if i'm completely addicted to david sylvian's blemish, what else should i be listening to?

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because the answer doesn't, for the most part, seem to be sylvian's back catalogue. except for the bootleg i have of a concert last november, which is if maybe even better than blemish (all of blemish + some old songs + some new songs, all in a blemish style).

i'm esp thinking of the title track. and also the derek bailey stuff. and 'a fire in the forest', obv.

toby (tsg20), Monday, 1 March 2004 07:11 (twenty-one years ago)

it's weird, it's taken me nearly a year to 'get' this album.

marcello to thread?!

toby (tsg20), Monday, 1 March 2004 07:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Fennesz Endless Summer, maybe? If it's the instrumental bits you're keen on...

What do I need to search to find that bootleg on Slsk?

Sonny A. (Keiko), Monday, 1 March 2004 14:17 (twenty-one years ago)

william basinski - disintegration loops

tricky disco (disco stu), Monday, 1 March 2004 14:18 (twenty-one years ago)

nb: no vox, plenty of mood

tricky disco (disco stu), Monday, 1 March 2004 14:19 (twenty-one years ago)

i never really got into endless summer. i didn't get the bootleg off slsk, although i've seen at least one 03 show on there; "sylvian live" should throw something up. the key new song is "Wasn't I Joe" which is presumably on slsk somewhere.

for sylvian boots i recommend http://www.brokensky.net/

(m - thanks for the email, will reply later.)

toby (tsg20), Monday, 1 March 2004 14:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Mark Hollis' solo album.

Andy K (Andy K), Monday, 1 March 2004 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I see it compared to Tilt, so should I bother if I hate that album?

Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Monday, 1 March 2004 15:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Well MH's solo album is much less confrontational that Tilt.

mzui, Monday, 1 March 2004 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

some things you should listen to.

Gastr Del Sol: Camoufleur
Robert Wyatt: everything, but if you want a more atonal proggy side, listen to Ruth is Stranger than Richard. My fave is probably Old Rottenhat
Tim Buckley: Lorca & Starsailor
David Bowie: Low

JaXoN (JasonD), Monday, 1 March 2004 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm pretty jealous about that bootleg!

I dunno about anything else on this thread though.

maybe the hollis solo album bootlegged w. 'endless summer', toby. haha yeah.

um. I'll think about this. like I've been getting lots into the comsat's first album and it has that dark brooding feel of blemish, with the kinda harmonic sheen to the guitar as well. but more big drums and less tremolo. same amount of reverb though. the comsats is more straightahead rock. I'd recommend it tho.

I think 'blemish' is my favourite album.

cozen (Cozen), Monday, 1 March 2004 19:12 (twenty-one years ago)

haha um 'tilt'? maybe. the thing w. 'blemish' is it's so coherent. it took me ages to get into it as well but when I actually started listening to what he was singing!

what's yr favourite track, toby? I eventually got the vinyl and I don't like the official sequencing. so I stick w. my own fuckt up running order which has 'a fire in the forest' come after 'how little we need to be happy'. that segue from brittle bailey guitar to lush fennesztronics is sublime. half human, half nothing at all.

cozen (Cozen), Monday, 1 March 2004 19:15 (twenty-one years ago)

i just DL-ed a track called Shadowland. beats by autechre and singing by sylvian. dunno anything about this, but it's kinda interesting

JaXoN (JasonD), Monday, 1 March 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

appliance - imperial metric

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Ajnx1z83a3yv4

this is one of the finest atmospheric rock albums of this decade

DJ Martian (djmartian), Monday, 1 March 2004 20:11 (twenty-one years ago)

the thing w. 'blemish' is it's so coherent. it took me ages to get into it as well but when I actually started listening to what he was singing!

Cozen, what about that line "and though I tried to please her / she came right back / and stole my visa..."?

Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Monday, 1 March 2004 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

haha yeah tht one is a bit of a sore thumb.

kinda reminds me of when I read academics taking a stab at referencing something modern, trying to annex the cred / bolster thr theory. by which I mean, just garish y'know. (latest example: slavoj zizek talking about 'choice' wrt. the amazon 'if you like this, get that' system, yeah nice one slavoj.)

cozen (Cozen), Monday, 1 March 2004 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

i didn't get the bootleg off slsk, although i've seen at least one 03 show on there


There are some great Sylvian live boots on SLSK. I managed to get a "Blemish" tour one from Japan and a great one from '88 in London (Hammersmith Odeon) on the same day.!

Jay Vee (Manon_70), Monday, 1 March 2004 22:23 (twenty-one years ago)

try Dean Roberts... 'And the Black Moths Play the Grand Cinema' / 'Be Mine Tonight'

a, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 01:50 (twenty-one years ago)

There is a good transition here into the Erstwhile Records stuff, particularly things like Too Beautiful to Burn (for the Austrian persuasion).

fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 01:58 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...
"There is a good transition here into the Erstwhile Records stuff, particularly things like Too Beautiful to Burn (for the Austrian persuasion). "

funny you say this, Sylvian came to two of the nights of the festival I just put on in Cologne, and was really into it. he's recording some of his next record at Amann Studios in Vienna, where Too Beautiful to Burn and 4 or 5 other Erstwhile titles have been recorded, Fennesz will be involved as well as probably some other Viennese-based musicians (guesses: Stangl, Brandlmayr, Dafeldecker, Hautzinger, but not really sure of any of these).

jon abbey, Sunday, 30 May 2004 14:16 (twenty-one years ago)

TILT

kinski (kinski), Sunday, 30 May 2004 15:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmm. Maybe I should give Blemish another listen. I bought it, listened to it maybe twice in headphones and felt I'd had enough. I liked it okay, but it seemed useless to play unless I was in a depressed mood. I was glad to see him return with something better than Dead Bees On A Cake, though.

I also found myself with a clear mental image of him in a vacant house the whole time I was listening to it. Favorite thing about this album was the idea of "midnight shopping", or however he put it.

Bimble (bimble), Monday, 31 May 2004 00:11 (twenty-one years ago)

"Transit", the Sylvian track on Venice, is better than anything on Blemish.

jed_ (jed), Monday, 31 May 2004 00:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, enlighten me, Venice?

Bimble (bimble), Monday, 31 May 2004 00:24 (twenty-one years ago)

sorry "Venice" is the new Fennesz album. It contains one vocal track and that's a fennesz/Sylvian collaboration.

jed_ (jed), Monday, 31 May 2004 00:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow. Really? That was mentioned on the Krautrock thread, too! Definitey have to listen to Fennesz soon.

Bimble (bimble), Monday, 31 May 2004 00:42 (twenty-one years ago)

is "late night shopping" really disliked by hardcore sylvian fans? god, i think it's my favourite track on that record.

mark p (Mark P), Monday, 31 May 2004 00:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Thank you.

Bimble (bimble), Monday, 31 May 2004 01:06 (twenty-one years ago)

that song "wasn't I joe" is at least as good as anything on blemish, hopefully a studio or non-bootlegged version of this shows up soon. Live, there are a lot of bootlegs of the 2003/2004 shows with steve jansen, all audience recordings. But the Milan 2003 show is one of the best sounding audience recordings I've ever heard (except for some coughing b/w tracks), crystal clear with amazing levels. BUT, I don't have the whole thing! This was up on weatheredwall.net at one point, then his site disappeared. If anyone has the rest of the show (tracks 11 on) let me know. I have the rest of this shared on slsk for anyone who is looking for it.

kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 17:54 (twenty-one years ago)

nine months pass...
toby have you heard the good son vs. the only daughter yet?

mark p (Mark P), Saturday, 12 March 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)

yeah, once. it's on my ipod. on first listen it sounded half great, half meh. mind you, i haven't actually listened to blemish for over six months, i guess. i should put it on again.

toby (tsg20), Sunday, 13 March 2005 10:12 (twenty years ago)


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