i-T can feel li-K-e falling in love...

[IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU]

>I was really surprised to see `Quit Dreaming and Get On the Beam' on
>CD. Is any other Bill Nelson stuff (including Be-bop Deluxe) on CD?

Yes, and it's a wonderful CD, too. The Love That Whirls is out,
and it includes all the b-sides from that period. Ever since
finding these Nelson CDs, IED has been checking the N sections
regularly for a CD of Getting the Holy Ghost Across (possibly
including the whole Spangled Moment EP?) and maybe a CD
of Chimera and Savage Gestures, too. But not every company
can be as pro-CD as 4AD, huh?

>IED, once you become an experienced anything, you can start telling the world
>about your experiences. But as you apparently remain an unexperienced
>wanker, all we can do is hit the return key faster.  If IED wishes to believe
>in the opinions of an experienced artist here is mine (as an experienced
>artist, that is) "IED Probably eats rat turds.".

>Sorry Andy, (as a matter of fact sorry Hofboyy and Wicinski for using your
>names in a useless, profane and totally fucked up momentary lapse of
>consciousness in which I even responded to the original comments) i.e.
>I am illiterate. You gotta do what you gotta do.
>
>Don't call me Mr.

>John

O.K., John, anything you say, just relax, o.k.? Apology accepted,
of course.

  Agreed, with some reservations.  This kind of thinking _can_ lead to
the "If you don't like it it's because you don't understand it" type
of argument, which is equally invalid.

Agreed. Extreme positions on this kind of issue are counter-productive.

>(The skyscraper example was good, by the way)

Thanks!

 On a very pragmatic level: it follows standard Western chord progressions,
uses standard rhythms, is played on conventional or traditional folk
instruments (guitar, piano, nose flute, whatever) or on synthesizers.
The songs have verses and choruses with lyrics that fit standard meters.
It's recorded in a studio; it gets played on the radio; you can buy it
at Sound Warehouse (insert local record store chain here).

 Now you demonstrate how it's not.

All undeniable points in common with more conventional pop music,
IED concedes the validity of your examples, but not your conclusion.
Certainly Kate's music -- even the majority of the "songs" on
The Dreaming and HoL -- are intimately linked with mainstream
traditions both of instrumentation and of composition. (Marketing
doesn't have much to do with it, really.) The crucial distinction
is one of attitude. The motivation behind the music, and the
aim of the music, as well as the emphases within the music, all
set The Dreaming (and HoL, as well) far apart from the rest of the
pack. For example: "The Dreaming", which anyway only adheres
to the notion of "song structure" in the loosest possible way --
militates AGAINST that very structure by the displacement of
verse, bridge and chorus sections in a progressive pattern, i.e.
the meter implied by the lyrics as they are "sung" (or chanted)
is at deliberate odds with the MUSICAL structure of the piece.
This situation is made clearer in the instrumental version,
"Dreamtime", where the general rhythmic pattern is heard playing
against the background and chorus vocals in a balance that bears
no real relation to the balance it strikes with the main vocals
in the album version.
Another example: In Get out of my house, the structure of the
track begins in conventional form, but about two thirds of the
way through, this form is simply dropped, and replaced by
an entirely new theme -- really just the simplest of guitar-derived
motifs -- which emerges out of the open chords of the abandoned
"song" structure. Two more similar examples spring to mind in
regard to this tendency of Kate's to challenge traditional song
structure, namely the progressive telescoping of the chorus in
"Running Up That Hill", and the shift in meter in "Wuthering
Heights" -- a shift which Kate emphasizes even more strongly
in her new version of the song.

The above examples are four of dozens that could be found to
demonstrate the peculiar kind of UNDERSTATED but RADICAL
departures which Kate's music takes from the mainstream --
and these in connection with basic song structure only.

As for instrumentation, of course Kate uses many traditional
instruments, and also uses synthesizers. But no-one, in
the history of modern music, has used such a wide variety
of sound sources with such abandoned love of their actual
sound, and with such disregard for their former acceptable
positions within traditional bounds. Further, no-one has
used these widely varied sonic sources and molded them
so radically to suit the ideal sound residing in the artist's
mind. Only by such extensive exploitation of the studio
and all attendant aspects of PRODUCTION could any artist
hope even to approach the creation of sounds which theretofore
had existed -- albeit with evident clarity -- in the artist's
imagination.

>  We actually seem to agree on most of the issues, it's just that my
>presentation of my views was less than clear.  Our only real difference
>of opinion seems to be over the uniqueness of "The Dreaming."

Isn't this great, Blore? We agree (more or less)!
But why is IED arguing for the uniqueness of The Dreaming --
isn't this Doug's job, anyway?

Let IED argue for the uniqueness of Hounds of Love -- and of


E  X  P  E  R  I  M  E  N  T     I  V   ! !  !   !    !     !      !

The greatest single piece of music in the history of the known universe.

-- Andrew Marvick