bill nelson S/D

no guitars?, but
Some of his guitar work is awesome: "Sound on Sound"
and with Gary Numan on "Warriors"
I'm not really sure what some of his better synthy works are.

Chris

Unfortunaltly very little of his '80's material seems to be available at the moment, although there is a nice little 2CD set called "What Now? What Next?" which gives an overview of all his 80's material for Cocteau Records, including tracks from a couple of unreleased albums.

If it's the more synthpop/synth-fi aspects of his work you're after go for:
Quit Dreaming & Get On The Beam (1981) -
Do You Dream In Colour, Youth Of Nation On Fire, Life Runs Out Like Sand & the title track are all nearly or totally guitar-free.

The Love That Whirls (1982) - most tracks fit the bill (cough)

Chimera (1983) - some guitars on all the tracks, but they are used as another sound element, not some widdlywiddly-icing solo expressionist extravaganza.

He released a large amount of purely instrumental work in the first half of the 80's too - some of which was coupled as 'bonus' discs with the above LP's (or was the B-side of the 'extended cassette' release).
He did 2 soundtracks for small theatre companies - 'Das Kabinet' & 'La Belle Et La Bette' - which as I recall are guitar-free, but have very short 'atmospheric accompaniment' tracks and are quite fragmented and generally unsatisfying to sit and listen to. They also sound quite cheap/primitive in the technology and recording - like cheap synth/home keyboards fed through a lot of fx (and imagination)to beef them up and recorded on a bedroom studio 4-track.
The others are:
'Sounding The Ritual Echo' (1981) - orig. coupled with the 'Quit Dreaming...' LP , this is a mixture of approx 3-min pieces, some guitar-free some not, that range from odd/quirky to what might later have been re-marketed as 'new age' (groan)

'A Catalogue Of Obsessions' (1984)
'Pavilions Of The Heart & Soul'(1984)
'Chamber Of Dreams' (1984)
- these three were released as a box set, but can also be got individually. They pretty much cover the same ground as SRE, but have better production. The first two were works-in-themselves, but the last was also part of a different project, Bill Nelson's own description of which follows:
In 1981 and 1983, I organised a series of live performances under the general title of The Invisibility Exhibition. This event toured throughout Great Britain and included contributions from the Yorkshire Actors Company, Richard Jobson, Frank Chickens and David Claridge as well as myself and Ian Nelson. Besides theatre, poetry, mime, and musical performances, there were eight TV screens and one large movie screen on which were shown films by Jean Cocteau and Man Ray. My own musical contribution included live improvisation of guitar, percussion and synthesizer over pre-recorded tapes from the archives of the Echo Observatory. Chamber of Dreams presents two facets of this event. Tracks 1-9 is a selection of the 'backing tapes' which were used as a basis for my performance. They are presented here in their virgin state without any live improvisation. Musicians owning this album might enjoy sketiching their own ideas over these tracks in the privacy of their own home. Tracks 10-18 represents a selection of the interval music which was played between the various performances during the Exhibition itself. These are complete and were not intended as part of the improvisational work. For those who attended the performances, this record is intended as a souvenir for the ear. For those who missed the Invisibility Exhibition perhaps Chamber of Dreams will make you curious enough to attend the next one. - W. Nelson '84

808 + vibes + samples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZxR6WGr23A&fmt=18

I'm ambivalent about his Bebop Deluxe period (it has it's moments) and the stuff he's done the past 20 years hasn't moved me (his singing style changed and he needs an editor the way Robert Pollard needs one) - BUT from 79-89 he was as good as anyone else out there. The Red Noise album is insidiously great, "Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam" is the greatest new wave synth pop album no one's heard, "The Love That Whirls" is gorgeous, his Orchestra Arcana forways were ahead of their time, and "Getting The Holy Ghost Across" capped it off with an amazing amalgamation of sounds, textures and lyrics. Even the odds and ends comp, "The Two-Fold Aspect Of Everything" is full of throw-away gems that burrow into my skull and sit there for months. Are there any other worshippers of Mr. Nelson?

"Are there any other worshippers of Mr. Nelson?"

*raises hand*

and I'm also guilty of Be Bop Deluxe love!

i need way more bill nelson in my life. all i have right now is 'the love that whirls' plus companion ep, both of which i worship plenty

They reissued some of the early Cocteau records in the past few years, scarf those up. And sadly the only CD release of "Getting The Holy Ghost Across" came and went in the blink of an eye and now goes for stupid money on Amazon et al. Has anyone dipped into his 90s/00s stuff? Thoughts?

I loved Bill Nelson about 15 years ago. Love That Whirls was my fave, closely followed by the Chimera EP w Yukihiro Takahashi and Mick Karn. And certainly Red Noise was a helluva XTC record. But Love That Whirls w all the swirling synths, backwards tapes and drumboxes was where it all came together for him. Not a real "quality control" guy, but a lot of good stuff all the way into the 90's w him -- it was only when home studios became cheap & everyone could record as much as him that he seemed to fade. Or maybe I just stopped paying attention.

I have a bunch of his stuff but I only really listen to Sound on Sound and Quit Dreaming...

Love that Whirls is really good.

My favorite tracks from that album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YiyFnpe8OU

I'm all about this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsUu7GjshSc

Is this about the senior senator from Florida?

http://www.parabolicarc.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/senator_bill_nelson.jpg

Nate - that's one of my faves as well. The combination of his crunchy guitar and synths is amazing.

ugh, so much love for the Red Noise album. i just can't get into it. it's like glammy proggy new wave ska. like something oingo boingo would have done. i guess someone said it's like xtc, and that makes sense, but i don't like xtc, so there.

Not sure I hear the prog or the ska, but definitely glam new wave!

I love when this thread gets revived, though it's too few appreciators, and I doubt it's a list that will grow over time.

But Bill is still plugging away - he's got a coterie of supporters on his forum, where he frequently chimes in.

i'm definitely a fan. just not of that album. i've got a few others that i love. Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam & Chimera. i thought the rest of his stuff was gonna sound like john foxx meets japan, so was a lil shocked when it was so rocking

Surprised Gorge has not weighed in on this.

the only album of his i've heard is love that whirls, which i love. everything else i've heard from youtube hasn't really inspired me to seek out more

jaxon you need to hear love that whirls. definitely synthy, not rocking at all really, and better than the 2 albums you listed (though they are pretty good too!)

fwiw i can't get into red noise or much of the other stuff either

I prefer Live in the Air Age. His solo stuff sounds like almost-inspired noodling to me. There are exceptions, but . . .

>>Surprised Gorge has not weighed in on this.

Since you asked. Like almost everything he did in the band format including Red Noise. Not so much afterward.

I think he just felt he'd done everything he could do with the big noise in twang town. Fair enough.

"Crying to the Sky" has his best guitar solo/work in hard rock. Thought I might have read he admistted the same in interview, plus the fact that it's his most Hendrixian thing. It's from the Sunburst Finish album, my favorite. The Live in the Air Age piece is also a good place to start. Some of the material, if lesser produced, works a bit better for being live.

Always liked "Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape" and "Blazing Apostles." Futurama is a fairly heavy record, a bit hilarious because of the bad move of putting two of the band members in Waffen SS uniforms for promotional photos.

The BeBop Deluxe material got tagged with faux Bowie criticisms. Sort of because of Nelson's lookmm even more because of a single from the Axe Victim album that aped the Spiders from Mars. It's not one of my favorites but it's not bad as far as pre-Goth glam.

Modern Music is his half-album rock opera. It's all about his fascination with B-movie sci movies, models and memorabilia.

someone should of done this guy for the ILX anthology project and as long as there was more stuff in the vein of "tender is the night" I would have been pretty happy

I could only do 79-88 or so but would welcome a 90s and 00s anthology suggestion as well!

Well, looks like my request is being answered by the man himself:

"The Practice Of Everyday Life", an 8 CD box set!

http://www.cherryred.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=3379

been listening to lots of his stuff again after years of not. be bop I'm really only loving drastic plastic; agree with jaxon a bit on the red noise album, I have a hard time with it, but love/dreaming/chimera are wonderful.

Those three would be my choices as well. I see that Cherry Red are reissuing the Trial By Intimacy 4CD box set. Not sure if I'm hardcore enough to pick it up, but the ambition alone is appealing.

kinda of a useless senator imo

Thanks to the box set, I've come around big-time on his Be Bop Deluxe period as well as the 80s instrumental albums. I'm definitely picking up the "Trial By Intimacy" reissue (I remember fondling the vinyl in Main St. Records back in the day) and will likely get the Be Bop 5cd box as well.

I'm seriously thinking about "Trial by intimacy" - I've still got the original set somewhere, book and postcards... Would really enjoy hearing it properly again, "Sex party six" - the first track on the fourth LP - was a very trance-y song iirc.

I've never heard his debut, Northern Dream, which IIRC Trouser Press compared to Neil Young(!!). Since its one of the BN records in Spotify, I'll check it out.

Sounds like I already own all the essential albums. Of the Trial By Intimacy stuff (none of which I've heard beyond needle drops in a record store), the Catalogue of Obsessions sounds like the most interesting of the bunch.

this guy has the worst album titles ever

Which ones are you referring to?

the love that whirls (diary of a thinking heart)

the two-fold shimmering escalator of god's summer chamber (the illuminated adventures of silver bill)

Yeah, ok, but I like the title "Time to quit dreaming and get on the beam".

I really like a lot of Bill Nelson stuff, but there's still part of me that looks at this list and thinks 'who the fuck is buying all of these albums'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Nelson_(musician)#Discography

yeah he has like four albums a year!

i don't hate the guy, he just has some horrible album titles!

i have yet to meet a bill nelson/be bop deluxe fan in the flesh. surely they exist.

and as for bad album titles, it'd be easier to pick out the ones that aren't bad!

some particularly egregious ones:

Gleaming Without Lights (2006) Sonoluxe
Return To Jazz of Lights (2006) Sonoluxe
The Dream Transmission Pavilion (2009) Nelsonica convention CD Discs of Ancient Odeon
Captain Future's Psychotronic Circus (2010) Nelsonica convention CD Discs of Ancient Odeon
Tremulous Antenna (2002) [Be-Bop Deluxe] Radioland remastered Hux
Whimsy Two (A Garage Full of Clouds) (2003) Fabled Quixote
Noise Candy - Old Man Future Blows The Blues (2002) Toneswoon
Crimsworth (Flowers, Stones, Fountains And Flames) (1995) Resurgence

etc.

it sounds like a guy who really wants to be poetic and punning but doesn't actually have a way with words. :(

that's crazy, he has the best titles of anyone. 'wants to be poetic and punning' - where are said puns? how about being simply 'imaginative'? they surely set my imagination spinning - so much so, in fact, that often I do not need to hear the music (which can be a drawback).
'The Crystal Escalator in the Palace of God Department Store' might be my favourite title, but really there's a cornucopia to choose from. he has a lot of alliterative ones, too ('Windmills in a World Without Wind'). I love them all.

i dunno they all sound like the titles of discount-bin new age albums with photoshopped sunsets on the covers. they aren't very evocative to me so much as corny ("jazz of lights"? seriously?).

but taste is taste!

something about the titles reminds me of satirical scifi like hitchhiker's guide

i.e. they seem to belong in that universe for better or worse

the really long ones are my favourites

Trial by Intimacy (The Book of Splendours) - Chamber Of Dreams (Music from the Invisibility Exhibition) (1985) Cocteau

Confessions of a Hyperdreamer: My Secret Studio Volume II - Magnificent Dream People (1997) Populuxe

on the question of who is buying these things, according to discogs some of the more recent albums have limited edition physical releases of 500 copies each. some of them have apparently been sold for £60-£70 second hand, so there is obv some demand

Been going back thru his late 70s/early 80s peak of late – this is a great, rich period full of wonderful songs, performances and arrangements, much of which is collected on The Two-Fold Aspect of Everything, an OOP comp from 1984 I recently downloaded.

I’ve shared my love of The Love That Whirls, Chimera/Vistamix and Sound-On-Sound before so will note a few favorite new discoveries: the remix of “Living in My Limousine,” which has a glorious groove and contrapuntal synth parts, the rawer and squigglier 7” mix of “Eros Arriving.” Also, a terrific remix of “Hope for a Heartbeat” (which my old Enigma CD of Whirls claims to have but doesn’t) – this version features a wonderful and heretofore unheard e-Bow riff. Perhaps that shouldn’t be so surprising but it’s a welcome addition to what is probably my favorite song of his.

One observation after not having really revisited Nelson in 20+ years is what an exceptional programmer of the TR-808 he was. These parts are not only treated fabulously but, as a track like “When Your Dream of Perfect Beauty Comes True” shows, can often exist almost entirely on their own. For a guy who is rightfully known for his very distinguished guitar playing, it’s one of many sneaky great talents of his.

Boring senator, deserves reelection

You got the revox cadets single matt?

Oh don't start me on Bill, I'm likely to go all Bimble on you.

His run of singles from 79-88 or so was just one brilliant piece of music after another, from rock to ambient to early sampling, it's all just fantastic. The "Two-Fold" comp you've got is something that draws me to it on a regular basis. New wave spazz-outs like "Atom Man Loves Radium Girl" thrill me, the songs on "Chimera" with Mick Karn on bass are simply perfect, and then he goes and guests on albums from David Sylvian, Cabaret Voltaire and produces Gary Numan and The Skids (where his fingerprints are quite audible). The 4 disc "Trial By Intimacy" (plus the bonus disc that originally came with "Quit Dreaming") is just incredibly captivating with it's short bursts of ideas and sounds, some engaging, some floating by.

I wish I felt the same about his later work, but I'll always have that peak glam-synth-wave period.

Going all Bimble is never a bad thing.

I don’t know the Revox Cadets ... just read about it, is it all him or partly him? Seems kind of unclear based on internet sleuthing.

Trial By Intimacy sounds great as well ... unfortunately it’s rare and sells for crazy money.

In the 90s, I owned and sold Blue Moons and Laughing Guitars – which was envisioned as a Be Bop Deluxe-style rock record with a band before he couldn’t get funding for it so released the demos. It’s not great but there is a lot of guitar and a couple of tracks on it that are terrific – including “Spinnin’ Round.”

Even tho I consider myself very familiar with a lot of his work, there are still a number of things he’s done is like to hear but haven’t: his debut, Northern Dream, Getting the Holy Ghost Across from the mid-80s, as well as Chance Encounters and the Orchestra Arcana stuff, which I gather is instrumental stuff with cutup radio voices(?).

Give the enormity of his output, Nelson seems tailor made for services like Spotify and Bandcamp. Unfortunately, the former in the US is comprised mostly of a handful of (admittedly mostly essential) releases from the 80s with a smattering of 90s recordings and the latter appears to have none of his back catalogue. Notwithstanding the fact that he ran his own label in Cocteau, it seems like a lot of prolific artists of his vintage at least part of the problem is that he’s had multiple relationships with labels and distributors over the years which makes aggregating his output challenging.

I don't know that much of his stuff but count me in for Sound-on-Sound love.

Revox o think is just him. Also love the single he produced on Cocteau for his brothers band, Fiat Lux.

I will check those both out – think they’re on YT.

I wonder if part of the reason so little of his stuff is available online is that Cherry Red doesn’t have a licensing agreement with streaming services.

Just realized that Mick Karn is only on one track on Chimera/Vistamix – “Glow World.” Have had the latter for 20+ years and always thought he was at least on “Everyday Feels Like a New Drug” Or “Tender Is the Night,” but those are Nelson doing a pretty impressive Karn impersonation.

Also noted that there are a number of YMO associates involved on this beyond Takahashi on drums, not least of which is master programmer/Logic supremo Hideki Matsutake, which explains some of the BGM-ish textures on the record.

Huh, you're right - I also thought he was on at least half of the tracks.

There's one other collaboration that Bill & Mick he play on, "Metaphysical Jerks", found on a Yukihiro Takahashi EP.

And now I discover that Bill plays on Rain Tree Crow's "Big Wheels In Shanty Town" and "Blackwater"! That'll teach me to skip the liner notes...

Lastly, it appears Bill & Mick may have played together on Masami Tsuchiya's "Rice Music". I'm not familiar with that album.

For those so inclined, the Red Noise stuff is getting two separate reissues on Cherry Red, 2 CD and a 6 disc box

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/bill-nelsons-red-noise-sound-on-sound-2cd/

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/bill-nelsons-red-noise-art-empire-industry-the-complete-red-noise-6cd-remastered-box-set/

A decent all-too-white former Florida senator too.

It's a switcheroo! The other Bill Nelson making Senate speeches via fretless bass...

This is a really great record that anyone interested in the art-rock/post-punk crossover area should hear. I only know ten or twelve of his huge catalogue, so I'm not a Nelson/Be-Bop Deluxe superfan, but I'd rank this as both his most innovative and emotional record (though the feelings it conveys are largely dread, anomie and depersonalization).

"Sound On Sound" is his stab at 'new wave' that totally outdoes his younger contemporaries.

I remember reading about Sound on Sound in the Trouser Press Record Guide before I heard the record. I loved the way they described the record and recorded a tune on my four-track that sounded like I imagined it would. Turned out I came pretty close!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slr0uljnuxY

now thats what i call herky-jerky

Awesome!

I fell into some bebop deluxe listens due to deep ilm, but never went into nelson’s later stuff, what an interesting thing. I really like TLTW on a couple, tho I can see how I wouldn’t have understood what I was hearing quite in the early 80s as a mid teen.

Like when I hear Mr October, it’s sorta an Ultravox song with Nelson’s nice guitar line subbing for Billy Currie’s synth modulations maybe. It’s also sorta bowie?

Glad to see that video, and the playing is fine but the uniforms are a little "try-hard".

the uniforms are the best bit lol

they're so clean and new!

lol i called the october man "mr. october."

everything about nelson i seen describes him as extremely try-hard. this write-up sorta dares you to say "...AND SO WHAT?" i guess. https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/be-bop-deluxe-axe-victim

to me the unis are like, tailored all wrong for the era

they were tailored for the era to come (but it never came)

lol the writing in that write-up is defnitely pushing at something

and maybe it also says, ‘that’s not try hard so much as much exuberance in the the things’?

like said, at the time i would not dig on that, but with age looking back, forgivable for me.

and repeat on that october man guitar line and tine, i love it so, tho i just met it

tone

Was Quit Dreaming a pretty well known thing at the time? I fucking love this one the best now. Incredibly of its time but like to me, the best of it.

Because i’ve never heard it til now, it’s like someone now took all of the bits and bobs of style, tone, and mindset and made a dukes of stratosphear style homage to 79-81. Maybe it’s cause leckie produced it and knew the future. White Sounds- daaaamn!

“enhancing. your dancing. pleeeeeaaaasure”! *sax solo*

i guess that track was added to re release, but it fits perfectly.

Oh i just found the bn charlatan or genius thread, i’ll check there lol.

Wait until you hear all the singles from the time and stuff like "The Two-Fold Aspect Of Everything". Some of my favorite music ever!

i was 19 in 1979 and obsessively reading the uk music press, so my judgment of a "well known thing at the time" is a bit skewed -- i was aware of this titile but if i heard any of it it was on the peel show; i didn't know anyone who owned it (tho i did have a friend who found the title amusing and would now and then declaim it in a funny voice)

peel had played a large role in nelson's original being discovered and signed in the first place, and was evidently fond of him and loyally played bits of every new release -- this wasn't enough to make be-bop deluxe or what came after massive or anything, but it did keep them in the conversation

listening now takes me right back to that moment -- but it also makes me think "the moment" was very short, that there was a kind of transition in the conversation when he had a shot at being a bigger thing, and early on in the mutation of post-punk from herky-jerky guitar to angular alienated synth, he was critically acknowledged in a reasonably friendly way, as a kind of cult pioneer -- but he definitely never made the jump to new pop that others would make. red nose was just a bit too hand-jiving-robotic-mannequins-in-uniforms for just a bit too long!

he's someone whose melodies never quite land for me personally -- which may be bcz of choices he's deliberately making

now that i've reached it, i realise that peel (or someone) must have played "do you dream in colour" a fair amount, as it's extremely familiar (but i've never owned it)