Jesus -- I really do, now, doubt humanity after coming to find that after six or seven or whatever years of ILX, that there is no specific (Clan Of) Xymox C/D thread.

I don't think I've really heard anything much beyond the 4AD stuff, which was ok.

opinions?
humanity: overrated, proboably
ilx: fine overall
clan of xymox: not much of a bloody idea have i, to tell the truth

"No Words" is an incredible song

First three albums = :-D
Afterwards = :-/

medusa is good. none of the albums are as good as 'sleeps with fishes' though (peter nooten and michael brook). which reminds me that i recently read some slam of michael brook that claimed he stole all the credit for that record and that nooted actually did 99% of it and brook almost nothing

Still need to listen to Medusa. I love Twist of Shadows.

i agree with spencer, but both the self-titled lp and medusa have their moments.

i love medusa. it's really the only album of theirs that i still listen to. great production. great cool songs. i love the mix of moodiness and beats and acoustic guitars. it's very spacey!

yep, the acoustic guitars are what really make their 'lonely as an eyesore' contribution shine.

First three four albums = :-D
Afterwards = :-/

-- Ned Raggett, Wednesday, September 12, 2007 2:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

fixed. haha.
really. i wonder about all the hate for 'phoenix'. it was actually the first of them i'd ever heard. and, now, in retrospect, that album had kind of a cool and slightly unique, new thing going on. like, goth pop or something.

ps: oh yeah, my opinion on xymox: fucking classic. big surprise, right?

pss: that pieter nooten and michael brook album is something else. something a bit better than anything xymox ever did. does that album have a thread? it's fucking great, great, great it and deserves one.

First album and Medusa are fantastic. I love "Stumble and Fall".

No Xymox thread? Heavens forbid. Good call, Andi.

First thoughts are that Grimly is OTM - I feel a rather burning desire to hear the first album again, haven't in many years. Medusa sounded bloody fantastic and monumental at the time it came out but later on (to my own surprise) I found it bored me. Something in the production or technology involved in the sound just didn't date well. Of course someone hearing it now for the first time might feel differently, I don't know.

which reminds me that i recently read some slam of michael brook that claimed he stole all the credit for that record and that nooted actually did 99% of it and brook almost nothing

See, these kinds of tidbits of trivia/rumours are why I love ILM. SLEEPS WITH THE FISHES IS ONE OF MY FAVE ALBUMS EVER and I don't expect every Xymox or 4AD fan to necessarily like it, either. You might have to be an Eno fan first or something. It's very ambient, even if it does offer mumbled vocals. I don't know if anyone here likes David Sylvian but I remember his third solo album "Secrets of the Beehive" came out at exactly the same time as Sleeps With The Fishes and it seemed to me they went together really nicely, although the former is much more stripped down and the latter much more lush and atmospheric. The mood was the same.

Also I do feel the need to offer a black T-Shirt I still have (for reasons I don't really understand) from the Twist of Shadows tour. It's in surprisingly good shape considering it's age, the fabric is kindof thin but the colours are still very vibrant, pink, orange, yellow and blue/green. It has designs on both sides, and there are no holes in it. I meant to give it to someone but lost touch with him. The label says it's an X-Large (46-48) but to me it looks more like a Medium or Large (though I know this sort of stuff is subjective considering what country/company you are dealing with). Anyway, please do email me if interested. I would just like to give it a good home. Thanks.

Haha! One more memory coming to mind now - the first time Xymox ever toured the States to my knowledge (this would have been Medusa era) I drove two hours and found it was sold out. I proceeded to beg the woman behind the ticket window to let me in, mentioning that I knew a DJ at the club that I only knew from talking to him a few times. She let me in and I remember that when she miraculously agreed I told her "I love you"! hahaha. Christ I must have been all of 17. I'm not quite sure why, but this silly memory brings me much hilarity now. I weaseled my way into a few other concerts in my day, but the circumstances weren't the same.

OMG! Allmusic doesn't list their first two albums! I'm going to puke!

OMG AMG!

The mortal shame!

Ned, how do you plead??

I'm going to plead 'you need to look a little harder, FFS':

http://wm03.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:3xfoxqraldte

http://wm03.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fxfixqraldte

I would totally get that Twist of Shadows shirt if it were a small

But Nedster, that takes effort! :) Anyway relax man, I'm not trying to start a war here I just never put much stock in the distinction between "Clan of Xymox" and "Xymox" and it pains me to think that some unknowing person might come to the site, type in Xymox and think Twist of Shadows was where it all started. There's no indication in the biography there of anything else either. But never mind, I know all this is 99% likely not even your fault and I'm reporting this perceived error to the wrong person.

Curtis, I think you are just afraid of the "baggy" look! Haha. No Madchester fashion chic for you, mate! :)

Listening to the first Xymox album now, the production is indeed much nicer, less claustrophobic than Medusa, though I will probably try Medusa again out of sheer curiosity. It's possible I just wore Medusa out after a certain number of plays.

On the bus today I remembered this thread and thought of "Moscoviet Mosquito" their song from the Lonely Is An Eyesore comp. and thought to myself for the first time ever "what in the living fuck is a Moscoviet Mosquito?" I nearly laughed out loud.

my one xymox anecdote -

a couple of summers ago i was doing a gig in madrid (where oddly i am tonight too) and at the airport the next day, xymox were checking in for a flight in front of me. just prior to this i had done an instrumental edit of ivo's mix of 'a day' and put it on a bootleg album of re edits that a friend of mine put out. i didn't do it for any sort of financial gain but it ended up selling a couple of thousand copies and i got paid a small amount of money (it worked out to be around 50 euros per edit). i started to feel really awful that i had ripped them off so i slipped 50 euros into ronny mooring's open backpack without him noticing. i wonder if he ever wondered where it came from? hopefully karmic equilibrium was restored.

Bahahahah! Leave it to stirmonster to restore my faith in humanity.

Also I'm curious if anyone ever owned the "A Day" 12" on 4AD. For some reason that was something I didn't buy for many years, although I do think I eventually acquired it. I don't know if it was just hard to find or what. I wish I had it now. It just became this coveted item to me because I'd go through the 4AD discog and think "damnit I still don't have that!"

are any of these latter-day clan of xymox albums any good at all?

Trayce is right, Stumble and Fall is a blinder.

Okay, tonight I'm finally playing Medusa for the first time in eons. And it really isn't as bad (read: dated) as I remembered. It's interesting to note the connection between that and the Sleeps With The Fishes thing. And it's entertaining hearing those good old "4AD drums" as I used to call them.

I guess all I'll say is that it's a shame it doesn't sound nearly as different and new as it did at the time. Even within what 4AD was and had been, it sounded like an amazing step forward with the sound, entirely unique and satisfying.

Fave song on it was and still is the last one, "Back Door".

lol @ Ronny Moorings' ridiculous ponytail in the Twist of Shadows era:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9_fGXjvYog

They were/are/always will be embarassing crap.

I know, please don't remind me of the ponytail! I don't want to see it! I refuse!

But seriously, what in the living hell is a goddamn Muscoviet Mosquito???? There ought to be some kid of Godfather film where a mafia man asks that of someone as he points a gun to him.

god... how do goths spell middle of the road?
http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2012/08/27/clan-of-xymox-kindred-spirits-covers-album/

So Pieter Nooten, I'm sad to say, is using his massive Twitter following (184 followers, then 183 once I blocked him) spewing old-man-yelling-at-his-lawn ignorant racist nonsense like "Rap. So many words. So little to say".

Guess he meant "Klan of Xymox"?

*sigh*. Fucking lame.

To be honest, don't really care much for Clan of Xymox, but 'Sleeps with the Fishes' with Michael Brook was really something special. And he just had to take a shit on it, and, you know, 40 years worth of culture.

oh my God, i just got an email that Clan of Xymoz is playing in my area on November 5, 2018. what, they are still around?

haha, it's been so long Xymox.

So I had some thoughts on the 30th anniversary of "Imagination," the song which has never quite left me -- on my Patreon, subscribers only:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/can-you-hear-31315183

Cool:

https://xymox.bandcamp.com/album/peel-sessions

mentioned this on the goth thread last week... the versions of stranger and 7th time on this might be the best ones they recorded

I am baffled that this band is still going

IMO barely counts as the same band