The Sound - Classic/Dud/Search/Destroy

"Contact The Fact" ROXOR!

(help I've turned into Geeta) ! ! ! !

(Ordered mine a while ago, but it hasn't shown up yet.. waaah, I want it now!)

haha i've come to like the production. there's much to like about Hugh Jones' work, definitely.

I got the dual disc BBC Recordingsdisc and, well, holy fucking shit. Multiply all previous "they shoulda been huge" comments by a factor of 100.

The Sound
House of Love
Chameleons
Echo and the Bunnymen

Sounds like a plan to me!

Am listening to All Fall Down this very second and "Monument" just finished. Dr. C said it a couple of years ago so I don't have to.

http://www.myspace.com/magicbullets

I suspect I'd probably think Winning was a lot nicer if the 'I'm gonna make it after all!' sentiment wasn't offet by the 'Hang on a minute, this guy jumped in front of a train three years ago!' realisation

In my case, I now realize that I have the exact opposite feeling about the Sound and Adrian B. -- when it comes to figures like, say, Jim Morrison or Ian Curtis, their sound and the post-death cults (for lack of a better word) combine to create a resultant expectation that is often hard to properly escape, especially if like me you encounter them well after the fact.

Admittedly I did the same with the Sound as well, hearing them first well after their breakup but before Adrian died, but like, say, Billy Mackenzie and the Associates, when I hear the Sound I hear life, I hear exultance for lack of a better word. For all the most intense moments that Adrian can create with his words and singing, there is a grace and soaring resonance that causes me to rise, not sink. The comparisons with U2 and Bono don't work for me because there is something here that is strong but not overbearing, a true warmth -- and the more I think about so many of the band's contemporaries, the more that seems to be near unique, that the lighter singing voice (if only by degrees in some cases) compared to others is what gives the Sound its unique feel still for me.

I hear the Sound and I hear an embrace, not hectoring or rabble-rousing. That to me is a true gift.

That for me is spot on, and nicely put to boot.

Also, that sort of warmth you talk about is really evident on "Fatal Flaw" - that sort of falling-into-place moment when it reaches the motif that repeats to the end is one of my favourite drawn-out repetitive outros of ooh, ever.

You'd have hoped that he'd weathered the storm, but by all accounts he got more ill as time went on.

"It's 1976 and Tim and his pal Adrian Borland (who at the time was in a punk band called 'The Outsiders' and later on fronted a band called 'The Sound') and an amazing rock drummer called Bruce Bizland (no one knows what happened to him) make a band and do about two gigs then stop...they sounded a bit like the rocky instrumental bits on that David Bowie album 'The Man Who Sold The World' didn't they. They never gave their band a name either."

I've often meant to investigate The Sound but never got round to it. Maybe sometime I will.

What a great song... I wish he had sung all screamy like that more.
Great great band.

they were v.good live - I must have seen them 10 times or so
Ahhhh! $*#@&!!!

http://www.renascent.co.uk/

...then go down to the albums section. Please to note the *FIVE* live Sound albums from 1981 to 1985 now available -- they're all taken from Dutch radio broadcasts, and all are midpriced at that.

Finally getting around to the Outsiders with Cherry Red's predictably excellent CD reissue of Calling On Youth.

First impression, for one of the supposedly "important early independent punk" albums, it's not actually very punk, is it? I mean, the guitar playing is way too good to actually be punk, and side two of the album is just kind of slow and quiet for the most part. Adrian's obviously really young and overly ambitious here, but he's obviously pretty charismatic, even at this very early point. Overall though, pleasantly surprised.

Taking in Close Up this evening and, I have to say, it's pretty much an all around improvement over Calling On Youth. Production, songs, technicality. . . just better on all fronts. Definitely segues nicely into the Propaganda era (which subsequently segues perfectly into Jeopardy).

https://austintayeshus.blogspot.com/2018/12/what-are-spectral-projections.html

https://www.discogs.com/master/2523988-The-Sound-Will-And-Testament-Starlight

Uhm?

oh wow! a live album of their later material i guess

look like it's all up on yt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mbq2cGjX8M

Yep, on Spotify too.

this incoming second layer comp popped up on bandcamp today:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/album-of-the-day/second-layer-courts-or-wars-review

hadn't actually heard 'courts of wars' before... fuuck, amazing song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_01T9uFgew

'or' not 'of' obv

yeah I first heard second layer through that song on a Messthetics comp. So cool!!

“that song” - courts or wars

(wide eyes emoji)

i'll be back in later with thoughts.

Second Layer is arguably more Joy Division THAN Joy Division. Fantastic, singular work - wonderfully dark and deep.