Scott Walker

[Rushes]

Anyone else looking forward to the new Scott Walker album, "Drift", as much as I am?

It's been 11 years since "Tilt".. too long. (Listening to that album again today, I love the way that the intro to "The Cockfighter" still has the power to induce a coronary in the unsuspecting listener...WHAM.)

An incredible voice, a superb songwriter.

[dallow_bg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpwhMiFNPcI

[this charming man]

Anyone else looking forward to the new Scott Walker album, "Drift", as much as I am?

It's scary stuff isn't it. Tilt sounds like Steps in comparison... I haven't managed to listen to the whole thing in one sitting yet, two or three songs at a time is enough...

[Rushes]

Tilt sounds like Steps in comparison...

Oh my Gawd. :eek: I ordered my copy through Amazon and it hasn't arrived yet.. so hopefully tomorrow..

[this charming man]

Oh my Gawd. :eek: I ordered my copy through Amazon and it hasn't arrived yet.. so hopefully tomorrow..

Did you like Tilt?

I prefer Scott I thru IV and first half of 'Til the Band. Nite Flights was good and The Electrician is sublime but not really into this new direction...

[poprenaissance]

...and what a voice. i cannae wait for this new album.

and for a great cover, you should hear kid loco and tim keegan's version of "i can't let it happen to you". gorgeous.

[Rushes]

Yes, I like Tilt a lot, but have to be in just the right mood to sit down and listen to it - it ain't background music, that's for sure. His early solo stuff is phenomenal.

What do you all think of the Brel covers? Walker's a wonderful interpreter of these songs, he injects them with such style, warmth and humour.

[Uncleskinny]

The Scott Walker sings Brel album is superb. I went through a phase when I would listen to nothing else.

Peter

[poprenaissance]

his brel album is fantastic - i love his take on them. i was always a huge fan of marc almond's brel interpretations; walker made them his own just like almond did.

[Rushes]

i was always a huge fan of marc almond's brel interpretations

Me too! I was hoping someone would mention Marc's Brel album. It was through him that I discovered Scott Walker, all those years ago.

[poprenaissance]

...is somewhat of a god to me. the brel estate calls him the definitive interpreter of brel's works - quite a compliment!

if you can hunt it down, marc's got an album called "violent silence" which is quite good and in the same vein. all georges bataille stuff.

[Rushes]

Ah, verily you rock, poprenaissance. Almond is a true great, one of my heroes. Violent Silence is a very powerful album, I love it. I've always been drawn to the darker side of Almond's work, it's where he's at his most creative.

[pubrockcoma]

still prefer the scott albums, with some good material to be found on a few of the other albums, got some of his tv show recordings as well which are very good.

at the moment really love this the walker brotehrs live in japan album i've got, they even have an interpreter to translate his speech to the cheering crowd,,,very surreal sounding gig.

lady came from baltimore is a tremendous cover version:cool:

[this charming man]

For Brel fans does anyone like Philip Jeays? (the English Brel) Classic stuff, such as The Man from Del Monte (based loosely on Jacky):

Ah my youth I'll still remember you
You who promised you never would
End up farting on Eurovision
As only a real arsehole could
And even if I lose it all
A has-been before I've been at all
A singer all the critics call engaging
Even if I spend my life
Queuing up to have my wife
And just a surgeon's knife away from ageing
Even if not anyone
Can hum a single song I've sung
And my come back concerts one by one are failing
Still I'll take all they offer me
Anything for any fee
ITV or BBC
Even if they do call me
The Man from Del Monte

[poprenaissance]

Ah, verily you rock, poprenaissance. Almond is a true great, one of my heroes. Violent Silence is a very powerful album, I love it. I've always been drawn to the darker side of Almond's work, it's where he's at his most creative.

you are too kind.

almond has taken more chances, gone out on more limbs, than all the acts in the past 6 months of nme combined. if you liked those albums, i trust you've read some of his poetry - i think you'd like it just as much.

"lady from baltimore" = bliss. i'd love to hear that japan gig!

nowt heard philip jeays - i should hunt him down.

[Rushes]

Yup, I've read a lot of his poetry; have even put some of it to music, as it flows so beautifully. He takes risks, you gotta love that. :)

I've not heard of Philip Jeays before, either. Um, unusual lyrics!

[poprenaissance]

Yup, I've read a lot of his poetry; have even put some of it to music, as it flows so beautifully.

that i would be interested in hearing...

[Codreanu]

Here is a review of "The Drift" from Pitchfork:

Scott Walker
The Drift
[4AD; 2006]
Rating: 9.0

Forty years into his recording career, Scott Walker is still making music that he wants to make; like all great artists, he's making music that only he can make-- and hoping (or not) that other people catch onto something, anything in the big, dark, dense vacuum of The Drift. Walker beats the noise-mongers in New York, the conservatory-schooled theater kids, the gallery poseurs, the reclusive art-pop geniuses, all the perennially stylish genre tourists, celebrity revolutionaries, and outmoded underground icons. He, despite little more than a cult status in his native (and long since abandoned) country, has emerged a visionary, maker of some of the most texturally complex, viscerally emotional, and downright horrific music this side of anyone at all.

But then, the composer of The Drift, Walker's first new studio record since 1995's devastating Tilt, didn't appear from out of nowhere. Rather, the Ohio-born artist (born Scott Noel Engel) staked a claim to the musical territory somewhere between orchestral pop and psychological soliloquy from his earliest solo records. After garnering major success in the UK as one-third of the pop act the Walker Brothers (none of whom were actually related, or born with the name Walker), Scott Walker left the group and released four LPs between 1967 to 1969 (Scott, 2, 3, and 4), each of which is held as a classic by diehard pop sophisticates. The earliest of these records were also successful in the UK, though as Walker's themes became weightier (influenced not only by Belgian singer/composer Jacques Brel, but the dark end of art-house cinema and literature), his audience slowly dwindled. Walker released a string of albums in the early 1970s that retreated drastically from the ambition of his first four before unexpectedly reuniting with the Walker Brothers for 1978's Nite Flights, and unveiling the first glimpses of the major musical artist we hear today.

Walker's Climate of Hunter from 1984 furthered his movement towards the abstract (albeit very gradually), though it wasn't until Tilt that his gift for radical songcraft and sound sculpting came to the fore. If his earliest solo music contained unusual themes for a pop artist, they did at least contain fairly conventional orchestrations and melodies. Tilt threw all that out in favor of a hybrid mixture of modern classical music, found sound, dissonant avant-rock, and hyper-personal vocal expression. It was a masterpiece, even as it alienated fans hoping for a return to comparatively calm waters.

The Drift is still further down an unbeaten path. Written and produced over a seven-year period, this record, like a painstakingly fine Ingmar Bergman film, moves slowly and deliberately, with an intense focus and refusal to turn away from disturbing "images." Like Tilt, its stories are taken from a varied, almost overstuffed horizon of literature, news stories, Walker's half-forgotten dreams, and otherwise poetic neuroses. Speaking visually, the music is mostly darker hues, though sudden flashes of blue light or explosive white beams punctuate an otherwise intimidating monolithic landscape. Walker describes working with "blocks of sound" as opposed to written arrangements, and the record betrays a broad, almost brawny movement, as if being slowly, persistently kicked in the gut by the characters (or characterizations) of the composer's songs.

Lyrically, The Drift (like its predecessor) practically invites volumes of analysis, especially after repeated listens-- but then, the best part about them is that they aren't usually explicit. "Cossacks Are", with pulled quotes like, "A moving aria for a vanishing style of mind" or "A nocturne filled with glorious ideas" could very well refer to Walker's own music, or even poke fun at his reviews. It's hard to say for sure, but impossible to resist looking for clues.

Throughout the album, textures change without a moment's notice: The solemn organ and drum pulse of "Clara" leads like a brick to the head into the wallop of sticks on animal flesh and churning, nauseating strings, only to shed its skin into muffled-scream violins, and back again. Walker sings about a body "dipped in blood in the moonlight/ Like what happen in America," and later describes a vision of the song's namesake ("Sometimes I feel like a swallow/ A swallow which by some mistake has gotten into an attic and knocks its head against the walls in terror"). The images fly by as they would in a nightmare, and the music is no less surreal or paranoid. "Cue" looks at the parasitic life of a virus, proceeding like a Stanley Kubrick movie, free of any particular morality or obligation to end happily, and full of exquisite imagery, as considered as it is obscene.

"Jesse" begins with the hum of jet engines and a mutilated take on Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" guitar riff. Walker has described this as his "9/11 song," and uses the motif of Elvis and his stillborn twin brother to make a statement about American mythology and hubris-- and yes, that's pretentious, as is most of Walker's output for the last 30 years. It also reminds that "pretension" isn't always synonymous with "bullshit": Walker earns every one of his conceptual pretexts via the iron-fist dynamics of the songs, and his own deep, wet baritone, deepening the scope of every measure it inhabits. Sometimes, his words seem secondary, as on the explosive noise rock intro to "Hand Me Ups", which sounds akin to legendary experimental Japanese band Ground Zero (check the bass sax!), or the pounding, jittery middle section on "Psoriatic". Elsewhere, Walker's voice is held afloat and given center stage by the gentlest accompaniment, as on the subtly wry album closer, "A Lover Loves". If you don't think the guy has a sense of humor, check the "psst-psst-pssts" between every verse.

There will doubtlessly be many listeners who don't understand how anyone could listen to such relentlessly "bleak" music, but Walker is the kind of artist that exposes a lot of would-be art as background entertainment-- and like a great artist, he doesn't actually make a value judgment out of it; he merely goes on about his work, distancing himself from the fleshy pile of pastimes and people who would obscure the most ambitious functions of art. Walker inspires, scares, confuses, provokes-- not because he wants to manipulate you, but because he's an interesting person who's worked a long time trying to make interesting music. Even at its most dissonant and abstract, this record is human to the core, and if you're ready to face a few demons, it's as inspiring as music gets.

-Dominique Leone, May 9, 2006
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/w/walker_scott/drift.shtml

[pubrockcoma]

i've uploaded some of the scott walker tv show recordings and some of the other rare stuff i've acquired.

keep in mind the sound quality won't be pristine of the tv show stuff (you may have problems playing some of the tracks on windows media player but they will play on real player or winamp) as the tv show is long deleted and the master tapes erased:(


http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BGCGG5JF

[poprenaissance]

i've uploaded some of the scott walker tv show recordings and some of the other rare stuff i've acquired.

keep in mind the sound quality won't be pristine of the tv show stuff (you may have problems playing some of the tracks on windows media player but they will play on real player or winamp) as the tv show is long deleted and the master tapes erased:(


http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BGCGG5JF

oh you have MAJOR good karma coming yer way because of this. WELL DONE!

[Rushes]

And a great review, too! Thanks for sharing that, Codreanu.

[Requiescant]

Anyone heard any of Brel's own work?
A few years ago there were a few budget-priced albums on the go. His version of 'If You Go Away'(Ne Me Quitte Pas) is every bit as emotional and heartbreaking as Scott or Marc's. They also include his original versions of 'Next', 'The Bulls' and 'Funeral Tango'. Even though the songs are entirely in their original French, it's not hard to be moved by his voice and his delivery.

To the Marc Almond fans: which do you prefer; the version of 'If You Go Away' on his Brel album, or the version on The Mambas album. The latter for me.

Momus has also covered Brel's work. His versions of 'Jacky', 'If You Go Away' and 'See A Friend In Tears' are on his album 'Circus Maximus' and are fantastic.

[dallow_bg]

Momus has also covered Brel's work. His versions of 'Jacky', 'If You Go Away' and 'See A Friend In Tears' are on his album 'Circus Maximus' and are fantastic.

I'm a fan of Momus' inspired renditions.
His take on "Jacky", titled "Nicky" is much more lyrically liberal, but the theme and feeling is still there.
"Don't Leave" (ie. "if you go away") really show off Momus' vocals.

I think I'll post these tomorrow.

[Requiescant]

I'm a fan of Momus' inspired renditions.

Totally agree.
I like the way that Momus interprets the lyrics to fit his own persona. I wish he had recorded an entire album of his Brel covers, rather than just a three track E.P.

[poprenaissance]

momus, walker, almond, brel...i'm in poetic heaven here.

i've only heard one actual brel version; i'm dying to hear more. i got the same feeling: cannae understand a fucking thing but the emotion hits you like a ton of bricks.

personally it's the mambas for me, too. there's so much more undercurrent to that version, though the subsequent version is fantastic.

momus is just fucking genius. weird genius, but genius nonetheless.

[this charming man]

momus is just fucking genius. weird genius, but genius nonetheless.

Can't argue with that...

My friend wrote a thesis on "Stars Forever" - the release that was funded by fans in return for Momus writing a song about them on the cd. Brilliant stuff...

[poprenaissance]

had to pay legal bills, so for $1000 a pop you could get a momus song written about you. the man is a genius.

[Requiescant]

momus is just fucking genius. weird genius, but genius nonetheless.

I totally agree with you, and with This Charming Man above. Momus should be every bit as popular and famous as Morrissey, certainly on a similar par. It's a complete mystery that mass adulation has escaped him.
Next to Morrissey, he is the most creative, poetic and ingenius lyricist that Britain has produced.
His albums for el and Creation are all fantastic.

It's interesting that in the song 'Maf' from the Stars Forever album, his character trys to assasinate Morrissey in an attempt to gain them both noteriety and rekindle the flames of fame(it was written whilst Morrissey was in his self imposed exile from music...and the world).

[Rushes]

I'm ashamed to admit that I wouldn't know Momus if I fell over him. Have I been hiding under a rock? I think I should investigate.

As for Marc's "If You Go Away", I prefer the Mambas version too, it sounds more desperate.. anguished..

I've finally received Drift.. am listening my way through it in chunks. Hell's bells and bloody dingdongs, it's intense! :)

[poprenaissance]

It's interesting that in the song 'Maf' from the Stars Forever album, his character trys to assasinate Morrissey in an attempt to gain them both noteriety and rekindle the flames of fame(it was written whilst Morrissey was in his self imposed exile from music...and the world).

you know, MAF used to show up in the chatroom quite a bit. he's quite a fine fellow. called me once out of the blue to see if i was a real person - we were both quite drunk and had a hilarious conversation.

[poprenaissance]

As for Marc's "If You Go Away", I prefer the Mambas version too, it sounds more desperate.. anguished..

THAT'S the description i was looking for. :)

[Rushes]

Who's Maf, btw?

Sheesh, I feel so ignorant.

[poprenaissance]

Who's Maf, btw?

Sheesh, I feel so ignorant.

maf's one of the guys who helped momus out by giving him a grand and getting a song written about him. he used to frequent the moz-solo chatroom under the moniker "momus" (natch); no idea if he still does. good sense of humor and intelligent (as i suppose most momus fans are). a funny fellow.

[this charming man]

he used to frequent the moz-solo chatroom under the moniker "momus" (natch); no idea if he still does. good sense of humor and intelligent (as i suppose most momus fans are). a funny fellow.

There is a user Momus registered on here who has posted once - about the chatroom!

"Is the shatroom no more? I used to rather like it, back in 1972...
momus"

Could it be MAF!

[poprenaissance]

There is a user Momus registered on here who has posted once - about the chatroom!

"Is the shatroom no more? I used to rather like it, back in 1972...
momus"

Could it be MAF!

sounds just like him, bless! he's a fun guy to converse with, and well-versed in all things momus. ;)

[Requiescant]

Momus(the real one) was one of the few pop/rock artists to speak out in support of Morrissey during the initial 'racist' witch-hunt carried out by the N.M.E. He sent them a couple of letters at the time suggesting their actions were ill thought through and ill advised.

As for Scott Walker; did he not release an album called 'Pola X' between 'Tilt' and 'Drift'? All the magazines seem not to be referring to it, as if he released nothing between those two albums.

[dallow_bg]

Momus(the real one) was one of the few pop/rock artists to speak out in support of Morrissey during the initial 'racist' witch-hunt carried out by the N.M.E. He sent them a couple of letters at the time suggesting their actions were ill thought through and ill advised.

As for Scott Walker; did he not release an album called 'Pola X' between 'Tilt' and 'Drift'? All the magazines seem not to be referring to it, as if he released nothing between those two albums.

I believe Pola X was a soundtrack he did.
He also produced the last Pulp album.

[poprenaissance]

i really liked what he did with that pulp album. i think jarvis got quite a bit of inspiration from him.

[Old Mother Hell]

It´s lying quietly on my coffee table, still shrinkwrapped and all. I´m so looking forward to this album. David Sylvian, Scott Walker, Morrissey...all artists who do EXACTLY what they want to do.

[poprenaissance]

haven't listened to david sylvian in AGES. wonderful voice. i love the combo of his voice and mick karn's bass.

[Bluebirds]

The Scott Walker sings Brel album is superb. I went through a phase when I would listen to nothing else.

Peter

Think we may have had this conversation before!!!! And I don't blame you either

[Bluebirds]

i really liked what he did with that pulp album. i think jarvis got quite a bit of inspiration from him.

Hi. Wow didn't know there was a Scott Wlaker appreciation society here.. True Mozzer fans are the best:D

We Love Life is, in my opinion, the best Pulp LP of all of them. ... and thats Scott Walker's production

[Bluebirds]

I totally agree with you, and with This Charming Man above. Momus should be every bit as popular and famous as Morrissey, certainly on a similar par. It's a complete mystery that mass adulation has escaped him.
Next to Morrissey, he is the most creative, poetic and ingenius lyricist that Britain has produced.
His albums for el and Creation are all fantastic.

It's interesting that in the song 'Maf' from the Stars Forever album, his character trys to assasinate Morrissey in an attempt to gain them both noteriety and rekindle the flames of fame(it was written whilst Morrissey was in his self imposed exile from music...and the world).

I take it one of you praising Momm used him as a psedonym before....
I had this romantic ideal that it was the actual Momus who posted on here,as I doubted (m)any people had actually heard of him. I stand corrected

[Bluebirds]

Anyone heard any of Brel's own work?
A few years ago there were a few budget-priced albums on the go. His version of 'If You Go Away'(Ne Me Quitte Pas) is every bit as emotional and heartbreaking as Scott or Marc's. They also include his original versions of 'Next', 'The Bulls' and 'Funeral Tango'. Even though the songs are entirely in their original French, it's not hard to be moved by his voice and his delivery.

To the Marc Almond fans: which do you prefer; the version of 'If You Go Away' on his Brel album, or the version on The Mambas album. The latter for me.

Momus has also covered Brel's work. His versions of 'Jacky', 'If You Go Away' and 'See A Friend In Tears' are on his album 'Circus Maximus' and are fantastic.

Ne me quitte pas
je suis desolee...

I did A-level French and as part of a "cultural appreciation" our French teacher made us listen to Jacques Brel (even tho he's Belgian)

mindblowing stuff I thought. Everyone else yawned until Charles n Eddie came oN!

[marred]

he did a song for the James Bond Movie "The world is not enough" that only appeared on the album and not in the film which was beautiful and that's the first time I heard him. They should get him to do a title Bond song but they only choose mainstream big names nowadays :(