I didn't even know about The Hall Of Counterfeits. It's hard to keep up with Kilbey. But I just streamed it at work and like it. Picked up the CD. Thanks for the heads up.
I received an email notice from Qrates that the Jupiter 13 vinyl from Kilbey/Kennedy is supposed to ship at the end of November.
I was so into Jupiter 13 that The Hall Of Counterfeits just seemed like too much too soon. Was surprised he released it so soon after. There are brilliant moments but a single album would have sufficed.
I was struck by that you said you were a massive Church fan yet hadn’t gone into Kilbey’s solo universe. This kind of makes no sense to me. How long were you a fanatic before you finally jumped in? I discovered the Church in 85 when i saw a cassette (it was all cassettes back then, working in the canadian rocky mountains town of Lake Louise we were). I saw that cover with the lads in their splendid paisley tops and long hair. Then the next album Starfish just killed it! It took some american pros to push their sound a bit out of the myrrh and brighten those shimmering guitars even more! Then i met a new pal who was the first person i had met who loved the Church out there in the blue and white land of the mountain lakes. I loved Priest=Aura where they developed the ambient aspect of their sound that they took to new levels with guitars! This is why i enjoyed their recent records (for me recent is late 90s to just a few years ago, before Marty left). It’s all over now for the band the Church except in name. But Steve is still making solo albums even if the Church records are basically solo albums with some others’ input. I bought Unearthed as soon as it came out basically. On cassette. We were lucky to be able to buy these albums in Banff at all as there was only one music shop. These tapes were much enjoyed in that living postcard life. Albums from then are indelibly stamped by that time and place, they’ll always take me back there. Bringing things up 35 years to just yesterday when i found a really nice copy of Earthed on clear vinyl for only 6.99. Had a bit of hash and it sounded great and it has the same vibe as his first album. Since then he’s made about 60 more records and i only have a few. But then i’m not a Church maniac. I just love what they do and their music is always there in my collection. And i do keep up with whatever they do. I may miss an album here and there. It’s a deep well. It must be tough being a SK completist. I’m grateful to have seen them a couple of times before anybody (except Ploog) left. My first show was the Hologram of Baal tour and i was in the position to give away tickets which was a joy and a celebration. A memory that sticks is at one point, or maybe more, the two guitars had high capos and it was like massive mandolins all electric and powerful. Then i saw them in Seattle the next time they came out our way. Then Marty left and i saw them without him. I’m very partial to that album Hologram. And i also just this week got the CD of Narcosis + More cuz i wanted to dive into ambient SK. That’s where i am now. I have not heard 80% or even more of Steve’s work.
Hmm... not to burst your bubble, but Narcosis is hardly ambient. It's actually one of his more abrasive albums – but don't be afraid, because it's still really good! "Fall In Love" is an amazing song. You got the expanded edition... I can't remember much about the bonus tracks (I usually just listen to the original EP, tracks 1-5), so they might be a bit more in the vein you want. But if you want less aggressive, more introspective SK, I would highly recommend Gilt Trip, the collaboration with his brother Russell. I hate the term "world music", but that's not incorrect – they take all sorts of cultural music and make rich, detailed soundscapes with it. Also, the CD edition of his 2008 album Painkiller ends with an untitled 20-minute ambient piece which is truly beautiful. But right now I'm struggling to think of anything else in his solo career that I would consider ambient... After Everything Now This is the most relaxed-sounding album I can think of, but it's not a solo album. I'm really tired right now and I need some sleep, so I'll repsond to the rest of your post when I wake up. But it's nice to have somebody new in the discussion! Welcome aboard.
Thanks. And thanks for the tips. I have Painkiller and yes that is a cool track at the end. Would love a whole album of it. Earthed is almost ambient, well it’s instrumental which can have a similar effect. Gilt Trip appears expensive from what i saw, none on discogs and one for near 100 on ebay. I enjoyed Narcosis on first listen last night, it has a nice haze. Cheers
Sorry it's taken me so long to get back. The two Gilt Trip albums are less common than some of his other projects, but $100 is absurd. There's multiple copies listed at about US $25 on Discogs. Unfortunately, because of the awful new Discogs shipping policy, if you can even find a seller willing to ship to Timbuktu, you might end up paying close to $100 anyway. You can buy the downloads from Steve's Bandcamp, but both are sadly MP3-sourced. And obviously you want the CD anyway. (I only have Egyptian Register on CD, I still need to pick up the first one.) How long was I a Church fanatic before I got into solo SK? About two years. I became a Church fan in October or November of 2016. By mid-2018, I had nearly every Church album – the only one I was still missing by the end of the year was Shriek. I didn't have many of the singles at that point (but today, the only one I'm missing is "Two Places At Once"), but by mid-2018, I had probably spent over $1,500 collecting the Church discography – and I had gotten great deals on most of the rare ones: Back With Two Beasts for $18, El Momento Siguiente for $20, Jammed for $45. The Church had about 26 or 27 albums; counting his seemingly endless list of side projects, solo SK had something like 50. (And even since then, he's released SIX new albums – one of them a double!) I probably would have decided to dive into his solo career at some point, but when he had his Bandcamp sale active (which, sadly, it no longer is) – 30 albums and 5 singles for US $75 – I decided that it was time. I paid $35 more than that for Beside Yourself! Even though, annoyingly, most of the albums on there are sourced from MP3s, it was still one of the best purchases of my life. That averages out to less than $2.50 per album! (Of course, now I'm paying ten times that amount for a single CD of the same music, but hey.) I still haven't actually listened to all of it. But I have listened to most of it – or, at least, enough to say "That was one of the best purchases of my life!" So, in short, when I started running out of Church albums to collect, I decided to start collecting solo SK albums. Anything to keep my collecting addiction going, eh? The good (?) thing about solo SK is that some of the stuff is so absurdly rare that I probably won't ever have a complete collection. The biggest omissions from my CD shelf are The Idyllist and Speed Of The Stars – fortunately, both of those downloads are, in fact, lossless. I don't have any Hex yet (but those are cheap), I'm missing the first Gilt Trip album, I've never once seen a copy of Fake for sale, and I don't have the obscenely rare self-released albums Garage Sutra, AddendaOne, AddendaTwo, Live At The Fly By Night Club, or Miscellanaea: Whispers In The Static. And, as mentioned, I'm still missing The Idyllist and Speed Of The Stars. And there's probably a bunch more that I'm forgetting. But I do have a decent solo SK collection... a lot of which I actually bought directly from SK. He has a reputation as being rather curmudgeonly, but I've never once experienced that – in all my interactions with him, he has been one of the most delightful individuals I've ever met.
Nice collection although I'd file The Refo:mation under The Church rather than SK solo. Surprisingly, you are also a bit light on Steve Kilbey/Martin Kennedy which has become my go-to when reaching for any non-Church SK project by a wide margin.
I like the Refo:mation, but I get a certain feeling from the Church's stuff which is different from solo Kilbey stuff. Whether it's Of Skins And Heart or Sometime Anywhere or Man Woman Life Death Infinity, there's something that I sense on a gut level that says "this is the Church". And I don't get that with the Refo:mation, even though, technically speaking, it is essentially the same band. I don't know how, I don't know why. In my mind, for whatever reason, it fits better as a Kilbey side project. As for KK, I actually didn't realize until taking that photo how few albums I actually have. If you'd asked me, I would have said the only ones I'm missing are White Magic and Glow And Fade. And yet there's two more on top of that. You Are Everything is a part of the Bandcamp downloads, but for some reason I thought I had the CD. And @JeffMo your girlfriend is a, let's say, "track 2 from Dabble". Isidore is far and away my favourite SK project that does not have two "ch" consonants in the name. And the self-titled debut I love more than Starfish. I actually have an extra copy of that one, which I didn't picture because Steve wrote the names of everyone in my family on the cover followed by "I love you" (this was like five minutes after I first met him, I should add).
Woah. 4 copies of unearthed? Surely they can’t all have different tracks? And where are the LPs man?!
I've got a Ryko Earthed LP (with obi!) signed by Steve, which I've never played. It's downstairs somewhere. My interest in vinyl is very limited, and I already spend too much money on CDs as it is. I would have gone bankrupt and had to sell everything I owned at least twice by now if I collected vinyl as well. I basically only limit my vinyl collection to albums I couldn't live without, or ones that have great sentimental value for me (like a copy of Heyday I found at an antique shop down the road from my new house the week I moved, or the aforementioned signed Earthed LP). The very top row is all the CDs from the Monsters N Mirages box set. The row below that starts with the original 14-song Enigma CD, and then it's all the mid-2000s Karmic Hit reissues (which are basically identical to the box set, but with different liner notes) except I don't have Remindlessness (what you see in the photo is the 1990 EP with the two missing songs from the original Remindlessness CD). All of them except Narcosis are signed and personalized to me by Steve on the back of the booklet. The row below that is all of the original Red Eye CDs (except Jack Frost which is an Arista that skips on the first four songs, grr). The Karmic Hit and box set version of Unearthed has the same track list. The Red Eye one has two bonus tracks and is my preferred mastering of the album. The Enigma was the first SK CD I owned and I won't get rid of it for that reason, but I never play it. When it comes to the artwork, the box set version designed by @Twangy is the best, with the perfect color balance and the right level of clarity. It's beautiful! The Red Eye is over-saturated and the Enigma is too sharp. (The Karmic Hit wins in the liner notes department, they're hilarious.) I also forgot to include my Art Man & Technology box, also signed by Steve. The miniature art prints in it are great, but the CD itself is... let's just say there's a reason I forgot about it when I took this picture. It probably worked better when it was an actual art exhibit but I've never once been able to get through that CD, and in fact I don't think I've even listened to five tracks on it in their entirety. It is not my cup of tea at all. Sorry, Steve, I love ya, but this is not your finest hour!
More music coming early November. Does this man ever stop? Sakura Flower, by GB3 GB3 is a side project by a guitarist of the Underground Lovers, a band rarely mentioned on this forum. Steve regularly contributes to GB3.
On the Kilbey/Kennedy Instagram account, there was a message about a week ago saying ‘Follow up to Jupiter 13 happening soon(ish)’. Lovely.
The new Church album is apparently almost done, too. What organs are not necessary for survival and yield a good profit when donated?
So happy to have found this thread! The Church has been my favorite band for years and I've done my best to keep up with the side projects and solo output of each member (even their kids LOL), especially Steve Kilbey. After half a dozen (foolishly) missed opportunities, I finally got to see them live a few years ago and meet Steve for a few minutes. When I told him he was my favorite songwriter ever he looked at me like I was insane, but I stick by it. There are few other artists as prolific as he is (I often joke with a friend and mutual fan that it's getting close to 3:00, so time for SK to put out another album), and none can keep up with the quality of his output. Every release is at the very least interesting and pleasant, but mostly I find it all quite amazing, and how he is able to always pull out thoughtful lyrics with memorable melodies is beyond me. Of his collaborations, I think his work with Martin Kennedy is among his best work ever, particularly Jupiter 13, which is saying something because I wore out the first Jack Frost cassette I had. Of his solo stuff, The Slow Crack (which I'm confused if that's an EP or a full album, cos my vinyl is definitely LP length) is my favorite of his older output, and I thought he had reached his peak with Painkiller until I heard The Idyllist and THEN Sydney Rococo. And I've really enjoyed the newest release with The Winged Heels, where I think he's done a great job of fleshing out a lot of the styles he's flirted with off and on for decades and makes something that is both an homage and yet fully Steve Kilbey.
I should probably give Sydney Rococo another try - it has never grabbed like his stunning recent work with Kennedy has.
I admit it's a bit of a side step in many ways, like a couple of piano ballads LOL I was like, "What's this now? Billy Joel?" It's super eclectic, I agree, but somehow it works for me overall.
Just got an email that mine shipped - well at least the label was created. We will see how soon it ships.