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

I’m gonna call “Come On Let’s Go” for #1

Any predictions for the top five?

my #3 and my #2, in succession. i couldn't in good faith pick besides my #1 as my #1, but if i knew that "before we begin" wouldn't get a top vote, i would've thrown it one. completely magical song.

so the salt will spill again
throw it over your shoulder

Well I’ve not seen “Pendulum”, “Echo’s Answer”or “Unchanging Window” yet. Or “ Ominous Cloud”. So those are my guesses.

That salt line is my favourite too

This next one is going to be difficult to post, let's see if there are any errors in the bb code.

https://i.imgur.com/zHhK1F6.jpg

5. Unchanging Window / Chord Simple
Unchanging Window from The Noise Made By People, 2000
Unchanging Window / Chord Simple from Extended Play Two, 2000
Audio for Unchanging Window / Chord Simple on Youtube
Fan-made video for Unchanging Window by Wonder Muddle on YouTube
526 Points, 18 Votes, 3 First Place Votes
(331 Points, 11 Votes, 2 First Place Votes for EP version)
(195 Points, 7 Votes, 1 First Place Vote for TNMBP version)

The version of "Unchanging Window (Chord Simple)" from EP2 is probably my favourite Broadcast track ever. - Ross, Dec 6, 2016

nice, it all worked!

Damn, I'm way too busy at work to follow this beautiful thread. Just catching up and every single song so far is too low.

I was the number one vote for The Book Lovers. One of the best songs of all time.

I'm guessing Echo's Answer at one with Come On Let's Go in second place.

my #1. glad to see the EP version got more votes because that outro elevates the song to a completely different level.

"The Book Lovers" wouldn't have been too out of place on a Cardigans album

The version of "Unchanging Window (Chord Simple)" from EP2 is probably my favourite Broadcast track ever. - Ross, Dec 6, 2016

It's happy hour on Friday which means I'm having some beers in the typing pool.

Sorry this is my first thread comment.

Welcome to the thread, Chris

https://i.imgur.com/QDa4LxK.jpg

4. Pendulum
From Pendulum Ep, 2003 and Haha Sound, 2003
Fan-made video by Sergio Bga on YouTube
563 Points, 19 Votes

for the love of god, listen to "Pendulum" from the last album if you don't know it already. That is the song that made me a cultish Broadcast worshipper, and has the HUGE CLATTERY DRUMS missing from Tender Buttons. Yes, all of them. On just the one song. - telephone thing, Dec 12, 2005

Unchanging Window is good, but I'm surprised it is so well loved

It's unlikely, but I've got my fingers crossed for "Ominous Cloud" at #1...

beers in the typing pool

Same, cheers!

(cheers in the typing pool)

Number three coming up, and it's my #1 vote.

https://i.imgur.com/F9MO3Su.jpg

3. Ominous Cloud
From Haha Sound, 2003
Fan-made video by cp jr on YouTube
576 Points, 21 Votes, 1 First Place Vote

This became my favourite Broadcast track sometime last autumn, since when I've regularly walked around Bloomsbury with it on headphones. Just that quiet longing, that sense of the heaviness of places, it's like nothing else.

I listen to this song like I watch Roy Andersson films, I don't know if it's a healthy obsession, but it's one that seems tailor-made for me.

Wow just seeing this all now. I was the #1 Sixty Forty vote. TOO LOW

Although looking back, not sure its my true number one but I love it and its how I was feeling at that moment lol

great list btw

Actually, "Ominous Cloud" is clearly the REAL real winner, in the "who knew?" stakes, rather than "Youth & Laughter". It was high on my ballot, as it was on many, and we barely even needed to talk about it. Seems we mostly just knew deep down that supporting this mid-career album-track was the thing to do.

Ok, time for the final two, don't want to keep anyone up too late, least of all myself.

These two tracks were at #1 and #2 respectively from the 3rd or 4th ballot, and stayed that way throughout the voting process - there was a sizable gap between them, which started to narrow as we got towards the end. Then, after a weekend's extension had already been and gone, one last ballot came in which finally flipped the #1 and #2 around.

https://i.imgur.com/AVOLuT6.jpg

2. Echo's Answer
Single 1999, The Noise Made By People 2000
Fan-made video by Ave, Lúcifer on YouTube
645 Points, 22 Votes, 1 First Place Vote

Echo's Answer is scary in a little-boy-staying-up-to-watch-scary-movies-on-USA-Network way. - Cunga, Jan 18, 2009

Both lyrically and sonically this song's simple premise concerns time and nature's effect on things. A celebration of the sound after the sound, an answer's echo, the echo as an answer (if the question is 'am I alone?' at least). Multiple connotations that demonstrate to me an impressive sophistication in songwriting when relying on such open references. In just over three minutes you can recognise the sense of progress throughout the song as Trish Keenan observes the passing, the approach and the return of 'the wind' (stop smirking at the back there). It feels like an age old poem and probably is derived from one. The imposed feedback would seem un-necessary were it not for the fact we know that when a room full of instruments but no people is exposed to rushes of air, those instruments can resound. And the feedback here is as beautiful as it's parent and a wonderful compliment to it. Something about heavy chorusing and that flange effect on the guitar (making it more violin-esque) cuts right to my backbone, whether it's heavy rock or something as docile as this beatless wonder. Those dying seconds, where Keenan's soft and ever so human voice melts into the shadows, engulfed by noise like a pebble in an advancing tide, a monument persisting against the elements, still send shivers every time. - the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Aug 20, 2004

https://i.imgur.com/WnAAIz0.jpg

1. Come On Let's Go
Single, 1999. From The Noise Made By People, 2000
Music video on YouTube
660 Points, 22 Votes, 4 First Place Votes

there’s really something entrancing about entering the world of this song. I imagine much of that has to do with Keenan’s vocal, which manages to be both nearly expressionless and very playful. The chord structure probably has something to do with it too, modulating whenever it seems to settle into a comfortable key - Accidentally Gets High By Touching LSD Left in Vintage Buchla (voodoo chili), May 28, 2019

Echo's Answer would have been a more interesting winner, but I have personal reasons for loving Come On Let's Go (it was the "go home" end of the night song at my favourite bar) so equally happy to see it win.

NNN, could I trouble you do post a complete rundown? I am honestly not sure how to get it on here formatted in a readable way.

My thin veneer of impartiality was shattered when said final ballot was only the second to exclude "Echo's Answer", thereby delivering victory to its chirpier rival lol.

XP: Yep! Just a moment...

honestly, all these songs are good

Shout-out to the insane, screechy, clattery echo they deployed on so many tracks to such great effect.

Definitely!

And also to Camaraderie at Arms Length, for outlining the findings of this study so elegantly!

And thanks everyone for voting and writing stuff!

Yes! Brilliant curation and rollout, thanks you two!

absolutely, its been a blast!

Here's a folder with all the poll images

Some of the pictures I used are just shots of the band, others are cover art, but the majority were taken from films or other things referenced in the songs. The main source for these was this list of Films that Trish Keenan and her fellow bandmates liked (or just liked the soundtracks of) on Letterboxd - I will be going to check out several of these.

Some notes on individual pictures:

Locusts - A locust on a lemon tree
A Man For Atlantis - screenshot from "The Man From Atlantis"
Berberian Sound Studio - shots from the film
Ritual / Looking In - This is an obscure German psych record from 1969, The Vampires Of Dartmoore’s Dracula’s Music Cabinet
Hammer Without A Master - Joan Miró's "Le Marteau Sans Maitre XXI (The Hammer Without a Master XXI)", 1976
Phantom - Supposedly a photo of a ghost in a house fire
Hawk - This is the character of Hawk from Valerie
Arc of a Journey - Orion
Valerie - This is Valerie
The World Backwards - Cover of "The World Backwards, Russian Futurist Books 1912-16"
Michael A Grammar - This is a distorted copy of a picture of a band called Michael A Grammar
Man Is Not A Bird - Shot from the 1965 film ‘Čovek nije tica’ ("Man Is Not A Bird")

perfection

Nag! Nag! Nag! at 11:00 3 Jun 22
Definitely!
And also to Camaraderie at Arms Length, for outlining the findings of this study so elegantly!

It's funny: I'm not sure I could track down all that many ILX0Rs out in the wild. But having been digging Centuries of Sound for ages, you were straightforward! :)

Hopefully I've not screwed anything up...

FULL RESULTS
                                                Pts   Vts   #1s
  1  Come On Let's Go             TNMBP         660    22     4
  2  Echo's Answer                Echo's Answ   645    22     1
  3  Ominous Cloud	          Ha Ha Sound   576    21     1
  4  Pendulum                     Pendulum      563    19     0
  5  Unchanging Window                          526    18     3
  -    UW/Chord Simple            Ext. Play 2   331    11     2
  -    UW                         TNMBP         195     7     1
  6  The Book Lovers              The Book Lo   506    21     1
  7  Before We Begin              Ha Ha Sound   466    20     0
  8  Tears In The Typing Pool     Tender Butt   445    19     1
  9  Black Cat                    Tender Butt   437    17     3
 10  Man Is Not A Bird            Ha Ha Sound   436    18     1
 11  Where Youth and Laughter Go  Extended Pla  413    20     0
 12  Message From Home            The Book Lo   412    18     0
 13  Corporeal                    Tender Butt   405    17     2
 14  I Found The F                Tender Butt   377    16     1
 15  Papercuts                    Ext. Play     367    16     0
 16  The Be Colony                B&TFGIWCOTRA  362    18     0
 17  Colour Me In                 Ha Ha Sound   360    16     0
 18  Until Then                   TNMBP         357    15     1
 19  Michael A Grammar            Tender Butt   343    16     0
 20  America's Boy                Tender Butt   328    14     0
 21  Accidentals                  Accidentals   324    14     0
 22  Lights Out                   NME C96       322    15     0
 23  Lunch Hour Pops              Ha Ha Sound   317    14     0
 24  Winter Now                   Ha Ha Sound   302    15     0
 25  Goodbye Girls                Tender Butt   297    12     0
 26  Poem Of Dead Song            Ext. Play 2   291    17     0
 27  City In Progress             TNMBP         260    16     0
 28  Illumination                 Ext. Play 2   247    14     0
 29  Look Outside                 TNMBP         245    13     0
 30  Living Room                  Living Room   235    11     0
 31  You Can Fall                 TNMBP         226    12     0
 32  Subject To the Ladder        Tender Butt   224    15     0
 33  The World Backwards          The Book Lo   223    10     0
 34  Minim                        Ha Ha Sound   217    15     0
 35  Valerie                      Ha Ha Sound   214    11     0
 36  According To No Plan         The Book Lo   210    11     0
 37  Arc Of A Journey             Tender Butt   206    12     1
 38  Tender Buttons               Tender Butt   201    10     0
 39  Still Feels Like Tears	  Pendulum      199    11     0
 40  We've Got Time               Accidentals   199    10     0
 41  Hawk                         Ha Ha Sound   186    12     1
 42  Long Was The Year            TNMBP         181    14     0
 43  Forget Every Time            BBC Session   159    10     0
 44  Sixty Forty                  BBC Session   159     8     1
 45  Phantom                      Living Room   152    10     0
 46  Hammer Without A Master      We Are Reaso  144    11     0
 47  Inside Out                   Familiar Sha  137     7     1
 48  I See, So I See So           B&TFGIWCOTRA  135     9     0
 49  In Here The World Begins     MITMW         130    11     0
 50  You And Me In Time           Tender Butt   124    11     0
 51  Dave's Dream                 Ext. Play     123     7     0
 52  Ritual / Looking In          B&TFGIWCOTRA  114	6     0
 53  Make My Sleep His Song       B&TFGIWCOTRA  113     7     0
 54  Distant Call                 Come On Let    91     6     0
 55  Test Area                    Echo's Answ    82     4     0
 56  O How I Miss You             Ha Ha Sound    70     5     0
 57  Mother’s Milk Means Music    MITMW          63     4     0
 58  Small Song IV                Pendulum       61     4     0
 59  Elegant Elephant             MITMW          60	5     0
 60  'What You Want/Dulcimer Jam  Live ~2010     55     4     0
 61  The Aphid Sleeps             MITMW          54     4     0
 62  Teresa, Lark of Ascension    Berberian So   52     5     0
 63  The Equestrian Vortex        Berberian So   48     4     0
 64  Belly Dance                  Tender Butt    45     3     0
 65  The Little Bell              Ha Ha Sound    44     3     0
 66  A Seancing Song              B&TFGIWCOTRA   42     2     0
 67  A Man For Atlantis           Ext. Play 2    41     3     0
 68  What I Saw                   B&TFGIWCOTRA   37     3     0
 69  Let it Begin/Oh Joy          B&TFGIWCOTRA   36     3     0
 70  I'm Just A Person In This R  MITMW          35     2     0
=71  The Be Colony/Dashing Home/  B&TFGIWCOTRA   32     2     0
=71  A Quiet Moment               B&TFGIWCOTRA   32     2     0
=73  Dead The Long Year           TNMBP          31     3     0
=73  Bit 35                       Tender Butt    31     3     0
 75  Microtronics 04              M'tronics 1    29     2     0
 76  Chord Simple                 Come On Let    28     4     0
 77  Locusts                      Come On Let    27     3     0
 78  I Found The End              Tender Butt    26     1     0
 79  Winter Sun Wavelengths       Live ~2010     25     1     0
 80  Violent Playground           Pendulum       24     2     0
 81  Avril - Be Yourself          REMIX          19     1     0
 82  Tower Of Our Tuning          TNMBP          18     2     0
 83  Libra, the Mirror's Minor S  B&TFGIWCOTRA   18     1     0
 84  Prefuse73 vs Broadcast - An  REMIX          18     1     0
 85  St. Etienne - Angel          REMIX          17     3     0
 86  Drums On Fire                Ext. Play 2    17     1     0
 87  Tuesday's Offering           Familiar Sha   16     3     0
 88  Eyes Open                    Live ~2010     16     1     0
 89  Badly Drawn Boy - Another P  REMIX          15     1     0
 90  Minus 3                      Tender Butt    14     1     0
 91  Minus One                    TNMBP          13     2     0
 92  One Hour Empire              Pendulum       13     1     0
 93  Microtronics 05              M'tronics v.1  12     1     0
 94  We Are After All Here        B&TFGIWCOTRA   10     1     0
 95  Miki Furukawa - Coffee       REMIX           7     1     0
 96  Microtronics 19              M'tronics v.2	  7     1     0
 97  Our Darkest Sabbath          Berberian So    7     1     0
 98  Microtronics 11              M'tronics v.1   7     1     0
 99  One Million Years Ago        B&TFGIWCOTRA    6     1     0
100  Microtronics 20              M'tronics v.2   6     1     0
101  The Sea & Cake - Interiors   REMIX           6     1     0
102  DDL                          All Tomorrow's  6     1     0
103  Microtronics 02              M'tronics v.1   6     1     0
104  Children Of Alice - The Lim  Children of A   5     1     0
105  Microtronics 07              M'tronics v.1   5     1     0
106  Microtronics 12              M'tronics v.2   5     1     0
107  Microtronics 06              M'tronics v.1   5     1     0
108  Microtronics 13              M'tronics v.2   5     1     0

Okay, there were obviously a few ties there at the bottom not marked as such, but I'm sure you get the gist!

Interesting that 7 other tracks placed higher though TB was the top-rated overall album.

The margins were so modest that I wonder if it's not more useful to think of the album result as a kinda sorta three-way tie. eg. TB appeared on fewer ballots and was mostly in third place before the deadline extension.

Perfect. The poll and images were a work of art in themselves. Well done, really, thanks. Lots of fun.
Echo’s Answer is lovely and again very high in my poll. Reminds me a lot of VU’s incredible Ocean.
Come on Let’s Go. Well, it has stuck around in my head waking up a lot in these last few weeks. On listening again it is one of those Broadcast songs that really do it all 10 out of 10. It’s all there.
Maybe as acknowledged above, Until Then has been robbed a little bit of what I think should have been a top 5 finish. Again, there’s a VU thing going on. Trish’s vocal melody and the bass, I think is kinda heartbreaking. I think my shoegaze love may have swayed me to vote this number 1, but it’s so pretty. And odd.

It's possible no-one was wondering but these appear to be all the officially-released non-film-score-nor-gallery-project Broadcast tracks attracting zero votes.

Misc                        NME Presents...
Microtronics 01             Microtronics  v.1
Microtronics 03             Microtronics  v.1
Microtronics 08             Microtronics  v.1
Microtronics 09             Microtronics  v.1
Microtronics 10             Microtronics  v.1
Minus Two	            Pendulum
Black Umbrellas	            Haha Sound
Distorsion	            Haha Sound
Stupido                     Haha Sound (JPN)
Microtronics 14             Microtronics  v.2
Microtronics 15             Microtronics  v.2
Microtronics 16             Microtronics  v.2
Microtronics 17             Microtronics  v.2
Microtronics 18             Microtronics  v.2
Microtronics 21             Microtronics  v.2
Clark/Broadcast - Herr Bar  Clark digi. release
The Projects -  Accidents W REMIX
Intro/Magnetic Tales        B&TFGIWCOTRA
How Do You Get Along Sir?   B&TFGIWCOTRA
Will You Read Me            B&TFGIWCOTRA
Reception/Group Therapy     B&TFGIWCOTRA
You Must wake               B&TFGIWCOTRA
Oh You Chatterbox           B&TFGIWCOTRA
Drug Party                  B&TFGIWCOTRA
Love's Long Listen-in       B&TFGIWCOTRA
A Medium's High             B&TFGIWCOTRA
Royal Chant                 B&TFGIWCOTRA  
Round and Round and Round   B&TFGIWCOTRA
Creation Day The Travel Fl  MITMW
Through The Gates Of Yeste  MITMW
Milling Around The Village  MITMW
Growing Backwards           MITMW
Never Trust A Rusty Bolt    MITMW
Innocence In Orbit          MITMW
The Song Before             Familiar Shapes &
Gonjasufi - The Caliph's T  REMIX

thanks for the rollout experience NNN & CaAL - Broadcast one of my most listened-to bands but i have a very poor sense of individual tracks - i'll often be playing one of their albums and feel like i'm hearing a song for the first time even though that is not possible - like i go into a semi-trance state when i'm listening - sometimes i think it is because i have noticed some small detail of the arrangement which has completely altered the way the song hits my ears - very nice to focus on some of these individually and read some of the well-curated reflections

Come On Let's Go a worthy winner, not just a lovely pop song but that sense of leaving the party to do your own thing is a very nice sentiment that also seems to vibe with Broadcast vs the indie pop mainstream

reading all this reminded me of a few (to me) intriguing bits and bobs from when i was devouring all the Broadcast bits i could find -

- in a few interviews between Future Crayon and Witch Cults they mention getting really into improvisation - eg here they talk about recording with Steve Beresford and collaborating with Gas Shepherds - some other mentions of Gas Shepherds here and there online. I wonder if any of these sessions were actually released, or might yet be.

- in this interview Trish talks about doing some music for a show at MOMA - I seem to remember having MP3s of this from the torrent days, but not sure if I still have them - is this a real memory?

- there are also a few mentions of Trish having a poem and/or story published in a literary magazine called The High Horse - would love to chase this down one day

My first thought was the MoMA tracks were these, for Doug Aitken:
https://www.discogs.com/release/6449434-Doug-Aitken-Sleepwalkers

The venue at cited at discogs doesn't match, but this seems to suggest it's the same thing:
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/117949

I had no idea Ominous Cloud would place so high. I was the third #1 for Black Cat. Papercuts is the highest track I didn't vote for (from a top 30 ballot).
Fantastic poll, my head will be full of Broadcast waves for a pleasant while. Many thanks to Nag! and Camaraderie.

Love your Tender Butt