Scott Walker. (RIP March 2019)

If Scott Walker was so cutting edge, wouldn't he be ranting about slightly better music than Pulp?

I like parts of Climate of Hunter, and the Scott albums are pretty good but all this great modern brutalist crap that's been piled on his Tilt/Drift albums seems a bit much. That said I've never heard Drift but Tilt put me off insufficiently.

His "ranting" can be summed up in producing one of their albums six years ago, and inviting them to a festival seven years ago; not much there to get worked up over now, especially since the band is, you know, split up. All I've heard him say about producing tho is that it's a good way to earn some cash, and he's pretty upfront about hating pretty much all current music and cinema, predictably enough. Anyway I don't think being a taste maker for current music is something he'd be particuarly interested in, or suited for.

It'd have been pretty easy for him to go the Nancy Sinatra/Solomon Burke/whoever route and make a comeback record with songs by Cocker, Nick Cave, Neil Hannon and who-have-you, too. I'm happy he didn't go that route, tho yeah, I'm not much interested in The Drift, either.

Anyone heard "And Who Shall Go To The Ball And What Shall Go To The Ball" yet? Or seen the dance piece it was written for?

Yeah, I got "and who shall go to the ball," and I can't really get into it. This is also from a person that loves The Drift and Tilt. I think it may be the absence of his voice, but it just isn't as riveting or anything. As weird as it is to say this about such an out there recording, it seems really predictable coming from him at this point.

I'd love to see the show, though. Shame if he doesn't realise how compelling his voice is.

He should work with Harrison Birtwhistle.

I've always thought it quite clear that "We Came Through" concerns the forces of good prevailing against evil in WWII.

Who's the Luther King in this scenario? EMI

If you listen to Scott IV under the proper conditions while the sun is coming up, then it will change your life radically for the better. Just sayin'!

i haven't listened to this record in many months, but it's nirvana right now. ah.

It's just weird when you re-discover a much-hyped record, and then you realize that, yes, this person did have some genius raging inside them that they were able to communicate...

Oh right, like this one.

If you're wondering: "is this a joke?" It is not a joke

haha, yeah that hurt my mind for a brief couple of seconds there. wow!! this is gonna be better than the "having fun on stage with paul stanley" record. i can just feel it in my bones.

nice to hear scott, even if briefly, on the new bat for lashes album's closing song, "the big sleep." i wonder how she talked the old recluse into it

Really? Weird...

Saw the Scott Walker documentary last month. It's worth checking out if it screens in your town or if it comes out on DVD. Whatever one's thoughts are on his later material, it's pretty fascinating to watch the guy's trajectory from 60s to today.

This looks very interesting!

The SW30 Tribute Album

Lakeshore records. Release date: April 27

“Duchess” Peter Broderick
“Big Louise” Sally Norvell
“World’s Strongest Man” Damon & Naomi
“Manhattan” Saint Etienne
“The Electrician” Laurie Anderson
“The Seventh Seal” Nicole Atkins
“Montague Terrace (in Blue)” Dot Allison
“The Bridge” Bee & Flower
“Rhymes of Goodbye” Stephanie Dosen
“It’s Raining Today” Ulrich Schnauss
“A Lover Loves” Jarboe
“Such a Small Love” Little Annie & Paul Walfisch

Not a soundtrack, but an extension of the work I’ve done with the film, continuing to follow and celebrate the influence of our man Scott. While a few men made the cut, the original idea was to get female voices to attack the songs - just a new way in…the resulting album is an almost eerily calm, nocturnal affair - in stark opposition to the industrial dramatics of The Drift. I could have kept going, vol. 2, vol. 3….well, if we sell enough of these, maybe we’ll get a crack at another.

Does anyone have the unreleased Scott Walker tracks "Free Again"/"I Get Along Without You"/"I Think I'm Getting Over You"?

“The Electrician” Laurie Anderson

Made for her to do?

there's a piss-poor version of 'It's Raining Today' on the new Damian Lazarus album

This tribute album sounds good, but what I'd like to hear more is all these artists singing their own songs in a fake Scott Walker voice. (i.e. Bowie in 1995.)

(My fave Bowie singing voice, by the by.)

such a small love is a beautiful song.

The only Scott Walker album I know is "The Drift", which is a wonder.

Envy me! How I have all that to discover and look forward to.

At some point. No hurry.

WHen they're cheep in fopp....

Pick up Tilt whenever you see it around, it's fantastic and v. similar vibe to The Drift... great album.

I would, but I haven't seen it about for years.

Really have to re-install Spotify, don't I?

Get the old stuff too!

scott 3 is just sublime. you put it on and it takes you over, not forcefully, but like really good weather on a day when you're outside and it seems like you haven't seen weather like that in a really long time.

scott 4 is like that also, but you're hang gliding as well.

they're both really good fall albums. mark you should get them sooner than later!

I doubt they're anything like The Fall.

"Lights of Cincinatierah!"

(soz: Thanks, appreciated)

a boy child rides upon your back-uh

'the old man is back again' has an MES-like bite to it

What's Scott Walker up to now? Apparently, he's writing scores for dance pieces inspired by Jean Cocteau:

http://pitchfork.com/news/42772-scott-walker-writes-score-for-dance-piece/

It'd be more surprising if he didn't do that, I figure!

It's the second dance he's scored. The first one, "And Who Shall Go To The Ball And What Shall Go To The Ball", came out on 4AD not long after "The Drift".

I got the box set earlier this year and it's really mind-bending in a literal way to delve so deeply into Scott's world. I could hear connections to so many things both backwards and forwards, it's like he sat at a musical crossroads for all generations.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again (anticipating the full wrath of the greater ILM community, of course):

please: more crooning, less looning

wonder if this is your first sb.

NEW ALBUM!?!?

http://pitchfork.com/news/46919-scott-walker-at-work-on-new-album/

woohoo

oh yeah

Makes sense -- new decade, new album.

Wait we're not due another Scott Walker album for 4-5 years!

Well maybe he's just finished one song, ten to go.

I can't believe The Drift came out SIX YEARS AGO

Also lol at "I wonder if this is your first sb."

There were some photos from the sessions a few months ago. Totally beyond excited. I don't think it will be all that long from here. Scott seems to take years and years in the gestation of what he wants to do, but not an unusually long time once he starts to execute it.

"Last night at a 4AD event in New York City, the label played one new song, which does not appear to have a title yet. The epically unpredictable suite featured an album's worth of ideas as it went from pummeling drum rhythms to near-a cappella crooning. Its overall effect was unsettling, daunting, thrilling."

omg omg can't wait

Taking advantage of WI recall fallout?

That said, the senator makes me so mad I'll probably end up reflexively passing on this.

Yeah, it would be an opportune time to switch back to Noel Scott Engel!

cf. Joe Budden's return immediately following Joe Biden becoming Obama's running VP.