Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx Metal Beat

Thanks for that, you're spot on. I've corrected the list.

Dave.

I listened to Metal Beat two times until yet. The reason I have to listen to it 3 or 4 times is 'cause of I'm a German and use another language there are some problems from time to time during I listening the Interviews.
But after a while I work it out.

It is very informative and interesting to listen to this CD. Nice to know some stories behind the Metamatic recording. I also love the demos which are included. Plaza must be a great piece in extended version. Would love to hear it in full length.

As for the booklet - it is the same I have to say for as for the Retro Future CD. For 13 Pounds I have awaited a bit more. If there are problems to find some good photos of that period it would been also nice to include some Garden studio pics or some Photo shots of Steve Malins and John as they were recording this Interview. I'm a fan of booklets - one reason for me to buy a real CD. Otherwise you can download music from Internet.
But this booklet is a bit thin.

But the hole CD - Idea and recording is nice. Love to have it in my John Foxx collection.


Cheers, Andreas

I agree with you Andreas on the booklet. To have the original CD is special but when there's not much more to it beyond the disc, then it's a bit of a shame.

I'm not saying to add pages, but surely inside more could have been done like archive photos from 1980 or in the Garden Studio, or like you say, a photo of Steve interviewing John. That would have been nice.

But it seems John no longer likes to appear on or in his album artwork (I wonder if he ever did?) - as in recent photos. It's a shame because he's such an interesting and distinctive looking chap - I'm sure there are so many "Quiet man" type photos that could be taken.

But anyway back to the point... having this CD is still beter than nothing at all. I certainly don't want to sound ungrateful!! But maybe the place for future interview projects like this is in the form of podcasts or the like.

Here's one thing they never talked about in the interview, which I'd genuinely like to know:

the reverb on Metamatic is wonderful - there's absolutely bucketloads of it on most of the synths and snare hits and stuff. It sounds beautiful, really smooth and fluid.

I wonder what the reverb was at Pathway studio?
It sounds so nice I'm guessing it was an actual room they mic-ed up? But then John says it was tiny and there hardly were any rooms! Or was it a big plate? (but would they have space for that there?)

Just listened to Metal Beat disc 2.
Again there was some interesting things John mentioned. I hope that he does find the tapes he as with the fragments on and re-use them. He was also a bit vague about the film soundtrack The Bed, I'm guessing choosing not to remember.
I never realised that he was commissioned to write 20th Century.

All in all an interesting listen.

Peter

I wonder does Janet Street Porter even remember who John Foxx is these days...?

The only thing I remember about Janet Street Porter is those teeth of hers when she smiled on TV. LOL
Peter

It's a great interview all round, though John clearly starts to tire a bit towards the end and makes me think it was done in one go??

I particularly love his reference to the Burning Car lyric. Always been one of my favourites, particularly that line

"It's a Burning Car…Loving You…"

A wonderful expression of the danger, unpredictability, excitement and anxiety involved in human relationships.

You do get the feeling from this interview that Metamatic was only really ever meant to be an experiment, to capture that feeling at that time.Very cathartic. I've heard John hint at this before and there is some irony in that it has become the album (and style) that he is best known for.

It was originally only that long as well I think, 40 seconds or so, just for that feature of the TV show. And then expanded later to become the full length song we know today when Burning Car was released as a single

So probably (i don't know) the complete tracks inside of this edition are:

Drums 1 & 2
Echo Piece
Touch & Go (Dub version)
No-One Driving (demo)
Bed Flight
A Jingle 1
Jamie´s Theme
A Jingle 2
Plaza (extended demo)
Red Collar
Like a Miracle (1979 Version)