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

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

Album out today.

First listen right now. . .

Initial thoughts after one listen. . .

It's a really quiet, slow album. Not in a bad way, it just is.

There's a few ambient tracks spread about that make the whole thing cohesive, but also kind of not, as they feel less like bridges between the proper songs and more like interruptions. It would have been nice to relegate that stuff to one section of the album.

There's not really a big knockout song like there has been on his past few releases. There's no 'Cold Colours', no 'Sunrise on Mars' and no 'November Starlings.' Instead it's more of a "takin' it steady" kind of album where acoustic guitars dominate.

Kind of overwhelmed with excitement right now, so I'll need more listens (away from the computer), but it does strike me as a bit of a disappointment right away.

Still good though.

Gearing up for my end of the year favorites mix and this has opened up to me as one of the best songs on said mix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJXDLpzblo

Album has just gotten better and better as the weather has cooled off. I knew it would, but I was just ready to be wowed right away. Shoulda known better with old Bobby.

ppl in this thread hating on broken by whispers make me sad, it's a great record

Oh man, I love Broken by Whispers. It's got 'Fragile' on it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s79dt5wKtdg

But this is all coming from a guy who thinks Wratten's never written a bad, let made a whole bad album. So, grains of salt and whathaveyou.

*bad song, let alone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=833SYSEz4ZU

I love those Occasional Keepers records! Really like the Future Conditional features that Bob did as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S43taUHWrI

The last song from that Future Conditional record called Your Love Leaves Me Colder is really nice. I still need to pick up Luxembourg Signal record.

Jeez, I didn't even know about that one. Thanks for the heads up!

Those first two albums. . . Damn.

Northern Picture Library were better, and we need more discussion on that era, but. . . Damn. Those first two TBS albums are un-mess-with-able.

I care about Bobby. I hope he's still chugging on. I hope he quits writing sad songs, someday.

Well, as stated above, he's Lightning In A Twilight Hour now. The new songs are no less slow, but more observational, less about relationships.

And you are indeed correct that the Northern Picture Library stuff is very mighty.

http://www.usedbinpop.com/aberdeen-it-was-the-rain-lost-recordings-1993-1995-pre-order-now/

Not sure how I missed this last year, but I'm hearing it now and I'm predictably falling in love.

that's a good call. krzysztof kieslowski's lullaby is a gem. the guitar and the voice haven't changed a bit. why does he change the name all the time? he does not seem to want people to listen to his music.

It's so good.

This is nice: https://the-tapeworm.bandcamp.com/album/quiet-actions

Yeah, I ordered one from Boomkat. Still waiting for it to arrive.

Should have shopped at Norman.

Boomkat was the only place that still had it in stock. Tapeworm site says limited to 100, so I jumped on it.

So, I'm an idiot. The tape arrived in the mail today and I now have realized that I donated my cassette deck when I moved from Reno two years ago.

I have the tape and no way to hear it.

I knew I wasn't out of options! My housemate has an old CD/Cassette/AMFM mini boombox and that's got a 1/8" headphone jack on it of course. So, I dove into my box of wires and cords (don't all of us have one of those tangled messes somewhere that we inexplicably hang onto?) and I'm now recording it into my hard drive.

Hooray.

'My Own Antarctica' is an incredible piece of music. I can relate with it almost too closely.

"I saw nothing wrong with feeling I did not exist, had somehow disappeared. I don't know what to do. Now it seems I can still be seen."

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpqnZuIAn5iRENu4P7zlNRNef47HdieOgSUbQs0/

heh, Les T. in the comments repping for the Philippines

Not sure it ever occurred to me to look for live TBS/Field Mice/Etc. stuff on the internet, but it's there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoY5B_HVlN0

^^^I love that clip Josh. That is historic footage in Andy's book.

Reviving to say that the Luxembourg Signal is about to release their third album in a few weeks time. The pre-release single is on Bandcamp and I'm finding it to be very promising for the rest of the record: https://theluxembourgsignal.bandcamp.com/album/the-long-now

I thought their first album was just okay, but Blue Field was a huge improvement and damn fine record. I knew they had something coming, but I didn't know when. The main thing this means in my book is that new music from Bob Wratten is probably also shortly forthcoming. And that's kind of exactly what Andy needs at this point; and I daresay the entire world as well. It's been too long that such a pure and fascinating musician like him has been ignored. I'd personally consider him someone like the Mark Hollis of jangle. His music has been very important to me for so many years and his more sporadic release schedule over the past few only seems to carry with it more weight with each release. He's moving in on his longest ever gap between releases, so needless to say, the anticipation is very high.

Have already pre-ordered the Luxenbourg Signal record with the hopes that it will be as good as the pre-release tune is; but also with the hopes that Mr. Wratten is going to make a cameo like he did on their last album. Exciting times.

Also, it now has come to Andy's attention that the band has set up an official instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/theluxembourgsignal/