Trembling Blue Stars: C/D, S/D?

What's wrong with occasional keepers? 'Factory Records' is a marvel, very beautiful. I can't fault Trembling Blue Stars, since first finding the Field Mice in high school, I have always followed them. The new TBS is ace, though I like him best when he's channeling Robert Smith.

i thought i remember reading in a matinee records update sometime after the last harper lee release that keris howard was going new order like on hal and was doing solo stuff. of course this was a long time ago. maybe he has changed his mind.

What's wrong with occasional keepers?

ok well i've only heard the first album but imo it's the most boring thing either of them have been involved in, just never warmed to it at all. perhaps i should check out the second one

The second occasional keepers is better than the first. I remember the first hardly existing, kind of pretty, but I can't remember anything but faint ambient sounds. The second one I've played a lot.

i can't work out if the backing vocal on the kidney bingos cover is david feck or caesar

Only just recently discovered them. 'Her Handwriting' is fantastic. Could listen to 'What Can I Say To Change Your Heart' on repeat for way longer than would be good for me.

Which album do I need to check out next?

i would rate em

her handwriting > fast trains & telegraph wires > seven autumn flowers > last holy writer > lips that taste of tears = broken by whispers = alive to every smile

not that there's much to separate any of them, but i do find the shinkansen period (save for HH) hard going at times.

Thanks man, will follow you rating of the albums!

I only ever had HH, Lips, Broken, and Alive. I've obviously missed out on a lot of their better stuff.

i should probably mention that i was pretty worn out on bobby's voice by the time of "lips" after being a field mice fan for years and years so that has probably affected my opinion. beth arzy definitely added something to TBS that it really needed

alive to every smile is marvelous. the only one that has a bit of diversity because of his talented friends chipping in probably. i love them all. hh is best though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VytfzgNF28

i like the new order bass.

does anyone remember her handwriting? that one should be a classic by now, i think.

Great track. Anything that sounds like LowLife / Here Comes Everybody + Field Mice is a sure thing to my ears.

i like these a lot, a lot more than i like NO

not in love with cath carroll's guest spot, would rather beth sing it tbqh

i was wrong here

One of my favorites of all time.

Seriously, ask me anything.

i think he was on to something. is he a pot smoker? i'm a fan of this guy. i forget every once in a while and then i hear stuff and i'm always impressed. he can be really spacey which i really enjoy. he's good at it. also: his old 90's beats still sound cool. his homemade beats. twee beats.

Track linked above is certainly gorgeous. I've always liked everything I heard for years but never went about acquiring any of it.

So, apparently Correspondence was the final TBS release.

Shame, if so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7coSs3xOdw

I've got no idea what Wratten is up to, or how he pays the bill, but I imagine there would nothing sadder than coming across the guy working at a checkout line somewhere.

What a great songwriter, though.

weird to think that her handwriting is 17 years old

if this were 1980 the album would have been made in 1963

i looked for something i wrote about TBS and it was 13 years ago! i couldn't believe it. what i wrote was bad. i feel bad about it. it was written poorly. i was still learning.

Well, unless he reboots with another new name, I guess we can look forward to another Occasional Keepers album.

unless he reboots with another new name

said reboot is under the name of lightning in a twilight hour, apparently

Thank you for that. I knew it was only a matter of time.

https://www.facebook.com/lightninginatwilighthour

I hope lightning in a twilight hour will be more cure homage!

I've often said that Bob W picked up where Bob S left off.

In all seriousness Trembling Blue Star/Field Mice/Northern Picture Library hold a special place with me, they've been my long walk music, then cross country driving soundtrack and at certain times my companion in heartbreak. I was listening today to The Orchids and Even As We Speak and was thinking about the Sarah version of electronica and how much I used to hate it when it first came out. I think it was Screamadelica that changed my feelings, and I started liking the Field Mice's electronic songs. I wonder how other people feel the electronic pop of Sarah records has aged?

i think ian catt's less 'fashionable' production (probably a feature of his budgets more than anything else) has helped a lot of that stuff avoid some of the more dated sounds of the period

idyllwild from the last holy writer is a great song

Yes it is!!

not bobby related but beth's latest thing the luxembourg signal has a new album out and it's p good lightly gazey indie

also the remixed version of the first aberdeen single they have up on their bandcamp for free has cleaned up incredibly well

also the lightning in a twilight hour album is apaz in the can, i assume elefant is probably doing it

I can't wait.

Also, they are listed on the Elefant site:
http://elefant.com/en/grupos_elefant

But the link just redirects to the front page for now.

New song!

http://elefant.com/bands/lightning-in-a-twilight-hour/new/825/lightning-in-a-twilight-hour-new-project-by-bobby-wratten-and-free-sneak-peak-song-mp3-free-download

God, I love this man.

(and this new song)

hmm so it's TBS with the field mice bassist back on board.

i always assumed 'cold colours' was about annemari but seeing her back on board makes me wonder..

They're making me wait until next February for a short EP.

I think he stopped writing about AnneMari around Broken By Whispers/Alive to Every Smile-era TBS.

'Cold Colours' though — great track.

wratten does amazing things with his pretty limited songwriting and vocal range. have loved his work for 20+ years.

New EP is all kinds of great.

I've only listened to the first track. I like it.

Took me forever to realize it's not a TBS record. I'm getting tired of all the Bobby Wratten monikers.

what's his new monicker?

Lightning In A Twilight Hour

egads, that's terrible. but i'll give it a listen.

lineup is more field mice than tbs (well really a mixture of both)

The Fiona Appled Mice

LIGHTNING IN A TWILIGHT HOUR <nore✧✧✧@lightninginatwilighth✧✧✧.bandc✧✧✧.c✧✧>
2:56 PM (4 minutes ago)
to me

Greetings Austin Anderson,
Thank you for your pre-order of Overwintering by LIGHTNING IN A TWILIGHT HOUR. The full digital album has just been released!

cue Jack Nicholson in Batman: "Gentlemen! Let's broaden our minds!" (presses play on boombox)

Okay, one listen and the man can do no wrong and it's good BUT—

This is a lot for an hour long album. I expected more ambient stuff (there is none). It's a very mellow album; I think there was maybe one song on the second half that had drums in it? Some of the lyrics are weird, even for him. Most of it is very reminiscent of the stuff he did on the two Occasional Keepers albums, but even more acoustic strummy and dream poppy. That being said, it's probably among the prettiest music he's ever done and there's two songs that hit me as instant band classics ("Delphinium" and "Slow Motion Spirits"). Very preliminary thought is that it's better than the first album, but doesn't quite have the sustained wow factor of the All the Ships at Sea EP. I would certainly consider "Delphinium" one of the best songs he's ever done. Four mics, for now.

Whoa, All Music going to bat for Bob! That's the highest overall rating they've given any of his bands since Northern Picture Library.

No, I'm mistaken: that's the highest overall rating since the Field Mice!

So I've been living with this album for about a month and it's stayed in pretty regular rotation. I love it and it is my so far album of the year. Agree with my initial assessment of about 4 mics/4 stars/8.0 and that "Delphinium" is the easy highlight. On further listens, some of it is very reminiscent of the more atmospheric Northern Picture Library material: "The Cinematographer as Painter" is one of the weirdest calm songs I've ever heard and "Natural Light" has a purposely discordant progression that never resolves — just kind of unsettled and tenuous; something he's never really done before (or at least, not to this degree). I knew what to expect and it's not the best thing he's done under this band name, but I still feel like Overwintering exceeded my expectations pretty easily.

I'm hoping he decides to follow tradition and put out a quick EP in the next year or so before disappearing again.

in lieu of anything else ambient-y from bob and friends so far, i made a playlist of all of the ambient/wordless/found sound songs from throughout his catalogue: rjw kankyo ongaku+ambient.

so future conditional was an offshoot thing from piano magic and bob guested on a couple tracks and i was under the impression that it was a one-off. decent album, fun side project.

apparently they've made another album and bob is guesting with beth now and there's maybe a new order cover involved? okay, sure.

i missed this. fuck.

still haven't heard that. it was another of bob's tapeworm collabs — presumably another ambient thing. wonder what it sounds like.

anyway, do love when bob breaks out the 12 string—
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUUI9ddDeOM
"abba on the jukebox" (1996)