Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx and Louis Gordon Sideways

That'll be me then

But I take your point.

Love Birdsong's review, by the way..

fantastic review Martin! I too prefer Sideways than From Trash. I find From Trash too commercial sounding, too safe, whereas Sideways is more DIY techno fetish electronics, right up my kinky side street!!

In zero bars, even time no longer seems willing to try.


Ah, stay around....

I don't know about destructing myself during the writing of that review, but I did make sure I kept one hand frmly on the handle of the mad/sane door…

I try to avoid directly comparing From Trash with Sideways, simply that the latter is, IMHO, better than the former.
In the same way, I think Sideways is also better than both C & B and TPOE.

Depends how you define 'better' I suppose.

I played it again today, and I was reminded (soundwise) of "Underwater Dream Sex" from The Drive EP which I think is very untypical (atypical?) of Crash and Burn. This track is one of my all time favourites - again it reinforces the point I made about his best stuff being the less obvious.

But I'm not being deliberately obtuse and liking stuff simply because its 'Over There'. Instead I recognise the artistic 'freedom' that B-sides and extra tracks afford when there is less at stake and fewer commercial expectations.

Can I suggest that this is a significant part of the reason most of us like John Foxx in the first place?
Look at the 'what music are you listening to thread'. Hardly Top 40 stuff is it?

yes , i think u can , martin ! ;-)

well ... @ least i totally agree with that statement ! :-)

It's strange but, although "Sideways" seemed better than "From Trash" on first listen, repeated listening seems to have reversed my opinion. "From Trash" comes across as a deeper, multi-layered album, whereas "Sideways" is instantand catchy but after you've heard it several times, seems a bit shallow and repetitive in comparison.

i still don't have sideways... i ordered it through a finnish mailorder in january... oh well.

Interesting point, Herbert. A lot of albums do this of course.
Personally, I feel it hasn't happened yet to me with either of these albums. Mind you, most of John's work sounds rich, deep and interesting ALL the time. I still find elements in metamatic that fascinate me...
It did surprise me a little that, having read my review, there were people 'returning' to Sideways? It's only been out five minutes!!...
I'd like to have seen its release held back until Easter maybe - six months after Trash - (although of course it still isn't on general release??) to give more of us longer to get into From Trash.

Personally, I'm still playing Tiny Colour Movies more than either of these anyway.

for me , "tcm" is also john's most personal album in terms of the general idea & concept behind it & the way it "speaks" through his sounds & overall instrumentation ! :-)
only "the garden" album has ever touched me that much or even deeper in a certain way !
the "co" trilogy comes close in next to them !

Even though sideways has only been out five minutes we have been snowed under by realeases from john. I never know what to stick on. Out of all the releases i play from trash the most even though thats not on a regular basis. I seem to always go back to metamatic. At the moment its been joy division.