re: ball of confusion

[Doug Alan <nessus>]

> From JIM HOFMU ... 

> Found a little more about this dance gem Ball of Confusion:  Comes
> from a group called LOVE AND ROCKETS

Hey, Love and Rockets is playing in Boston on the 27th.  They are Tones
on Tail plus David J or rather Bauhaus minus the lead singer for Dali's
Car plus some other guy.

> This could be the dance tune of the summer!  Well, next to Running Up
> the Hill, huh, guys?

Yeah!  In any case, with me refering to RUTH as disco (to reply to
Shelli), I meant disco as "music specially crafted for the contemporary
dance market".  There's lots of danceable music that I wouldn't call
disco (like funk?), but "disco" it would seem almost by definition is
what they play in discos, and they are playing RUTH in discos.  It's
even 38 on the U.S. 12 inch single disco charts and climbing.  Like
Billboard said

	Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" proves that if you wait long
	enough everyone will make a disco record.  This one is midtempo
	and dreamy, with a surprizingly propulsive electronic pattern.

The review of "Hounds of Love" that appeared in Melody Maker (the only
less-than-rave review I've found) says

	"Hounds of Love" is, though, far away the best track on the
	album ... rich and colourful, it successfully overcomes the
	disco rhythms that otherwise tend to overbalance the album, and
	inspires Kate to a truly astonishing vocal performance.

However, I don't agree with any of this about disco rhythms
overbalancing the album or with "Hounds of Love" being the best track,
though it is excellent.  The only song with a disco rhythm is RUTH, but
it's a really neat disco rhythm.  The guy who wrote this review is jerk
though.  He can't stand concept albums for some unexplained reason: "A
pox on the concept album."

He says of the "The Ninth Wave"

	But she makes huge demands on her listener

Yeah, that's *great*!

	and the theme is too confused and the execution too laborious
	and stilted to carry real weight as a complete entity!

Boo!  Hiss!  He's talking about the best album side in existence there!
He does say that "Jig of Life" (part of "The Ninth Wave") is a
"brilliantly compelling extract", though.

What was I originally saying?  Oh, yeah....

A lot of disco now isn't extremely similar to 70s style disco (boy was
70s disco awful!).  Now, most of it seems to be a kind of new wave synth
pop (which RUTH probably is in some sense, but completely transcends).

> Speaking of RUTH (ever hear the story about Ruth from the bible?), um,
> that little synth line that bridges the opening into the chorus.  It
> sounds like a 70's disco hook.

Yeah!  That silly Fairlight hook in RUTH is the only thing on the album
I don't like!  If I only could go into the studio and remove that hook.
If I only could oh....

-Doug

P.S.  Gee, originally this was message was only going to be 3 lines
long....