some words on White Music too wherein I attempt to explain my weird affinity towards it:https://critterjams.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/xtc-white-music-1978/
― frogbs, Wednesday, 12 February 2014 14:25 (ten years ago) link
I pulled out Wasp Star last week at a small gathering. A very non-music-geek friend (but who has ears) said it sounded like a bad ripoff of XTC. When I told him it was, actually, XTC, he was still convinced that the songs weren't written by 'the "Mayor of Simpleton" guy' - said they sounded too boring and one-dimensional. In 2001 I was so happy to have XTC back that I hardly noticed at first what a dud Wasp Star was, and I still like, if not love, most of the songs on it, or at least there are moments and details in each song that give me pleasure - but I thought that was interesting, that someone with no investment in the band would notice and comment on its dudness (when I would almost have expected its simplicity and directness to have been perceived a virtue by casual listeners).
― is olympic hamsterwheel a thing? (staggerlee), Wednesday, 12 February 2014 14:29 (ten years ago) link
new Skylarking edition
― How dare you tarnish the reputation of Turturro's yodel (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 10 March 2014 15:56 (ten years ago) link
wtf does "corrected polarity" mean?
― sleeve, Monday, 10 March 2014 15:59 (ten years ago) link
it's been reversed iirc
― How dare you tarnish the reputation of Turturro's yodel (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 10 March 2014 16:04 (ten years ago) link
what is polarity in this context?
― Poliopolice, Monday, 10 March 2014 16:08 (ten years ago) link
Polarity means phase inversion. Maybe they fixed some phase cancellation issues with the recordings?
― Vinnie, Monday, 10 March 2014 16:30 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P1mhEWezaU
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 10 March 2014 16:31 (ten years ago) link
I'm gonna get the SW remix of Nonsuch but I really wish Andy Partridge would spend some time writing new music rather than just endlessly reissue his back catalogue
― frogbs, Monday, 10 March 2014 16:37 (ten years ago) link
^fat chance at this point.
― is olympic hamsterwheel a thing? (staggerlee), Monday, 10 March 2014 17:14 (ten years ago) link
The 'corrected polarity edition' is the same edition as the 2010 vinyl remaster. When that was being put together, the person doing the remaster discovered that the original mixes had reversed sound polarity, and had in fact been released this way since 1986. The reason it's took so long for this edition to reach a digital format is originally Virgin only gave Partridge the rights to reissue Skylarking on vinyl through his own imprint.
Chances are that Partridge won't spend any time releasing new songs, because according to what I've read, he has hundreds of pieces of songs lying around, but doesn't feel he can write anything as good as what he's already put out.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 10 March 2014 19:11 (ten years ago) link
I think Virgin were right to dismiss Partridge's original "cover concept", to be honest. It's awful.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 10 March 2014 19:13 (ten years ago) link
I dunno, I think it's rather pretty.
― Vast Halo, Monday, 10 March 2014 19:18 (ten years ago) link
http://chalkhills.org/images/fanart/Mikrob-xtc1.jpg
http://chalkhills.org/images/fanart/Mikrob-xtc3.jpg
http://chalkhills.org/images/fanart/Mikrob-xtc4.jpg
― soref, Monday, 10 March 2014 19:25 (ten years ago) link
it's like Keith Haring by way of a 6 year old girl on mushrooms
― Poliopolice, Monday, 10 March 2014 20:42 (ten years ago) link
so regular old keith haring then
― How dare you tarnish the reputation of Turturro's yodel (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 10 March 2014 20:47 (ten years ago) link
it was made by this guy
http://www.cincplug.com/mikrob/english.php
he has done covers for some other xtc albums as well, I like them!
― soref, Monday, 10 March 2014 20:50 (ten years ago) link
I wonder if the polarity issue is just a convenient way of framing a reason for the reissue (other than that icky cover) Unless the polarity of certain separate instruments/tracks within the mix were at odds - and would therefore mean a total remix - I'm not sure the difference in sound would be significant.
― MaresNest, Monday, 10 March 2014 21:23 (ten years ago) link
Polarity means phase inversion.
Could you elaborate on this? I just read the wiki entry for phase inversion, and not exactly sure what this means in an audio context. How is polarity different than just the L-R panning of channels?
― Dominique, Monday, 10 March 2014 21:39 (ten years ago) link
Per the notes from the press release:
"Somewhere, possibly in the transfer from the multi-channel tape to the stereo master, a polarity had been reversed. This is not the same thing as a reversed left/right channel which puts a stereo picture out of phase & makes the sound unlistenable, but a much more difficult to pin down event that can be triggered by something as simple as a badly wired plug in the overall system which, nonetheless, removes some of the punch & presence from a finished recording."
I can make a vague guess as to what this means, but still unsure as to how a) exactly it will be different, or b) someone would have picked up on this error.
also, not sure if it's a joke, but that isn't the original cover art above...?
https://www.burningshed.com/covers/large4309.jpg
― Dominique, Monday, 10 March 2014 21:44 (ten years ago) link
iirc accidentally reversed phasing is not good, it can mess with the stereo imaging. but it's been years since my audio tech classes.
I just searched wiki for a better explanation to no avail
― sleeve, Monday, 10 March 2014 21:44 (ten years ago) link
The human ear cannot hear phase distortion, except that it may affect the stereo imaging.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distortion#Phase_distortion
― sleeve, Monday, 10 March 2014 21:45 (ten years ago) link
I too was wondering where the shitty haring-esque thing came from
pubes are always good on an album cover iirc
― How dare you tarnish the reputation of Turturro's yodel (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 10 March 2014 21:46 (ten years ago) link
Was gonna say..
That's no original artwork, "Dear God" was added later
― Mark G, Monday, 10 March 2014 21:49 (ten years ago) link
Could you elaborate on this?
I'm a little confused what they mean as well. Polarity is where you take some signal and invert the sound wave, so it's separate from panning, but as far as I knew the only time inverted polarity makes a difference on how sound is perceived is if it creates phase cancellation (like what happens when you put a sine wave in two channels, invert polarity on one side, and collapse to mono). I thought maybe they had a stereo recording of some instrument, and they accidentally inverted one channel, causing some unintended phase cancellation. But based on what you posted from the press release, it might have been the entire recording that was inverted? I didn't think that had any noticeable impact on the sound, but this article seems to think it makes a difference: http://www.audiodirectionltd.com/absolute-polarity.html
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 11 March 2014 13:56 (ten years ago) link
Or rather, polarity is just the orientation of the sound wave. Inverting the sound wave means changing the polarity.
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 11 March 2014 14:01 (ten years ago) link
not sure if it's a joke, but that isn't the original cover art above...?
Yeah, just so we're clear, it's the muff I was expressing approbation for, not the cod-primitivism.
― Vast Halo, Tuesday, 11 March 2014 22:09 (ten years ago) link
Just had the sobering realization that the Dukes' approximation of 1967 would be the equivalent of a modern band lovingly recreating, say, 1996.
― Davey D, Wednesday, 12 March 2014 20:19 (ten years ago) link
there's a zing waiting to explode
― Dominique, Wednesday, 12 March 2014 20:22 (ten years ago) link
Can't wait for some band to lovingly recreate "Cumbersome"
― Poliopolice, Thursday, 13 March 2014 00:26 (ten years ago) link
never seen this before
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xlH9eyyZ0M
― How dare you tarnish the reputation of Turturro's yodel (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 17:38 (ten years ago) link
Ace, thanks!
― a lot of really bad records changed my life (staggerlee), Saturday, 26 April 2014 02:04 (ten years ago) link
I have a bunch of these fillums, they used to do loads of bits of films for a cable channel based in Swindon, 1975 onwards.
― Mark G, Monday, 28 April 2014 14:25 (ten years ago) link
Really wanted to go to this XTC covers night last week in Minneapolis, but was sick. Lots of heavy hitter players and a pretty cool setlist:
http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh310/yodelagogo/senses.jpg
― A Perfect Ratio of Choogle to Jam (Dan Peterson), Monday, 28 April 2014 16:22 (ten years ago) link
Kudos for playing "Melt the Guns" next to last (said maybe the only guy who's going to vote for this song when the XTC poll comes round).
― Hideous Lump, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:54 (ten years ago) link
I'll vote for it too. Objectively it's pretty awful, but there's something about it that's always stuck with me. And Colin's bass playing on it is fabbo.
― a lot of really bad records changed my life (staggerlee), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 11:48 (ten years ago) link
It's better than "Knuckle Down" anyhow.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 11:58 (ten years ago) link
It's not better than anything... ever.
― A frenzied geologist (Tom D.), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 12:00 (ten years ago) link
We listened to XTC at record club the other day.
http://devonrecordclub.com/2014/06/25/xtc-black-sea-round-69-robs-choice/
― i reject your shiny expensive consumerist stereo system (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 27 June 2014 10:48 (ten years ago) link
Nice little piece!
― a lot of really bad records changed my life (staggerlee), Friday, 27 June 2014 18:28 (ten years ago) link
'Poor Skeleton Steps Out' is so good.
― 3kDk (dog latin), Friday, 4 July 2014 10:27 (ten years ago) link
― Riot In #9 Dream (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 4 July 2014 10:30 (ten years ago) link
Have we done an XTC albums poll? I kind of want to check out more of their albums after having had (and loving, especially the second disc) the Fossil Fuels greatest hits for some time. What's best from their first and second periods?
― 3kDk (dog latin), Friday, 4 July 2014 13:07 (ten years ago) link
First - Black Sea/Drums & Wires/English Settlement
Second - Mummer
― MaresNest, Friday, 4 July 2014 14:13 (ten years ago) link
Incorrect!
― Οὖτις, Friday, 4 July 2014 15:02 (ten years ago) link
Actually, I'm a Mummer defender myself, so that was nice to see someone else mention it.
― austinato (Austin), Friday, 4 July 2014 15:10 (ten years ago) link
Mummer is all right but skylarking and apple venus are much better.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 4 July 2014 16:58 (ten years ago) link
Frivolous TonightFruit NutYour Dictionary
nuh-uh
― MaresNest, Friday, 4 July 2014 17:20 (ten years ago) link
Whenever I hear the start of the verses of "My Brown Guitar" I'm reminded of the verses of an 80s Norwegian children's pop song by Knutsen og Ludvigsen called "Dum og Deilig"
(Ok, sorry, I have no idea if this is of any interest to any of you, but I think about it whenver this thread is bumped, so I might as well post it)
― Øystein, Friday, 4 July 2014 17:53 (ten years ago) link
See MN I like all those songs (esp Your Dictionary). I've said it before but there really is no consensus about this band. Tracks poll will be interesting in that respect.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 4 July 2014 21:57 (ten years ago) link