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possibly a minority interest, but then i guess that's why i'm starting the thread. i can recall no one mentioning bows' "cassidy" on ilx, but given the predilections of more than a few users, i thort it would be right up their alley. i know that andy k likes them, but no one else?

― jess, Saturday, 29 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

and since you'll ask, andy rightly compares them to late period ar kane of "a love from outer space" and "crack up." they don't ever "rock" as hard as the kane did (i.e. "space vixens" or "suicide kiss"), there's nothing as noisy as "sulliday" or as "dub" as "catch my drift." but they're definitely the next (logical?) step in the lineage which links the cocteaus & mary chain + ar kane + early mbv + seefeel = ?? my only complain is a purely musical one: a little too much reliance on cod breakbeat rhythms in places, still carrying the taint of too much bad triphop. i'd like to hear what they do with more "rock" drumming, oddly enuff.

― jess, Saturday, 29 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I like them but haven't listened to them as much as I thought I would, sorta like I feel about Mark Clifford's Sneakster project. Still, anything involving Luke Sutherland is a good thing.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 29 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have the first album but not "Cassidy" - found the first one underwhelming (indie kidz just don't understand drum & bass, sadly), but after reading Andy's praise I'm anxious to hear "Cassidy". I think the lack of attention is probably due to the first album making the entire project seem less than exciting.

― Tim, Saturday, 29 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If there is a complaint to be made about Bows (besides that repeating jungle-like drum trick), it's the lack of Luke Sutherland on the vocal tip. You see, I listened (& loved) Long Fin Killie way before Bows existed, and Sutherland's crooning & trilling atop this frenetic mess of eccentric instrumentation hit me hard. It's taken me a while to get around to really liking Bows, simply because it's not 1/10th as aggressive or energetic. (In some spots, especially where there's a female vocalist imitating Sutherland, it sounds like really good Tricky, which is fine, but I already have Maxinquaye, thanks.)

This isn't to say I don't like 'em; far from it. I'm just a crabby stick in the mud looking for Luke to step it up, not cool it down. (Have you heard Long Fin Killie, Jess? You can find their 1st two albums - green & yellow, woodcut covers, named after old tyme magicians & silent movie heartthrobs - for under $5, complete with the cut-out kiss.)

― David Raposa, Saturday, 29 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I seem to recall Keith placing Cassidy at #1 in one of the several 2001 rundown threads.

― Andy K., Saturday, 29 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Much agreed re: Luke not singing enuff.

― Andy K., Saturday, 29 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have the first album but not "Cassidy" - found the first one underwhelming (indie kidz just don't understand drum & bass, sadly)

Do you consider Graham Sutton an indie kid, Tim?

(Sorry -- just woke up and everything is registering at a snail's pace.)

― Andy K., Saturday, 29 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yes, i placed it at number one i was a sucker for its endless parade of crescendoes and it really is the prettiest record i have heard this year. i do like cassidy over blush though because some of the aggressiveness, mentioned in earlier threads, has returned, not in the music but in the lyrical barbs and more intense emotion of the record. i loved blush as well however, i actually love everything luke has done even down to his novel 'jelly roll'. i think the drum'n'bass parts of blush were excellent because the parts actually seemed made for the songs?! didn't sound as if they were added to sound updated and the fact is long fin killie's two drummers almost sounded like machines anyhow with their rapid-fire cowbell style. certainly bows is in no way innovative but he doesn't embarass himself.

― keith, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ha, good trap you set for me there Andy. I phrased that badly actually - was trying to get across the idea that it's very hard and perhaps slightly pointless to do drum & bass in an "indie" way (by which I don't mean Drill&Bass or Tigerbeat but indie proper). Basically:

Long answer - the drum & bass on "Bows" isn't bad at all, but it's a bit indistinctive in a washed out trip-hop sort of manner, and not as good as what I've heard of Long Fin Killie. Mainly I think the good parts of drum & bass largely clash with what are the good parts of the indie aesthetic, and the resulting compromises lead one into the quagmire of MOR muzak (scientifically proven to be 23% comprised of trip hop).

Short Answer - not enough bass.

Whereas Boymerang wasn't indie in any conceivable manner and had a surplus of bass, and maybe that's why Sutton carried off the project successfully. Although if we were to compare the relative worth of Bark Psychosis and Boymerang in their respective fields, I'd say BP win hands down.

― Tim, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

I love Bows myself... both albums are very much up my street; "Blush" in particular being a personal favourite - lived with it deeply in 99/00.

Does anyone have views on Sutherland's Music AM album?

― Tom May (Tom May), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 23:28 (twenty-one years ago)

My view. In brief, I like it quite a bit.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 23:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I just saw this yesterday but only the vinyl, couldn't find the CD. It sounds like it should be my favorite album at the moment, so I'll have to pick it up.

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 6 May 2004 01:14 (twenty-one years ago)

five years pass...

holy shit 'cassidy' is absolutely beautiful so far

― BIG CHOO-CHOOS aka the steamtraindriver (country matters), Monday, 18 May 2009 16:48 (sixteen years ago)

― languid samuel l. jackson (jim), Monday, 18 May 2009 16:50 (sixteen years ago)

Good sex music.

― Sickamous Mouthall (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 18 May 2009 19:27 (sixteen years ago)

"man fat" and "ali 4 onassis" are particularly delicate

― BIG CHOO-CHOOS aka the steamtraindriver (country matters), Monday, 18 May 2009 19:39 (sixteen years ago)

no wait i meant "uniroyal" rather than "ali 4 onassis" which is still a good song, just not like :-O good

― BIG CHOO-CHOOS aka the steamtraindriver (country matters), Monday, 18 May 2009 19:48 (sixteen years ago)

three years pass...

http://sickmouthy.com/2013/04/16/bows-cassidy-2001/

― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 18:50 (twelve years ago)

ten years pass...

Stunned by how amazingly well Cassidy holds up. Ripe for rediscovery too

― imago, Wednesday, 14 February 2024 00:09 (two years ago)

Cassidy is an amazing album (esp. "Uniroyal" if I remember correctly), and also I was wrong about the first album upthread and 22 years ago.

― Tim F, Wednesday, 14 February 2024 00:58 (two years ago)

Both Blush and Cassidy are great. I feel like being labelled as “trip hop” worked against them… both albums were released late 90’s and early 00’s and the genre had quickly fallen out of fashion by then.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 14 February 2024 02:07 (two years ago)

Blush was one of the best blind CD buys I ever made. that CD was in the used bin for like a year, going down in price constantly and then I finally picked it up for like $5.

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Wednesday, 14 February 2024 02:36 (two years ago)

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