Metamatic Records’ first major compilation of John Foxx material is the first part of a double release spanning thirty-five years as a solo artist. John Foxx – 20th Century: The Noise covers the years from his debut single Underpass in January 1980 to the rest of the last century, up to his ‘comeback’ albums with Louis Gordon, Shifting City and Subterranean Omnidelic Exotour in 1997 and 1998. There’s also a rare Cathedral Oceans gem, Splendour, which has only ever been available on a rare album by various artists entitled Orphée. The album includes a previously unreleased instrumental track from the vaults, Musique Electron – a melodic idea Foxx has had ‘for decades’. The Metamatic material is taken from the new 2014 master which is based on a new set of 1979 analogue tapes found in John's archive...



The track-listing is as follows...

01. 20th Century (B-side to Burning Car)
02. Underpass (Single taken from Metamatic)
03. No-One Driving (Single Version)
04. Burning Car (Single)
05. He’s A Liquid (Alternative Version)
06. A Long Time (B-side to Miles Away)
07. Miles Away (Single)
08. Europe After The Rain (Single taken from The Garden)
09. This Jungle (B-side to Europe After The Rain)
10. Dancing Like A Gun (Single taken from The Garden)
11. Endlessly (Single Version)
12. The Hidden Man (taken from The Golden Section)
13. The Noise – Foxx/Gordon (taken from Shifting City)
14. Through My Sleeping – Foxx/Gordon (taken from Shifting City)
15. Hiroshima Mon Amour – Foxx/Gordon (taken from The Omnidelic Exotour)
16. Musique Electron (previously unreleased)
17. Splendour (previously only available on a compilation entitled, Orphée)

**

Release Date : 06 July, 2015
Label : Metamatic Records
Catalogue Number : META57CD

Pre-order at the special reduced price of £7.99 from http://johnfoxx.tmstor.es/cart/product.php?id=24977

Rob

Thanks for the info Rob. Even though I own all the previously available tracks,including Splendour,I will be ordering a copy. Nice cover.

'Musique Electron' ... cool track title, or even for a band name. I wish I'd thought of it!

So, Underpass is the 3':56" Metamatic album version, but where has the No-One Driving single remix been taken from? I can't recall the last time it was included on a CD release - the Modern Art compilation, perhaps?

Cheers ...

Goddammit, a tenner (£7.99 plus £2 quid p&p) to get two Foxx tracks I don't own. But I still pre-ordered anyways. /Tuts

I wonder why we are celebrating the 35th anniversary rather than the 40th? Then you would have 20 years each side and could call the compilations "20:20 Hindsight Parts 1 and 2" or something ... just a thought. Any similarly anniversarial current artists reading this, you can have that one for free! No? Ok.

Anyway, always nice to have new shiny things.

Methinks I'll need a new area to house my Foxx CDs/DVDs!
Cheers

20th Century : The Noise is now also available to pre-order over at Amazon...

Rob

Just for trivia: I was rather surprised to see this in HMV yesterday (Thursday 16th), especially as the (revised) release date is next Friday 24th? Friday IS the new Monday I believe ..

Mines turned up this morning along with Karborn's latest Evidence of Time Travel volume.


As per usual it's a lovely package.Photos by Foxx,Artwork Barnbrook.



Inside the front cover there is a Foxx short story called Memories of Hiroshima which is in such small print that I've had to photograph it to read it.

See below.



I think it was first published in the Quiet Man blog here:-

http://blog.thequietman.co.uk/?p=385


Brian

Quick question for Rob.

Sleeve notes say the final track is Splendour.

The extracted CD text track listings say Quiet Splendour?

Brian

The track is definitely called Splendour - and the artwork reflects that.

It's likely that whoever first submitted the track-listing for this album to Gracenote called the last track Quiet Splendour by mistake.

The artwork to Orphée is more ambiguous as it calls the track both Splendour and Quiet Splendour.

We decided to drop the word Quiet from the title as it's different to the track Quiet Splendour which first appeared on Cathedral Oceans II.

Rob

It's interesting to know that it's been called both.

Thanks for clearing that up Rob.

I have a Windows Media Player Plugin which extracts the info directly from the CD.

I've also just tried it in my car which is not connected to the Internet.



Sorry for being so picky.You probably can tell that being layed up with my bad leg I've got too much time on my hands...😀

Brian

Just to clarify

SPLENDOUR as featured on Orphée and now on 20th Century is a DIFFERENT TRACK to that called QUIET SPLENDOUR which is available on Cathedral Oceans II

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Orphée/release/446488

The SPLENDOUR track was completed in April 2000 and released on Orphée in July

"... with its almost blindingly beautiful bright white starry synth and its heavily treated and layered male vocals in back like a chorus of angels chanting, all slowly unfolding over the course of the track like a dream of paradise, lighter than air yet graver than eternity.”

There have been several references in the past to the Orpheé track being called (Quiet) Splendour, and as Rob says, even that release is misleading.

Try archiving this stuff... *eek*

That's so true Martin.

There is a also a Foxx lyric with the phrase Quiet Splendour somewhere as well but I can't remember where but suspect something on The Shape of Things.

Brian

It was bugging me for ages.

It's from An Ocean We Can Breathe.

"And there's a quiet splendour
And there's a silent sender
And there's an ocean we can breathe
There's an ocean we can breathe"

Brian

It was indeed Brian.

And I wrote out the transcript for that entry

I received my copy of '20th Century: The Noise' today. Just listening to it at the moment.

My first thoughts on the release...

Nice packaging as always.Then we come to expect that from Metamatic Records.

In terms of the contents. Plenty has already been said about the same old tracks appearing time again on compilations, so I won't go into that. For me the first eleven tracks suggest a straight forward collection of the singles and a selection of B-sides. However no singles from 'The Golden Section' or 'In Mysterious Ways.' Instead we get 'The Hidden Man', an album track. Then we're off to '97. Does anyone know the reasoning behind largely ignoring TGS and totally ignoring IMW? I would like Metamatic Records to release the definitive singles collection, preferably including the edited single version of 'Endlessly' from 1983.

Finally, do we know any recording information regarding 'Musique Electron'? Do we know what year it was recorded, for example?

Musique Electron was the working title for a body of work first referred to in 2005, out of which Tiny Colour Movies emerged. The other tracks (of which 'Musique Electron' is one) have variously been referred to ever since, and some go back to the days of My Lost City. At least from 1983.

Since 1997, names like 'Urban Motets', 'Musique Electron', and 'Imaginary Music' have been used to describe the same body of various treated piano pieces. It is my belief that some of this has been released as London Overgrown and The Quiet Man, as well as perhaps various other tracks.

That's the collective term.

I wonder if Rob can throw more light onto the history of this specific track? I would imagine it has not necessarily had a name until recently, being just one of many 'similar' and connected pieces...

Thanks for your thoughts on Musique Electron Martin.

It makes you wonder how many finished/unfinished/sketches of tracks are 'in the vaults' just waiting for a suitable means of release.

I have to say i'm not that excited about this compilation I would have preferred a definitive singles collection like this:

Slow Motion
Quiet Men
Underpass
No-One Driving
Burning Car
Miles Away
Europe After The Rain
Dancing Like A Gun
Endlessly
Your Dress
Like A Miracle
Stars On Fire
What Kind Of Girl
Enter The Angel
Dislocated
Never Been Here Before
Broken Furniture
Drive
Destination
Evergreen
Evangeline

For the CD 1 track would have to be dropped and I would take out "Drive" as "Broken Furniture" has been included from the same EP.

.....thoughts?

Interesting collection Gary. However I would have included both versions of 'Endlessly'for completion sake and dropped 'What Kind Of A Girl' as this was never a single. A version ended up as an extra track with the 'Stars On Fire' single only. If there had been room for any more tracks perhaps we could have had the demo version of 'Touch And Go' as we only have an excerpt of this on the 'Metal Beat' interview disc.

Good to see The Forum gathering momentum again.

To save me a job later and keep things tidy, I've created a discussion thread here for the new album

http://www.metamatic.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/47848#Post47848

So can you post comments etc there instead of here please.
Ta

John is a guest on Steve Lamacq's Round Table this Thursday on 6 Music from 6pm.

Brian

I don't wanted to buy another compilation of Johns music.

I don't wanted.

But then I found a copy here in a shop in Hamburg - AND BOUGHT IT!

A nice compilation and I love both new tracks.