The Associates: Have the years been kind?

I have my own copy on order and await with anticipation. It's been an Associates/Mackenzie couple of weeks for me -- in the UK I picked up the Mackenzie Auchtermatic comp, which is seriously great, as well as the double-disc Singles comp from last year, while I ordered and received the second Radio 1 sessions disc. Time to drown in it all all over again.

"I preferred the US version of the Sulk to the UK one - the version of 'it's better this way' in particular, alot more manic...I prefer the track selection and running order too. I find Sulk to be just a bit scrappy (Bap De La Bap, Nude Spoons) or clumpy (Gloomy Sunday)in places, but perhaps that's just by comparison with the glittering singles popdrama or haunting melancholy of most of the rest of it.

Although its weaker tracks are worse than anything on Sulk, I think 'Perhaps' also has certain tracks which are better than anything on Sulk - eg cabaret glam emotiveness teetering on the edge of hysterical madness in the amazing 'Thirteen Feelings'....then fighting its way back from it with the astonishing 'The Stranger In Your Voice' (find it hard to imagine any voice other than MacKenzie's being able to soar through that amazing, skirling, swirling blast of synthetic/orchestral sound - though I'd like to hear Peter Hammill try!).
The instrumental versions of both these tracks on the extended cassette release show just how in-credible the music is.

-- Snowy Mann, February 3rd, 2003."

Despite wanting to replace my fading cassette - the only CD I can ever find of 'Sulk' is the UK version :(

Ned - I know what you mean wrt 'Wild & Lonely', but i think you should stick with it:
I had a copy of this on tape for ages, having also felt 'meh' after my initial listens - then after 6-8 months or so i tried it again one summer morning in the car while doing a motorway schlep...

To my amazement, it suddenly worked - I found much of it had a kind of poppy optimism suited to motorway cruising in hot/bright weather, sunroof open...(all the more surprising to me as I generally *hate* summer and all that associated yeeha stuff)

I also found via high volume in that enclosed space that i noticed lots of details in the sounds/instruments/production that i really liked - i think there is a real 'deftness' to the production: the instruments/sounds are all given enough room spatially/timbrally, there is a crystalline beauty/intricacy in how it's all arranged.

(You can pick out *every* layered element really clearly from the mix once you have noticed it or decided to pay attention to it, in a way that seems clearer and easier than most other albums i have, and as clearly as on any.
eg try listening on headphones, loud as is comfortable, and focus on all the little sonic thwackery and snaps and pops going on in the offbeats on, say, 'Fever')

No, the material's not anything like the freedom and intensity and half-madness of much of the earlier stuff (but then 'Breakfast' isn't either, and you like that?), but it has it's own appeal - as a work i place it more towards Fagen/Steely Dan type of stuff (ok not *like* them but y'know more like that than 4th Drawer Down !)

Examples of Particulars i like:

good string arrangements throughout

'Calling All Around the World' - like some great 1960's pop song, brimming with optimism, complete with harpsichordy stabs during first verse, the BBC Radio2 'tijuana brass' type feel throughout, the vocal from refrain 2:48 to 3:07...

That 13-second ascending vocal line from about 3:41 to 3:54 of 'Where There's Love'

The subtle triple-echo added just to the 2nd snare hit of each bar during the verses of 'Ever Since That Day'

'Something's Got to Give' - the sonic edges: the little bubbling/gurgling sounds of synth & hyperfast gtr picking popping up; the *sharpest* of pizzicato strings; the processed tablas/congas that appear for about 15 seconds at 2:16, and from 4:15 to 4:30; and the way those seem to be further stretched and warped into providing another rhythmic element from 3:28 to 3:57

'Strasbourg Square' - the first of 2 lovely melancholy tracks to finish - the bit from 2:00 to 2:44 reaches Propaganda-like levels of epic beauty to me, but without the teutonic weightiness - the way that 3-note cello-like bass phrase gradually becomes more prominent, and I'm always left aching for it to keep going or EXPLODE into something; the 15-16 second vocal stretch from 3:24 to 3:39

'Wild And Lonely' - come on, tell me that these piano chords aren't just gorgeous... and that final plaintive vocal of 'god it's only me...'
(there is a plausible case to be made that the rhythm sounds are over-processed throughout this track, but i find they don't distract enough to spoil the melancholy mood)

hope this helps Ned...

That voice is still annoying as fuck though.

Listening to this now and indeed, I keep forgetting how enjoyable this is -- the later demos from the aborted reunion are too stiff by half but otherwise all the earliest demos (Mackenize, Rankine and hired backing band) plus a dozen or so from the 'classic' lineup with Dempsey on bass are total treats. The earliest ones are great for being such obvious Sparks knockoffs, but fantastic nonetheless.

After a brief interview, Billy M. and Paul Haig perform "Amazing Grace" on STV's Hogmanay show in 1986. The opening of the song doesn't accurately convey what happens next.

A lovely performance of "Kites," the Simon Dupree song that he first did under the 39 Lyon Street guise with Christine Beveridge singing -- this is from French TV around the time of the Perhaps promo tours.

Billy gets interviewed by Leslie Ash for The Tube pre-Perhaps and merrily takes her for a ride.

The tragically awful B. A. Robertson interviews Billy and Alan for Friday Night, Saturday Morning following a mimed performance of "Party Fears Two"

I haven't heard anything after Sulk, though Waiting For The Love Boat is alright. I think. I can't really remember it very well, to be honest. Should I look into it?

"Skipping" from that Friday Night Saturday Morning show

The Creatures did a similar tribute with "Say" -- and knowing Siouxsie, she probably complained about how Robert ripped her off again. ;-)

We owe a debt of gratitude to Nigel Reeve at EMI (who, as it turns
out, also looks after Bowie's reissues), who, once he'd made his mind
up to go with the reissues, spared no expense and cut no corners.
Remastered on the very Abbey Road desk that was built by Mike
Batchelor for the original "Dark Side of the Moon" sessions... it was
quite an experience... No one was in this for anything other than
love. Becky, who has done the artwork "remastering" even dug out some
old Associates magazine articles that she'd kept since the early 80s,
proving that she was anything but a mere hired hand.

For myself, the real triumph is that I honestly believe that the
original CD masters never even came close to reproducing the sound of
the mix tapes, basically meaning that other than Billy, Julian
Mendelson, and very few others (probably including Blair), none of us
were actually hearing these albums in their full glory. This has now
been rectified with bells on.

It is unlikely that any of Billy's work will ever be reissued in any
physical format ever again, the future of music archiving is almost
certainly downloading. This made it all the more important to get
these albums out there in the sound quality that will henceforth
always be available in. Anything less would have been less than they
deserve.

I've said it before, but I cannot wait for you guys to hear Wild &
Lonely. At the moment you only think you know it. It'll knock your
socks off... I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it...

Thank you all. Again.

Jude

TOTP performance of "Club Country"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEWkNoKxTUg&search=Associates