Bark Psychosis: C or D

1.) From What Is Said To When It's Read - 5:29
2.) The Black Meat - 6:41
3.) Miss Abuse - 6:15
4.) 400 Winters - 5:48
5.) Dr. Innocuous / Ketamoid - 1:04
6.) Burning The City - 5:11
7.) Inqb8tr - 7:57
8.) Shapeshifting - 6:01
9.) Rose - 5:50
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Total running time: 50:16

In the drugs episode of Brass Eye - while getting alleged celebrities to bang on about "the made up drug, Cake" - Noel Edmonds was persuaded to read out a script that claimed Cake affects a part of the brain known as Shatner's Bassoon, which deals with time perception.

I don't remember it being mentioned in Jam or Blue Jam.

ta

I'm asking because I adore that song, but have grown so accustomed to the "demo" version that hearing it any other way would probably ruin it for me ...

(which happened to me with "Morning Bell" by Radiohead actually)

Haven't got much time to write up a response, but here's a few things to start off the discussion :

1) im hearing allusions to Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation" -- especially the end of "400 Winters" where the piano gives way to a scratchy answering machine type message ("Providence" anyone?). This is not especially a bad thing ...! Also the textures and the mood of many of the songs. On first listen I also heard some Massive Attack influence, but not hearing it as much now. I think that's more to do with the mood. Also a little bit of David Sylvian seems to have snuck in there somehow too. Not sure which song title it is, but it's after 400 Winters. IN that song Graham's phrasing is very Sylvian. Also the little ambient bits that embellish the track. BUt the vibraphone makes it Bark-ish.

2) first song -- "From What Is Said..." -- love this track, especially the numerous guitar textures : the wah-wah that bubbles in the background, the "Hex" guitar that trickles through midway -- and of course THAT guitar ... I want this song to go on and on and on before reaching THAT point -- but of course that's the while point of why the song was structured like this : to make you yearn for the calm that you just lost. (love the airplane effect towards the end too. Is that a guitar also? Genius. Is there a more apt sound for the theme? I doubt it.) And I like how you can't quite sing the lyrics along with him because they aren't sung as they're printed. THis recalls the song "Hex", but is more successful in my opinion.

3) 400 Winters -- big shocker when I saw the lyrics (totally different from what I imagined them to be) and also to see that it was a woman singing! It always sounded too smooth to be Graham's voice, but since it's so low I still assumed it was a man. (I should explain : I'm an unrepenting shoegazer, so I'm used to hearing airy voices of both genders -- that may be why it's much easier for me to assume that this was a male singing than it would be for the rest of you who don't listen to a lot of MBV, etc.) Still love the song, regardless of who's singing it and what they're saying -- possibly even more now actually, for having been fooled so well. Anyone else have this sort of double disorientation (gender, lyrics) with this song?

ok got to get back to work now, but there's a start. Chime in with your thoughts on the album, nd I'll catch up when I can.

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1133

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002AZ4A4/qid=1093507003/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_11_1/202-0964623-8501447

Don't you see it as a bit of both though? A bit of expectation as well as love for the medium that's driving this? I say that because Graham is a notorious prefectionist, and perfectionism is essentially self-imposed pressure and self-imposed expecatation. And while perfectionism can be destructive for those who can't control it in themselves, it can also be useful and creative for those who can control it. On one side there's the inability to function due to the fear of messing up, but on the other side, there's an extra effort put into everything, so that everything done -- even trivial things --seems a little bit better than most, a little more refined than what would normally be expected in the situation. It's a difficult line to walk, (I know from experience -- both from having pulled it off and also from having overdone it).

So I think it's wise of him to have both a "day job" (producing) as well as a "night job" (making music), so that he doesn't have to feel compromised -- so that he can make his art slowly, for himself, instead of on a set schedule to meet the demands of a major record company, but he can still function day-to-day : still have a steady income and so on.

Thanks for all the links Sick/Nick! I'd actually read those all before, but it was good to read them again after having heard the album. I agree with you on many of your points, but want to quibble a little about the "Spirit of Eden" comparison ... I don't hear it.

Yes, I agree, it's almost irresistable to link "Dust" with "Spirit" simply because the same drummer's on board, but I think the sound and mood of "Dust" is much closer to Orang than to Talk Talk. There's a slightly sinister feel (like Massive Attack, but not as overt) and denseness that are more akin to, say the first two songs on Orang's "Herd" or to "Seizure" than to anything on "Spirit" (except maybe "Desire").

"Hex", in my opinion is a much better comparison to "Spirit" since both have fragility and sparkle and sparseness and reverence.

Oh, the song I was comparing to David Sylvian is the one that begins : "Did you ever hear the one ..." so what is that -- "Burning the City?" I still can't figure out the song titles! Great song. Love all the little tinny drum sounds in it. Lee is without a doubt my favorite drummer, and I like how he's always finding new ways to tickle our ears on both ends of the sound spectrum -- in the bass and the treble.

ha! you flatter me. I didn't even have time to run them through a spellchecker!

yes, I agree about it being a return to old forms, but a revision, not a copying. Kind of like how "From what ..." is an improved version of the b-side called "Hex". And the mood is similar to the "Independency" stuff -- tense and spiney.

*adjusts bookmarks*

Getting into A Mountain of One has made me pull out Hex quite a bit - I guess the former are like Bark Psychosis with an added dose of 80s. Anyway, I'm struck, as always, by how magical Hex is. Such a good album. The only less-than-perfect track is "Fingerspit", which sounds a bit sickly at times. But that shimmering sound they perfect on "Absent Friend" and "Eyes & Smiles" (where the keyboards sound like guitars and the guitars sound like keyboards) is breathtaking.

I absolutely love Codename: Dustsucker, but I have yet to pick up Hex because I've never found it used. And I'm getting impatient.

i wonder if they'll ever do another record?

also, I ultimately decided that yes, dustsucker is better than hex.

fans might also like the songs of green pheasant album that just came out; it's slightly more lo-fi than BP but has much of that same windswept feel that the opening tracks of dustsucker have.

Graham's apparently working on new BP stuff. Expect it in 2014. Seriously.

I'm willing to play the long game on that one. Meantime, I must check out A Mountain of One at last here.

That Songs of the Green Pheasant album sounds lovely based on the clips at the Fat Cat site. I'm going to shell out for that today.

Codename is really good, but I don't know if I would say it's better than Hex. Hex has more interesting instrumentation in my opinion and the arrangements are more complex. This could be the fact that I've been listening to it for many years longer and it thus has more emotional resonances.

It's quite easy to "acquire" Hex through the usual outlets. Regardless, someone needs to reissue it.

'Hex' also has more memorable songs...(you could hum "Absent Friend" for Jesus)...

Beautiful beautiful Hex.