New Broadcast (RIP Trish Keenan Jan 2011)

I still don't know where that is in relation to ULU! (I'd already guessed you didn't mean the one in Hoxton...)

I'll be the fule in the...oh I dunno, who organises these things in advance? A ninetynine t-shirt, probably.

"we want to re-enter life"

but I had to leave straight after "Unchanging window" - what did I miss? Goddamn livingoutsidelondonness - anyone need a house-sitter between now and the end of july?

s'not with it's successes tho: i think it was marcello who chided boards of canada for lazily appropriating abstract loveless sound smear in place of other ideas please, but "valerie" is one of the few songs i've heard that's really learnt the (RIGHT!) lessons of "to here knows when" (the only exceptional mbv song/vacuum cleaner preset in my humble estimation). when that queasy keening dips into pure corrupt-hard-disk density.. sigh. and "the little bell" has that NASA-processing alien information sound in the background, that stuff always kills me - some impossibly urgent message fighting against the technology of its medium to be heard, a staged battle of signal vs noise (cf. "pen expers", "to here knows when" again). those impossibly prickly sounds at the end of "winter now" set against the blurry strings. the interrupted verses and the interrupting chorus of "man is not a bird".

i think it'll be a grower.

review: BROADCAST - Haha Sound
http://www.themilkfactory.co.uk/reviews/broadcast_hahasound.htm

Broadcast interview
http://www.themilkfactory.co.uk/interviews/broadcastiw_1.htm

a couple listens in i feel like "pendulum" is what had been promised from the beginning and from here the only places to go are back to the radiophonic workshop or in circles round add n to x and middling twee pop. :(

Monday 18.08.03 on xfm (10.30 pm to 1 am, I think)

Tuesday 19.08.03 on John Peel/BBC radio 1 (10 pm to midnight)

'Man Is Not A Bird' echoes 'Pendulum' rhythmically but the vocals are less urgent, more sullen and melancholic - just as haunting overall

'Minim', 'Lunch Hour Pops' and 'Hawk' are my other favourites...i'm not sure its quite as good as 'The Noise Made By People' but i don't know how to rationalise that - i think mitch may have been otm regarding they've pedestrianised things a little with the song structure and the starkness and sheer celebration of sonics inherent in previous work has been a little obscured here by sweet lyrics and dulcit unintrusive tones. i think i like Trish Keenan's voice because of that 'unintrusiveness' aspect - often it just seems like she's there observing and commentating on the song or its scenery rather than really pushing some kind of soul-baring introspection ala Beth Gibbons or whoever. but then if you think back to 'Papercuts', 'Message From Home' or even something like 'Living Room' which sounds more like Sean Lennon singing (may not have been Keenan but hard to tell!) it seems that there was more 'effort' in the singing but acceptance seems to have set in that there's a restricted range to her voice and the new songs have been written with that more in mind (considering the vastness of their forthcoming American tour perhaps this was a good idea). but i don't really know enough about singing to judge her like that. i'll keep listening and loving it anyway.

one thing tho - listen to Broadcast's remix of St Etienne's 'Angel' and perhaps compare Cracknell's vocals on that to Keenan's to see whether a voice more like Cracknell's would work better on other Broadcast material?

Kerrrrrrrazily I HAVE come to love TNMBP over last couple of months and am currently playing it near-constantly, so I dunno. Broadcast may be the ultimate grower group ever ever, although they've had enough hugely-immediate moments (Come On Let's Go, The Book Lovers, etc etc) to suggest that this isn't the case. Haha Sound is fantastic though and I can only see myself getting more into it, rather than going off it.

Current personal best track = 'Valerie' - great tune, the breathy vocals, spooky lullaby quality. I hope they play more UK dates after the monster US tour, as from their ULU showing in May some of these songs sound even stronger live!

Colour Me In, though, does actually sound like it's been written for the soundtrack of Playschool. Which is great.

They are a great band though: on their Peel Session last night they finished with a song ('60/40') that is better than several on the album & they didn't even include it on it! The band build & build, going into accelerating orbit whilst Trish stays cool & calm on the same level all the way through. Magic. If you missed it I am afraid you will have to listen all the way through to nearly the end of the programme to hear it.

No silly album titles for Mary! Hey wait, what's this copy of Your Arsenal doing in your collection? (But I tease Mary. :-))

Mary's jones for Yoko Ono now public (assuming it already wasn't)

I didn't realize they were doing shows at that point.

Watching open-mouthed

I saw this. Was a big CMJ show in NYC with Atlas Sound. Opened with a 20 minute Julian house movie they played along too.

if this is any indication, the new demos compilation will be well worth checking out

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

that's from the collection that's already available, but I am excited about the next one

yeah it came out in may, didn't know there's another on the way

i guess new wasn't the best word, i suppose i meant to say that the demos comp from this year will be fun for me to check out based on my reaction to that track

yep, the 2nd part Distant Call, which covers 2000-2006 will be out on Sept 28

Spell Blanket is indeed very good and well worth your time, probably one of my favorites of the year so far, kind of hard to believe they had so much high quality material that never came out

MORE: https://broadcast.bandcamp.com/album/distant-call-collected-demos-2000-2006

They were so good.

If Distant Call is truly the final release then I suppose there will never be a home for the unreleased tracks they performed on their last tour.

I love this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPPvcm0cw6U

Distant Call is beautiful, if a bit damned intimate. It was a bit of a shock hearing what it was because of that. I wasn't even sure I liked it at first, or if I needed to hear it. But I'm completely won over now. It is going to be a classic bit of Broadcast for many.

A little bit tearful actually.

This is incredible if, yes, almost too intimate.

I love Spell Blanket but still haven't fully got my head round it, like it's got that fragmentary, in and out of focus feeling of Witch cults/BBS/Mother and like them it's working in bit by bit. I hadn't really looked at the track listing for Distant Call so expected more of that and it basically jumped me with all these songs I know well in this bare form.

They're a beautiful pair of releases, complementary, clearly put together with love. It feels like the right way to end. Makes me want to send a thank you note.