Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx Glimmer: The Best Of

Impression 1 (unfamiliar tracks only):

"Cities of Light 5": ugh, don't like what they have done to this one. Doesn't bode well for the reissue of "Pleasures".

"Burning Car (Dubterror/Karborn mix)": no, sorry, doesn't work for me, is somewhat bland as well which is perhaps the worst part of it. Foxx needs to be remixed by Cicada, Ulrich Schnauss, Oakenfold, Underworld, LFO, Richard X. Them type of chaps.

There will be other changes to the remaster of 'TPOE' also, (as stated by Rob on page 10) so maybe it will 'bode well' by then. Personally i would have kept the album the same, and added this track and any other new versions, as bonus tracks. Especially as the remaster of 'C+B' can potentially have the 'Drive EP' and others added for its bonus material. A remaster of 'TPOE' could seem a bit short in comparison. Will be interesting to know if theres extra tracks for the forthcoming 'Shifting City' release too.

A copy (the first and only? possibly) of Glimmer has now arrived in Ottawa. It's an interesting selection, and the first disc flows pretty well. Haven't played the second yet. It's not the compilation I would have put together, but my ideal compilation would ignore licensing issues. And might well require another CD or two. (Maybe something like... disc one: Ultravox and Foxx, from Ultravox! to In Mysterious Ways; disc two: Cathedral Oceans, Translucence, Drift Music, the upcoming Robin Guthrie collaboration, Glimmer, and other instrumentalish stuff; disc three: Foxx/Gordon; disc four: Nation XII, Juri Hulkkonen, Metamatics, Dubterror/Karborn remixes.)

I'm not crazy about the Foxx/Gordon remakes of Ultravox songs. "Dislocation" sounds more cleaned up and conventional; on Systems of Romance, it sounded harsher and more bizarre, and it wasn't just a matter of context, a song like that surrounded by guitar rock songs. And "Hiroshima Mon Amour" suffers as a result of the synth line replacing the saxophone.

Still, it's an interesting mix of eras. I wonder how it would sound to someone who hasn't been following John's career over the last decade or two...

Sort of what I always think too Steve... Nice to know Glimmer is making it's way round the world at least in 'conventional' format (ie. official CDs.) Where did you buy it from out of curiosity?

We can only imagine, but i would guess they would be rightly impressed, but just not as much as we all were back then.

Amazon.com. I don't even bother looking in local record stores for this stuff. The only post IMW albums I've bought in a local store were Shifting City and Cathedral Oceans, about ten years ago, and I special-ordered them.

The Garden, The Golden Section, and In Mysterious Ways are on their way from Amazon.co.uk even now. I think it worked out that they'd be cheaper that way than ordering from Amazon.com, and last I looked they weren't listed at Amazon.ca. I'll probably get Impossible and Neuro Video through Townsend (they won't be available from anyone else anyway, will they?)

Its the same for Maryann too. So the way we do it is, i buy them from my local shops, then send them over. All the Foxx and Midgevox remasters have been 'easy' to buy here. Easy as in about five copys of each on the shelf per week.

Yes. I go to the record store at least once a week and I have yet to see any of the remasters; and that includes the Metamatic remaster!

"Record store"? What's that? Thought those were obsolete!

Same here, the only John Foxx CD's I found (and perchased) where I live was at the Tivoli where John performed. But apart from that, I have never seen the Foxx CD's available in the local retailer stores.