Destroyer - Kaputt (2011)

The Blue Nile - Hats

in the kaputt vs. let england shake thread there's a lot of great posts about how this record def contains sophistopop references but also takes them a step further, sounding like an idiosyncratic contemporary of these records that was never made at the time

actually possibly no posts in that thread said that and i'm paraphrasing them incorrectly but: there are a lot of great posts in that thread

that was a good thread.

some fun trolling and beef too e.g. flopson and aero

I'm sure I wrote in this thread that Kaputt evokes sophisti-pop, but I was wrong: it's a histrionic Robert Wyatt album.

Isn't Comicopera already a histrionic Robert Wyatt album?

compared to Kaputt it's Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks.

weird, I just decided to explore sophisti-pop today and the list of ten essential albums I found had "Kaputt" on it (as well as "Avalon" and "Steve McQueen")

It's not as ostentatious about it as some of the above examples but I think Rickie Lee Jones' The Magazine arguably belongs here as well.

what does histrionic mean? dramatic? kaputt's pretty low key though? robert wyatt - hmm feel like Croz' remark on VU: too dramatic

anyway, sophistipop and yacht rock suggestions welcome, blue nile and late Cohen nice too

Fleetwood Mac - Tango in the Night

Good one. Will have to check out the Prefab Sprout too, have come across that recommendation before.

There's something luxurious, melancholic, inoffensively beautiful about Kaputt that I guess makes everybody I know love it.

Here: http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/bluffer/sophisti-pop.htm

New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies is an obvious reference point though not the same sophisti-pop vibe.

Was surprised to see he'd name-checked Screamadelica, but you can hear the influence in the drums in a few places (Song for America, Kaputt) I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxOL77KMcd8

This is pretty great--Bejar even cracks a couple of jokes!

Does John Martyn ever get included in the sophistipop canon?

not really like Kaputt as such but i love this slice of sophistipop (in a slightly glum Sunday evening in Surrey kinda vein). also has the wonderful lyric "and i close my eyes....with my eyelids"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w3deHdO0R4

Xpost - Martyn probably makes it for some of his post-peak work like Grace and Danger (which I love). One World has some perfectly appropriate songs but feels a bit too willfully eclectic?

some fun trolling and beef too e.g. flopson and aero

― Tim F, Tuesday, November 17, 2015 9:33 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fondly remember this beef

lol aw when flopson called him an unfun crank and aero said i'm sorry

:'-)

Xpost - Martyn probably makes it for some of his post-peak work like Grace and Danger (which I love). One World has some perfectly appropriate songs but feels a bit too willfully eclectic?

I've only gone as far as One World so excited for the other two recommendations. "Sweet Little Mystery" strikes me as a perfect sophistipop song

"Grace and Danger" is actually just one album btw. Stuff after that might also be good but that's as far as I have gone.

Yeah "Sweet Little Mystery" is the song from One World I was thinking of, "Small Hours" for avant-sophisto.

Hang on....Grace and Danger is his peak!

one world is my favorite martyn record, it feels like it's going in every direction at once. "small hours" crushes me

Hang on....Grace and Danger is his peak!

― yugi ex, Monday, November 23, 2015 11:14 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I should have put "peak" in inverted commas. I think it's fabulous but it's not (or doesn't seem to be) feted in the way that a lot of the 70s albums are - also meant to say "Sweet Little Mystery" is the song from Grace and Danger I was thinking of first and foremost.

Ah, I've been listening to the "Bless the Weather" comp and looking at my favorites from there, it would be a tough choice btwn Grace & Danger or One World. I've never seen a John Martyn thread on ilx! The vocal part on "Small Hours" is basically heaven.

One World contains some truly awesome compass point aqua funk

"Big Muff" is amazing and completely singular but (in part because of that) I don't think I'd describe it as sophistipop.

I also listen to Inside Out heaps and heaps, which strangely doesn't seem to get talked about very much.

"Big Muff"

Well, that too.

Danish band Liss have a sophistipop thing going, more on "Always" than "Try", but "Try" is great too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qXPPHhs6nk

Does Thomas Dolby fit the sophisti-pop handle? The Flat Earth is pretty damn fine. It's Immaterial's Song is excellent, too.

(Thomas Dolby also produced three Prefab Sprout records, including Steve McQueen)

Not quite as luxurious and sophisticated as Kaputt or Avalon, but still quite enjoyable: China Crisis Flaunt the Imperfection and What Price Paradise.

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

Just discovered Gigi Masin. I'm only on the album opener from "Talk To The Sea" (2015), but I'm already impressed. Echoes of Tea In The Sahara-era Sting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iq6vNW6Bh4

ooh, that's lovely. good share!

so i picked up a shift last night at my bar on "college tuesday"...put this on and got surprising reactions. Lots of "who's this?" and to top it off Song for America actually had people dancing and sexy girl dancing. Although there were a few odd looks during the whole animals...deaths embrace thing. Meanwhile I was doing lots of pelvic thrusts behind the bar. Im sure this is exactly what Bejar was going for.

― Beardie you disappoint me (chrisv2010), Wednesday, January 26, 2011 9:14 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this post still haunts me whenever i listen to this record

China Crisis Flaunt the Imperfection is great! good recommendations itt

Danish singer/songwriter CV Jørgensen's late masterpiece Sjælland has more of a 90s vibe, but not far off

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

2)Al Stewart- Year of the Cat

― Why because she True and Interesting (President Keyes), Tuesday, November 17, 2015 1:36 PM (3 weeks ago)

had somehow never heard this song/album but holy shit it would fit right in on kaputt

You've never heard Year of the Cat? Must be a youngster!

i wouldnt really associate year of the cat with kaputt except for maybe the title track, the rest is too earnest and folky to sound like destroyer ever

Year of the Cat is great, and a good point of reference - Kaputt is (among other things) a perfect mix of sophistipop and yacht rock, Al Stewart's a good yacht rock example

i've always thought of al stewart as being the precursor to stuff like the decemberists, okkervil river, that sort of earnest high-concept storytelling rock, rather than the cynical smooth dudes that take after yacht rock. he's kind of an oddball in rock history in that way, probably why he's been largely forgotten while a lot of his peers get canonized

point taken

kaputt

not sure if i should be embarrassed by how much of spotify's prefabbed "Late Night Indie" playlist overlaps with my own playlists

kaputt

― ciderpress, Friday, May 27, 2016 10:50 PM (three months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i was thinking about this album just yesterday, and how it's just about that time of year