Friday 20th of April, 2001
Supermarket, drop off disc at Walker's and get Big Tin of olive oil from the shop on the Walworth Road.
More Added-to film titles:
How Green Was My Valley Girl
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life Insurance
A Hard Day's Night Nurse
Sherlock Junior Showtime
On Golden Pond Scum
Out of Afrikka Bambaata
Play it Again, Sam Fox
Romancing the Stone Roses
Chariots of Fire Engines
A Short Film About Killing Jamie Theakston
Midnight Express Checkout
House of Games Teachers
Swallows and Amazon.com
Play Misty for Me Mum
The Accidental Tourist Board
Purple Rain Man
("I'm a great rock star, I am. Uh huh.")Blood Wedding Reception
Farewell My Lovely Horse
The Poseidon Adventure Playground
In the afternoon I play the Theusz Haamtahk trilogy and lie on the sofa. I have replaced the Retrospectiw I & II with the new versions. Some minor quibbles - the versions aren't quite as incisive as the Retrospectiw I & II versions (twenty years old!), but I only have the first and third movements of that. MDK, although in some ways not as good a version, does flow better - the bass solo is uninterrupted (there's a crude fade in and out of it on the Retrospectiw version, but then it probably went on for hours. I'm not sure about the Rheims (1976) version). There's also a final bit not on the Retrospectiw or original studio versions. I think.
And they've split the different movements up into tracks, so I won't get the whole thing any more. We'll see how I feel about that.
I good, I'm turning into a Magma bore.
Still, it is one of the most euphoric musical experiences I know, although you do have to listen to a whole movement (or all three) to "get it". The chanting at the end of MDK which speeds up and up and then slows right down and then back up again. Remarkable.
The band member introductions at the end of MDK don't quite come off, though. It's not altogether clear what is happening - the band members all repeat the name of each member over and over at differents speeds and pitches, creating a jumble. The finish with Christian Vander (of course - huge applause) and Magma. At the RFH it was a lovely bubbly sound, but here it's merely a jumble. A shame.
Regeneration, the new Divine Comedy album is also not without a few problems. Their first on a major label - Parlophone - with an expensive producer - Nigel Godrich. Radiohead's label and producer. And they sound like Radiohead. A very literate and intelligent version, but nonetheless, it seems like the demands of major label production require a sort of sophisticated flattening of the sound. Everything has an equal weight.
I'm trying to tune into how I feel about it. Not disappointed, oddly. It does strike me as a very good album. But lacking in the moments of sublimity that Fin de Siecle or Casanova have, the ups and downs and dynamics.Hannon has said that he sort of resents being associated with "Broadway" type numbers. Sounding like Radiohead is a good way to shake that. But The Divine Comedy were always number one in a field of one. This way the best they can hope for is number two in a field of thousands (and up against Coldplay or Travis, dislike them though I do, what real chance do they have?).
And the Blegvad is pleasantly redundant in an odd sort of way. He's still one of my favouritest songwriters, though, and the booklet has the lyrics to Gold and Meantime in it. Which I've always wanted. A re-release of King Strut would be the ideal solution, though, wouldn't it?
The answer's yes.
I listen to a Penguin Cafe Orchestra compilation, too. What a shame about Simon Jeffes. Lovely, deceptively simple, stuff.
(That's PCO's music, not the late Mr Jeffes himself)