The previous CD release was part of a double-pack featuring The Glamour Chase, from 2002. This new Cherry Red edition is the first CD release featuring an expanded track-listing.
Originally released in February 1985 after exhaustive recording sessions, Billy Mackenzie finally followed up the 1982 Associates album Sulk with this 10 track offering. The album featured four different producers, Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware, Martin Rushent, Dave Allen and Greg Walsh.
Disc One features the 10 original album tracks plus four instrumentals that were included on the original cassette release of the album. These bonus tracks are appearing on CD for the first time.
Disc Two features all the related bonus tracks for which master tapes still exist. This includes the extended versions of singles Those First Impressions, Waiting For The Loveboat and the wonderful single Take Me To The Girl, plus single versions of Waiting For The Loveboat, Breakfast and Take Me To The Girl. Other tracks include 7” and 12” b-sides.
Housed in a digipak containing a 20 page page booklet, a UK discography and extensive sleeve-notes written by Andy Davis.
Recorded in the winter of 1977, but released a year later – the album is a double disc featuring live tracks recorded at the festival from The Stranglers, The Wilko Johnson Band, XTC, Dire Straits, X-ray Spex, The Only Ones, Steel Pulse and more.
Esoteric Recordings are releasing a re-mastered five-disc deluxe box-set limited edition (comprising 4 CDs and a DVD) of Modern Music, the 1976 album by Be-Bop Deluxe.
This expanded reissue has been newly re-mastered from the original master tapes and features an additional 55 bonus tracks including new 5.1 surround sound & stereo mixes from the original multi-track tapes by award winning engineer Stephen W. Tayler, out-takes from the album sessions, a BBC Radio “In Concert” performance from October 1976, along with a bonus CD of a previously unreleased “official bootleg” of a performance at The Riviera Theater in Chicago in 1976 recorded for FM Radio on Be Bop Deluxe’s first US tour.
The set also includes visual material taken from a session for BBC TV’s “Old Grey Whistle Test” show broadcast in November 1976.
The DVD material (including the 5.1 mixes) is not reviewed here, as review copies were not provided.
Modern Music was released just prior to the arrival of punk and new wave, a sound and attitude that would inform Nelson’s releases for the next few albums. The music on this album is a mixture of classic and progressive rock, with wonderful harmonies, nods to early David Bowie (particularly the Ziggy Stardust era) and a covers a variety of genres.
Twilight Capers is a delight – revelling in the genre-switching that was prevalent in this period – moving from ballad, via jazz-rock to reggae – all in the one track! The Doors like end section, with its powerful production touches hits the sweet spot every time.
The light and breezy Kiss Of Light reminds me of the City Boy debut album (a wonderful classic rock band that seems to have been written out of history) that was also released in 1976. Modern Music was written on the road, and seems to be Bill Nelson’s reflections on America at the time.
Nelson writes in the box-set booklet:
“…many of the songs on Modern Music were written in hotel rooms whilst touring America and some of them directly relate to the growing disillusion I was feeling with life on the road.”
The Gold At The End Of My Rainbow is a charming song, written by Nelson at a sound-check, lamenting his faraway love.
The Modern Music suite is the highlight for many fans of this or any Be-Bop Deluxe album. You can hear a snippet of the late John Peel in the suite’s intro to the title track, which radiates West-Coast sunshine.
Down On Terminal Street is overflowing with wonderful lyrical imagery, and I love the way the church-bells chime amongst the heavy guitars and synths in the songs intro and end section.
“The street cafe was closed to all but ghosts Who glide the alleys searching for their lair”
Make The Music Magic returns to the more commercial sound of the early songs, but in a stripped back acoustic setting.
Disc two of this box-set is a new stereo mix of the album. The mix feels much wider, and individual instruments are noticeably clearer. As are the vocals – you can hear the reverb on Nelson’s vocals on Down On Terminal Street with such clarity, its like hearing the album for the first time. I defy you to not crank up the volume on this new mix.
This disc also includes the stunning 8 minutes long Shine (New Stereo Mix), which reminds me a little of Bowie’s Stay from Station To Station.
Disc three is a BBC Radio One “In Concert” taken from the band’s headlining show from 2 October 1976 London’s Hammersmith Odeon. The highlights of this disc for me are the live takes of Ships In The Night and the 12 minute plus Modern Music. It’s a good quality recording, given its age.
Disc four is a recording from the Riviera Theater in Chicago on 21 March 1976, where Be-Bop Deluxe opened for Thin Lizzy. The band’s set was mixed and broadcast live by the local radio station WXRT-FM. The concert included in the band’s set Bill’s Blues, which was never developed further on record. Sadly this “official” bootleg is for completists only, as at times its not as good quality as the sound of disc 3, and you can see why Bill’s Blues was left unreleased – it’s just a standard blues jam. There is audible distortion / clipping and hiss, so not a disc I will be returning to.
Nevertheless, this is a lovingly curated box-set, topped off with an entertaining 68 page book, that gives context to the band and the individual tracks, along with many previously unpublished images. If you are a fan of Bill Nelson’s work in Be-Bop Deluxe, or are a fan of 70s rock, there is much to enjoy in this box-set.
Disc One: Cd Modern Music The Original Stereo Mix:
Orphans Of Babylon
Twilight Capers
Kiss Of Light
The Bird Charmers Destiny
The Gold At The End Of My Rainbow
Bring Back The Spark
Modern Music
Dancing In The Moonlight (All Alone)
Honeymoon On Mars
Lost In The Neon World
Dance Of The Uncle Sam Humanoids
Modern Music (Reprise)
Forbidden Lovers
Down On Terminal Street
Make The Music Magic Bonus Track
Shine (B-Side Of Single)
Disc Two: Cd Modern Music The New Stereo Mix:
Orphans Of Babylon (New Stereo Mix)
Twilight Capers (New Stereo Mix)
Kiss Of Light (New Stereo Mix)
The Bird Charmers Destiny (New Stereo Mix)
The Gold At The End Of My Rainbow (New Stereo Mix)
Bring Back The Spark (New Stereo Mix)
Modern Music (New Stereo Mix)
Dancing In The Moonlight (All Alone) (New Stereo Mix)
Honeymoon On Mars (New Stereo Mix)
Lost In The Neon World (New Stereo Mix)
Dance Of The Uncle Sam Humanoids (New Stereo Mix)
Modern Music (Reprise) (New Stereo Mix)
Forbidden Lovers (New Stereo Mix)
Down On Terminal Street (New Stereo Mix)
Make The Music Magic (New Stereo Mix) Bonus Tracks
Shine (New Stereo Mix)
Forbidden Lovers (First Version)
The Bird Charmer’s Destiny (First Version)
Disc Three: Cd BBC Radio One “In Concert” Recorded 2nd October 1976 At Hammersmith Odeon, London
Maid In Heaven
Bring Back The Spark
Kiss Of Light
Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape
Fair Exchange
Ships In The Night
Twilight Capers
Modern Music I. Modern Music Ii. Dancing In The Moonlight (All Alone) Iii. Honeymoon On Mars Iv. Lost In The Neon World V. Dance Of The Uncle Sam Humanoids Vi. Modern Music (Reprise)
Blazing Apostles
Disc Four: Cd Live At The Riviera Theatre, Chicago 21st March 1976 – The Official Bootleg
Fair Exchange
Stage Whispers
Life In The Air Age
Sister Seagull
Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape
Maid In Heaven
Ships In The Night
Bill’s Blues
Blazing Apostles
Disc Five: Dvd Modern Music– The 5.1 Surround Sound Mix / New Stereo Mix (96 Khz / 24-Bit) / Original Stereo Mix (96 Khz / 24-Bit)
Orphans Of Babylon (5.1 Mix)
Twilight Capers (5.1 Mix)
Kiss Of Light (5.1 Mix)
The Bird Charmers Destiny (5.1 Mix)
The Gold At The End Of My Rainbow (5.1 Mix)
Bring Back The Spark (5.1 Mix)
Modern Music (5.1 Mix)
Dancing In The Moonlight (All Alone) (5.1 Mix)
Honeymoon On Mars (5.1 Mix)
Lost In The Neon World (5.1 Mix)
Dance Of The Uncle Sam Humanoids (5.1 Mix)
Modern Music (Reprise) (5.1 Mix)
Forbidden Lovers (5.1 Mix)
Down On Terminal Street (5.1 Mix)
Make The Music Magic (5.1 Mix) Bonus Tracks
Shine (5.1 Mix)
Forbidden Lovers (First Version) (5.1 Mix)
The Bird Charmer’s Destiny (First Version) (5.1 Mix) Visual Content
Forbidden Lovers (BBC Old Grey Whistle Test 1976)
Down On Terminal Street (BBC Old Grey Whistle Test 1976)
Prince – The Beautiful Ones is a fascinating read – filled with previously unseen photos, handwritten lyric sheets but it could have been so much more (it was planned to be a very different type of book).
It was heart-breaking losing a musician of Prince’s once in a generation talent in April 2016, who had so much more to give, but Prince passing in the early stages of this books conception changed its course dramatically.
For me the most interesting parts of the book are the opening chapters written by Dan Piepenbring – talking of his meetings with Prince and the book project that really excited the musician. It gives a brief window into what could have been – a merging of Prince’s thoughts and memories, with Piepenbring’s well-written critical and fan-based observations.
I really enjoyed reading the all too brief hand-written first drafts from Prince himself. Reading Prince’s own words talking about his very early years is immensely moving but abruptly ends before his professional career really started.
So we sadly miss out on Prince talking about the stories behind his songs and albums, what it was like being an icon from his perspective and his struggles with the industry that tried to slow him down.
We will never get to hear about his relationships with the countless band-members who worked and collaborated with him through the 80s, 90s, and up to the iconic Super Bowl appearance of 2007 (the planned end point of this book). Sadly these memories and many more died with the man.
Dan Piepenbring and the Estate have done a fine job taking the book through to its conclusion, and for any Prince fan, this is still a must read book, so no criticism should be laid at their door. But the opening chapters just drive home how if Prince was still with us, The Beautiful Ones could have been one of the best rock books of all time.
Bruce Soord, the songwriter and frontman for The Pineapple Thief, has released his second solo album, All This Will Be Yours via Kscope.
An interesting mix of the personal (family life and birth) and the bigger picture (austerity and Brexit) makes for a slightly different take on recent releases from The Pineapple Thief.
Electronic textures and acoustic guitars drive the majority of the songs. The Secrets I Know works well as an opening track, with its sparse arrangement, mainly piano, guitar and layered vocals.
“Move forward at all costs Protection at all costs I’m already mourning your loss”
Our Gravest Threat Apart dials up the electronics, and has a naggingly addictive mantra-like outro.
All This Will Be Yours works as a complete album, with songs flowing in to one another, as two distinct pieces (replicating the vinyl experience), so you find yourself adhering to the vision of the album as a thoughtfully curated art-form, not a source of playlists to dip in and out of.
The Solitary Path Of A Convicted Man has some interesting production touches, and a memorable rhythm track, and contains the album’s first Soord guitar solo. The vocals and harmonies are especially strong on this slowly building key album track.
The title track is one of two longer songs on the album. The piano line reminds me a little of Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies when in isolation, but is soon sent to the back of the mix, as powerful psychedelic guitars and a shuffling drum pattern accompany the sirens and mood of an austerity ravaged urban landscape.
The more optimistic Time Does Not Exist reflects on the beauty of new life and new hope triumphing over the world outside, and is Soord at his most personal. The track contains a warm and evocative vocal performance that will be an album highlight for many listeners. I love the evolution in the arrangement and slightly out-of-character drum pattern that takes the song to it’s conclusion.
One Misstep is the nearest to a more traditional Pineapple Thief sound, with the ever-present sirens of modern life seeping through the mix. I love how found-sounds are almost used as instruments at times in All This Will Be Yours.
“This new darkened future, Is this who we are?”
You Hear The Voices is the longest track on the album, coming in at just under 7 minutes. Whether a lament to climate-change, or a breakdown of a relationship (physical or economic) makes no difference. Loss is painful and reverberates forever.
My favourite track on the album, You Hear The Voices builds layer by layer, with a gentle nod towards the soundscapes of the earlier collaboration with Katatonia’s Jonas Renkse on the Wisdom of Crowds.
“You can’t re-write your dreams Or re-negotiate your terms This is our ocean now”
Images by Steve Brown
A bleak, neglected cemetery is the location for Cut The Flowers, with its brutal tale of time moving on, leaving love and memories to decay and eventually disappear. A heavily distorted bass-line duels with synths and drum machines, reminding me of Mariusz Duda’s Lunatic Soul albums.
The theme of loss continues with final track One Day I Will Leave You.
“So don’t mourn my passing I was always passing through And I’ll always be with you”
All This Will Be Yours is book-ended by songs referencing our short time on Earth, whilst touching on the effect we have whilst we are here – either through introducing new life, or damaging what we are leaving behind for others (through our political choices or through our trashing of the planet’s resources).
The mix of the personal and the political is a brave decision, and whilst Soord makes clear his anger at the state of our world, there is optimism to be found within the songs. And like many of us, I feel maybe he sees the younger generation as the ones who can drive us away from the cliff-edge.
The Secrets I Know [02:24] Our Gravest Threat Apart [04:14] The Solitary Path Of A Convicted Man [03:44] All This Will Be Yours [06:04] Time Does Not Exist [03:33] One Misstep [04:00] You Hear The Voices [06:54] Cut The Flowers [04:35] One Day I Will Leave You [05:17]
no-man have released love you to bits, the duo’s first studio album for eleven years. The album is made up of two connected five-part pieces (love you to bits and love you to pieces).
The album marks a return to the more beat-driven electronica of Loveblows & Lovecries – A Confession and parts of Flowermouth, but with a tempo consistency missing from previous albums.
On first hearing the finished album, I was surprised by the sense of urgency, and how some of the performances are quite visceral. I heard echoes of Trent Reznor / nine inch nails and at times, Outside era David Bowie, before the songs took on a real identity of their own.
The album should not be surprising to long-time fans of no-man – my CD single of Only Baby sits close to Donna Summers Once Upon A Time double-album in my CD rack, occasionally throwing coquettish glances in its direction. So whilst love you to bits feels influenced by the urgent sequenced riffs of the “father of Disco” Giorgio Moroder, Bowness and Wilson have developed so much as writers and musicians since the early days, and this is clearly evident as there is so much more to this album than high-energy electronics.
There are two remarkable performances that leap out of the speakers from guest players. On love you to bits guitarist David Kollar delivers a white-hot manic solo that is one of the highlights of the album, and on love you to pieces Steven Wilson band member Adam Holzman serves up a fusion electric piano solo that is dripping with passion (and a fair amount of reverb).
Other guests include Ash Soan (The Producers / Trevor Horn / Downes Braide Association), who adds powerful live drums on top of the drum machines, giving a real push to sections of the album, plus some damn funky synth basslines from Norwich’s finest low notes rumbler (and half of Burning Shed) Pete Morgan, plus a surprising but emotive appearance from The Dave Desmond Brass Quintet (Big Big Train).
The first track (or suite), love you to bits, is driven by deep synth lines and Bowness’s sardonic lyrics surveying the shattered wreck of a relationship. As the live drums kick in, Wilson’s guitar processing harks back to the sound of early no-man, and at times the music draws from the mood of Only Baby and Bleed.
love you to bits contains one of no-man’s finest choruses, and even with the aforementioned I Feel Love / Moroder / Belotte influences, the album feels very current, and will surely appeal to fans of most forms of electronic / electronic dance music.
“I love you, like I don’t love you at all”
Just before the 6 minute mark, one of my favourite moments kicks in. Featuring a short guitar and bass interplay that is pure Platinum era Mike Oldfield, the section breaks down to an Underworld / Born Slippy motif that leads to a vocal and instrumental refrain that sums up the beauty of no-man, with a subtle nod to lighthouse (my favourite no-man song). The music then picks up, with wild Bowness vocals and beautiful lead guitar lines from the boy Wilson. I will let you discover the unexpected ending to love you to bits yourself, which sees out the first five part piece.
love you to pieces is a darker, more twisted cousin of the first half of the album.
“our sticky love just left me weak”
Opening with a dub-like, slow it all down continuation of the theme, the song takes a detour and again draws on the DNA of no-man’s past.
“There’s no need to look for answers To the questions never asked There’s no need to make a shelter from your versions of our past”
A heavily vocodered, processed vocal breakdown leads to the aforementioned Adam Holzman solo section and I’m reminded a little of some of the instrumentation of Bird Shadows, Wolf & Moon, an earlier mostly vocal-less piece credited to no-man on the Drop 6 compilation.
As the synths sparkle like diamonds on the mid-section, and as the pace drops, I love the production touches on Tim’s vocals – reminding me of the tape decay of The Disintegration Loops and The Caretaker. It’s the most moving part of the whole album, and is like having pure, unadulterated no-man shot through your veins. I have no doubt that long-time no-man fans will be deeply moved by the mid to end section of love you to pieces.
The decay and melancholy of the end section reminds me a little of the darker parts of 10cc and Godley & Creme, feeling like a Mogadon infused I’m Not In Love, as the melody is scraped away to reveal the bare bones of the piece.
love you to bits is a world away from the most recent no-man albums, but even if you are not usually a fan of the more electronic side of the band, I think there is plenty here to savour. The album touches on the band’s earlier sound palette, but is so unlike anything else in no-man’s catalogue.
Although often jokingly teased as the band’s “disco epic” when mentioned in interviews, love you to bits is in fact one of the most progressive albums released under the no-man name. Not as a genre, but progressive as evidence of no-man changing, evolving and progressing onto something new.
I hope the album is heard outside of the Bowness / Wilson audience, as it will surely appeal to anyone with a love of electronic music. Prepare to be surprised and you will not be disappointed.
love you to bits (Bits 1-5) (17.03) love you to pieces (Pieces 1-5) (18.54)
Tim Bowness – Vocals Steven Wilson – Instruments
Ash Soan – Drums The Dave Desmond Brass Quintet – Brass on love you to bits Adam Holzman – Electric Piano solo on love you to pieces David Kollar – Electric Guitar solo on love you to bits Pete Morgan – Synth bass on love you to bits
produced and written by no-man mixed by Bruno Ellingham mastered by Matt Colton
Fader are Neil Arthur (Blancmange) and Benge (John Foxx & The Maths / Gazelle Twin). In Shadow is the follow-up to their 2017 debut, First Light.
Neil Arthur is clearly experiencing a creative streak – along with Fader he has also recently released the debut of another duo project, Near Future, as well as delivering two new Blancmange studio albums, including one of the finest in the bands career in last year’s Wanderlust.
Summoning the spirit of early John Foxx, Always Suited Blue is a tale of the personal and the mundane, jostling with an upbeat, pure 1981 synth-pop soundtrack.
“Lost a tenner, found a pound”
An early album highlight is Midnight Caller, a distopian dismantling of picket-fence suburbia, with a hint of menace that offsets the addictive chorus.
Arthur’s often unsettling lyrics are underpinned by the warm electronic textures provided by Benge. Everyday objects become enemies in What Did It Say – which has one of the most disturbing lyrics coupling with one of the album’s sweetest and most mesmerising tunes.
Youth On A Wall bubbles and pulses, with a wonderfully treated vocal that has its own distinctive, delayed rhythm. A little bit of politics creeping in here.
“May is fading from our view”
The saccharine synths of Whispering echo the softly delivered vocals, that are delivered with such lightness of touch that you have to really concentrate to hear the message being delivered.
Aspirational is an ear-worm of a song, and is followed by one of my favourite tracks on the album, Enemy Fighter with its inventive, haunting vocal arrangement that is topped off with layered, frenetic percussion patterns.
The title track has sparse instrumentation, that builds slowly as the song progresses. Every Page feels the most current of the songs on In Shadow, with vocals scattering in and out of the chorus.
“Heading home now, if home still exists”
The album comes to a close on it’s bleakest song, Reporting, that seems to flit through the ages in a lyric about time and travel. The lyric reminds me a little of the time-travel premise of Kate Bush’s Snowed in at Wheeler Street, but that’s where the comparison ends. The lightest of touch backing makes you concentrate fully on the lyrics, and then the album is over.
Prince’s 1999, his fifth studio album, is being given the expanded deluxe edition treatment, with a lavish super-deluxe edition.
The remastered album, which was originally released in 1982, also includes single / promo edits, two discs of unreleased material from Prince’s legendary vault, and two live performances (one audio and one on DVD).
Watch 1999 from the DVD below. Bear in mind that this is a recording from late 1982, so will not be up to current visual standards, but the performance is still electrifying.
The David Bowie website released details today of a new 5 CD box-set – David Bowie Conversation Piece, which collects together home demos, BBC radio sessions and studio recordings from 1968 and 1969, and also includes a new 2019 Tony Visconti mix of the David Bowie (aka Space Oddity) album, which is also available to buy separately from the box-set, on CD & vinyl.
Visconti had this to say about the 2019 Space Oddity album mix “It was so much fun to find hidden gems of musicianship with more time to mix the second time around, a guitar twiddle here, a trombone blast there, Marc Bolan’s voice in a group choir and more detail in general that we overlooked all those years ago when the label gave us a week at the most to mix this album. And in the details you will find 22 year old David Bowie, who would soon take the world by storm.”
Cherry red are releasing an 8 CD Sutherland Brothers & Quiver box-set on September 27 2019. The 103 track box set covers all of the releases by Sutherland Brothers & Quiver during the period 1971-79, for both Island and CBS Records.
The box-set includes their most well-known song Arms Of Mary, as well as Sailing (which became a huge hit for Rod Stewart in 1975) and 1975’s Reach For The Sky album, which featured Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour on one track.
The box-set consists of:
Sutherland Brothers – produced by Muff Winwood
Lifeboat – which includes seven bonus tracks, four taken from the USA version of the album. Also included is the track Sailing which though not a hit for the band, gave Rod Stewart an international chart topper
Dream Kid which includes a non-album cut as a bonus
Beat Of The Street includes two non-album cuts
Reach For The Sky – featuring the hit single Arms Of Mary which reached No. 5 in the UK, No. 17 in Germany and the top spot in both Holland and Ireland. Two non-LP tracks have been added as a bonus, and Dave Gilmour guests on the track Ain’t Too Proud
Slipstream – from 1976 which includes the UK hit single Secrets
Down To Earth – featuring six non-LP bonus tracks including rare tracks from the USA version of the album
When The Night Comes Down – which features the No.50 UK hit single Easy Come Easy Go.
Mr Kinski's Music Shack 