Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx Glimmer: The Best Of

Any Foxx fan worth his/her salt, would part with £7 for this release, amazes me how cheap some so called fans really are :rolleyes:

Sorry to hear about this.

But it does illustrate (at least to me) one of the more pointless aspects of pre-ordering. Like Alex, I walked into to HMV this afternoon and there it was on the shelf.

What annoys me (not quite everything annoys me...!) is that townsend don't even have Glimmer as their featured Foxx album. Instead, this is the pre-order for The Garden - Glimmer is listed about ten titles down the page!!!

No, it's certainly not the standard single version, nor the DJ edit.

I don't like the Metamatics track, though, and I've tried. The compilation is nevertheless splendid, and the more I hear it, the more majestic is "Dislocated".

I feel that owning "Glimmer" is a pleasure; it's certainly true that I would want to buy all the CDs as a continued way of saying thanks for everything that this music has meant to me for decades; the fact that the new music is as exciting as it is merely adds to the wonder.

If it's a slightly different version then, will all the tracks from the forthcoming reissue of TPOE have had some sort of reworking?

I popped into HMV yesterday and paid well over the odds for Glimmer but sometimes outside circumstances dictate.

I like the way it was packaged with the sleeve. The text in the booklet was a bit heavy going, mind you I did read it about 11.30 at night but the photgraphs were stunning showing pictures of John though the ages so to speak.

I enjoyed listening to the 3 un-heard tracks and being a "foxxy" fan I'll get my mucky mits on anything

On the whole I think the complilation is a good introduction for any new fan finding and wanting to listen to Johns output musically for the first time.

Peter

My memory's obviously not what it was. Perhaps Rob could clarify which version of No-one Driving features on Glimmer?

Apologies to all Mike Reid fans. Personally I cannot respect radio DJs who insist on musical censorship...but I'm sure he was not the only culprit in these matters.

mongrel

I was on the verge of cancelling my Asda order yesterday - the only thing that stopped me was that HMV in East Kilbride didn't have it in stock. Like Birdsong says, this is one reason why I seldom pre-order anything; the uncertainty of when you'll actually receive it.

Oooooooooooooooh! Cardboard! Ah, the delights of packaging!

And then when I got inside – some fantastic pictures as Peter says of Foxx through the ages, collage work and a new head shot (only eleven years or so since the ‘Hidden Man’ photo…don’t rush John… )

Mark Fisher of K-Punk blog / Wire magazine has written the sleeve notes; ‘Ballard’ etc, ‘Brutalism’ etc – you know the drill.

But what about the music?

It all works – although in places I had my suspicions about the running order (‘030 followed by Twilight's Last Gleaming? Eh? How does that work?’) , but it works just fine. I’ve never really liked the single version of Endlessy though – it’s more of a ‘Beatles copy’ riddled with Beatles clichés* that fails to take off and soar, unlike the more well known ‘Foxx original’ if that makes any sense.

The re-mastered tracks are gorgeous – listening to Twilight's Last Gleaming I was sat there thinking ‘Was all that instrumentation on the original!?’ and a quick listen to my battered cassette copy proved that indeed it was, it’s just that these new re-mastered mixes polish it up and give it all space to breathe. The same could also be said of the other re-mastered tracks on here that are being re-issued next week; Europe After the Rain, The Garden, Dancing Like a Gun. Foxx is in the details.

And the re-mastered 90s/00s material also; Cities of Light 5 having added bleeps and stuff compared to the original mix doesn’t detract from the original at all. The re-mastered version of Quiet City will make your jaw drop – guaranteed.

My dream that one day Foxx would collaborate with the bright hopes of our electronic future - acts such Burial, Kode 9 etc, gets a close run through on Burning Car (Dubterror / Karborn mix). Some aren’t going to like it, but give me more of that dislocated CR78 dub-step beat anytime. My only complaint is that it doesn’t match the brutal beauty of the original, but as a blueprint for a possible future direction it’s a definite milestone.

This is a well thought out, and well put together compilation. My thanks to Rob, Cerise and all involved.

I’m still in talks with Rob about the 149 disc version though (sorry Rob, been busy again)


(* I know all the backwards guitar and Maharishi inflections were original when The Beatles originally did it in 1967 but so many have reduced these practices to cliché sadly)

Most likely added to the extras, id say.

All part of different views from 'back in the day' no problems. Mike was always (99%) open to all music, oddly the ones people think of as pioneering in radio, changed over a few years towards some artists.