Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx and Louis Gordon Sideways

I always hesitate before posting any reviews to a forum like this, because its all a matter of conjecture really.
But I haven't read much discussion about this album, and if nothing else this might provoke some lively debate.
And that's what the forum's for after all I guess.

I should apologise too for being so late on this album. But if I'm honest, being described as 'out-takes and extras' from the From Trash sessions didn't really sell it to me. I think its well known that I'm not a big fan of that album.
It also includes a couple of extended versions of tracks featured on that album, though sadly not the best ones. Being longer doesn’t improve either Impossible or A Room As Big As A City a great deal. It’s a little irksome that they are rather stuck on the end of here as ‘bonus’ tracks because, at least to my mind, they simply don't fit.

But anyway, here's my review of Sideways, which I absolutely love!

Technicolour Modernism
Listening to the Music No-one Else Makes I smile my relief aloud and, drifting back, find myself at Olympia in 1967. It’s Christmas on Earth, and Gordon and Foxx have abandoned the burned out car they have been driving for too long, burst in through the psychedelic walls of hippydom and plugged in the synths buried under the heaps of kaftans and three-button suits along the crumbling walls. Armed with a Sound Collector, the agents have successfully gathered the echoes of the era and transduced them through the audio-Hedge that has grown up between the 14 Hour Festival and the Third Millennium. Backwards. Sideways, at least.
Foxx has proved throughout his career time and again that his best work is that which is furthest from the mainstream. Sideways is so far away from that its practically off the scale. A soundtrack for a strange low-budget B-Movie set in Xmal Deutschland somewhere, a place where you can see the polystyrene rocks moving as the Scary Monsters lumber past, their Rayguns held together by sticky-backed plastic and tape loops. Behind the safety of the bulletproof glass and away from the glare attracted by their diversionary lightshow, the agents have re-discovered their purpose.
With the clear rose-coloured hue of hindsight (and having let the glittering dust settle on 2006) I'd like to audaciously suggest that From Trash was a decoy, a model, programmed to distract our attention from the Secret Experiment that Foxx and Gordon were carrying out behind the closed doors of the MetaMedia Studios.
On pounding, rhythmic and cleverly vocalised tracks like X-ray Vision and In A Silent Way in particular, they revel in the freedom of sonic exploration and play around with a whole nervestorm of ideas, some of which (CarCrash Flashback, and Sailing on Sunshine at least) germinated in an Earlier Man about 20 years ago.
Or is that from twenty years hence?
Time means nothing. It merely re-arranges our memory.
Foxx has risen, it seems, from the very edge of self-destruction, and fulfilled a prophecy. His closing statement is a work of sublime genius. Phone Tap wouldn’t be out of place on Tiny Colour Movies, it’s such an evocative (and indescribably weird) piece of music that sounds like something from Quatermass. As ghostly torchbeams scan across the grey landscape, the Thing from Out Of Space[sic] emerges to a drone of deafening bass notes, punctuated by the analogue squeaks, squeals and squelches that have become trademark Foxx over the years.

If Bowie and the Beatles were asked to produce a ‘make’ for Blue Peter I like to think it would inevitably sound something like this.
Seems like the End of the Beginning will be an electronic happening after all…

What’s that pink smoke coming from the speakers?

9 out of 10. Breathtaking.

For my money, this is the album Foxx and Gordon have been working towards for years.
Overshadowed and overlooked. Just as The Quiet Man would like it.
Standout tracks:
X-Ray Vision
CarCrash Flashback
In A Silent Way (Foxx & Gordon’s coup-de-grace?)
Neuro Video
Phone tap

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I fully agree!

Nice review.

RE Phone Tap, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JmEe65e8Z0

mongrel

Very nicely written... you should start writing reviews for my website!

Personally I don't compare From Trash and Sideways – they're completely differemt, and I do find it hard to accept the idea that the songs on Sideways came out of the same sessions.

It is a great album. I must play it!

Brill review Martin, were you in danger of deconstructing/reconstructing your identity during writing?
IMHO I would have prefered the two extended tracks off FT and Phone Tap removed, as all the other songs sit together nicely. That said, I do think 'Sideways' is the best album J&L have made.
Cheers

Nice review Martin
I much prefer Sideways to From Trash. Sideways is John and Louis at their best.
Peter

Im off to play sideways.

It was predictable that those here would prefer the less mainstream of the two.

Taking the wider view, "From Trash" is the more obvious release.

I auctually love both albums on a par. The two albums to me are very different. Its amazing that they were part of the same recording.

I like both equally, but if I had to chose one, then I'd say I prefer From Trash, but only just. It's very close. I find it a more consistent album with stronger songs, however, they are not easy albums to compare to each other, so I stopped trying. Sideways offers something very different and if anything, more "traditional" as far as Foxx albums go. I can hear strong echoes of Metamatic and Systems of Romance, which will obviously appeal to the older fan.

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.

I am veering back to liking Sideways more than From Trash at the moment. Perhaps it's the sunnier aspect of the former. Lyrically the latter is probably a bit stronger.

i've heard rumours that sideways will be reissued at the end of the march as a single disc and without those 2 extended bonus tracks. is this true?

That's news to me - I understand that it'll the two disc version that'll be getting the wider release.

Rob

well, the single disc version is listed on cdon.com, to be released 26.3. but we'll see... i still don't have any version so... any news about this wider release?

Just checked the site you mentioned - and there it is listed as a single disc. Quite bizarre... I'll do some digging and let you all know the outcome.

Rob

And the answer is... "Sideways" is going to be a double disc edition - no different from the version we are already familiar with.

Rob

ok cool! when will it be available, later this month?

It's already available but it's going to get a wider release this month.

Rob

yeah i know but since i don't have a credit card...

"Wider release" dates have come and gone, so I'm wondering what the latest is with getting this album and Cathedral Oceans DVD into the shops?

HumVee and Flop have neither listed as 'available' this week

I love this album - it's brilliant.

i finally got this today!

Got my Sideways at the gig (signed by both chaps of course!) .. From Trash was selling well too, but probably because it's not easy to find over here in shops.

On first listening I rather liked it : faves 'Underwater' and 'Sailing on Sunshine'.

i have to say that sideways is better than from trash imho, actually might be the best album john has made since the 80's. so why was it first so limited, why does it come with 2 extended "extra tracks" and an interview disc? but whatever, i'm glad that i finally got it.