My 10 year-old showed us some theremin videos last week, his teacher taught them about it. I thought it was cool of her. I spent my free-form Sunday morning watching a movie in the local cinema in my future little town, and I found it really great (despite the extremely bad technical conditions; owing to file conversion problems or whatever, the cinema screened the DVD... what is more, the reds were saturated all along). It was about 2 brothers, and music, so it's not totally unrelated, especially considering the first of M. Streett's linked reviews. Its called The Saddest Music In The World (2003). Is this movie well-known in Canada? Afterwards there was a sad music contest in the cinema's café. All along I wanted to sing Costello's The Comedian (Orbison's version), which is a great sad song I think, but I was helping friends holding the bar and I missed the opportunity. It made me realise that Ray has few authentically sad songs, of the tear-inducing kind. Maybe Days, in a way? Or Nothing Lasts Forever ? If I had had time to rehearse a Kinks-related contestant for saddest song, I guess I would have gone for Funny Face or Flowers In The Rain.
Well, I'll be a babbling birdbrain. A cackling clod. A foolish fop. I remember being lost in space last weekend but apparently, I'm still there. I thought it looked familiar ... I suppose a suitable punishment will be I have to read the entire Aschere story in the booklet again right now. That or listen to Ray's See My Friends duets album tonight. Easy decision. Chapter 1 Far beyond the milky way system, lost in time, dimension, and space ...
Too funny! You must really dislike the duets album. I only listened to the first few tracks so far and thought it was OK. Then again, I don’t remember much about the duets tracks, but I do remember a lot of Dave’s galaxy hopping love story , not that I’ll be re-reading it any time soon. BTW, thanks again for posting the liner notes, it did make it easier to understand what Dave is singing about on the album.
hmm… interesting thought… I’d enter: Rainy Day in June? Some Mother’s Son? Property? As for Freeform Sunday, I saw this week that the Kinks “released” several “EPs” on Spotify on May 26th. Essentially these are short themed playlists. Not sure how involved Ray, Dave, or Mick are in these, if at all. Some interesting song choices and combinations…. Some make more sense than others. Superman (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman Oklahoma USA Muswell Hillbilly Holiday in Waikiki Sitting in My Hotel Juke Box Music Sunny Afternoon Sunny Afternoon The Village Green Preservation Society Daylight Sitting by the Riverside See My Friends This Time Tomorrow Holiday Supersonic Rocket Ship Holiday Australia Holiday Romance Nothin’ in this World Can Stop Me Worryin’ ‘Bout That Girl Gotta Get the First Plane Home Drivin’ All Day and All of the Night Drivin’ Picture Book A Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Second Hand Car Spiv Life on the Road Waterloo Sunset Waterloo Sunset Victoria Denmark Street Living on a Thin Line Have a Cuppa Tea David Watts Nice to see some deep cuts getting a bit of love.
Blessed Of All Nights. This track again gives me a sort of atmospheric feel and vibe about it and we have some vocoder type vocals that have a sort of faux-choir/gospel type of sound. Dave comes in with a narration type of delivery. We don't develop into a beat or flow with this one. It relies on the atmospheric styling and Dave's narration to hold the attention. It sort of sounds like a hope for a resolution of Dave's alien connection? perhaps?
More great stuff from Dave and Russ! I’m off to the island of Colonsay for archaeological fieldwork for the next 9 days so I’m unlikely to have much time for replying to threads, so I’ll give my opinion of the album now: fantastic atmospheric stuff and my favourite Dave album so far. It reminds me of the Avalon film soundtrack. I’m hoping another copy turns up on Discogs.
We'll fight over it! Funnily enough, listening to Blessed of All Nights, I started to have images of Dave walking around near the rocks and Dolmens in Kinkdom Come in my brain. And I guess it's not that far off the mark, since the two projects were made the same year, I think ? I can imagine him having those spiritual walks, then going to his home studio with his son and coming up with this soundtrack of Celtic sci-fi sorcery, and then going to the pub with Russ belting out old Irish tunes. Anyway, that's the portrait of Dave I now have in my head. With the black bonnet!
"Mirrors" This fits into the pure soundtrack category for me. It is music that might accompany film visuals and would help establish a mood. There is no vocal so it does not seem to be a typical "song" per se. "Blessed Of All Nights" This is definitely music that sets a mood (solemn and contemplative). The choral vocals and Dave's spoken vocal add to this mood. And what Dave's vocal says is a moment of hope as he contemplates how his true love is somewhere out there among the stars and one day they will be together. So this piece has more to it than Saturday's "Mirrors" and here I was compelled to really listen to what Dave's vocal was saying and focus on its positive message. And listening to these two pieces in the beauty of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia as the sun rose was a great experience!
Blessed Of All Nights Atmospheric, gentle, beguiling and I could argue that's just in the title. I would prefer a little less oration as the music says plenty and I don't want to be distracted from my upper astral drift as it's very possibly getting me closer to Dave's alternate reality than anything else ever will!
Ok I had to look that place up as I didn't know if you were making an oblique reference to a place in Dave's celestial CD booklet that I have not read!
Blessed Of All Nights No drum beat groove required here, real or synthetic, as the music here tells the story that much more effectively without the distraction of a groove. There are some really nice vocal and keyboard melodies here, especially the first high-voiced Dave short vocal section followed by a flute-like single note keyboard melody. Towards the end of the song, we get another single line keyboard melody with a lovely oboe-like sound for contrast. But then on the other hand, just as you think you know where it’s going next, throughout there are a few surprises with an angular note, chord or key change occurring in places that grabs your ear. I’ve used these words before during this album, but again we have evocative, haunting, contemplative, visceral music here that captures the mood just right as a thoughtful penultimate track setting up the conclusion of the album and its story.
Missed freeform Sunday but another vote for Some Mother's Son as saddest Kinks song. I also choke up occasionally on Sitting in my Hotel. Then there's the Soap Opera line that used to punch me in the gut "oh darling, you won't believe it but it's true/what a boring occupation can do/it can make a nervous wreck out of you/it can kill your spirit and destroy your mind."
Listening to today's track while sitting on a near-deserted beach in West Wales under clear blue skies. Obviously with headphones on so it doesn't spook out anyone else (if there was anyone within 100 yards). It's rather beautiful - both the track and my current situation. There are some bits where I'm not sure if it's Dave's voice heavily processed or an instrument. Also catching up with my other song-by-song threads, which could be more difficult in the next few days with no WiFi in my holiday home.
Speaking of sad songs from Arthur, here’s Dave doing “Young and Innocent Days” live from the World Trade Center on 7-30-2001:
Blessed Of All Nights This track has a meditative and soothing feel. The sereneness allows the listeners time to let the mood of the previous tracks sink in. A truly beautiful soundscape.
Apologies for bringing this up (Picture Book discussion) but I fell badly behind due to a house move recently and am just going over some old ground. I found this post very interesting because, I too, purchased these so called 'surround' sound discs simply because I was just beginning to get into 5.1 audio at the time. Anyway, took them home and realised there was no surround layer on them. So back they went to the HMV store where I bought them. Sales assistant didn't have a clue what I was on about. Mark, can you post a link to your 5.1 thread? I have searched to no avail. Still searching!
The last thread guide for thread 2 Surrounded On Sundays - 5.1/quad reviews and summaries PART 2 Opening Post of thread 1 Surrounded On Sundays - 5.1/quad reviews and summaries
Valley Of The Shadows. The opening does somewhat create an image of walking into some mystical valley. Then we have some, sort of, tribal drums come in, with a slightly ominous feel. We get a synth pulse and a sort of faux-string melody. This breaks into a kind of dance beat, and a high melodic vocal comes in. Then we have Dave seemingly acting a spoken part. There is a build in intensity and Dave returns to a narrative type of delivery, and Dave leads us out with the idea of "Always Be Together". Leaving us to close out on and atmospheric kind of note with a string type melody.
The Aschere Project - Two Worlds. I don't dislike this, but I think the first half, or so, is more engaging than the second half. Initially we get some really solid ideas that engage and create an interest in where we're going here... probably because it is Dave, and although not completely removed from a couple of his other more atmospheric synth type albums, it seems more focused and direct in its aim. Past the halfway mark, it feels like it moves more into atmospheric new age type stuff, with a little less focus, but that could well be that I am not picking up on the story Dave and Russ are trying to tell here. I sort of get the feeling this is a relational type project, but the relationship is with the idea of a long lost connection to aliens of some distinction... and maybe I'm getting that feeling because of the narrative of Dave's that leans towards this kind of thing... I haven't had a chance to read Michael's uploads yet, and they may shed some light on this. For the most part this kind of sits on the edge of being interesting to me, and if the second half, or perhaps last third felt as strong as the first section, I may well have ordered the one copy I found on Discogs, but at the end of the day, it feels like it drifts off a bit for me.... though I do feel it is more focused and better executed than Purusha... It has more form and substance which makes it somewhat more appealing.
Valley Of The Shadows I find with this project, when going through it song by song, that it is harder to distinguish each song from the next as we go through them. This, I think, has to do with the nature of soundtracks which tend to be pieces of music bound together by mood. "Valley Of The Shadows" is similar to much of what has come before in that it is synth driven mood music with Dave's spoken vocal reciting his somewhat obscure lyrics. Generally, I would say I found the earlier parts of this project more interesting particularly the song (can't remember title) where I heard echoes of Beck which, to me, was a real surprise whether Dave intended it or not. Nothing after that ever grabbed me the same way and there was a sameness to the various songs. And this isn't necessarily a criticism. I think it speaks to the nature of the type of project this was.
