The Fixx got quite a bit of airplay on both rock and pop stations in the early-mid 80s, starting with Red Skies from their 1982 debut album Shuttered Room, through their smash hit album Reach the Beach (1983), which had several songs that saw airplay, most notably One Thing Leads To Another and Saved by Zero, followed by Phantoms (1984), which contained the hit Are We Ourselves?. These last three songs essentially became permanent fixtures in the 80s pop canon. Their material after this period remained excellent but their mainstream popularity waned. I particularly like the album Calm Animals from 1988.
The sound of The Fixx is somewhat unique. Very tight but adept guitar work, the constrained high-end vocals of Cy Curnin (strangely he doesn’t have much of a web presence, although he is apparently still active, both with and without The Fixx), atmospheric synthesizer work, and somewhat minimalist drum and bass tracks. This was one of those bands who could only have achieved any kind of stardom in the 80s, when there were a huge variety of sounds within pop. The themes of the music were serious, running the gamut from politics to pop psychology to personal relationship stuff. The one mystery about the Fixx that I’ve never truly solved is why I have never met a female Fixx fan. The Fixx was music for introversion for myself and my (male) geek friends. I had female geek friends but this stuff was apparently lost on them. And no female 80s music fan I’ve met since high school has ever professed serious fandom of The Fixx. For whatever reason, there’s just a lack of appeal there for women…
Nevertheless, the atmospherics and unique musical sound of The Fixx is what has always attracted me. The Sign of Fire (sorry no Youtube video), off Reach the Beach, is a subtle song that managed to get a quite respectable amount of airplay (although it probably does not any more, now that “Classic Rock” seems to have taken over the formats of virtually all former rock stations).
This really is a masterfully written and produced pop song. After a very cold fade-in, the basic rhythmic sequence that defines the song breaks in. It’s a jumpy, mid-tempo, almost march-like composition, with the fragile and precise guitar so characteristic of The Fixx controlling the pace and a very spare somewhat stocatto-ey bass line. There’s a very nice guitar figure, impossible to describe, leading into the chorus. Again, it’s that fast, light, surgical, strongly-effected (phaser and/or chorus? I’m not a guitarist) Fixx sound of lead-guitarist Jamie West-Oram. The bass line bounces lightly during the chorus, in counterpoint to the guitar licks. I pretty much hate actual baroque music, but these are indeed the equivalent of baroque stylings for pop music. What other bands then or now did this and got on the radio? The break back into the verse from the chorus releases energy, but still maintains the precise Fixx control. In the second verse and thereafter there is some modulating synth in the background, adding to the disorienting atmosphere. After the second chorus there is a very atmospheric bridge (after the lyric “hot”; see below). Held synth strings in the background provide the atmosphere. But this is just a brief interlude before we go back to intro/verse music.
The lyrics are suitably cryptic. Here they are:
Heart of stone -- I tried to reach you
Of the altar stone -- I tried to warn you
But you were not alone -- you wouldn't take the call
You wear brimstone -- I tried to warm you
Always the same desire
After the tone -- they try to storm you
You are a voice alone and who dares to question
Forgotten at home - how do you live with
Do you wear brimstone -- give me the call
Always the sign is fire
I'm being drawn by the heat
Always the same desire. Hot
Through the telephone -- I tried to reach you
But if you're not alone -- I know your life is torn
I see your lover's tomb -- why don't you mention
To me whenever I call -- I'll try to warm you
Always the sign is fire
I'm being drawn by the heat
Always the same desire
You're not alone
Always the sign is fire
Heart of stone
Always the sign is fire . . . (repeat)
Not to jest about the lyrics – they fit the piece very well. It’s standard unrequited love stuff. The object has some complicated things going on. Wearing brimstone sounds pretty serious. And her (presumably it’s a she) lover has a tomb. Not good, one would think. The song fades out and we are left with unsettled angst. But it’s a very controlled and measured injection of atmosphere. A great soundtrack for many a lonely day walking around in the cold, I can attest well.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Another Obsession
Another thing I want to make this blog about is the one true food obsession I have, and that is Singapore Rice Noodles (also called Singapore Chow Mei Fun or Singapore Mei Fun). This is a dish that is available in virtually all Chinese restaurants (even if it occasionally is not on the menu) and it is truly heaven on earth (when well made, which it often is). The main ingredient is rice noodles (ranging from a vermicelli-like to an angel hair-like width), which are stir fried with curry (almost always), vegetables, and thin slices of meat, as well as shrimp (usually), and egg (usually). It is usually listed as a spicy dish but often you won't find it particularly spicy unless you ask for it to be (possibly in some cases due to the fact that many Chinese chefs don't expect Americans of European descent to like/tolerate spicy food).
Even though this dish is available in most Chinese take-out and sit-down restaurants, there is a wide variety of specific ways in which it is carried out, some more successful than others. The main variables include: type and quality of meat, types of vegetables, grade of curry, grade of noodles, and overall dryness of the dish.
In my travels around NY and other places, I have been sampling a great variety of Singapore Rice Noodles. Pictured above is the current, and by now fairly longstanding, gold standard, from the Sung Wo Restaurant in Rocky Point, NY. Ordered as "Singapore Rice Noodles, spicy, with everything", this version is on the oily side, with lots of egg, vegetables that are not overwhelming (i.e. no celery and not too much carrot), spicyness that is just right (i.e. exactly halfway to nuclear), and pieces of very very tasty and succulent beef (probably the rarest meat to find in this dish).
Future installments on this blog will discuss and picture the dish from other establishments as my search proceeds.
On Film Scores
I’m not a huge moviegoer, but one thing about movies I find very interesting is the original music that is composed for them. In general, with basically all forms of music, but especially classical-type music, I am intrigued by original (especially contemporary) compositions (although I don’t have a lot of time to seek them out these days) and I like to hear analysis of new music by critics, musicologists, etc.
NPR has a fairly long running tradition in its Weekend Edition Sunday (WESUN) program each Oscar season with music critic Andy Trudeau (couldn’t find a blog or website about him) discussing the Oscar-nominated film scores from that year and picking his favorite. (Aside: This feature is one of the only positive things I’ve found about NPR in the last decade or so. This is a national radio network that has truly lost its way and its soul in order to conform with inside-the-Beltway politics, but that is a discussion for a different post and perhaps even a different blog.) I never miss this and recommend it for those interested in music composition and especially the process of using music to tell stories, which I feel all music in some way does whether it intends to or not. This year’s first of three installments can be found here. The others are/will be on the WESUN page.
Some nominated scores in past years that I really liked (independent of the movies, some of which I have not even seen) were: The Constant Gardener, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Red Violin.
NPR has a fairly long running tradition in its Weekend Edition Sunday (WESUN) program each Oscar season with music critic Andy Trudeau (couldn’t find a blog or website about him) discussing the Oscar-nominated film scores from that year and picking his favorite. (Aside: This feature is one of the only positive things I’ve found about NPR in the last decade or so. This is a national radio network that has truly lost its way and its soul in order to conform with inside-the-Beltway politics, but that is a discussion for a different post and perhaps even a different blog.) I never miss this and recommend it for those interested in music composition and especially the process of using music to tell stories, which I feel all music in some way does whether it intends to or not. This year’s first of three installments can be found here. The others are/will be on the WESUN page.
Some nominated scores in past years that I really liked (independent of the movies, some of which I have not even seen) were: The Constant Gardener, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Red Violin.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Strange Fruit - Catherine Wheel
Sorry to go a week without blogging. Been busy.
One of my current favorite bands is Catherine Wheel
(current in the sense of currently listening to, not necessarily currently active, which CW apparently are not). Of the bands I've heard in the Shoegaze genre (which is by no means even half of them), these guys have the best sound, combined with the best songwriting. It's all about atmosphere. Any schoolkid can turn up the guitar effects and make noise leaning into the Peavey combo amp his parents bought him, but it takes art to make the songs that Catherine Wheel put out on their first two albums, Ferment (1992) and Chrome (1993). I have not listened to their albums after this period, which according to their Wikipedia entry took them away from Shoegaze into "hard rock". Will be worth a listen in the future.
A major part of the atmosphere achieved by the Shoegaze era CW is no doubt due to Tim Friese-Greene, a member of the seminal new-wave/alternative pop/rock band Talk Talk,who produced Ferment and played keyboards on Chrome.
As an aside, the Ferment album cover reminds me of a view down the throat of a sandworm.
In some of the online material about CW there are some comments that the lead singer, Rob Dickinson, was not confident in his vocal strength and that is partially responsible for the position of the vocals in the mix, which somewhat follow the Shoegaze poetic of voice-as-instrument. For me, this is not a drawback of this genre. It adds an irreplaceable dimension to the narrative and atmosphere. This is especially true in the case of CW. The vocal is in the high range for male (while not being falsetto), which adds a romanticism and even a fragility that synergizes with the strong guitar wall. Without this vocal sound, a huge part of the emotional content of these songs would not come across.
Strange Fruit (damn, no video on Youtube), from the Chrome album, encapsulates everything that is great about the Catherine Wheel sound.
At first glance, the lyrics look like standard oblique loner poetry. But there are a couple of really great stanzas here: First verse: "I've been inside this fruit when juices flow. But the taste is just a memory you hold. There is no real decay. No feeling of the skin. No juice."
Second verse: "This is sweet the soul the flesh I wish. It's the liquid that I miss. There is no real decay. The flesh is barely bruised. It's no use."
Dark, strange, I would even say gothic. Fits the sound perfectly, even though it is a not a dirge-y gothic tempo. They also dovetail really well with the song’s structure.
The guitar opening is strong and straight, uppish tempo. Then the drums kick in, clean, simple. Verse vocal is high and strong. The second part of the verse brings in a new hook, with great harmony somewhat receding in the background. The guitar line falls down from on high.
The every-beat drums during the chorus, which brings in yet another hook, really rally things. It's rare to find more than one real hook in a song and this one arguably has three (two verse plus the chorus). The guitar sound throughout is so full you can lean against it, into it like a big sofa. The chorus hook is emphasized further by the repetitive lead guitar line. The transition from chorus back to verse is really great, with an unexpected phrasing.
After the second chorus there is a brief bridge part just before a nice dreamy break (in America, Shoegaze was called Dream Pop).
Then we are given a big third verse and final chorus, which just rings out into forever at the end. The structure here is pure pop song, but this gives you everything you need soundwise and atmosphere wise. There are few perfect songs out there. I've already blogged about one. Strange Fruit is another.
One of my current favorite bands is Catherine Wheel
(current in the sense of currently listening to, not necessarily currently active, which CW apparently are not). Of the bands I've heard in the Shoegaze genre (which is by no means even half of them), these guys have the best sound, combined with the best songwriting. It's all about atmosphere. Any schoolkid can turn up the guitar effects and make noise leaning into the Peavey combo amp his parents bought him, but it takes art to make the songs that Catherine Wheel put out on their first two albums, Ferment (1992) and Chrome (1993). I have not listened to their albums after this period, which according to their Wikipedia entry took them away from Shoegaze into "hard rock". Will be worth a listen in the future.
A major part of the atmosphere achieved by the Shoegaze era CW is no doubt due to Tim Friese-Greene, a member of the seminal new-wave/alternative pop/rock band Talk Talk,who produced Ferment and played keyboards on Chrome.
As an aside, the Ferment album cover reminds me of a view down the throat of a sandworm.
In some of the online material about CW there are some comments that the lead singer, Rob Dickinson, was not confident in his vocal strength and that is partially responsible for the position of the vocals in the mix, which somewhat follow the Shoegaze poetic of voice-as-instrument. For me, this is not a drawback of this genre. It adds an irreplaceable dimension to the narrative and atmosphere. This is especially true in the case of CW. The vocal is in the high range for male (while not being falsetto), which adds a romanticism and even a fragility that synergizes with the strong guitar wall. Without this vocal sound, a huge part of the emotional content of these songs would not come across.
Strange Fruit (damn, no video on Youtube), from the Chrome album, encapsulates everything that is great about the Catherine Wheel sound.
At first glance, the lyrics look like standard oblique loner poetry. But there are a couple of really great stanzas here: First verse: "I've been inside this fruit when juices flow. But the taste is just a memory you hold. There is no real decay. No feeling of the skin. No juice."
Second verse: "This is sweet the soul the flesh I wish. It's the liquid that I miss. There is no real decay. The flesh is barely bruised. It's no use."
Dark, strange, I would even say gothic. Fits the sound perfectly, even though it is a not a dirge-y gothic tempo. They also dovetail really well with the song’s structure.
The guitar opening is strong and straight, uppish tempo. Then the drums kick in, clean, simple. Verse vocal is high and strong. The second part of the verse brings in a new hook, with great harmony somewhat receding in the background. The guitar line falls down from on high.
The every-beat drums during the chorus, which brings in yet another hook, really rally things. It's rare to find more than one real hook in a song and this one arguably has three (two verse plus the chorus). The guitar sound throughout is so full you can lean against it, into it like a big sofa. The chorus hook is emphasized further by the repetitive lead guitar line. The transition from chorus back to verse is really great, with an unexpected phrasing.
After the second chorus there is a brief bridge part just before a nice dreamy break (in America, Shoegaze was called Dream Pop).
Then we are given a big third verse and final chorus, which just rings out into forever at the end. The structure here is pure pop song, but this gives you everything you need soundwise and atmosphere wise. There are few perfect songs out there. I've already blogged about one. Strange Fruit is another.
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