Received my copies yesterday, along with The Complete Cathedral Oceans.
Enough of a temptation to actually stay in of an evening, and an excuse to scribe another bowl of pretentious twaddle
So far I have played only Crash and Burn. In headphones, the album sounds absolutely superb, even though, like Brian, it's probably not one of my bestest favourites.
It's brilliant to have the lyrics now. Even though I have long since transcribed most of them, the ending of Ray 1 / Ray 2 has remained a mystery. For obvious reasons!!
It's a really clever piece of wordplay. Lots of intriguing phrases to put into an internet search engine at some point...
Keinholtz Starlight - anyone ??
Disc 2 is exceptionally good. I've always liked The Drive EP, so its an electrical pleasure to have re-mastered versions of the extra tracks on there, especially of course the rusty, lumbering and sybaritic monster that is
Underwater Dreamsex*.
*Has anyone ever tried this? Thoroughly recommended - just watch out for the submerged vehicles...
To have this indulgence followed by the post-coital irregularity of the new track
Labyrinth Generator really is lighting the cigarette on the pillow. OK its intricate and confusing, but such is John Foxx at his best.
This is a real gem, and for me it's the standout of the 'new' material.
Immaculate conception guys. Placed as it is with precision and due care as a bridge between the EP tracks and the LFAR material.
Gives it additional depth and presence by adding context. Transparent faces from the old-school. Almost like someone thought about it...
Joking aside, I am really impressed by the running order of disc 2 especially.
Broadway Submarine, as Brian suggests, is the most experimental of instrumentals. It's beautiful and complex - an unquestionaly female piece of music. Richly layered, full of quirks and foibles, yet charged with a sensual energy and delicacy that successfully manages to challenge and tease simultaneously.
Weird, some would say.
And that's what makes it so refreshing.
Storm Warning comes in waves of hisses and hum. It sounds at first like rain, then swarms of wading birds above the Norfolk mudflats. Then a queue of motorway traffic passing a theremin conductor. Ominous and brooding like a tiny, coloured, movie...
Wouldn't it be fun to sweep the studio floor that holds such diamonds in the dust and dog hair?
And here's where the sequencing works so well again - the soundtrack intro to Sex Video is a revelation. Was that really there all the time??
I'd forgotten the majesty of the live From A Room tracks too, so its great to hear these again, in a slightly different context. I can now hear echoes of
Dance With Me in Broken Furniture.
Ooh - a link. A path threough the trees back to a familiar place in a different setting.
A similar scene began...
Wait a minute, didn't I say this wasn't my favourite album?
Reconsider: reflect: recall. The Golden Section Disc 2 opened my ears to all I had previously missed from the original album.
All of a sudden, Crash and Burn (Deluxe Edition) brings (at least) two of my all-tme Foxx Five onto the same album.
Ah, well. Maybe. Though... I guess - is that so?
I see