Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx and Louis Gordon The Pleasures of Electricity 2009

I've just unwrapped mine, like an impatient child.

As a package, it looks excellent.

The printing and colour is much better, and although there are no new images from that time, you do get to see the original graphics from the booklet, without being covered with typography, and they do look rather lovely.

I don't like the bendy CD-tray though - it's a good job I'll be mostly playing digital versions of this, otherwise it probably won't last long!

Anyway, my first impressions on the revamped tracks...

Nightlife... I was kind of expecting a 'new' version of the LFAR version, but no. It's the original with a load more synths in it. Although I initially didn't like the new sound on the first riff that kicks in, there is a really good new riff (how many riffs in this song??!) that prevents the track from being as minimal and repetitive.

Invisible Women... the intro has been made a lot creepier, and the "Underpass" melody has been boosted with a second synth layer. It does sound more Underpassy, but it also sounds less static, thanks to some reverb, and behind each verse is a high pitched sound that almost sounds like scraping metal. It has a longer and more gradual ending too.

This was actually the track that inspired me to start making my own electronic music, so it's interesting for me to hear this revamped version.

Cities of Light 5... anybody who bought "Glimmer" will have heard this already... minimal differences.

Automobile... you're sucked into this track by a sucky noise at the start. There's some nice new bits of percussion at the chorus, and a new wobbly synth in the second verse. Halfway through a new, much-needed bass synth kicks in. Nice. Overall this version is more layered than the original, and these layers gradually build up throughout the track.

Listening to these tracks, I suppose it does beg the question as to why the other tracks were left as they were. Maybe it's because these bits are new that they stand out much more now and the old versions sound like they're missing something in comparison. If anything I think that "Uptown/Downtown" could have used a little post-production.

It's difficult to assess whether any of the tracks are any better for it, this may depend on personal preference. Having been used to the originals for so long, it's a bit strange to suddenly hear these new bits, though having said that, there's nothing radically different at all; just new layers and sounds here and there. I think the only track which actually has any new musical parts as such, is Nightlife.

And then we have two previously unreleased the bonus tracks.

It's interesting to hear how similar Screenplay is to "Cinemascope". The melody and lyrics are very much alike - it's almost like a continuation of the track. Reminds me also of something from Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express.

Thoughts on "twilight Room" to follow...

Alex, Is 'Uptown/Downtown' the vocoder version that was on John's My Space page a few months back?

No, Uptown/Downtown is exactly the same as the original version. As are all the other tracks not mentioned above.

The version on John's MySpace must have been the live version from Neuro Video.

All the other tracks are not noticeably any different to the originals. Some of the synths and vocals seem slightly sharper, but that's all.

I'm not so keen on "Twilight Room".

Musically it sounds more like a demo, and the production sounds more like it could have come from the same sessions as Impossible ("Adult Concerns" in particular). Although John's vocal in the chorus is absolutely lovely. There's a wonderful vibrato in his voice.

The melody reminds me strongly of David Byrne's "Soft Seduction" from Feelings.

I prefer "Screenplay" although it would have made a better instrumental. The music is really good, but lyrically I found it a bit weak and over-familiar - more like a less successful reinterpretation of "Cinemascope", as I already compared above.

Still my favourite out of the two unreleased tracks though.

A great job on this CD too. The 4 alternative versions are very good - though I prefer the originals - but it's nice to have them.

Twilight Room is a great track - love it.
It's more difficult with Screenplay to me - seems I must have a few more listens. The music reminds me a bit of Touch and Go...
in the same way as Invisible Women / Underpass...

Again: Thanks a lot for this new version of The Pleasures Of Electricity. It's great to have 6 new versions/tracks!!!

Andreas

Am I the only one? (or am I going mad ...)

When I heard TPOE yesterday, for the first time,
I noticed that EVERY song was slightly different
compared to the originals.
I think this remaster makes TPOE a better (more coherent) album.

I didn't think any of the other tracks were different - obviously having been remastered, some of the vocals or synths are more clear, and perhaps some of the fade-outs are a couple of seconds longer... but I haven't spotted anything "new" as such.

I can feel a more creative review coming on, but suffice to say for now that I am considerably more impressed with this album now than I was in 2001.

Everyone involved has done a great job.
Thanks for the awakening

It's A Funny Thing though - it still seems to contain some of the best and the worst of Foxx & Gordon

Okay Alex, I gave it another try.
In one or two songs I'm still in doubt. But on the whole I think you're right. But what a difference a remaster can make!

Had that impression that they all sounded a bit different too . .but I thought that was just the effect of 'remastering' ...it's a funny thing.

Invisible Women as well as featuring the Underpass 'riff' sounds a lot like This City towards the end too...I think it's memory, but ...

I would disagree. For me, that would be Shifting City.

The only track I sometimes skip on TPOE is "Uptown/Downtown". But when I'm in the right mood for it, it's quite pleasant.

I think that's possibly the best post I've read on this forum.

And I wholeheartedly agree.

TPOE is the album that re-connects with Metamatic. I've always felt it was like a story of returning to the same city, years later.

I have been gradually noticing little bits here and there, brought up in the new mix, such as the ending of "Quiet City" at the fade out. What a lovely bit of Cathedral Oceans-style synth.

What did you make of the two bonus tracks?

Cheers for the compliment AlexS and I couldn't have put it any better when you say that: "it reconnects with Metamatic", this is most certainly the way I'll always view it now.

I've not yet listened to the bonus tracks, saving that for the moment. I'm still enjoying the completeness of TPOE, for me it is now so right up there with the big two: Metamatic, and The Garden, and through the medium of TPOE I'm unexpectedly enjoying a wonderful feeling of communing again with the same kind of mystery and excitement.

A superb review core memory.

I havn't got around to ordering the re-issue yet (too busy with Shifting City), but you have wet my appetite now

I've really started getting into the two bonus tracks. Neither made an immediate impression, but I've found them playing 'in my head' a lot recently. There's some really good vocals, nice lyrics and lovely synths and sounds going on there

Apart from maybe Twilight Room, I don't think there's going to be any lasting impression for me, and no inclination to visit disc 2 of TPOE 09, so its likely that these bonus tracks and I are going to be ‘passing strangers’.

Screenplay just can’t hide coming across as a lesser echo of Touch And Go, and a sibling of Cinemascope (already mentioned in this thread), and Twilight Room made me think I was actually listening to one of the unearthed tracks from the IMW disc 2. John’s singing is very likeable on Twilight Room, and it is quite a catchy tune, the nature of the vocals and a particular organ sound did remind me a bit of To Be With You.

Its always interesting to hear songs that might have been part of the journey towards the bigger picture, but I don’t think there’s anything particularly TPOE about Screenplay, Twilight Room could have easily lent itself to the theme, but the music just isn’t quite right.

I don’t feel these tracks add anything new to the completeness of the album, and they're more likely to detract from the experience of it for me, they also sound like they’ve been given the post Crash And Burn style shake and bake treatment, and are floating around a little bit in that occasionally unclassifiable grey area that I think must now surely exist someplace between the out-takes from the time of the Metamatic sessions, and John and Louis electro re-interpretations into that past sound.

The second disc's from the previous re-releases were designed to give us a bit more entertainment and food for thought, Golden Section was a revelation for me, and In Mysterious Ways was like rooting around in an eccentric uncle's dusty attic, so I wonder now just how TPOE’s disc 2 is likely to be regarded in future?
Perhaps for some fans such as myself it will be thought of merely as an archive of 2001, but maybe for some others it could instead be disc 1 that will be seen as an unnecessary makeover?
I guess it all depends on your tastes.

Sometimes you look back on a post and think, crikey, I sound a bit dismissive there about a few things! didn’t mean to sound quite so harsh, so in lieu of too much editing on my previous words, I’m going to Up The Positive in a new post

It’s a funny thing! but our minds can just completely change about something, and that process can take you by surprise, as all today since I wrote the above post late last night I’ve had Twilight Room playing in my head!

I have to concede that it’s really quite a good track with a lot of warmth and rhythm, and I’m sure it could easily have been tweaked just the right amount to appear on the main album and fit in with tracks like Uptown/Downtown or Nightlife.