Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx The Golden Section 2008 re-master

I agree with you, The Golden Section and In Mysterious Ways are not so good as Metamatic and The Garden. John is following the new romantic style on these both Albums, which I was not very deep in. But this was what was happening upon the mid until the end of the 80'ies for most of the electronic bands I liked upon their early days . Human League, Ultravox, OMD - to name some of the early heroes who felt into , for me, a too soft and poppy sound. But John was a lot better than the Others - for me.This was the reason I lost my interest of that music scene after John left in 1985.

But I cannot agree these albums are worst albums. I like to listen to them from time to time though John had produced better albums before. They working in their own style and they including some great classics.

I'm glad John decided to follow the way of Metamatic with Louis - for me the right way and he and Louis doing a great job in this!

But The Golden Section and In Mysterious Ways are parts of John's history and I love to listen to that albums, though they are not his biggest highlights of his career.

I agree too about the cover of The Golden Section. All the other single or album covers I like more than this. It stands certainly at the end of my list.

But I really looking forward to the new re-releases. I think we all will be happy with it, I'm sure I will be!!


Andreas

I must defend The Golden Section.

It is an album that originally didn't appeal to me at all, going by the strength of the singles, which I first heard on Modern Art. Although they were good, the excitement and mystery of John's earlier work seemed long gone.

Then I bought the Exotour/Golden Section tour album, and the live tracks on the Golden Section live CD grabbed my interest - especially "The Hidden Man" - a brilliant track.

So I bought the album and wasn't disappointed. To me the singles are actually the odd ones out in terms of sound. As a pop album, I guess TGS was very contemporary at the time. Today a lot of it sounds of its time, especially when compared with its predecessors, but it doesn't stop it from being a great album and contains some of John's very best vocals.

On TGS, John really sang. It sounds like he put heart and soul into those vocals and the true range and strength of his vocals are finally, fully unleashed here. It's a style that perfectly suited the album; just as his previous vocal styles had on Metamatic and The Garden.

But it was tracks like "Ghosts on Water", "Twilight's last Gleaming" and "The Hidden Man" that really stand out for me and make the whole album really worthwhile.

It is a different kind of album to the ones that went before. That;s why they cannot really be compared. But when you listen to the lyrics, so many familiar themes are still present.

The title of the album is a very interesting one. I always felt frustrated that this was not expanded on by means of a title track, although given its meaning, maybe it might of been a bit naff. Still a great title though!

Second defence of TGS - have said it before on another thread that I think that, with the bonus tracks on the 2001 edsel re-release, The Golden Section makes a much more 'complete' album than all the other albums ('The Garden' included *ahem*)Perhaps as it was essentially two albums. I always see it as an autumnal album as well, and it was the first 'new' Foxx album I bought.
Incidently 'RATIWT' comes from John watching a documentary about Tigers, I read it in 'Smash Hits', so it must be true.
It's great and healthy for us all to have different opinions AND 'Twilight's...' has the greatest whistling on it since Roger Whittaker (I think Flip Martian wrote than on the forum years ago!)
Cheers

I find all John's music quite Autumnal.

Third defence of TGS.

This album was bought for me by my then girlfriend in '83. John's lyrics coupled with fantastic synth solos (always reminded me of The Swimmer 1) which starts @ around the 3 minute mark make The Hidden Man an absolute stormer for me despite all the jazz-funk Level 42-esque bass parts.

For me the disappointing bits of the LP are confined to the really naff "Growl" on Running Across Thin Ice With Tigers and the singles Endlessly & Your Dress which I can only presume were picked by the record company for release as the most universally accessible tracks. The rest? Bloomin' marvellous!

I'll fourth that!

My version of TGS is the cassette version so the fabulous Dance With Me and Woman On A Stairway are very much album tracks to me.

My Wild Love and Your Dress are tracks I can skip but I usually enjoy them regardless when I play them. The Hidden Man, Endlessly, Twilight's Last Gleaming and Like A Miracle would probably all fit in my top ten John Foxx tracks.

Interesting, Alex, that you find John's music autumnal. For me it is all spring or summer, with the exceptions of The Pleasures Of Electricity (winter) and Translucence/Drift Music (Indian summer).

ZXZXZXZXZXZXnnnnnttttt…clang!
That is the holographic sound of core memory banks going into complete neural failure,
“Dave, will you stop there, will you? stop, will you stop Dave?”


(though I certainly agree that on the GS+ album the tracks there do all relate well together stylistically)


Aw, I’d kind of assumed it was from a dream John had recalled having,
damn that powerful Smash Hits and its journalistic rigour,


A track I do like, so I’m going to have to detox by listening to ‘Neuro Video’ to get that particular cheesy image out of my head.

When Mark King starts slapping his guitar thats when I have to get my coat.


The 'Hidden Man' does have a great theme and lyrics to match, if it'd been produced in the same way as say a track like 'Walk Away' then it'd be an absolute stormer for me too

core memory please perform some diagnostic tests on your RAM, reboot, and relisten to The Golden Section. It is, in my opinion, a fine album. Thinking of the vinyl version, side one is very good and side two is excellent. The way a loop of "Endlessly" transforms into "Ghosts" is extraordinary and alone is worth the price of admission.

Okay, it is not a perfect album. "Sitting at the Edge of the World" seems to be inspired by "The Fool on the Hill" which was not one of the Beatles finest creations. "Running Across Thin Ice With Tigers" is always a bit rough going. I always cringe at the "tattooed like a loser" lyric because it seems out of place and very un-Foxx-like for some reason.

Despite some rough patches on side one, I maintain that T.G.S. is very solid listen on the whole and deserves a place in everyone's collection/playlist/whatever they call it nowadays.

But did Smash Hits mention if he was drunk when he was watching the documentary or writing -- or recording -- the song? I might find it more amusing if he was.

As I said earlier, I didn't like the LP when it came out but I never felt the need to dismiss it entirely like, erm, the one that followed it (I never re-bought either when they came out on CD). Since I hadn't listened to "TGS" in a long time I thought I would give it a play to see if I felt differently about it now (when, out of courtesy to its staunch defenders here in this forum, I replayed "IMW" a few weeks ago to see if time had changed my opinion of it, I STILL wanted to throw it out), but I couldn't even find "TGS" when I started looking through my vinyl tonight! Don't know what happened to it -- maybe some teenybopper saw the cover, thought it was a pop masterpiece from a graduate of a boy band, and nicked it from my collection.

I guess it's a good thing I preordered the remastered CD!