tiny brain.

ah crap just realised I left Small Song IV off my ballot

Still time to remedy it if you wish. I see you have room for expansion, even. :)

Just doing my final run-through and has occurred to me that Broadcast only made something approaching a regular indie/rock/pop song on two occasions, and neither gets much in the way of attention - Living Room and Michael A Grammar. (expecting this idea to be roundly disagreed-with)

B-b-but I've seen some evidence that those tracks attract a non-trivial amount of attention! :)

I overlooked a ballot from the other day! That's a bit frightening. Seems I *am* less than 100% reliable so definitely pester me if your message is met with eery silence.

Four-ish days left.

80-something tracks have received points.

The last of the tracks that had appeared on every ballot finally lost that status yesterday.

The frontrunners are pretty tightly clustered, mostly separated by a fraction of the points associated with a first-place ranking, so later votes can certainly still make a big difference!

something approaching a regular indie/rock/pop song

Winter Now?

Living Room and Michael A Grammar. (expecting this idea to be roundly disagreed-with)

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

I love both of these, especially Living Room which was the first Broadcast song I ever heard. Probably one of my best discoveries from listening to John Peel back in the day.

"Living Room" was almost certainly the first thing I heard too, on a program devoted to new UK releases. "Sixties-influenced, a bit like St Etienne" the announcer said. (That might have been a halfway helpful comparison at that time? Can imagine "Living Room" in particular airing back to back with "You're in a Bad Way" or whatever.)

(Maybe kinda prescient given the "Angel" remix was possibly mere weeks into the future.)

Chord Simple just came on & vaguely regretting not voting for it separately - I'm not a good music-describer so I'll just say pretty & I love the drums.

(I do not really want to change my ballot N!N!N! - what's done is done).

Question, about that one weird Broadcast fact: is The Book Lovers actually used in Austin Powers, or is it just on the soundtrack album?

From memory I think there's 30 seconds of it over the last part of the end credits, after they do that BBC song.

I have discovered fairly recently that the US and UK cuts of Austin Powers are substantially different, to the extent that the only truly brilliant part is apparently not in the US cut at all, so would not be surprised if Broadcast aren't on the US cut.

Ha wow the scene with Rob Lowe is missing from the US version??

I consider Broadcast to be one of my favorite bands, but wow, I'm having a tough time getting to 40 tracks. I clearly gravitate toward the more catchy tunes, not sure if I have the fortitude to decide which Microtonics entry is the best.

At last standing 66 tracks had two or more votes, probably up to 70 with the latest update. Maybe should make a playlist of these to help people who don't want to listen to the whole discography. But also you can submit less than 40 if you like, no shame in that (as long as you include Phantom and Ritual/Looking In!)

"Living Room" was almost certainly the first thing I heard too, on a program devoted to new UK releases. "Sixties-influenced, a bit like St Etienne" the announcer said. (That might have been a halfway helpful comparison at that time? Can imagine "Living Room" in particular airing back to back with "You're in a Bad Way" or whatever.)

― Nag! Nag! Nag!

I seem to remember Bob Stanley calling Broadcast his favourite group at one point.

Chord Simple just came on & vaguely regretting not voting for it separately - I'm not a good music-describer so I'll just say pretty & I love the drums.

I just submitted my ballot. Got in fairly rough order and decided just to not fuss much more beyond that. The result - "Chord Simple" was ranked 41.

Yeah, no real minimum ballot length. Feel free to do weird things with your points too, if that makes it any easier. You could have a 20-way tie for 21st place if you really wanted. Or zany tiered arrangements.

eg.
40 tracks x 20 points = 800 total points
#1-#20: 700 points distributed distributed across the top 20
#21-#40: 5 points each

XP: Just saw your email pgwp! I should be asleep so I'll look forward to data entry in a few hours!

Superb 1998 South bank show featured on Gid Coe's 6 music show last night skip to 2:17 for the Broadcast but stick around for Coe's avuncular charm and excellent musical choices https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00175wr

Out of curiosity have people generally be including the eps in their releases list? I wanted to but it unspooled my mind....

I treated Work and Non-Work as an album but the other EPs, I treated as separate releases.

Same. But I also voted for The Book Lovers EP. Those four tracks are worth voting for twice.

I seem to remember Bob Stanley calling Broadcast his favourite group at one point.

Yes, he said in his obituary for Trish Keenan that "Broadcast, hands down, were my favourite group of the last fifteen years".

https://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2011/01/trish-keenan-remembered-by-bob-stanley/

Looks I should have seen The White Bus. Accidentals is even eerier set to excerpts from (largely) that.

The unnamed "instrumental" from that BBC thing is particularly interesting. I really don't think I've heard that sort of guitar from them anywhere else.

^ Er, "Looks LIKE"

89 different tracks have now appeared on ballots. As CaAL said, just on 70 have been seconded/thirded/etc. But tracks in, say, the top 50 overwhelmingly have 7+ votes now.

We're still aiming for votes being finalised by the time Friday is over for everyone on earth. We have a federal parliamentary poll closing at almost exactly that same instant here, I just realised, but this here poll is significantly more important.

*bump*

Some 72 hours left to vote if you wish to do so.

https://time.is/Anywhere_on_Earth

Official bump soundtrack: O How I Miss You

can we submit mixed ballots? i can def piece together a ranked list of 10-15 songs but idk if i will be able to rank all 40

i have 40 songs picked, and my process now is listening, going "wow i love this" and moving the song to the top of my list. repeat process 40 times.

Mixed is fine. You can do pretty much whatever you want in terms of waitings (to a maximum of 40 points) and ballot length (up to 40 items) OR we'll just apply generic values from 40 down to 5 as outlined at the top.

Just start with 20 points x No. of items. (eg. 800 points for 40 items.) And divide up the total however you see fit.

Less than 72 hours… Probably not the best time to only *start* my re-listening. Dear me, forgot just how much music they made. In my head it was, like, 3 records. How have I got a pile of 10 to work through?

You can probably skip Mother Is the Milky Way tbh.

Ha, no way. That could be my second favourite at the moment - just the right balance between abstract and more traditional song structures. Kinda sums up what was good about Broadcast IMO.

Listening through everything it was my least favourite release (and Witch Cults, from the same year no less, is top of my LPs list) - but sth I can see from the votes so far is that there are many different types of Broadcast fan.

Mother has grown in stature for me, since the reissue. It probably didn't help that it was previously just a collection of mp3s that I downloaded and misplaced several times over lol.

"in terms of waitings (to a maximum of 40 points)"

Good lord, my brain barely works at all at 2 AM, it seems. Weightings, obv.

Any chance this could be extended through the end of the weekend?

I'll let CaAL express a view on that in the (UK) morning. I was trying to preserve a small buffer before possible commencement of the rollout early next week.

It's still almost 2.5 days till the end of Friday in UTC-12.* Maybe we'll see how people are going closer to that time?

* it's true, I am enjoying arbitrarily referring to a timezone with no inhabitants.