dag 1086: hope blisters eternal

This post was written sometime towards the end of last year but my old PowerBook died on me before I had the chance to tidy it up and publish it. You will see that the bit at the end has actually been superceded by my latest post.

I have been spending some of my down time over the last few weeks looking things up on wikipedia. I think the principle that anyone can create new articles or contribute to existing ones is great. Since I first heard about it I have wanted to contribute something, but haven't found the time or the right subject as yet. The things I have been reading about has included musicians and groups I like and I am amazed at the amount of information people have contributed. My wanderings have included Peter Hammill, Kent, Nick Drake, John Cale, Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil. I can still remember the very first time I heard This Mortal Coil, I was driving along Penny Pot Lane listening to the radio for a change when they played the Song of the Siren - a cover of the Tim Buckley original. I instantly recognised Elisabeth Fraser's distinctive voice when the song began and I initially thought it must be a Cocteau Twins track, although it was different from their normal stuff. It was only when it finished that I actually heard it was This mortal Coil, and I wondered if the Cocteau Twins have split up.

Fortunately they hadn't (though of course they did do so later on).
This Mortal Coil wasn't a band as such, but a collection of musicians (mainly from the 4AD record label) that got together to record cover versions with various original pieces thrown in for good measure. The whole project was conceived by Ivo Watts-Russell, the founder of 4AD, who liked melancholic music and put together a band to play original music as well as cover versions of some of his favourite songs.

That melancholic music will surely cheer you up.

I bought their first Album, It'll End in Tears, and was amazed by it. Although it featured different singers, musicians and instruments it definitely had a certain mood about it which I think pretty much matched the kind of mood I have always liked and wanted to create in my own music (though haven't really managed it as yet). I bought the next two This Mortal Coil albums (both double) as soon as each was released - Filigree and Shadow, and Blood. I thought they were both fantastic. It was great hearing their cover versions of songs I already knew, but it also introduced me to some songs that I had never heard the first time around.

I kept looking out for the next TMC release, but it looked like the project was over and I ended up rebuying the originals on cd or from iTunes (where I bought Blood and the Sixteen Days/Gathering Dust ep shortly before leaving my contract in Scotland). But while reading all about TMC on wiki I discovered a link to a small piece about a group called The Hope Blister.
It seems that there was another TMC album after all. Although the band name had changed and it was the same musicians playing on all tracks, this was essentially a TMC album. It featured a set of previous TMC musicians, it still featured cover versions and, as I discovered once my copy arrived from amazon, most importantly it sounded like a TMC album.

For me the stand out tracks are Spider and I and Hanky Panky Nohow.
These are the last 2 tracks and seem to flow together as if it was always intended that they be together. Spider and I was written by Eno and I have never heard the original. This version is very relaxing,
starting off with strings and exquiset vocals and gradually transforms itself into a cacophony of banging drums and feedback in such a way that you don't notice the transition. This flows seamlessly into Hanky Panky Nohow, which is written by John Cale and taken from his Paris 1919 album. This is a track I did already know and Paris 1919 is generally considered to be John Cales finest album. This version is great, but does seem to lose
itself a bit towards the end, but I think that is just that the first half of the track is so good that it is not possible to keep that going for the whole track. The lyrics to this song are amazing, yet I have no idea what they mean - they just seem to fit together really well.

Hearing this John Cale track reminded me that
a) I hadn't listened to any of his music for ages and
b) I still hadn't managed to see him live yet.

A quick scour of the web resolved both these situations as I ordered the newly remastered Paris 1919 cd and his latest CD Black Acetate (I had seen John Cale perform a couple of tracks from this on Jools Holland last year). I also spotted that he will be playing a few dates in January - the nearest to my current location was Sheffield, so after rallying round all my concert going buddies I ordered a single ticket.
So if you see a bloke looking sad and lonely hanging around near the front of the stage it'll probably be me so why not say hello.

Nothing frightens me more..........