Neon Philharmonic

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Bought their Rhino compilation recently - a very ornately packaged 2CD affair which compiles both their albums in full plus non-album singles and B-sides.

Even by the exalted standards of late '60s avant-MoR orchestral pop - I found the compilation in the Easy Listening section of Virgin! - this is pretty strange stuff. Sunny harmonies all to do with things dying, passing through ("The Last Time I Saw Josephine," "Brilliant Colors") with a label legend BORGES FOREVER!, mixed with string and horn arrangements somewhere between Bartok and Ives. The second album is even further out there and includes a bizarre pirate mini-opera.

I haven't quite made my mind up about it yet. Tupper Saussy, judging from the extensive interview in the accompanying booklet, is clearly one strange character. What do you think?

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 28 April 2006 09:09 (twenty years ago)

They sounded interesting in this Bob Stanley Guardian article on 'em:

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,1757365,00.html

But I haven't heard them. I'd like to but without splashing out on a presumably expensive compilation I might never listen to.

(My guardian I got this morning to read on the train didn't have the review bit! How am I to get pissed off without it?)

Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Friday, 28 April 2006 09:18 (twenty years ago)

God he's a total rightwing nutbag, this Saussy, isn't he? Still, being a rightwing nutbag doesn't necessarily stop one making good music (Elvis, Stones, Ramones etc.).

It's pretty pricey (I paid £26.99 for my copy) but it's a limited edition of 2500. Mine was number 1130 so I doubt it'll be in the racks for long.

I'll probably do something about it on CoM, but at that price it's probably for committed avant '60s heads only.

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 28 April 2006 09:52 (twenty years ago)


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