Thursday, June 17, 2004
Not a care in the world, and the world doesn't care...
A few things early this morning…
1; I neglected to properly mention Technicolour in the Disco Inferno piece from a few days ago. This is because a; the piece was specifically dealing with the five EPs, b; even though I did mention D.I. Go Pop, this is because it came out during the run of those EPs, whereas Technicolour didn’t finally emerge until 1996, and c; I didn’t really rate it compared to the rest of their catalogue. It seemed neither as beautiful as some of the material (generally the lead tracks) from the EPs nor as bizarre as D.I. Go Pop and the other material from the EPs, and as such I was never really sure how to deal with it. However, I spotted something in an old DI thread on ILM by Tom Ewing (I was going through old threads as ‘research’ for the below piece) wherein he stated that it was his favourite DI album, because it “actually is Disco Inferno going ‘pop’”, and, partly because of this and partly because of my hunt for ‘real’ copies of those EPs / engagement with them recently to write the piece, I’ve been hammering Technicolour for the last few days. And good lord, if it isn’t fucking great. The spiralling, Durutti Column guitars are gone, there’s not the sense of bizarre, beatific ambience as found on “Love Stepping Out”, it’s nowhere near as plain weird as the fractured, refracted D.I. Go Pop, and the lyrics aren’t as conspiratorial / desperational / conversational. (I thought the lyrics to “Sleight Of Hand” were crap until it struck me [duh, obvious] that it’s probably an extended metaphor about the kind of fakery and lies and disinterest inherent in the music industry [on behalf of both industry people, journalists and fans] that caused DI to split.) I still don’t think they’re great, but…
But Technicolour itself is remarkable. It may not be as revolutionary on a pure sonics level as the other stuff they did (I gather they’d had their equipment nicked prior to recording it), but their use of samples in these 9 tunes seems much more organised and complimentary to the actual songs; the fireworks in the chorus to “I’m Still In Love”, the horn parps in “Sleight Of Hand”, the ghost strings in “Can’t See Through It”, all of “When The Story Breaks” – they’d made an almost perfect synthesis of found-sound noise and pop, a complete interpolation of the ideas they’d always had into their aesthetic. It completely blurs the barriers between what is music and what is just sound, and it’s pretty sublime.
We're getting old...
On Ebay you can buy Stone Roses fridge magnets, drinks coasters, and keyrings. If this isn’t indicative of the fact that the Madchester kids have grown up, had kids, bought fridges, and started to worry about leaving marks on their coffee tables then I don’t know what is. It’s fifteen years since their debut album. It’s five years since the tenth-anniversary reissue, for fuck’s sake. (And still Silvertone haven’t bitten the bullet and remastered everything, singles, album and all – why not?- you always loved fleecing money off us before, now we can afford it we actually want remasters…)
In other news, behemoth… I’m sorry, “b-side” ahoy. Where would we be without wishful thinking?
I sat next to a guy with a walkman on the train this morning, so as not to disturb anyone else with my headphones. He was listening to Thin Lizzy. He was probably my age. Wearing a suit. Today, to work, I am wearing Merrell sandals (yes, I bought some), blue/grey Carhartt shorts and a short-sleeved white-with-brown-check-like-lines shirt (also by America’s Favourite Work Wear Outfitters). Success mans never having to wear a suit to work, especially when it’s hot.
Leaving at 4pm today (some time in lieu + skipping some lunch hour) to be home in time for kick-off. I have no magical Euro 2004 Petrol Coin Of Divinmation to rely on, so I shall just say for fuck’s sake Steven Gerrard please have the game of your life.
kthxbye
NJS
6/17/2004 08:59:00 am
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