Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx and Louis Gordon Impossible CD

Played this back at the hotel after the show last night before I went to bed.

I liked all of the new re-worked versions as soon as I heard them.Looking forward to playing it again when I've had some more sleep.

Brian

My copy is on its way courtesy of Peter!

I'm really looking forward to both CDs, especially Impossible.

Thanks Peter!

Just listening to this at the moment,

Good stuff - I spotted that Louis' vocals come through a bit more noticeably in some places.

I always thought it would be an interesting addition to have a few alternative mixes - and I like the slight changes to some lyrics as well.


Phil

Just listening to Impossible now, other than Adult Concerns and Walk This Way for me it's nice to hear studio versions of material that's basically been done live.

I really enjoyed hearing an instrumental track with Louis as I've always been a big fan of John's instrumental music.

I've got so many things to listen to from John and Louis that I'm struggling to hear it all, which in itself is not a bad thing In the good ol' days we had 1 album a year normally from a group artist now I've 5 in 2 weeks LOL I'm not complaining though.

Anyone who wasn't at the concert and unable to buy this disc it is recommended .

No probs Alex getting you a copy.


Peter

Yeah, I'm not sure I've actually listened all the way through to all eight discs of Glimmer, the Garden, The Golden Section, and In Mysterious Ways. Come to think of it, I can't have; disc 2 of TGS is defective, so I can only hear a little of the last track (replacement coming from Amazon).

And yet I can't wait for Impossible and Neuro Video to show up on Townsend's site. And I want more new stuff. Bring on that Robin Guthrie collaboration! (Hell, I haven't even listened to 3:19 yet...)

It's an interesting listen. At the moment though I'm more excited and impressed with the artwork, than the music itself.

Some tracks work, some don't, and some feel a little pointless, barely differing from previous versions.

The real highlights for me, have to be "The Man Who Dies Every Day" and "Walk This Way".

It's interesting that half of From Trash has been re-recorded here - or maybe these were outtakes or original versions? Anyway, the one that really stands out is "From Trash". The heavier, treated vocal makes this version far superior to the original IMHO - this is how it should have sounded.

Unfortunately I can't say the same for "Impossible" (despite a brilliant bit of drum programming) or "A Million Cars".

Now, John, that screamy female vocal sample... Why? Why?! It's not as bad as the "Star Trek" wails on the single version of "No-One Driving", but it surely falls into the same category!!

The vocal however is much better here.... some real power to it .

Lovely slow version of "X-Ray Vision" too... sounding much less like the 2006 live rendition of "Slow Motion".

the version of CRASH AND BURN is cracking!

I agree that the version of IMPOSSIBLE itself is rather "meh".


It strikes me that, of all the Ultravox songs John has reworked for his post 1997 gigs, we've yet to hear a proper recording of SLOW MOTION (he did play that in 2006, didn't he, I wasn't dreaming?)

(the others on the list:
My Sex
The Man Who Dies Every Day
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Just for a Moment
Quiet Men
Dislocation

...and now of course YOUNG SAVAGE


PS Bravo to everyone who shouted out "ROCKWROCK!" at Cargo, after John had played Young Savage.
I could see he heard it, and was wryly amused

A new recording of Slow Motion would be absolutely great. At least we've got the one from the Janice Long session, but a studio version would be ace

have to agree with "Crash and Burn" - I think it improves on the original, being a slightly heavier and worthy of its name.

ROckwrok would work well in the modern stylee I think.

Same here!


I only listened to Impossible twice yet - so I cannot built an opinion about it but Adult Concerns is a great opener...

Has that been commercially released,
or do you just mean you (wisely) taped it off the radio?

Recorded from the internet stream!
Better than nowt.

It would also be good to get a recording of 'Walk Away' as featured on the 2006 tour.

That track and 'Impossible' are the main ones missing imo from any official releases too.

It would be great to get 'Impossible'.

This is the kind of reason why i generally dont like remixes or re-works. These two never really stood out for me either on 'Impossible', but on 'From Trash' their my two favorites. I think thats why i only like songs re-visited when played live, and maybe a bit of re-work, but only in the live context.

I'm really enjoying this CD even tho it is dominated by From Trash era stuff. There is a certain freshness in the recordings..sort of reminds you of how they used to do (and some still do) the Radio 1 sessions . .the same songs but different. I quite like the new Impossible (track). I sort of think they could have kept it to an EP say with a couple of new re-workings with the 2 new tracks calling it the Adult Concerns EP or something, but hey they went all the way and why not indeed?

Good news for those of us who couldn't attend Cargo or Marghera – I received an email from Townsend this morning announcing the preorder availability of both Impossible and Neuro Video. I placed my order and look forward to their imminent arrival, as the estimated release date is October 27.

I see the cover picture is also in the SoR re-issue booklet in tiny colour form (second inside page). Is this where it originally appeared or has it been (t)here before?

The cover picture of Impossible was originally used for Hiroshima mon Amour in the Systems of Romance Tour book in 1978. The book includes some Lyrics together with great art works, which you can see (some of them) on the inside of the Impossible booklet too.

Lyrics in the book are:

My Sex
(Systems...)

Slip Away

Someone Else's Clothes
(Systems...)

The Man Who Dies Every Day
(Impossible, Systems...)

A Distant Smile
(Systems of Romance)

Hiroshima Mon Amour (Impossible,Systems...)

Quiet Men
(Impossible, Systems of Romance)

It's nice there are bigger sizes in Impossible booklet. The Systems of Romance Pictures are very small and showing only parts of the hole pictures. The big one in the center of the booklet was used for My Sex.
The original size for the tour book is DinA4.
I'm glad I bought a copy in the past...

That cover dates back to 1978?! Blimey!

Besten Dank Andreas! Sounds like you've got quite an important artefact there.
So should we say that a lot of images are being 'recycled' like the songs from the era? :rolleyes:

I would love to see this!

I've got permission from John to reproduce all of the Systems of Romance booklet here on Metamatic .

Rob

Great Rob .. look forward to that.

Gern geschehen, Member D!
No problem.
BTW: I bought the tour book together with the original Tour poster. I made a scan in full size and sent it to Rob - so you can watch it one day on this site...

Now you just need permission from God to increase the number of hours in the day, and it will all be online in no time...

I understand He's working on that...

I know I’m the last person on the planet to hear Impossible but I just had to say something. First the cover-art, which is some exceptional collage work from the 70s. But what the hell is it? What is the head? Is it a stadium? The back of a cruise-liner? Either way, I can see thousands of people heading into a fire – a very Burroughs-style of imagery there in the cut-up figure on the front.

Which is appropriate really for this cut-up of an album. On initial listens, it was hard at first to hear much difference between the originals and these re-workings, but slowly I found Impossible’s dark, stripped-back and sprawled out minimalist architecture quietly connected (the From Trash material benefitting greatly from this). Adult Concerns is a great introduction – the whole Burning Car feel sets up the dark edges that follow. Love the beat on it too – it feels like Foxx has remembered when he and Chris Cross sat in on Lee Perry’s Bob Marley sessions back in the 70s and that can only be good thing.

It’s just my opinion but the stretched out haze of X-Ray Vision is far superior to the original version, and then there’s a fantastic version of The Man Who Dies Every Day and the new version of Crash and Burn is a fantastic closer.

I really like this new, almost shredded direction; the shredded vocals, the rusting metallic synths, the filtered drums on Walk This Way. More please!

Well put. Walk This Way is one of my favourites on the CD, so I'm hoping this might hint at the style of the next Foxx/Gordon album.

No, you're not. If that's any kind of encouragement...

As long as there are still John Foxx fans in North America, no fan in the UK is likely to be the last to hear anything John Foxx does.

(Usually when I gripe about not being able to hear a new Foxx CD, it shows up in my mailbox a few hours later. My copy shipped from Townsend last week, so maybe it'll happen again today.)

Townsend had been very reliable with previous transactions, and in fact one CD I ordered from them that shipped on a Monday morning came in the post on Thursday of that same week. I had been looking forward to spending the past weekend listening to both Impossible and Neuro Video, but despite my having placed orders as soon as was possible, my copies haven't arrived yet either.

I hope your griping means your copies are in your mailbox today, Steve, and I hope my griping means mine will be waiting for me when I get home!

It actually worked for me today, Lele, so good luck!

Impossible schemes...

I’m really enjoying this album, and well impressed with the cohesion that’s been achieved in track selection and in re-working songs neatly together from their various places and periods. It all makes for a synth-Pop album that I’d be happy to give as a present to anyone who’d never heard of John or had no interest in that electro stuff well there must be someone amidst the chatter and babble of electronic noise all around us from phones to video games to give this punchy CD to, perhaps a prisoner in a deep dungeon, or an alien who’s just discovered ears, or your teenage niece or nephew who’s thankfully grown out of their Coldplay albums.

Kicking off with Adult Concerns, which washed over me a bit, although an instrumental opening made a nice change, I wonder what it would be like to hear lyrics with it. Of course knowing Johns reworking addiction I’m expecting it to turn up on a future album complete with added tweaks and bleeps, Louis on the backing vocals and John crafting out a wry storyline about suburban internet infidelity, and the resulting online global myopia from staring too long at the screen.

The original A Million Cars has more edge for me, at first I thought this new version might just have flashed past leaving no impression, but it eventually ”na nah’d” its way into my mind and drove me quickly into the Pop heaven of the ’From Trash/Impossible/Friendly Fire’ trilogy, where a slightly more beefy Trash had me happily stomping around the flat from the floor to the door like I was leading an imaginary invasion. There’s a momentary pause for Impossible where it now seems that I’m hearing the ”smack my bitch up” melody slowed down, with robot John on vocal repeat, and a Gardenesque break: ”…and you could taste it in our lives” makes this my favourite track on the CD, and then coming in to end this three part best moment on the album for me Friendly Fire glam rocks itself up for a fun cabaret performance.

X-Ray Vision, nice intro, I much prefer this warmer reworking with more definition in its added musical touches. The Man Who Dies Every Day, its Kafkaesque Hero has echoes now of Telekon and seems to have a touch more humour, “Alright!”. I love the hypnotic rhythm of Walk This Way, its funky, but not junky, still just about enough darkness with only a little froth on top, overall I think I’d be happy if John wanted to continue a bit longer in this direction, just go easy on the milk.

Dislocation, it made me think slightly of Tin Drum as its new place of location, Its interesting, and although I’d still take the sublime mystery of the ‘vox original whatever re-workings come along, I really like the ‘fatigued’ rhythm and beat of new Dislocation, and also of Walk This Way. I think both of these two tracks would be good starting points for a new album direction.

Drive kind of ran out of fuel for me, maybe a bust transmission lost its original powerful edge for it, but I don’t reckon much for John’s chances if he turns up on Top Gear with this version. On first play The One Who Walks Through You just came and went for me, although the quirky sounds help it linger, and once it gets into the main body of the song it does tighten up a little bit more. Crash And Burn is now something more like a candle burning in an empty disco than the buildings ablaze of its original nature, more shouting please John, this was too polite an ending.

For me the majority of re-interpretations are good to have and hear, there’s even a few I’d completely swap with the originals, this is a fun album to play and after the recent re-workings and rediscoveries of Johns ‘80’s albums its set me back on course to looking forward to new and future work from him

Great to read your comment s- nicley put and thanks for sharing.

The more I hear about this album, the more I look forward to hearing it