Penguin Cafe Orchestra - classic or dud?

Amazon's been my best bet for PCO stuff, really. No record store really carries them, because no record store knows exactly a) who they are, b) what albums to get, and c) what section of the record store to put them in. They've completely been erased from history since the late 80s, for whatever reason.

My favorite is the last one, Union Cafe, from 1993.. It's a double-album, and i think it has the best songs on it.. then again, I like Jeffes' piano work a lot, and this has quite a bit of it.. it's also not as "folky" as the previous ones... (not saying that's bad or good, just sayin')

although, my enjoyment of this album and my cooking of dinner have made me feel as if i might be turning into a yuppie. that and thouroughly enjoying Paul Simon's Graceland all last week. yup.

said

the

"G" word.

I don't suppose anybody recorded the Radio 4 doc about the Penguin Cafe Orchestra at the end of May? If anyone could provide me with a copy I'd be forever grateful.

That documentary is on the BBC iplayer at the moment. It's fascinating to hear how some of the tracks came together.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/noscript.shtml?/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/penguincafeorchestra

Is it actually the same documentary?!

CLASSIC CLASSIC CLASSIC CLASSIC CLASSIC

I ADORE PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA. THEY ARE PERFECT.

they make the best rainy day music :\ :)

Thinking about it, it 100% isn't the same documentary, because this one featured stuff about the December 07 reunion concerts...

I've just received remasters of five Penguin Cafe Orchestra albums, and am now hearing their music for the first time (I think, although the very first track was familiar).

This is lovely.

Carry on.

OK, here comes the cliche:

"But the originals sounded really gorgeous anyway!"

But it's true. Do the remasters come with bonuses? Or are they just reissues? Cuz I think some of the CDs were out of print if I'm not mistaken.

Listening to "Telephone and Rubber Band" right now. The only song of theirs I have. (Thank you, 1981 comp!) So amazing -- why don't I have any of their records?

Just straight reissues:

Music From...
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
Broadcasting From Home
Signs Of Life
When In Rome

Huh, no Union Cafe? That's, like, their best one, second to s/t.

The originals do sound wicked, and PCO certainly don't need their levels bumping up to compete with Coldplay or whatever, BUT remastering gives a fantastic reason to reprint artrwork with better technology and rerelease these ace records witha bit of publicity and win a new audience, potentially.

The remaster of the self-titled album arrived today as the Album of the Month from the Rough Trade Album Club. It came with a sampler CD of all their other albums. I had never heard any of this stuff before; it's really beautiful and so incredibly well produced.

So happy about these reissues. I just picked up s/t (my favorite) and will get the others eventually. What a great band.

Really glad to hear this, I received the Rough Trade reissue from the album club and am looking forward to listening to it now.

I dabbled with these and there is one of their tracks that I love.What a shiteo post as I can't remember what it's called
Sailed a bit too close to dodgy sails imho - what with my limited musical appreciation

the first album is the only one I really like but I like it a lot. only have the vinyl though.

Classic! Got Concert Program when it came out, listen to it every once in a while, promise myself I'll order the rest of their stuff stat, but never did, will finally do it now.

Classic... but this is dud :(

I just got into these guys. This is one of the best, most underrated bands in history. Holy fucking shit. I've never so quickly gotten every single album by a band before.

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ugh

^ those clips are fantastic. the albums i have (s/t and 'music from the penguin cafe') are sorta perfect, exactly the kind of airy pop-minimalism i've been craving lately. i think the only thing that kept me from fully appreciating this band was a mental association with investment banking commercials, which i will always think of when i hear this-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvbCV6E0Wro

i can't really find anything about it online, but wasn't this in the background of prudential commercials or something for years? not like that's a bad thing per se, just really hard to disassociate for me.

So, I was poking around the Penguin Cafe site today to see if they are going to ever play over in the States, and I noticed there is a new album called A Matter of Life. Obviously no Simon Jeffes stuff, but apparently his son has taken over.

Has anyone heard this? Is it worthy of the name Penguin Cafe? And has anyone seen the touring group, and is that worth it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXJXe7MMMtI

I interviewed his son Simon Jeffes last month.

Basically, it's him and a bunch of mates doing his dad's music, but they've done an original album called A Matter Of Life... which is surprisingly good and fits into the canon quite well. Some of the original Orchestra still perform as a band called The Anteaters.

Penguin Cafe are announcing a new tour very soon.

Neil Coddling from Suede is in Penguin Cafe weirdly enough.

Nice interview. When I was doing more research, I was a little saddened that the new Penguin Cafe didn't actually have any original members in it. It would be nice if Arthur Jeffes just made music under another name, but his compositions sound pretty good on first listen. Thanks!

sweet! Music From The Penguin Cafe is prolly my most rewarding discovery of the year

i can't really find anything about it online, but wasn't this in the background of prudential commercials or something for years? not like that's a bad thing per se, just really hard to disassociate for me.

They've been in a lot of commercials. I know IBM used "Perpetuum Mobile" in an ad at one point, probably in the 90s.

obviously "Music for a Found Harmonium" is basically everywhere. it's practically public domain at this point

has there ever been a band name story as beautiful as this one?

In 1972 I was in the south of France. I had eaten some bad fish and was in consequence rather ill. As I lay in bed I had a strange recurring vision, there, before me, was a concrete building like a hotel or council block. I could see into the rooms, each of which was continually scanned by an electronic eye. In the rooms were people, everyone of them preoccupied. In one room a person was looking into a mirror and in another a couple were making love but lovelessly, in a third a composer was listening to music through earphones. Around him there were banks of electronic equipment. But all was silence. Like everyone in his place he had been neutralized, made grey and anonymous. The scene was for me one of ordered desolation. It was as if I were looking into a place which had no heart. Next day when I felt better, I was on the beach sunbathing and suddenly a poem popped into my head. It started out 'I am the proprietor of the Penguin Cafe, I will tell you things at random' and it went on about how the quality of randomness, spontaneity, surprise, unexpectedness and irrationality in our lives is a very precious thing. And if you suppress that to have a nice orderly life, you kill off what's most important. Whereas in the Penguin Cafe your unconscious can just be. It's acceptable there, and that's how everybody is. There is an acceptance there that has to do with living the present with no fear in ourselves.

"Perpetuum Mobile" seems to perfectly encapsulate creative industriousness, doesn't it?

"Rubber Band" was used everywhere too.

sampled in that goddamn spacehog song

has there ever been a band name story as beautiful as this one?

― Poliopolice, Wednesday, June 6, 2012 1:13 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Probably not. Illustrated on one of their album covers BTW (which i found seriously WTF-y until i learned the backstory). Great music, in any case.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51aD4DFtG7L._SS400_.jpg

'penguin cafe orchestra' and 'broadcasting from home' two of my favorite purchases of this year. the music and this thread were awesome in 2012

This band and Miles Davis are the only artists I can tolerate when I recover from a bout of tinnitus.

Is there any chance this Red Book that's coming out will be any good? PCO are one of my all-time favorites, but I'm not sure whoever's running the show (is it Simon Jeffe's son) can carry the torch.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/af/d2/57/afd257a20638f47f8d9d447a6627c4d1.jpg

I'm already underwhelmed by the album art.

I didn't know there was already an album by the reformed Penguin Cafe. I should've read this thread more closely. I'm apprehensive about listening to any of this because it seems to stick so close to someone Simon Jeffes' formula, which is an amazing thing but is it possible for someone else to come close? I mean, I love the formula; it's probably the greatest formula there ever was. I'm still searching for a group of musicians that make music that comes anywhere close to PCO's. It's transformative, imaginative, beautiful music, but it also seems like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.

I don't know if I want to listen to make-believe PCO is what I'm saying. Is the essence there??

Try North Sea Radio Orchestra!

There's also the Japanese band World Standard that has a lot of PCO-type music (with a more Caribbean feel) but their most PCO-like albums are very hard to find.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51aD4DFtG7L._SS400_.jpg

Wasn't this album cover adapted into "Eyes Wide Shut?"

Love this group. One of the sadder aspects of Jeffes death is that he and the band were so obscure (by design, really) that not a lot of people took notice.

Still haven't heard The Red Book. I do really like this new song, however:

http://boilerroom.tv/penguin-cafe-the-track-of-the-dull-sun/

CLASSIC OBVIOUSLY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYUAud0C-2A

I’m super into Broadcasting From Home these days, might be my fave PCO now

The new Penguin Cafe album called Handfuls of Night is quite nice, calm, slow, slightly melancholic instrumental music with classical instruments. The Penguin Cafe is hosted by Arthur Jeffes, Simon Jeffes son.

If anyone is needing a PCO/gentle chamber music fix, this (2018) Group Listening record is doing it for me right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTM5c9WN1EY

Thank you!

Thanks, this is really good and does indeed hit the Penguin Cafe Orchestra vibe (though on first listen not with the same richness, but -- who does?)

An Arthur Russell cover, no less! This is nice.

I've listened to the album a few times over the last couple of days and aye, not quite in the same league as PCO but lovely all the same.

listening to the first album now and yeah: why did i pass on this record so many times? this is "where have you been all my life" kind of good.

absolutely! what a great vibe

First 2 albums (Music from PCO and PCO respectivly) are both great. I was haunted by the cover of the 1st album way before hearing it. Gotta say I prefer the weird folk of the 2nd album to the more dreamy 1st but they both sound great on a Sunday morning.

the hiphop group i was in many years ago had a track where we sampled "telephone and rubberband" and somebody in the audience at one of our shows knew the sample and booed us and gave the double thumbs down. good times.

Austin where do you live that hiphop crowds are full of Penguin Cafe Orchestra fans

I guess if I'm gonna bump this thread I should comment on their music. what I really like is how casually brilliant they could be. that horn bit on "In the Back of a Taxi" is a good example. Its a goofy moment but its also perfect. Also I noticed "Heartwind" has a cowrite by Ryuichi Sakamoto...did they work together or did they borrow a melody?

It was in Reno, frogs. No idea who the guy was. We were playing on a benefit bill with all different types of bands, one of which was a group of aging old school punks playing semi-joke "pirate rock", so I've always assumed our heckler was someone from that lot.

The name of their band was Scurvy Bastards, by the way.

I love Penguin Cafe Orchestra, also by the way.

New Group Listening album is lovely: https://grouplistening.bandcamp.com/album/clarinet-piano-selected-works-vol-2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iDdqY-VEcg

Bought Signs of Life on CD for a dollar today, first thing I've ever heard by them. Except for the last song, really like it--not sure what I expected, but this wasn't it. Favourite is "Oscar Tango."

Wrong song: "Horns of the Bull."

I’d like to like the new Penguin Cafe line-up and recordings but it’s just not the same. The soul isn’t there. I follow their social media and see albums and recordings coming and going and wish I enjoyed it.

I really cherish PCO. That’s all.