4AD - classic all round?

This Mortal. Just that, This Mortal.

Weren't Tindersticks sort of in the same neighborhood as 4AD, anyway, under the Beggars Group umbrella? Or is that just in the US?

they were signed to Constellation in North America as far as I know.

Anyway, I'm just pleased they're still kicking.

i feel like the label is kind of a hodgepodge these days and filled with stuff that doesn't necessarily reflect the 'brand', in fact, it seems much more like beggar's banquet now. but whatever.

and yet they seem to be killin' it in the eoy polls, hmm

yeah all the stuff is good and some of it is exceptional (the mountain goats album is my second favorite album of the year), it just seems more hodgepodge than it has in many many years.

oh i agree, but i don't think it's to their detriment..

They ARE Beggar's Banquet these days. All their other labels were folded into 4AD last year or the year before. 4AD as a curated collection is over.

well there you go, I didn't even notice that. makes sense then.

Says something about the value and impact of relative brands that it was 4AD that survived as the label instead of Beggars.

bloke I work with has just signed (pretty great three record deal tbh) with 4AD and his band is indeed more beggars-friendly.

4ad turn 30 next year and they offer a free download of another 30 song sampler for christmas.

"but I had a moment of blissful personal revelation a couple of years back when I realised that the whole 4AD aesthetic was a gothick romantic gauzy great DUD"

I think I realized this in 1990.

I enjoy most of those adjectives. Well, except the last one.

"but I had a moment of blissful personal revelation a couple of years back when I realised that the whole 4AD aesthetic was a gothick romantic gauzy great DUD"

"I think I realized this in 1990."

I recall feeling this way some time ago - maybe around the time I discovered American indie guitar rock in the early 90's. But recently I've started out my 4ad records and tapes out and I'm having far too much fun listening to them to dismiss it all. And some of them have aged really well to my ears. The Nooten/Brook record mentioned up thread is really amazing. I listened to Clan of Xymox Medusa last night and that one sounds really great as well. And I still love This Mortal Coil.

Nooten/Brook album is one of teh five best 4ad albums ever.

Personally I'd take the 4AD back catalogue over the entire dreary legions of "American indie guitar rock" in an instant. The idea that a group like Pavement could be responsible for any kind of paradigm shift in anyone's thinking is just baffling to me.

If they're bankrolling Scott Walker they can have my money forever.

dunno. i used to love love love this label so much, but a friend just passed me a link to that "free downloads for xmas" page and i don't think i could get more than about 12 seconds into any of the tracks (except the one i already had - st.vincent)

i gave up on the label a long time ago - i think it was around the time that ivo sold it? but it was still a bit of a shock

"The idea that a group like Pavement could be responsible for any kind of paradigm shift in anyone's thinking is just baffling to me"

I have love for all this too. I don't think I experienced a paradigm shift as you say. I think I got excited about a strain of music that I hadn't experienced before. A friend passed along a Jesus Lizard tape and a Polvo cassette. I was hooked immediately. I never got rid of my stack of 4ad collection tho. And I listen to a lot of other things besides these days. None of it ever "dreary".

imo the label is pretty much the best it's been since the perfection of the '80-'83 period

..until now

http://pitchfork.com/news/37663-gang-gang-dance-sign-to-4ad/

puke

Uh, pretty great signing actually. Not sure they fit with the 4ad "sound" (whatever that is anyway), but their last album was outstanding.

Wow. Just noticed that Stornoway have signed to 4AD! This is pretty awesome news! http://beggarscanada.beggarspromo.com/?pg=2 4AD is fast becoming my favourite label with the Mountain Goats, St Vincent, Ariel Pink and now Stornoway on it. Great stuff.

This one has definitely been done before. No doubt Nick will link to it shortly.

Anyway Mark, sorry, but more clunkers than gems : Wolfgang Press, His Name is alive, Heidi Berry(!), Scheer, Xymox, Frazier Chorus, X-Mal Deutschland, Spirea X, Swallow, Pale Saints.... all useless.

― Dr. C, Tuesday, July 3, 2001 8:00 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark

^^ SO RONG! - xcept for spirea x, obv ;)

4AD is fast becoming my favourite label with the Mountain Goats, St Vincent, Ariel Pink and now Stornoway on it. Great stuff.

I'm guessing you're not even 20 years old yet?

Not sure they fit with the 4ad "sound" (whatever that is anyway)

Yeah, there really isn't one anymore.

i know it was an Axis release as opposed to a 4AD one, but the Shox 45 is in my top 5 things Ivo ever released

huh so this label sucks now

what the hell happened

they are just a beggar's banquet imprint and a logo and have little to nothing to do with 4ad. that said I think they are releasing more quality stuff these days than they were a few years ago.

akm, I think you are right, they lost that 4ADness for a while. TV on the Radio and Blonde Redhead are good, so....Should I listen to Gang Gang Dance? I don't like their name.

You should listen to Afterschool Program Afterschool Program Dance instead. kip

being slightly trolly but it seemed like they were at the top of their game in 09/10 but the stuff out this year so far has been completely repellent to me

> it seemed like they were at the top of their game in 09/10

o_O

Anyway, just listened to the original This Mortal Coil albums and 20 years on, I still really like was the cover of "I am the Cosmos", which was the first time I'd ever heard that song.

Gawd, this label was big in my life...I had a few posters back in college that I would LOVE to own today.

top of their recent game at least

i don't know what they've put out this year. the last good album they had out to my mind was the national. I hear tuneyards are great; my friend is doing sound on their tour; but I still haven't heard them.

gang gang dance are dull, to me

also, you know, deerhunter/atlas sound are not to be fucked with, in my mind anyway. bon iver, if that is your sort of thing, and iron and wine...I mean they are good and all. it's hard for me to think of them as 4ad bands which means the name doesn't mean much these days.

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2011/05/4ad-ghosts-in-the-closet.html

"There were also more conventional rock bands including Throwing Muses and Unrest"

Wait... what?

pretty much the entire CLASSIC 4AD ROSTER type band is kind of 'oh god people are actually enthusiastic about this' territory for me

the entire set of c. 4ad r. type of bands, i mean

yeah, I feel that way about most non-4AD music.

fair enough!

this article, though, is a little shaky. like, aside from the weirdly casual dismissal of the throwing muses, which is bizarre if you're going to focus on 1987 and lonely is an eyesore... the title is taken from the lyrics to fish! the writer seems unaware that the current 4AD roster, which I agree is strong, is basically beggar's banquet using the 4AD name. the majority of these bands were signed to 4AD *after* they got famous, not initially signed by 4AD like pretty much all of the classic-era bands.

Back in the eighties a friend gave me a tape of "Filigree and Shadow". I actually like some of the instrumental pieces the best. It had a profound effect on me even though it is not my thing. I'm not accustomed to non-traditional singers. I just thought it had major balls.

whether you like 4AD bands or not, the answer to this thread is yes

Archaeological 4AD Fandom:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/richhunt35/SUMMER2011058.jpg?t=1306165510

The Essentia 4AD - over at Fact

They had this awful little Josef K spin-off called The Happy Family on the label in 1982, not nearly as good as JK, though. What a clunker! The Happy Family album sounded like a slowed-down version of 'Spiral Scratch', had a sleeve that wasn't by 23 Envelope, and claimed to be a comedy concept album about a fascist dictator. What was Ivo thinking?
― Momus, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (10 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Side note to Momus -- yeah, what was that one guy who led the band thinking?

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 5 July 2001 00:00 (10 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Times where Wikipedia is your friend...

There is a TON of 4AD on Spotify...even obscure early stuff that used to cost 90 jillion dollars. It is good stuff! I always had a bit of a guilt complex about listening to such sensitive music, but the dog likes it and he normally prefers blues and soul music.