Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx Metatronic - new compilation

Received mine a few days ago and am enjoying the contents in reverse order. Great to have the old videos on DVD. The live tracks are the highlight of the package so far. I have to confess that I found myself missing the guitar on The Man Who Dies Every Day but I have never heard a live version of Hiroshima Mon Amour that I haven't liked. For me the clear gem here is the live version of My Sex. I won't say any more beyond "beautiful" and "brilliant". Very much looking forward to CD1 as well as the liner notes. Well worth the price for me (but when it comes to Mr. Foxx I am very easy to please. )

I have a better quality video of "He's a liquid" on DVD (copied from my VHS) that one on Metatronic DVD which has drop-outs and very soft picture.

Other videos on Metatronic are fine.

I have never seen the Virgin Vault VHS, but I suspect the No-One Driving video is the same (i.e. the original article), whilst the "black and white" version of the Underpass video on the DVD is a new revisionist edit, and thus slightly naughty - I would like to have seen the unabridged original!

I agree that the video quality is a bit pants compared to what can be done these days with a decent remastering budget -

the Tiny Colour Movie (smokescreen) is MPEG-artefacted to hell, but then they all were at the two live shows I saw. Perhaps they "looked fine on John's Mac" when he edited them in his bedroom, or maybe they looked like crap then too, but he didn't know how to fix them Musicians, eh?

Ah well, maybe they won't bother for Metadelic then, and leave the rest of this material in 'the box in the shed' where it belongs so we don't have to see it at all...

I just ordered my copy of Metatronic the other day, so I've been reading through this particular thread with some anticipation.

Now I really wish I had a 5.1 surround setup to hear Underpass afresh on the dvd!

I'll post again once I've received it, and share my thoughts!

Yeaow! I received my copy of Metamatic in the mail yesterday.

Now, basically, the bulk of my exposure to John Foxx's music has been from between 1977 and 1983, so I really didn't know what to expect from the latter material which makes up most of the first disc. However the initial impression it has made on me is extremely positive. It's too early to say which of the tracks are absolute favourites, but there are definitely some sparkling gems in there. I look forward to looking more deeply into Foxx's latter output. In my opinion it's a strong compilation of solid electronic tracks, which each have what seems to be an general underlying backdrop of life in a dystopian city (at least that's the impression that I got from initial readings of the brilliant liner notes.).

Onto disc 2... Being Australian, but having (so unfortunately) missed the Australian Tour, I was curious to hear the Sydney show. It's definitely fair to say the crowd were a little rowdy at times, however given that artists like John Foxx rarely visit Australia, we definitely like to let them know how welcome and loved they are here. I know I've been a member of a rowdy crowd like that before, but I agree it could be a little distracting at points, but I'm sure it could have easily been toned down by the engineer. Again, I loved the tracks from the live set which I hadn't previously heard (Crash & Burn is fantastic), and the version of My Sex is absolutely brilliant, a great way to end a show. As for the bonus tracks, they were a nice extra, but not something I couldn't live without. The Burning Car early version was an interesting curiosity, and I'm sure the remix of Underpass would go down well in the nightclubs.

And the dvd... I enjoyed watching the early videos, most of which I hadn't seen before. I would've liked to be able to play them all continuously, but that's a minor detail as it was such a short dvd anyway. I would've liked some commentary from the man himself, but that's putting it up there pretty high. The highlights of the dvd for me were the live videos, as they're the closest I've gotten to seeing the guy perform live and I myself used to be in a live electronic duo, so it was interesting to draw parallels.

Anyway, there's just some initial thoughts. I love the set though, really glad I got it. Bring on Metadelic (and a live roundhouse dvd )

Cheers to that!

Cheers guv!

Watching the video for He's A Liquid again now, I am 'reminded' of John's recent Quiet Man reading 'When You Walk Through Me'.

I find it endlessly fascinating how one piece of John Foxx work triggers and echoes another, with appalling disregard for the protocols of media and chronology.

Makes absolute sense to me why this has been released again now.

Quite simply, it all just 'fits'.

Interesting Martin - I was going through "The Service" issue #1 ( ) and the lines that stuck out the most were "The Pleasures of Electricity" and "A Secret Life". Almost as if these were ideas waiting to be fleshed out, which indeed they did, but over several decades. That demonstrates a lot of patience and perseverence!