Imago Listening Club

I love Black & White, but it's my least favourite of their first six albums (The Raven and La Folie being the two 'desert island' picks)

I'm really keen on seeing what imago thinks of The Gospel According To The Meninblack, though. It's by far the weirdest album The Stranglers ever made, and definitely not for everyone. Their record label (United Artists) had been bought out by EMI and had become Liberty Records, and reportedly the attitude of the record label people The Stranglers were now dealing with was "we don't have a clue what this band are doing or what to do with them, but they seem to sell albums whenever they release one so we'll leave them to it". So the band indulged themselves: fucked their heads up on hard drugs, recorded at the most expensive studios they could (including Startling Studios, Musicland Studios, Pathe Marconi and several others), had no less than four engineers working on a rota so they could work around the clock (and because all the band members were under the influence of different drugs at different times), and because of no record label interference, basically did what the fuck they wanted without even caring whether or not it would be understood. Just as well really, because it wasn't understood at all.

All the drums were tracked individually(!) for maximum separation, and so they could apply effects to one specific drum at any one time without it fucking up the mix, as well as drums being recorded through condenser mics to fuck up the sound... as a result some of the stereo panning on the album is a bit crazy and headphone listening is an experience. None of the songs are all that accessible, and the ones that could possibly be accessible have something odd going on with them. It's quite jazz-influenced in places, and definitely a highly, highly indulgent record. It flopped massively, was misunderstood by pretty much everybody, and The Stranglers would never have the opportunity to be that indulgent again.

It's actually singer Hugh Cornwell's favourite Stranglers album, and bassist JJ Burnel cites it as one of his favourites alongside The Raven, probably because they had such a blast making it.

and I recommend listening The Gospel while reading this exhaustive PDF about the album...

http://www.strangled.co.uk/PDF/but_issue_02.pdf

(There's one on Black & White too on the same site)

I've written my own (IMO quite wittily-observed) spoof review but I'm not sure how I could post it here...

― l0u1s jagg3r (Haberdager), Wednesday, July 26, 2006 1:30 PM (7 years ago)

just for posterity

wittily-observed.

quite

Time to listen to some dub, Imago.

i dunno but i kinda think this might be imagoish

http://pyrrhonband.bandcamp.com/album/the-mother-of-virtues

cool :) and will check that out once I've finished watching La Belle Noiseuse but this thread is essentially defunct and I would like it to remain so - send all subsequent recommendations to Unknown, vaguely Cardiacsy prog-pop that only MaresNest and I actually like

oh, well, this is not cardiacsy prog-pop, and anyway, you're not the boss of me

you should listen to roky erickson, i'm jamming the evil one right now, this light in the attic reissue is off the meat rack

"stand for the fire demon!" dun dun dun dun dun *rock*

after you do that, let me know what you think of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AhU12zC8fc

You're the prog-not-prog guy right? Try Butter by Hudson Mohawke

xxxp everyone should listen to Roky, and the 13th Floor Elevators too!

I take it back j, but only coz this is extremely kickass :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGXIgz5hhzQ

This video is private.

Sorry about that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lALxW-8zvdc

new ooioo might be worth yr while if yer open to some gamelan prog punk

that was pleasant, if a little meditative for my current state (ill, distracted, tired) - might return to it later :)

LJ do you like Skeletons?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcwMyIJ0Ob8

think I've heard them before! they have some likeable elements. they remind me a little of the band Volcano! whom I've proselytised at length before - the latter are more frenetic, more vivid

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

Yea, weirdly I was looking at a Volcano! CD on my shelf about an hour ago thinking 'I can't remember anything about this'

did u listen to any arrigo barnabé yet

imago have you ever heard boogie down productions

― example (crüt), Wednesday, August 27, 2014 5:52 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you should really give Criminal Minded and By All Means Necessary a few spins

cool! well i'm back at home on my own proper internet connection tomorrow - over the weekend I'll listen to them :)

arrigo too, wins :/

right now i'm trying to spotify-stream the pet shop boys from a second-storey hotel room with an already-slow wifi box in the lobby pulsing out weak rays of sporadic provenance to my ken. it's no way to live

(but…you don't understand! ken is my interactive buttplug!)

wait, is the wifi box roaming around the hotel lobby?

are you gonna listen to track 6 of every album on the noms list or whatever you did last time?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2r5yqjlVrI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

My 2nd attempt to get you to listen to this...

give me some minutes, am out of doors and hurt

coffins on io v good obv DAM, more soon

nice sn

by some savage and beautiful coincidence, THAT is THE D'Angelo song I like best off the album - even more amazingly, my gf chose it as the representative track on our playlist of the ILM albums poll! it is brilliant and strange. I also like the opener, Charade and Prayer. so that answers your question too, wins - we're not on track 6 this year but the first 10 seconds of track 1, then more if it sounds any good (like D'Angelo)

Don't forget to give Eyvind Kang's latest album a good listen imago, it is extremely beautiful.

1000 Deaths is my second favorite song of the year. Livid beyond measure that I failed to nominate it for tracks poll

it didn't get nominated? o dear.

yeah listening to this again, it's insane and wonderful - when it explodes in the last minute, jesus. that groove

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

dunno if you know this esben & the witch song - might be something you'd enjoy? bit of a long one but not one minute wasted imo

many a genial time is had by those who locate atmosphere

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

Don't forget to give Eyvind Kang's latest album a good listen imago, it is extremely beautiful.

― xelab, Sunday, January 11, 2015 9:03 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes, especially the track 'Variel' in all its Arabic Toyland 70s movie dream sequence-ness.

If you haven't checked out The Narrow Garden, then that's a must also.

cool, will check these out

been playing the weyes blood album on repeat all morning. it is so so so so so good

You vote yet?

http://sturgillsimpson.bandcamp.com/track/it-aint-all-flowers

eh that's ok, got some surprisingly beautiful moments but probably not gonna disturb my ballot even if ilx is voting en masse ;)

esben and the witch song was nice

um

eyvind kang! oh god so much music though! been ploughing thru the list, so hard to know what to vote for now

one that got nowhere in the poll:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TW49X2G_Ss

you should listen to the jlin album, it is excellent

rad ok

yeah this is great

yep

imago, do you like Punishment of Luxury? they sometimes make me think of early Cardiacs covering John Foxx era Ultravox, or maybe vice versa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RTQNmNJHuM

I meant to post that to the vaguely Cardiacsy prog-pop thread, but what's done is ddone