TRUTH. As someone who feels like Björk had this quiet apotheosis at some point in the last few years where she went from a vital musical and artistic force of the indie and art-pop worlds to just a straight up primal element, this tracks.
I'm personally galled at her nerve for not prematurely addressing the controversy for this album cover art, because if ever there was a LDR album cover to be offended by...
I MEAN, having a day with them in the studio for a creative collaboration is a really sweet prize too. Plus, unlike concert tickets, it's not something you can ordinarily buy.
I would totally take that one if I was more able to throw down... I guess unless making a track with some basic-ass Omnichord playing was an option?
...I'm also pretty fond of "Out of My Mind" and "Electric Barbarella," though I suppose the latter does have a bit of a cheese factor that perhaps has not aged well.
You're welcome! And that's awesome. I missed that show when it came through my city (I think I was out of town at the time?), but heard about it later from a friend who went, and was kind of bummed that I missed it after what he told. I didn't know that Martina was opening, and sounds like the Massive Attack part of the show was phenomenal.
For her solo stuff, there's really only the two albums from the oughts so far (and an album of pared down acoustic versions of those songs that I think are the versions she was performing when she opened for Massive Attack circa 2010 or so).
I think I like the Danger Mouse collab The Blue God a bit more, though Quixotic genre hops like crazy...maybe a little too much?... but if Martina Topley-Bird is your thing, I think you're bound to find something you like there.
Also, if you only know her work with Tricky on Maxinquaye, she did contribute to a number of songs on the three or so albums after that. Admittedly, post-Maxinquaye Tricky can be spotty, but some of those songs may be worth your time. ("Christiansands," "She Makes Me Wanna Die," and "Singing the Blues" come to mind.)
You're welcome! Glad to make another convert! I'm not sure if the new stuff will garner some low key but long-deserved recognition, similar to what last year's Róisín Machine did for Róisín Murphy (at least state-side), but it'd be cool if that happened at least to some extent.
And here's a cut from her Danger Mouse-produced second album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMQo28zBTM4
I never really understood why her solo career didn't take off more, at least in the indie/blog world of the time.
I was stoked to find out this week that Martina Topley-Bird has a new album coming out in the fall. She hasn't put out an album of new material since 2008, so this was a nice surprise...! I don't think there was any mention of it on this site, so here's the track that she dropped, which has some production from Robert Del Naja. Apparently he contributed to some of the other songs on the album at some point during its long gestation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRucznVhXnU
Also, looks like her first two albums are on Spotify now, which is great--I don't think her solo work ever got the level of attention or appreciation it deserved, and it also didn't tend to be super available in the US. (Fortunately they have the original version of Quixotic on there, not the slightly bastardized US release that dropped a few of the songs.)
So, guess that “When Under Ether” demo PJ Harvey dropped this week basically confirmed that those White Chalk demos are going to all sound pretty much identical to the album, huh?
Of the Uh Huh Her demos released today, I was all prepared to make a crack about how “The End” was mysteriously missing, except, turns out “Cat on the Walls” is actually mysteriously missing. That’s a Shame, since that song is a highlight on the album, and its absence might have contributed to me feeling a little underwhelmed returning to this era. (“No Child of Mine” not being on there isn’t entirely surprising, given that it’s only a one minute snippet on the album, though it may have been fun to hear the demo for the full song on there.)
I am kind of curious why it was left off, even though I realize the answer could be pretty banal.
I am also hoping that at the end of this whole reissue/retrospective thing we get a b-sides and rarities collection, with or without a companion demos album. And I would be over the moon if there were unreleased songs on that. I don’t know how likely any of this is, but a boy can dream…
Someone had pointed out a few weeks ago that for the Stereogum.com/all url, if you type /? and then some gobblygook letters after that, it will get around the cache issue.
So, for example:
Stereogum.com/all/?hwbfifbeuw
I imagine this also works for the main page, and may be a good option for those on mobile, since I'm not sure that the hard refresh is an option there.
(Also, note that you may need to change the gobblygook letters at the end each time, otherwise you might get the cache from the previous time.)
Gotta say, as great a name as DJ Bonebrake is for a musician to have, with the absence of any other information, it sounds like a name from the nü metal days.
Me listening to the new Andy Stott, basically:
https://media3.giphy.com/media/dWUYtsc1Z4tHQGkG7W/source.gif
Last night I was kind of wishing there was a post here about the album by the time I hit "Repetitive strain" and "Don't know how," just to have a place to collectively freak out.
Is it me, or was it not even just this song that seemed to complete disappear after its heyday, but also Exposé? Like, wee lad Sir Bkd24, the 24th loved "Point of No Return" and totally had that first record, but it's kind of surprising to think that they were breaking Billboard records in the 80s when it seems like they completely vanished from the popular consciousness by the mid-90s (the next period of time I started paying attention to modern music), and from thereafter? I think the only times I've really even come across anything referencing them since that point in my childhood were a CD compilation commercial in the 90s that played a short clip of "I'll Never Get Over You Getting Over Me," the one time in the mid-2000s that I saw a flyer saying they were playing a gay club in my area, and this article.
So, I'm actually kind of surprised that they ever had a #1 song. Not that kid me would have been listening to obscure or under-the-radar music at that point, but I just didn't realize they had that much of an impact at the time.
Yeah, and unfortunately Stott doesn't really seem to be in that rarified critical strata where he gets tons of attention from non-electronic focused music publications. If anything, it does seem like his releases since Faith in Strangers have flown a bit more under the radar.
But I'm also stoked for Stott... he really is in a class all his own. And looks like Boomkat was working on shipping out my CD today, woot woot.
... granted, a lot of the stuff she does or says is indeed eye roll-worthy, but IDK, just seems like the Grimes clowning around here can get a bit excessive.
I think in this case it's more like there's an article about Grimes that isn't new music, so of course most of the comments here are going to shit all over Grimes.
It's almost like, this is Stereogum, this is what commenters do: make lists and complain about Grimes. (Unless you're talking about TNOCs, that is a whole other beast of course.)
EOB giving out some vibes in that photo.
https://i.gifer.com/3H2.gif
Also... Imagined? Not Re-imagined? Sir Paul just, like, originally envisioned these songs being performed or remixed by Ed O'Brien, St. V, Beck, et al...?
This was delightful... love Peaches, and it's good to see something about her on the 'Gum. I don't think she gets enough love in the music press over here really, almost unless it has something to do with The Teaches of Peaches, which, while full of its own charms, her songwriting has definitely progressed quite a bit since then. I'm also stoked to hear that these singles have not been one offs... definitely looking forward to hearing an album from her again, it's been a while!
Came here to bitch about the new anti-ad blocking stance and to offer to throw money at a Patreon to help you all continue to put food on your families, but I just saw that thread from last week and am glad to hear that you are already on it, Scottgum.
Hm, I think it was actually one of the things that really irritated me when I saw the movie, and it's part of a tactic that I find can actually be kind of problematic? At least when it's coming from a piece of media put forth into the world by a massive industry machine, and is not coming from one person or band protesting against something while still kinda participating in it. Like, the generous read is that it's tapping into genuine criticisms of capitalism to be "cool" and co-opting it as a marketing tactic… the less generous read is that it subverts that criticism, actually reinforcing the status quo by naming and pointing out things that the audience is probably already aware of on some level, giving them an outlet for their frustrations or own critiques, but then sending messaging that ultimately says to the audience that these things are OK, or just the way things are, therefore placating the audience’s urge to continue to be critical of this thing. That may be less problematic and more irritating when you’re talking about something like product placement, but IDK, I've found it to be problematic in other media, like in Better Off Ted (which dealt with the parasitic and soul sucking aspects of corporate life and corporate America), or in the few episodes of 30 Rock I’ve seen (specifically, I’m thinking of a storyline where Jane Krakowski’s character put on a bunch of weight, and they played with the idea that women who aren’t Hollywood skinny can be attractive too, and then by the end of the story just went back to reinforcing typical standards of beauty in regards to women’s body weight).
...maybe I'm getting a little off topic here, but I guess my point is that it's an establishment tactic that makes me kind of cranky. (And I guess did so 20 years ago.)
So I did actually watch this movie when it came out, even though I didn't think it looked that good, but my first job was in a movie theater, and there are a lot of movies I would watch bits and pieces of while on my break, or while waiting for someone to pick me up. (I was still one of the haters after watching it, so maybe hate-watch would be a better description... though, granted, from what I remember it was really over the top in a way that I found off-putting, so maybe it wasn't really objectively poorly done but just something that really didn't jive with my stylistic preferences?)
But anyways, didn't they use real brands for their satire of product placement and capitalism...?! Because if so, pro-tip: that's still fucking product placement, and still part of the system that you're pretending to subvert.
I had a coworker back in my table waiting days who used to joke that this song was about anal. So that, in my head, is what this reality TV show will always be about.
So apparently Thomas Dybdahl put out an extended version of his 2020 album FEVER today. He's someone who's been lightly on my radar for the past couple years--I would hear a new song every once in a while on Spotify or listen to a few tracks, but didn't listen to him a lot--though lately I've been getting into his last album a bit. Anyways, the new version of FEVER has five new songs, some of which he had released over the course of the pandemic, and I figured it was worth a mention, since I don't think I've seen his name around these parts before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nymmLQNaJoc
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