MP3 Discussion Group: ‘Mirrorball’ by John Foxx & Robin Guthrie
This week, the Disquiet.com MP3 Discussion Group returns to collectively given a listen to Mirroball (Metamatic Records/Universal), a new-ish album-length collaboration between two early figures in electronic pop music: John Foxx (b. 1947, original vocalist with Ultravox!) and Robin Guthrie (b. 1962, cofounder of Cocteau Twins). It’s a gauzy pop album, redolent with Foxx’s maudlin-romantic singing and Guthrie’s florid shoegazer lushness. As such, it’s a little off topic from the more abstract work generally featured on Disquiet.com, but between its opulent haze makes it a peer to the kind of work that’s often cited on Disquiet.com, and Guthrie’s shoegazer credentials played a role in the decision-making, too. For reference, the track listing is as follows:
1. “Mirrorball”
2. “My Life as an Echo”
3. “The Perfect Line”
4. “Spectroscope”
5. “Estrellita”
6. “Luminous”
7. “Sunshower”
8. “Ultramarine”
9. “Empire Skyline”
Participating with me in this week’s MP3 Discussion Group are:
Julian Lewis: “I write much of Lend Me Your Ears, a UK/Spain-based MP3 blog that appreciates less obvious music.”
Alan Lockett: “I write music reviews and commentary on ambient/drone, the more adventurous end of techno/house, post-dub, and IDM. Based in Bristol, epicentre of the Dub-zone in the Wild West of England, I can mainly be read on igloomag.com and furthernoise.org.”
Joshua Maremont: “I record as Thermal and pursue my musical and other obsessions in San Francisco.”
The conversation will play out in this post’s comments section.
A little note on format: This is by no means a closed discussion, so do feel free to join in. Also, the initial posts by participants are all written before they have an opportunity to see each other’s take.
I haven’t read that Barthes grain/voice piece in a long time, but I will as this conversation tapers off. This has been great.
On the Root Strata tip, I went to the first of the three concerts mentioned above — my write-up here: http://is.gd/4TIKt — and three of the acts that day used vocals, two electronically futzed-with, and one a glossolalia mixed in with the instrumental noise. It was a definite theme to the show.
I’m ultimately with Alan on the overall vocals subject — I was a child of rock’n'roll, originally heavily into vocals, but as the years have passed they’ve gone from neutral to active disinterest. A transition for me was vocal work that, unlike Foxx’s ultimately hearty and self-conscious efforts on Mirrorball, aspire to something ethereal, from early church music (Byrd, Palestrina) to more recent choral work (Arvo Pärt, John Tavener). Gavin Bryars’s first version of Jesus’s Blood is another important-to-me example of successful use of voice as a textural/instrumental element even when it retains verbal content (the original version, not the Tom Waits); ditto the oft-cited “Sitting in a Room” by Alvin Lucier.
Oops, nearly forgot, in re: the 5 vols of axescapades, there was a 6th got added later! And this one ties up with the ‘ball thang cos of a Guthrie/Budd inclusion (from the overall somewhat wet “After the Night Falls” on drippy Darla – maybe would benefit from having Julian’s mate, Sidsel, spray some laryngeal fluids over it), so thought I’d lob it in here before the curfew on this discussion. ‘ere y’are: http://albient.livejournal.com/5515.html