The Blue Nile: C or D?

love this thomas dolby song -- it's like the blue nile doing my life in the bush of ghosts

thanks again for this mix, soundslike

kevin you need that dolby album, it is perfect

listening now!

btw, did we know this?? (from AMG review)

The Blue Nile's debut album has a rather fascinating genesis. Scotland's Linn Electronics wanted a demo track to demonstrate the fidelity and versatility of their new recording console and tapped a struggling local trio, the Blue Nile, to provide it. Their effort was a deliberately disjunctive song called "A Walk Across the Rooftops." To demonstrate the recording equipment's dynamic range and clarity, the song was arranged most peculiarly, with vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, and full string and horn sections all appearing, but never at the same time. Linn liked the song so much that they formed a record label and bankrolled the recording of this full album

I knew that but I probably learned it from AMG

thats awesome

yes

The Blue Nile are far too rare a thing--but that mix was my best shot at gathering the closest things I know. Glad you guys are digging it!

can someone (brad?) give me a list of some blue nile rarities i'm missing out on? all i've got is pretty much what's on spotify

Look for the download comp 'birthday cards and silent music'

I got this album some years back and promptly forgot--but it's one of the few things that almost has that Blue Nile feeling (in moments, anyway):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4mFypXa-I0

Also,

sequel please mr soundslike

― iris marduk (Jon not Jon), Friday, April 21, 2017 3:55 PM (two months ago)

Working on a sequel, probably honing in on something like '86-'94. . .

Maybe this doesn't quite have the BN vibe, the drums are little too busy, but I feel like it could've come from the same era as Hats (it actually came out in 2015).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWW4wySZz8E

It's Immaterial sounds interesting, apparently they recorded in the same studio and w/ same producer as Blue Nile. And I gather from youtube comments that there was some dispute between them and Blue Nile because of some uncleared samples?

should i listen to more it's immaterial if i liked that and the blue nile?

apparently their discography is very ecclectic

'driving away from home' is perfect and a balearic classic, couldn't really get into the rest of that album.

Song is a lovely album and very much in the Blue Nile wheelhouse.

so uh......

does Mid Air not have its own thread?

It should, it is the third best album of Paul buchanan songs and a rare inhabitant of the same zone as the Mark Hollis album

Wait what, how did I miss the existence of this for five years?! And comparisons to 'Mark Holis,' which might have been my favorite Talk Talk record over the last 16 years? Oh, goodness. . .

And, at the suggestion of a couple folks upthread and your positive response, I finished a direct sequel to 'The Dawning' mix (for which The Blue Nile were the keystone and catalyst). Blue Nile isn't on there themselves, but I'd like to imagine their influence is, and certainly their spirit. Moving the period forward a few years to '85-'95, going a little deeper into the dream state--I gotta say I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I hope you guys will be, too.

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/musicophilia_00_various_-_evensong_1985-1995_2017_cover.jpg?w=1536

'Evensong' (1985-1995)

Part I

01 [00:00] It’s Immaterial – New Brighton” (Song, 1990)
02 [05:31] Tears for Fears – “The Working Hour” (Songs From the Big Chair, 1985)
03 [12:06] Tortoise – “His Second Story Island” (Tortoise, 1994)
04 [14:14] Michael Brook & Pieter Nooten – “Searching” (Sleeps With the Fishes, 1987)
05 [17:07] Shelleyan Orphan – “One Hundred Hands” (Helleborine, 1987)
06 [21:29] Stina Nordenstam – “A Walk In the Park” (Memories of a Color, 1991)
07 [24:54] Sade – “Pearls” (Love Deluxe, 1992)
08 [29:38] Massive Attack – “Protection” (Protection, 1994)
09 [37:26] The Cure – “The Same Deep Water As You” (Disintegration, 1989)
10 [46:19] Depche Mode- “Waiting For the Night” (Violator, 1990)

Part II

11 [52:41] Evelyn Glennie – “Light in Darkness” (Light In Darkness, 1991)
12 [55:59] R.E.M. – “Sweetness Follows” (Automatic For the People, 1992)
13 [60:21] The Innocence Mission – “Medjugorje” (The Innocence Mission, 1989)
14 [61:53] Disco Inferno – “Second Language” (Second Language EP, 1994)
15 [66:52] Slowdive – “Rutti” (Pygmalion, 1995)
16 [76:53] Rain Tree Crow – “Cries and Whispers” (Rain Tree Crow, 1991)
17 [79:26] Bark Psychosis – “Pendulum Man” (Hex, 1994)
18 [82:37] Peter Gabriel – “Mercy Street” (So, 1986)
19 [88:27] Low – “Sunshine” (I Could Live In Hope, 1994)
20 [91:35] Portishead – “Roads” (Dummy, 1994)
21 [96:44] Hector Zazou & Bjork – “Visur Vatnsenda-Rosu” (Songs From the Cold Seas, 1994)

[Total Time: 1:40:43]

Download or stream it here at Musicophilia

Yeah I haven't been at a proper computer yet this weekend but I can't wait to download your new mix!

04 [14:14] Michael Brook & Pieter Nooten – “Searching” (Sleeps With the Fishes, 1987)

Love this song/album

It should, it is the third best album of Paul buchanan songs and a rare inhabitant of the same zone as the Mark Hollis album

― or at night (Jon not Jon), Saturday, July 1, 2017 3:27 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah only one listen in, but highs are extraordinarily high

title track in contention for his best song ever

Thanks for the mix and the link! Judging from the song list, you really captured a specific late-night city summer vibe

does Mid Air not have its own thread?

― k3vin k., Saturday, July 1, 2017 4:39 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It should, it is the third best album of Paul buchanan songs and a rare inhabitant of the same zone as the Mark Hollis album

― or at night (Jon not Jon), Saturday, July 1, 2017 7:27 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Done.

the third it's immaterial album got shelved by the label in the 90's but it's due for release maybe later this year. this track off it definitely has blue nile-ish qualities but there's just no way his voice is ever going to compare to paul buchanan >

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3ivUuv3D04

that's where bark psych falls a bit short for me too. His voice is nice but that's about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6XssIfW9W8

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSherco12/search?query=paul+buchanan+OR+blue+nile

have fun with this guys

Anyone heard the Lowland Hundred? Little group out of Aberystwyth that it's just dawned on me have elements of the Blue Nile about them (stately, nostalgic - albeit nostalgia filtered through a mining of the remote past - kinda naked). Under Cambrian Sky is a brilliant record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEX9FeBmkSs

2xp
I was at that show! (Liss Ard). It was magic. Never knew there was video. Thanks for posting.

jealous! i hope he tours again at some point. i'd go anywhere to watch

Wow. Just stumbled across this duet version of Easter Parade with the great Rickie Lee Jones, followed by Buchanan and co joining in with a version of Jones's Flying Cowboys. Not a collaboration I would've ever expected, but it totally works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_172cffdDJU

^wow!!!

The Blue Nile-scored Govan Ghost Story linked in the article - for completists maybe, but I've had .wav files on my PC for years of the sound cues the three members did for this. Been interesting to hear dialogue snippets and wonder what the full scene depicted. Just an hour long.

I haven't seen appropriate love for this unreleased track, "Meanwhile": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxRc3ecDqIY.

http://thequietus.com/articles/24718-shirley-manson-garbage-interview-favourite-albums?page=13

shirley manson on a walk across the rooftops is a nice wee read

oh man she fuckin nailed it

yes

also what a great set of records she picked

That's a great read. She says lovely things about Sulk by Associates too. She has excellent taste.

I think I was the only person on ILX who fell head over heels for the first Pure Bathing Culture lp. The second one was not much cop, but now they have decided to cover the whole of Hats! Not sure I want to hear Ben Gibbard singing, but the rest of the album might be good.

https://www.stereogum.com/2000973/pure-bathing-culture-ben-gibbard-saturday-night-the-blue-nile-cover/premiere/

ben gibbard also did a bandwagonesque cover album.

ben gibbard, leave my treasured glasgow/lanarkshire music alone you vandal

By the way: one of the things that justifies file-sharing for all time is that I was finally able to get hold of a copy of their first (?) ever song 'I love this life'. And it's turned out to be my favourite song of theirs.
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, March 25, 2003 10:45 AM (fifteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Fifteen years later I just heard this for the first time and think I agree: it has a vibrancy to it that they never again showed much interest in conveying. Even the Joe Jackson synth bass is excellent.

it's so good

xmas eve so you can listen to family life

Tomorrow will be Christmas
We'll be singing old songs
And light up the tree
God and all the mercy
And say all your prayers
For little old me

a truly soul-crushing song