There’s a Shadowman…
So I pop the CD on, not quite sure what to expect, there’s a short cheer from an audience, then John politely shouts “hello” and we’re off with a fantastic opener
Swimmer II , building swiftly with its moody undertow. Not having heard this track in some time it now feels like its always been an instrumental that’s predated PsyDub, albeit in a more darker fashion with its menacing spacey-bass propulsion, how great if we now went straight from here into a similar treatment of
Paternoster. But there’s no disappointment as
Making Movies follows on in much the same vein, its meaty beats turning my kitchen floor into a dance space for its 7:28 minutes duration, and before the end of
'MM' I discover that the kitchen worktops make an excellent ‘air-keyboard’, and the act of making my breakfast toast is transformed into the pretend pressing of keys, and making those ‘serious’ synth moves in time to the beat!
How beautiful is
Camera here, I never realised before just how emotionally anthemic it could be, as I reach out for my imaginary lighter to hold up high in the dark silent night air, swaying slowly to the music in tandem with all the many other imaginary twinkling lights,
“Silent Night, Camera Night… All is Bright, All is light…”Only three tracks into the album set and already a beautiful highpoint has been reached.
Gliding into
Uptown/Downtown, and again like
Camera we have another beautiful hypnotic version of a TPOE track. John’s voice seems to flow more calmly that I remember from the original, now it balances smoothly with the perky faster beats of the music. There are stars in the sky, and city lights in the rain, and a warm romance in this performance of
Camera and
Uptown/Downtown, John has really made both these tracks feel that bit more special here.
So far this album has not been quite what I expected, an ascending start with tracks 1 and 2, and then it's into a very relaxing down-tempo vibe with tracks 3 and 4, which would make for a great late night listen whilst the world is at peace. In some ways I’m a little resentful by the appearance of the strident pulsing of
Europe After The Rain, although it is slightly more soothing than the original version, but I can’t help wondering how it would have sounded if presented in a much more relaxed style. It momentarily broke the spell for me, but I can’t resist its gentle call to arms, and again I’m back to the air-keyboard and marching along to its long familiar shimmering guitar and piano as John gives a mellow singing performance.
The One Who Walks Through You bounces in, I’m not quite as captured by it as the previous tracks, but it does keep the lively flow of the album going up until an excellent performance of
A Million Cars follows on. As John’s voice still effortlessly drives the lyrics along I find myself swaying in time, frantically trying to find my air-keyboard yet again, I have to improvise with some cutlery lying in the sink, bashing it together in time to the beat!
But after this, disaster strikes! the wheels come off, what’s happened to John’s voice on
Miles Away, is he miss-hitting the high notes, for a second I thought it was actually me singing in the kitchen and not the master himself,
”I’m walking in like someone else again…” And turning my head to the shine again I’m listening up to
Dancing Like A Gun, but it seems like some of the charge has gone from John’s voice, no soaring here, or shrieking synths, there’s a really good bouncy beat though, good for doing aerobics to? I dunno, I’ve never tried.
Oh oh,
Neuro Video coming to the rescue, time to grab the cutlery from the sink and bash some metal together again for a fantastic
”direct transmission”. Hmm, I wonder what’s happening across the world, should I turn on Sky News Live, keep the volume muted, let John’s great words and music provide the Intel. Yes, lets keep it escapist with a more imaginative panorama rather than the UK news headlines about ‘Car factory closures, Christmas shoppers, and music chart wars between rival X-factor finalists’.
Wow, I really prefer this energised disco version of
Concrete Bulletproof Invisible, to the 'so so' original one, if only I could do popping with my body, some street dancing would be appropriate here.
Shadowman is also another really great highlight in the end set,
”there’s a silhouette” and robot John makes an appearance invoking an EBM reaction to my listening patterns resulting in involuntary body movements, I just hope the neighbours aren’t watching this.
For me,
Shadowman would be a fitting closure, and with the finale I have to confess that I’ve always thought
Sailing On Sunshine to be a bit cheesy, although the more pop version here works okay, I’m not convinced it fits with all the other songs.
This is a more straightforward uplifting number to end on, and I guess that at the time of planning this set maybe John felt that he’s been fortunate to have sailed along on sunshine, and I hope he continues to feel that way. I do prefer it when there’s a bit more darkness of texture in John’s fuel, but if travel by light is continuing to propel his creativity forwards, then here’s to that…
