Come On Let's POLL - ILM Artist Poll #114 - BROADCAST (Polling and Lobbying Thread)

Not long after Trish died, James was talking about finishing a final Broadcast album which I presume would have featured some of those last songs like "dulcimer jam" and "eyes open" - what a holy grail release that would be.

The version of You and Me in Time at the end of the Melbourne show is breathtaking

Cargill suggested that we demanded *some* sort of encore even they weren't set up for anything. It was rather moving to hear that he/they apparently found that final headline show particularly memorable. All the more so given Melbourne audiences have a reputation for crossed-arms and scowling lol.

So cool to see them play Winter Sun. And yes maybe someday for those songs... I imagine it must be totally overwhelming for him to deal with that material.

I still haven't seen a single mention of Beberian Sound studio - like me, do people tend to discount it as a release? I think a few of the demos James may have considered for finishing are there, I certainly hear Trish.

I like it! Though, as with so many OST LPs, a succession of variations on a limited number of themes can be, er, challenging as one continuous program. They worked rather well in when I was shuffling that playlist up the top of the thread, for instance.

Funnily enough, The Equestrian Vortex mock title sequence was going to be the next thing I posted when the thread went quiet again. I gave it plenty of points.

I may be something of an outlier though!? My ballot is probably 30+% instrumental and I'd *always* liked them best when they were drawing heavily from euro soundtrack/production music less explicitly.

I listened to Focus Group and Berberian back to back today and actually prefer Berberian.

I actually found the DVD in an op shop the other week and bought it, but haven't yet watched it. Apologies for misspelling Berberian.

swooning to the Maida Vale version of "City in Progress"

* schedules a charity store tour of Tasmania *

Apologies for my endless typos in this thread btw. I mean, I have neurological problems, but even *I'm* puzzled by the constant misplacement and omission of words here. Yet another reason to be grateful that CaAL is onboard for the rollout for this one. :)

Agree they were great live - I saw them sometime round the turn of the century in Oxford at The Cape of Good Hope (called The Point, I think, back then) - I just remember a tremendous drive and force that I hadn't got from the records.

But I cannot find any evidence that this gig took place anywhere on the internet, which surprises, disappoints and slightly disturbs me.

Still around 9-ish days till the deadline. More than enough time to contemplate a ballot even if you only noticed this thread this instant. Probably!

Here's a Berberian Sound Studio studio track I remember people occasionally citing as a standalone highlight: Teresa, Lark of Ascension. I assume that's Keenan there channeling her inner Edda Dell'Orso.

woof maybe this is it? They are bloody difficult to search for.
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/broadcast/1997/oxford-brookes-university-oxford-england-33ca44a5.html

^ 3/6 being ditties most of us wouldn't hear till 2.5 years into the future. Wow.

I dutifully bought We Are Reasonable People the following year principally for "Hammer Without A Master." I suspect I would have been hugely annoyed that that was 'only' a brooding amelodic instrumental if I hadn't been so hopelessly ignorant of the other wares they'd been merrily showing off live lol. (Actually, I probably *was* somewhat annoyed that it was a brooding amelodic instrumental, but I was young and stupid then and it's on my ballot for this exercise!)

I saw them at Leeds Cockpit in Dec 2003 (again, very hard to now locate details of this online) and it concluded with Hammer Without a Master, with Trish harmonising over the extended outro as it deconstructed around her until she was acapella for the last couple of minutes and it was enormous and extraordinary.

: )

they did it at bowlie too iirc, 1999. i have(had) a minidisc somewhere.

Mattkkk, I don't think it was Brookes, and it was earlier than 2003 - I suspect it's either a missing date on this tour, which seems like it may have gaps:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlists/broadcast-63d6f2eb.html?page=24
Or there's a stray gig at the Charlotte in Leicester in 2001 that might be an ATP warm-up but seems a bit odd sitting on its own:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlists/broadcast-63d6f2eb.html?page=22

I suppose it could have been the charlotte gig - it's my hometown and I might just be blurring small venues in my head. But I don't think so - there are missing gigs for other bands (eg Trail of Dead) at the same venue, around the same time.

I really thought the internet was at a point where there'd be a comprehensive gig history for any band with a decent number of fans.

I've definitely posted too much on this thread but I feel I should squeeze in some praise for Extended Play, the first one. I may have voted for every track. "Papercuts" probably needs little promotion and I feel like I've already typed "Where Youth & Laughter Go" a squillion times, but there's also the two wholly instrumental tracks. They're both pretty spiffy and perhaps their most conspicuously Italianate tracks pre-Berberian!?

Dave's Dream
Belly Dance

Cool that one can find praise from their peers re pretty much every long-player, in Quietus Baker's Dozen features. eg.

- https://thequietus.com/articles/19111-jenny-hval-favourite-albums-interview?page=7
- https://thequietus.com/articles/15422-peter-strickland-favourite-albums?page=4
- https://thequietus.com/articles/22429-jane-weaver-interview-favourite-albums?page=7
- https://thequietus.com/articles/19004-bradford-cox-deerhunter-atlas-sound-favourite-albums?page=6
- https://thequietus.com/articles/29784-valentina-magaletti-interview-favourite-music-2?page=5
- https://thequietus.com/articles/16971-anthroprophh-paul-allen-favourite-albums-interview?page=10

Rose Elinor Dougall called them her favourite band (just ahead of Stereolab) in the same feature. It makes sense her and Gwenno are huge fans. You can hear the influence all over their excellent solo albums.

https://thequietus.com/articles/21894-rose-dougall-interview-favourite-albums?page=3

^ Noice.

Amusing that despite them coming up over and over, every LP, one of their writers recently seemed to feel that Nite Jewel needed to defend such a outlandish choice.

What brought you to Broadcast? I’ve previously joked that they’re kind of like a bargain basement English Stereolab, but maybe I’m ungenerous…

(Also: 'English'? Because Stereolab are 'French'?)

woof - was definitely the point (small often overpacked room above the old ‘the pub oxford’ on the roundabout at end of cowley road). Early 2000 as you say - my first year in university and not long after royal trux and shortly before clinic played there in shows for which there also strangely appear to be absolutely no record of on the internet. the noise made by people had just come out - so march / april / may perhaps.

Pretty sure wisdom of harry (pete astor) and king of woolworths (now recording as advisory circle on ghost box) supported.

Sonically and visually still one of the most amazing sets I’ve ever seen - felt like a glimpse into what i’d imagined being at velvet underground / the factory must have been like.

Can’t find any definitive proof of it either, but hope my faltering memory for detail helps/reassures you a bit

Thank you! Yes - I remember the lights/visuals and likewise got that Factory feeling. And that timing, supporting NMBP, is where my memory was placing it.

fwiw my best guess for a date is between the Hove and Leeds gigs.

Question - I'm just listening to the soundtrack of Valerie and her Week of Wonders for the first time & there's the whole melody for 'Valerie'. Why no writing credit? Is it a folk tune or…?

(go 20 seconds into 'Brother and Sister' to see what I mean)

that quietist nite jewel question is bonkers.

Yeah anyone who thinks Broadcast were "bargain basement Stereolab" can get out tbh, especially with that little backhand dig in the next question as well.

"Do you think that music that you listen to when you’re young – regardless of the quality – does just end up playing an outsize role in the sort of things that you enjoy musically?" Fuck off!

There really is no "Valerie" acknowledgement on the Haha sleeve is there! (Unless eyestrain defeated me. I'm not sure it had occurred to me that House works quite so vigorously against the communication of real world facts lol.)

Can we assume that a goodly number of people are intending to vote in the remaining week? I know by now that ballots overwhelmingly tend to arrive in the final days, so I'm hardly panicking. But with the pool still short of double digits I'm curious. Some long ago vowed to abstain in the organising thread(s), so we anticipated a sliiiightly smaller scale all along. Just so long as abstention isn't the dominant response!

If you do have opinions, this is a poll where they might even have more influence than average on the results. As always, lurkers are definitely welcome, in case anyone was looking for explicit confirmation. :)

I narrowed my ballot to 40 tracks but struggling to order them. Also I’m a lot more basic than many of you because all my picks are from the first four albums and are definitely “songs.”

I love the psychedelic blur that stitches together the Broadcast tapestry, but if I’m going to pick them apart track by track then no, I’m not voting for microtronics or most of the later stuff. The sum is better than the parts.

Happily, they were excellent purveyors of songs. I can't see any wrong answers. :)

We probably need more posts countering my "but wait, did you consider this b-side?" tendencies!

Well aware that I haven't even sent in my ballot yet! Much to do on the ordering. I can report that Seeland and Raj, while lovely, will not be on my there, due to "not being Broadcasty enough" - some of the same ingredients are in there, but the recipe is very different. Still glad to heat though, some excellent stuff. Can anyone tell me what this sounds like? - it's been driving me crazy, sure I know this tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJSRho0kVvM

Roj not Raj! Good old autocorrect working its magic again.

There really is no "Valerie" acknowledgement on the Haha sleeve is there! (Unless eyestrain defeated me. I'm not sure it had occurred to me that House works quite so vigorously against the communication of real world facts lol.)

There's an "All tracks written and recorded by Broadcast". Disappointing.

They didn't credit Al Stewart on Message From Home either, despite nicking the arrangement from his version of Turn Into Earth!

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

It's a bit like Stereolab and their many steals, if they started acknowledging all the blatant lifts from other tracks it might've opened a big can of worms, so it's probably a case of keeping quiet and hope the copyright police never notice.

Seemingly not just oversights on the sleeves either. eg. https://www.ascap.com/repertory#/ace/search/workID/520271412

I thought I remembered them openly discussing the 'Valerie' source at the time so...*shrugs shoulders*

Regarding Roj: I gave his album some points. But yeah, at most it sounds like he's using the same gadgets he used in Broadcast. Even less song-y than the least song-y Broadcast but meandering burpy electronics + bongos is sometimes a fine thing lol!

I imagine it was a case of "if you credit then this will be held up for ages, maybe forever, so either don't credit or leave it off the LP"

I thought the Roj stuff was great tbh, just need stuff to leave off in order to put a ballot together!

I love the psychedelic blur that stitches together the Broadcast tapestry, but if I’m going to pick them apart track by track then no, I’m not voting for microtronics or most of the later stuff. The sum is better than the parts.

― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Saturday, May 14, 2022 2:45 AM (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I know what you are saying here - I will be voting for later works higher in LPs than in tracks for sure.

However, let's have a look at Witch Cults for a moment, it's very much a whole-LP-experience, but there are still a few tracks I would point towards for consideration:

The Be Colony - If there is a "hit" on the LP it's this, it may be most Stereolabby thing they ever did.
I See, So I See So - Can only describe this as "A lost track from The Wicker Man OST based on My Pal Foot Foot"
Ritual/Looking In - I know people are hesitant about looped instrumentals, but there is something just incredible about this, just that dragging, stuttering motion and the flute.
Make My Sleep His Song - Theme to an Eastern European experimental James Bond film

Yes! What you said!

"Make My Sleep His Song" is the one track I've been contemplating squeezing onto my theoretically finalised ballot for weeks. (Since *checks* Western With Bacon Flavor raised it.) I guess I've been vaguely trying to resist a second breach of my entirely arbitrary and unworkable "try to vote before seeing anyone else's ballot" rule!

Speaking of which: if anyone else want to adjust anything, it's easily done!

So... about 6 days left. 75 distinct tracks have appeared on ballots thus far. And 15 LPs/EPs.

Here's one (not very) random album track I don't think has been mentioned here yet: Winter Now.

I distinctly remember hearing to this the day Keenan died. (Amongst other things, I guess, but the memory is most concrete for this one.) Actually, it was almost certainly this CBC footage in particular.

Also: that Al Stewart track has been swimming around in my head for 12 hours now. Thanks Pheeel!

voted

Okay, I believe we're safely into double digits now. Feels like a quorum lol!

Five-ish days left. Everything must go. Kerrazy deals in your email client, etc.

Meanwhile I'll post possibly my last EP oddity: A Man For Atlantis

The transitions to that waltzy bit from that splatter of other stuff is rather pleasing to my tiny brain.

ah crap just realised I left Small Song IV off my ballot

Still time to remedy it if you wish. I see you have room for expansion, even. :)