Just to remind everyone of the exciting news that John's latest album Torn Sunset with Theo Travis is released officially tomorrow, June 27th.

It will be great to hear what you all think of it

Received my copy of this beautiful album today after ordering late on Saturday. Good service from Townsend once the product is 'released'.

Will review in more detail later as I will need a few plays in the right atmosphere to fully appreciate

...From a Brighter Place offers more of a tropical rainforest atmosphere, almost but not quite dripping with birdsong and animal sounds. The melodies and fragmentation used here present a soundtrack as rich in biodiversity as this jungle, and ofttimes I have Philip Glass's Koyanisqaatsi score called to mind...

Great to be back online again.

On first listen I wasn't too impressed. It's not an album you can just stick on & maybe it'll improve when the mood & atmosphere around me is different.

Probably true.

I'm in the enviable postion today of playing it thru the PA in my Victorian church. Like most of John's work in this genre, it sounds bl**dy amazing in this context.

Lots of delicate layering and subtle textures that fill a big space beautifully. Its quite easy to sit back and get lost in the music, imaging the building overgrown with vegatation and old sunlight filtering through the stained glass.

For me, because this is the stuff I like most of all, I'm thinking this is going to be a real gem of an album that I'll be playing quite a lot. I love also that its been released 'quietly' after the fanfare of Interplay and The Maths material and hasn't drawn a lot of media attention.

Mind you, that said, I'm keen to put them right!

It sounds "nice" from what I've heard online, although after Interplay, anything else almost pales in comparison at the moment. I'm not sure if this is for me or not (the cover artwork definitely is - do we have a similarly-themed booklet?). It concerns me it may have been released too soon after Interplay to get any worthwhile attention.

Over the last few years, in complete contrast to Martin's comments, I've come to realise, this is perhaps what I like least in John' cannon (not to say I dislike it, but my passion is really for his electro work).

But for a mere four Earth Pounds on Amazon...

At four pounds you can't go wrong, but it does surprise me how little attention and praise John Foxx gets for 'this kind of thing'.
Considering Cathedral Oceans, Tiny Colour Movies, D.N.A., A Secret Life, My Lost City, Torn Sunset, Translucence, Drift Music etc its a heck of proportion of his work just to dismiss as 'nice'. None of it is very far from tracks like Glimmer etc and has been present from the beginning.

The intricate textures, effects and themes are common to a lot of his higher profile stuff and add considerably to my understanding of those pieces.

I think Foxx's 'work' is all about the 'wholeness' of it, and the Gestalt concept, so without this material some of that effect is lost. Just my opinion though of course

This forums always been about different tastes though, and its fascinating to discuss how we each see it differently

I think after Translucence & Drift Music, Tiny Colour Movies and the Cathedral Oceans trilogy, there hasn't been much new ground to cover. Just my own opinion on the matter, mind.

I appreciate the wholeness of John's work, but for many fans, they may question whether they need the entirety. For me, I would have otherwise been happy with just the above. I suspect that many people who bought Interplay (I'm talking the general consumer of Foxx newbie here), may not go for Torn Sunset. I didn't personally bother with Mirrorball it they held no interest to me, not being a fan of Robin Guthrie, and I felt DNA had an identity crisis - not quite TCM 2 but not quite something different enough to be refreshing.

So with my taste in mind, the prospect of a John Foxx album with flutes and melodic-blowy instruments on it, doesn't quite compute! That said, I'm curious about the direction of this piece and being so different, how and where it will fit in.

Anyway, I've still got a few days left of my Amazon Prime trial, so, I'd best get it ordered!

It's ordered. Here tomorrow.

Fair point well made.

Deuce!