IED catches up on the L-Hs Mailbag

[IED0DXM@OAC.UCLA.EDU]

Thanks for the info re the vegetarian LP. IED supposes he could
try calling WFNX for a rereading of the address...except he's not
too sure how to find WFNX. In the Boston area? (Ignorant West Coaster,
sorry.) About whether Kate's track is new material or not, the fact that
she hasn't written on that subject before is no guarantee that she
will have contributed something new to the vegetarian LP. After all, she gave
Greenpeace and Comic Relief "social" songs, even though she knew they
didn't have much to do specifically with the issues of greatest
relevance to those groups. On the other hand, the fact that this album is
not going to be sold in stores _does_ make a new song seem more likely,
since Kate would probably not want to peddle a strongly anti-meat-eating
song to the public at large. On the third hand, she _did_ once
publish an article (in the UK's _Women's Week_, or something like that)
called "How Can You Eat Meat?".
     John Relph asks about Tony Mansfield and New Musik. Bravo, John! One
of IED's longtime favourites, and a ridiculously underrated musician.
New Musik's original UK releases, of which the U.S. LPs are mere
incomplete best-of collections, are:
     _From A to B_;
     _Anywhere_; and
     _Warp_ (UK only).
In addition, however, New Musik always had a non-LP  b-side on every
new single, sometimes two b-sides. As a result, there are quite a few
non-LP tracks, some of which are among their best, in IED's op.
     Aside from these, however (and the Takahashi _What, Me Worry?_
LP appearance, which you noted already), I've been unable to find
anything more recent than _Warp_.
     As a producer, though, Mansfield has occasionally found work.
He produced most of UK novelty act Captain Sensible's records (not
the most recent release, but practically everything earlier), and
most notably, he produced the last LP (or at least parts of it)
by the B-52s. Although IED has never obtained a copy to check,
judging from the melodic and contrapuntal style of some of the tracks
on that LP, Mansfield probably co-wrote some of the material, as well.
     Why there has not been more music from Mansfield is a real
mystery to IED, especially since his record "On Islands" was an
enormous hit in Europe and England back in 1980 or so. Also, it's a crime
that none of New Musik's recordings has ever made it onto CD. _Warp_,
especially, just cries out for pristeen sound reproduction.
     _A Bird in the Hand_ is _the_ worst ripoff of all the KT boots. Don't
buy it unless you have never heard anything from the Hammersmith
concert video at all before. All it is is an _edited_ transfer of
the Hi-fi audio track from the video-cassette of the Live at Hammersmith
Odeon film. Furthermore, the stereo channel separation is virtually completely
lost in the boot version, although the pressing (surface noise) is o.k.
But this particular bootleg doesn't even include the whole 53-minute
soundtrack! Only about nine songs (perhaps eight are listed, but as IED
recalls nine are included on the record) are transferred, even though
other boots have a better stereo transfer of the entire soundtrack on
single disks. So steer clear!
     The new Sylvian album is _Secrets of the Beehive_. There's been a lot
of talk about how this LP is a major departure for Sylvian, the next
step in his stylistic evolution. Bollocks, if you ask IED. The songs
themselves are noticeably "easier" to follow: both the melodies and
the words are much more accessible (and in IED's opinion, generally
the worse for it). But the sound of the recordings is virtually
identical to that of everything he's done since "Bamboo Houses/Music":
the same damn trumpet/fluegelhorn crap, with a load of quasi-jazz, semi-
improvised schlock dressing up his elegantly spare song-structures,
and a lot of "atmospherics" swirling around everything. IED thought this
was wonderful when it appeared on _Brilliant Trees_, but since
nothing -- but _nothing_ -- has changed since then, it has all grown
quite thin at this point. Kate really spoils you in that respect --
she would _never_ release four albums' worth (counting all the
instrumental releases Sylvian has put out in the past four years) of
music which all conformed to the same style and instrumentation. Hell,
she wouldn't release two _tracks_ that sounded as much alike as
Sylvian's last four albums! What's the point, for chrissake? You'd
do much better buying The Dolphin Brothers' first CD, _Catch the Fall_.
Much finer music, in IED's opinion, although he wouldn't be surprised
if the next LP from Jansen and Barbieri sounded exactly like it, as
well. Sheesh. And Sylvian, Jansen and Barbieri are IED's favourite
musicians, next to Kate! Either this shows what a pathetic state the music
industry is in, or it shows what a nut IED is...

-- Andrew Marvick