IDM Mailing Archive

barry adamson has been making quietly brilliant albums since the late 80's but he never seems to get the recognition he deserves. his biggest splash was probably contributing a few tracks to the "lost highway" soundtrack. anyway he's back with yet another slab o genius entitled AS ABOVE SO BELOW. ingredients: hipster jazz amazing melodies clever lyrics weird noises the first track "can't get loose" i have listened to about 20 times already today. starting with fuzz guitar, a drum loop, and some amon-tobin-esque vibe keyboard lines, it goes through a sorta spy-movie verse into an unbelievably catchy chorus which plays off the old classic "can't get used to losing you" by changing the words into "i can't get loose to using you". the last track is a purely abstract noise thing. i've run out of time to talk about it but... trust me... it's good. http://www.mutelibtech.com/mute/adamson/adamson.htm -- Jon Drukman jsd@gamespot.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Plan: Eat right, exercise regularly, die anyway.

For those not minding a couple of week wait to save a few ducats, the new Barry Adamson disc (out this week in the UK) will be released in North America on June 23rd. Greg

At 05:09 PM 6/2/98 -0700, Jon Drukman wrote:

quoted 4 lines barry adamson has been making quietly brilliant albums since the late

>barry adamson has been making quietly brilliant albums since the late >80's but he never seems to get the recognition he deserves. his biggest >splash was probably contributing a few tracks to the "lost highway" >soundtrack.

For me the highlight of the film was that really chill mellow piece he did which was criminally shortened on the soundtrack. What I'd like to know is, how much of his stuff is instrumental? I have a well known aversion to vocals. Thanks Che

Che wrote:

quoted 4 lines For me the highlight of the film was that really chill mellow piece he did

> For me the highlight of the film was that really chill mellow piece he did > which was criminally shortened on the soundtrack. What I'd like to know > is, how much of his stuff is instrumental? I have a well known aversion to > vocals.

well i'd start with "moss side story" or "the negro inside me." moss side story is 100% instrumental. required listening. ('industrial swamp jazz', as greg earle calls it, is a very apt term. plus there's a hallucinogenic cover of the alfred hitchcock presents theme, and a great reading of 'man with the golden arm') negro inside me is 90% instrumental. one track has vocals, it's a serge gainsbourg tune... i don't like it much but barry has a big serge addicition apparently. the rest is super crunchy ultra funky beats n jazzy shit. the new album (as above so below) has *lots* of vocals but it's REALLY good. there is an ep called "taming of the shrewd" which is all instrumental, and it's one of my favorite things by him... four achingly gorgeous instrumentals in full on lush 60's orchestral john barry mode, plus a crunchy almost industrial cover of "diamonds". it's kinda hard to find tho. hope this helps. -- Jon Drukman jsd@gamespot.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Plan: Eat right, exercise regularly, die anyway.

Can anyone on the list tell mey anything about Barry Adamson ? Discogs ? Background ? Philosophy ? TIA Tim ________________________________________________________________________ | Tim Moss | SCO Client Integration Division | Phone:+44 (0)1223 518034| | Software | Vision Park Cambridge CB4 4ZR | Fax : +44 (0)1223 518001| | Engineer | WWW: http://www.premier.sco.com | Mailto:timm@sco.com | |_________ |_________________________________|_________________________|

On Wed, Sep 30, 1998 at 02:49:44PM +0100, Tim Moss wrote:

quoted 3 lines Can anyone on the list tell mey anything about Barry Adamson ?

> Can anyone on the list tell mey anything about Barry Adamson ? > > Discogs ? Background ? Philosophy ?

I haven't heard any of his early stuff (he was bassist for Magazine) but I have yet to be disappointed by any of his solo material. My favorite way of describing his music at the moment is kind of a lower-tech, higher-funk version of Yello; lots of atmosphere punctuated by uptempo tracks here and there. Off the top of my head: 1988 Moss Side Story 1991 Delusion soundtrack 1992 Soul Murder 1992 Cinema Is King (EP) 1993 The Negro Inside Me (EP) 1995 Movieology (EP) 1996 Oedipus Schmoedipus 1998 As Above, So Below -- Lazlo Nibble | "There's no moral, Uncle Remus, just lazlo@swcp.com | random acts of meaningless violence." http://www.swcp.com/lazlo | -- Michael O'Donoghue

i'm surprised noone's used the word "conceptual" to describe his music...

quoted 1 line 1993 The Negro Inside Me (EP)

> 1993 The Negro Inside Me (EP)

i think this one is out of print, or quickly "going out of print", but i always still see it everywhere, including Tower Records. i mention that b/c i highly recommend picking this one up eventually. for some reason, most of the people i've spoken with have skipped out on "The Negro Inside Me" (simply b/c of the cheesy looking cover?), which is a darn shame imho. ok, so Barry didn't have the ingenuity of Henry Cow to use the profile of a sock for an album cover repeatedly, but i think we can forgive him... btw, he usually has some interesting guest musicians, like Diamanda Galas, Nick Cave, etc... Bt. np: Bill Frisell/Power Tools...

i think this thread came up about two months ago... :) umm, i think it was jon drukman who said the best way to describe barry adamson was "post-industrial film noir swamp jazz". that's the most accurate description i've heard. essential releases: _moss side story_ lp _soul murder lp_ (uhh, whatever the 1993 ep was...) all on mute. * #### a disturbance in a system. #### laerm. @voicenet.com ##:# see the stars, they're shining bright/everything's alright tonight

On Wed, 30 Sep 1998, laerm wrote:

quoted 4 lines essential releases:

> essential releases: > _moss side story_ lp > _soul murder lp_ > (uhh, whatever the 1993 ep was...)

i just remembered - "the negro inside me". * #### a disturbance in a system. #### laerm. @voicenet.com ##:# see the stars, they're shining bright/everything's alright tonight

Barry Adamson....Magazine (late 70s-early 80s punk to postpunk synthed outfit featuring Howard Devoto) Bass player (a badassed one, too). Went on to hook up with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Gone solo. Warped, interesting.... ("Oedipus Smoedipus" is one his lp titles)...not IDM, though. jeff Tim Moss wrote:

quoted 13 lines Can anyone on the list tell mey anything about Barry Adamson ?

> Can anyone on the list tell mey anything about Barry Adamson ? > > Discogs ? Background ? Philosophy ? > > TIA > > Tim > > ________________________________________________________________________ > | Tim Moss | SCO Client Integration Division | Phone:+44 (0)1223 518034| > | Software | Vision Park Cambridge CB4 4ZR | Fax : +44 (0)1223 518001| > | Engineer | WWW: http://www.premier.sco.com | Mailto:timm@sco.com | > |_________ |_________________________________|_________________________|

-- dancing/about/architecture "...with wandering steps and slow..." ICQ904008

Tim Moss wrote:

quoted 1 line Can anyone on the list tell mey anything about Barry Adamson ?

> Can anyone on the list tell mey anything about Barry Adamson ?

On 30 Sep 98, ~\(\({\[Endemic~Distortion\]} wrote

quoted 1 line Barry Adamson....Magazine

> Barry Adamson....Magazine

(oh whoa, The Correct Use of Soap?!) He was also responsible for quite a few of the linking tracks on the Lost Highway soundtrack - as produced by everybody's best friend Trent Baby ... sort of moody and gloomy dark interludes, well befitting David Lynch. I *