The Syndicate

Great idea, Rico!

Just to clarify, I rated Fishmans a 5/5 on RYM, so feel free to use that instead of 4.5 since I don't recall if I properly rated it last week.

Rankings so far

1) Beneath the Brine - the Family Crest - 7/10
2) 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare - Fishmans - 5/10
3) World Music - Goat - 4/10

RIco, I'll play along.

World Music - 4 stars
Fishmans - 3 stars
Beneath the Brine - 2 stars

I'll write up an official review tomorrow but Rico can mark me down as a 4/5 for World Music.

Mine would be
Beneath the Brine - 5/5
98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare - 3/5
World Music - 3.5/5

Thanks again for sharing Goat, Boomslang. I'd say it was a very successful album in this thread.

It's Sunday, so I'll proceed to our next album.

whoa boy

I forgot to post my opinion of Goat.

My first impression was that it made me hearken back to Amon Duul II's album Yeti, something I like but don't listen to very much anymore. It has that gritty, repetitive, psychedelic quality. In some respects, they're more like The Mars Volta. Dig the organ on "Disco Fever." "Goatlord" and "Det som aldrig förändras" are excellent- highlights of the album.

Overall, good stuff, but not something I would reach for often. 3/5.

SCOTT WALKER TIME

Well, I may have to provide some context here. This is an album that both requires and defies it.

Scott Walker started as a member of a 60's British Invasion boy band called The Walker Brothers. They weren't brothers, and none of them had the last name Walker. They cultivated a "glossy-haired and handsome familial image" while producing fairly standard for the time songs like The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine No More. [ ]

At one point, their UK fan club had more members than The Beatles' fan club.

Unfortunately, due to group tension, and a few singles that didn't top the charts, the Walker Brothers split up, allowing Scott to go off and make a solo career. He made four stunning albums of 60's baroque pop that ranged from covers of popular country and western songs, to risque and profane Jaques Brel covers, and bizarre, increasingly dark original material. [ ] [ ]

This was about the time that David Bowie began to admire and draw influence from Scott, who is a constant target of praise in Bowie interviews.

After releasing these four albums, and five more intentionally mediocre albums designed to fulfill studio contract obligations, Scott took a sabbatical from the music industry. He threw himself into intense study of contemporary and classical music, which included a sojourn in Quarr Abbey, a monastery on the Isle of Wight, to study Gregorian chant.

Then, in 1978, he reunited with the Walker Brothers to produce an album where he wrote and composed four new songs, including Nite Flights and The Electrician.



These tracks were heavily influenced by Brian Eno and David Bowie's then-recent art-rock pioneering, and according to Eno and Bowie, outpaced their own output in terms of bizarre qualities and gorgeousness.

This is when Scott Walker moved into a set pattern of releasing music. A new album every nine or so years, each one more demented, esoteric, and experimental than the last. Dark gothic compositions that combine rock and modern classical music with a smattering of obscure historical references and a strong desire to simply mess with the listening audience.

2006's The Drift features, among other things, the distressed braying of a donkey, a demonic Donald Duck impression, and a live recording of a dead pig being repeatedly punched.

2012's Bish Bosch is only more aberrant and outre.

Ricochet wrote:2006's The Drift

Thank you kindly.

Nice overview of Scott Walker, INH.

I became familiar with his works a few years back, though I'm still not incredibly familiar with them. I've heard his early albums (Scott 1 through Scott 4) a handful of times or so, and actually rated them previously a few weeks back. They're good stuff, but obviously different than what his sound would transform into later.

I'm going to listen to Tilt and The Drift before I tackle Bish Bosch, since those two I am familiar with (again, a handful or so of listens, and it's been a couple of years since I've heard either in fact). Should be fun to check out Bish Bosch for the first time thereafter.

I'm excited about this one, because I've seen Scott Walker sitting on the record shelves and heard him being talked about reverentially for years, but I've never actually listened to him before. I expect to like this.

thellama73 wrote:I'm excited about this one, because I've seen Scott Walker sitting on the record shelves and heard him being talked about reverentially for years, but I've never actually listened to him before. I expect to like this.

I would be shocked if you didn't. Both his baroque and experimental eras are thoroughly engaging and intriguing I think.

One of the few modern-era Scott Walker albums I don't have, excited for this one. I love Tilt and The Drift, and am probably the only person on the planet who loves Soused

Here's some choice lyrical excerpts for those who don't mind being spoiled.

insertnamehere wrote:Here's some choice lyrical excerpts for those who don't mind being spoiled.

Spoiler: show

"Shit might pretzel Christ's intestines"

"Nothing clears a room like removing a brain"

"If shit were music
La da da, la da da
You'd be a brass band"

"For a Roman
Who's proof that Greeks fucked bears"

"If brains were rain
You'd surely be a desert"

"Look, don't go to a mind reader
Go to a palmist
I know you've got a palm"

"Sorry, I’m so clumsy,
take that accidentally in the bollocks for a start"

Jeez, I'm gonna end up looking like a dweeb trying to find depths to this album in the review.

insertnamehere wrote:
2006's The Drift features, among other things, the distressed braying of a donkey, a demonic Donald Duck impression, and a live recording of a dead pig being repeatedly punched.

Well okay then. Given this, the historical context with which I am completely unfamiliar, and your lyric samples, I can honestly say I have no idea what to expect from this but I'm looking forward to it. I think I'll listen to the stuff you linked first, and maybe his previous albums as well. Or maybe I should dive right into the deep end. We'll see

I have to admit I've only tried listening to Scott Walker('s The Drift) once and got bored before I even finished.

nutella wrote:

insertnamehere wrote:
2006's The Drift features, among other things, the distressed braying of a donkey, a demonic Donald Duck impression, and a live recording of a dead pig being repeatedly punched.

Well okay then. Given this, the historical context with which I am completely unfamiliar, and your lyric samples, I can honestly say I have no idea what to expect from this but I'm looking forward to it. I think I'll listen to the stuff you linked first, and maybe his previous albums as well. Or maybe I should dive right into the deep end. We'll see

Seriously, start with Scott 1, go through Scott 4, then try this or Tilt/The Drift/this. Going from Scott 1-4 to his experimental stuff blows my mind every time, but not quite like the first time. I'll never forget hearing Tilt after Scott 4 and just thinking... damn, what a musical shift.

I might actually do just that, instead of starting with Tilt. Maybe I'll do a Scott Walker marathon tomorrow or something.

btw there's an excellent documentary about Scott Walker called 30 Century Man

MovingPictures07 wrote:

nutella wrote:

insertnamehere wrote:
2006's The Drift features, among other things, the distressed braying of a donkey, a demonic Donald Duck impression, and a live recording of a dead pig being repeatedly punched.

Well okay then. Given this, the historical context with which I am completely unfamiliar, and your lyric samples, I can honestly say I have no idea what to expect from this but I'm looking forward to it. I think I'll listen to the stuff you linked first, and maybe his previous albums as well. Or maybe I should dive right into the deep end. We'll see

Seriously, start with Scott 1, go through Scott 4, then try this or Tilt/The Drift/this. Going from Scott 1-4 to his experimental stuff blows my mind every time, but not quite like the first time. I'll never forget hearing Tilt after Scott 4 and just thinking... damn, what a musical shift.

OK, I'm doing this!

I gave him another try and have to say I give it a 2/5 on the Rico Scale. Is it really experimental to do the same song over and over?

The song with the farts is making me laugh.

Norsemen do not eat the big pink mint!


I am enjoying this immensely. And wow it sure was interesting to hear the evolution through that progression of albums. I thought The Drift was pretty....different and this is just even more so and I love it.

I listened to the full album earlier today, and my initial impression isn't great. I'm not surprised by that though, since it's a hard departure from the Scott Walker I know (which is limited anyway). That's not really a criticism though; I appreciate it when artists branch out and try something different. I figure this one will need repetition to stand a chance.

But the farts were funny.

I am more familiar with the baroque pop version of Scott Walker, primarily via Neil Hannon and The Divine Comedy (he cites Walker as a huge influence).

Marathon had to wait until today. Going to update with my thoughts once I get through all of these things.

Working from behind here.

Goat- World Music

Though I didn't know it at the time, this album at me at hello. "Diarabi" is the first song we've listened to in this thread that perked my ears way up and made me do one of these:



The electric guitar that blasts in at 0:48 with the drums has a sinister sound that gave me chills. The track serves as both a great standalone track and also a fine introduction to the weird world of Goat that is coming up. The talking intro to track 2 is a little corny but fits the band's attempts to craft an out-there image. As I said before, I'm not a lyrics analyst unless they go too far. I liked that I couldn't understand all of (heck, most of) the lyrics. Taken as another musical element, I think the vocals kick things up a notch. Rather than just being a hybrid of musical genres, the vocals challenged me as a listener.

Sometimes the screaming approached a grating quality that my wife would surely not enjoy but I liked it this time. It keeps you from getting too comfortable in the music and forces you to focus on more than one thing at a time. But it fit with the tribal-esque percussion and enhanced the primal appeal of the music for me. And that's the best way for me to describe this album- primal. It's like Iggy Pop's sisters dropped acid at a hippie party and the Jimi Hendrix experience and the MC5 crashed the gig to add a little oomph to the atmosphere. There's something sexy about this music. It's more erotic than The Stooges' lusty, testosterone-infused albums but it's in the same vein.

I love the mix of sounds. There are familiar elements- the accoustic closing on "Goathead" reminded me of Metallica's "To Live is To Die," the guitar on "Let It Bleed" reminded me of The Strokes and some of their influences, and "Det som aldrig förändras" gave me Wolfmother vibes- and then there are retro elements. The way they blend them together so seamlessly suggests that the band didn't just say 'let's play music like that' and mimic those sounds. For me, these folks know how to play those sounds (and blend them) well.

For my three-track snap judgement, Track 1 hooked me, Track 2 brought me in deeper, and Track 3 kept the show running. I was never indifferent toward any track. They may suffer from a few tracks sounding a little too much alike, so future albums probably need to venture into new areas rather than just sticking with the same stuff that makes World Music a success. My favorite tracks were "Diarabi" (track 1), "Run to Your Mama" (track 7), and "Goatlord" (track 8). Whatever instruments they're combining on "Goatlord" makes for an almost evil, ritualistically slaughtering a small woodland creature by the light of the harvest moon vibe, which I dig.

This is my favorite album we've listened to as a group by a long shot. I plan on checking out their other albums and World Music is going to be one of my weird mood go-to albums from now on. If I hadn't already told family members not to get me anything for my birthday, I'd have probably asked for this album.

4.2 stars out of 5 for an A-

Alright, Scott Walker marathon complete! Here's how the albums shook out in terms of ratings on a 5-star scale.

Baroque Pop Era:
Scott - 3.5
Scott 2 - 3.5
Scott 3 - 4.0
Scott 4 - 4.0

Scott and Scott 2 are solidly enjoyable baroque pop. Scott 3 is even better, and I feel Scott begins to perfect some really solid tunes. Scott 4 is my personal favorite of the baroque pop bunch though. Really good stuff.

Experimental Era:
Tilt - 4.0
The Drift - 3.0
Bish Bosch - 3.0

I incredibly enjoyed Tilt. I would say it battles with Scott 4 as my favorite album of his, although I would need to be in a certain mood to listen to it (preferably at night, while not trying to concentrate on anything else). The Drift starts out hauntingly enjoyable for the first three songs, but then it starts lose me a bit with the donkey bit (which is seriously unpleasant and puts me at unease, which I realize is his point, but yeah), but then it gains me back. I'd say Scott loses and gains me off and on throughout the rest of the album, which is sometimes awesome, sometimes OK, sometimes boring, and sometimes just straight up unpleasant and offputting ("The Escape" scared the shit out of me). He does manage some pretty neat stuff, but it's clearly a step down in enjoyment for me from Tilt, which I felt was the perfect amount of dark experimentation.

Bish Bosch is obviously the star of the hour; it's the only one of these I've never heard before today. With this trilogy, it's clear that Scott definitely delved further into experimentation with each release. I would call it The Drift 2.0, drifting even further into avant-garde post-industrial madness, but with my feelings on this one very similar to my feelings re: The Drift despite the increase in madness. I can appreciate what he was trying to accomplish with this, but in the end I have to assign a rating based on enjoyment, and on that front this release is very much fitting of "marginally enjoyable". Some neat stuff. Some not so neat stuff. Enjoyable enough overall, but with enough drawbacks to keep me from giving it 3.5 or higher. I will give it at least one other listen though and see how I feel after another exposure. I'm glad I've finally listened to it, at least; it was a unique listening experience.

My initial reaction to Bish Bosch:

I haven't even listened yet. I have to mentally prepare myself. It's possible that I won't be able to listen at all (just based on the comments so far).

Golden wrote:I haven't even listened yet. I have to mentally prepare myself. It's possible that I won't be able to listen at all (just based on the comments so far).

Don't be a _ _ _ _ _ _ .

Ricochet wrote:

Golden wrote:I haven't even listened yet. I have to mentally prepare myself. It's possible that I won't be able to listen at all (just based on the comments so far).

Don't be a _ _ _ _ _ _ .

Lol. Oh, but haven't I proved that I am?

I will listen to it. I just don't promise I'll finish it if I hate it.

OK, listening to the first track which I rather like. This surprises me somewhat since INH and I seem to have few tastes in common. At first I misheard the lyrics (I thought he was saying, "While *fucking* feathers..." but once I realized he was saying "plucking" it worked better for me since I stopped worrying about WTF he was talking about, was it random, did it have meaning? Once I realized it was not totally random, I could settle in to the music.

The second track came on. At first, I did not like it as much since there was less aggressive music, and the vocals were on top, but the barking drew me in.

I could live without the organic sounds, they are somewhat distracting from his voice, lol.

ebwop, the lyrics remind me in some cases of pretentious, anguished college poetry that I am guessing most of us, being creative people, indulged ourselves in writing. So I am not as impressed with his lyrics as much as he seems to be ha ha

But over all I really do like this.

edit, 4th track, zercon,

"if shit were music you'd be a brass band" ha ha ha

OK, I know this guy has a reputation for avant garde stuff, and I have never listened to anything of his before. But it really seems to me that he is almost mocking himself and his listeners. I think he is being INTENTIONALLY funny. But I could be way off base as I have not listened to anything else he has ever recorded.

I am at work, with headphones, and the norseman and the pink mint had me laugh out loud, as did the ish kabibbles. I LOVE this album, I think it is hilarious, and not in a laughing *at* it way.

I absolutely love this album. 5/5

Excellent review, Rico. I think you continue the trend of topping your commentary every single week. Outstanding.

Despite my ratings for both The Drift and Bish Bosch, I do not hesitate in saying that I firmly believe Scott Walker is a fucking musical genius. I have an enormous amount of respect for his career. I just have trouble actively enjoying those two releases for anything other than spurts throughout. It'll be interesting to see what I think of it again though.

I'll be tackling Bish Bosch again, tonight, in the dark, with nothing else going on. Seems like the only way to truly appreciate it.

Also, I loved your use of "Funeral Tango" from Scott 3 at 11:01-11:09. Not only is your commentary ever insightful and thought-provoking, but I just love the little callbacks perfectly sprinkled throughout your reviews like that. Awesome.

And now you made me want to listen to Scott 3.

S~V~S wrote:OK, I know this guy has a reputation for avant garde stuff, and I have never listened to anything of his before. But it really seems to me that he is almost mocking himself and his listeners. I think he is being INTENTIONALLY funny. But I could be way off base as I have not listened to anything else he has ever recorded.

I am at work, with headphones, and the norseman and the pink mint had me laugh out loud, as did the ish kabibbles. I LOVE this album, I think it is hilarious, and not in a laughing *at* it way.

I absolutely love this album. 5/5

Wow, that's outstanding. I wish I could love this album; I have the utmost respect for it, but there are just parts that are not enjoyable for me. I do love the absurdity of the lyrics though.

You absolutely must check out Tilt and The Drift, at a minimum. It'll be like going backwards through his descent into madness, since Bish Bosch is the most insane, but the quality is there. For my ears, Tilt is just awesome, like the bridge that transitions his baroque pop era to his The Drift/Bish Bosch stuff.

S~V~S wrote:OK, I know this guy has a reputation for avant garde stuff, and I have never listened to anything of his before. But it really seems to me that he is almost mocking himself and his listeners. I think he is being INTENTIONALLY funny. But I could be way off base as I have not listened to anything else he has ever recorded.

I am at work, with headphones, and the norseman and the pink mint had me laugh out loud, as did the ish kabibbles. I LOVE this album, I think it is hilarious, and not in a laughing *at* it way.

I absolutely love this album. 5/5

As stated in my thoughts, I think "intentionality" is definitely a key aspect of whatever he's building. It's craft over sense. It just happens that what he's crafting might look like it's a statue made out of poo.

I do agree there's absolutely a method to his madness, even if it may not be discernible until multiple listens, or even, ever. I'm "looking forward" to revisiting Bish Bosch to see if anything lyrically or musically hits me differently the second time around, especially after your review, Rico.

I have to thank INH, I have discovered something I like a great deal, and I look forward to exploring his other records as you suggest, MP.

And yes, very excellent review Rico. Always educational, and I could listen to you talk all day long.

S~V~S wrote:I have to thank INH, I have discovered something I like a great deal, and I look forward to exploring his other records as you suggest, MP.

And yes, very excellent review Rico. Always educational, and I could listen to you talk all day long.

I'm also really glad INH threw up Scott Walker so early. He's a fascinating man with some thoroughly engaging and intriguing musical output. And good deal, hope you like them as much as you like this one.

And yes, agree entirely. The real crime of the internet is that Rico should be the actual Anthony Fantano, because his reviews are truly excellent.

And Fantano is the worst.

My second time through the album. I like some of the strange musical elements. They're neat, if incomplete. The lyrics though, have me all...

S~V~S wrote:OK, listening to the first track which I rather like. This surprises me somewhat since INH and I seem to have few tastes in common. At first I misheard the lyrics (I thought he was saying, "While *fucking* feathers..." but once I realized he was saying "plucking" it worked better for me since I stopped worrying about WTF he was talking about, was it random, did it have meaning? Once I realized it was not totally random, I could settle in to the music.

The second track came on. At first, I did not like it as much since there was less aggressive music, and the vocals were on top, but the barking drew me in.

I could live without the organic sounds, they are somewhat distracting from his voice, lol.

They remind me of Gira's latest output, so cringeworthy that they make me embarrassed for him.

Ricochet wrote:

Spoiler: show

Personally I agree on the subjective or more phenomenological aspect of listening to a piece of music being more important than the contextualized aspect of a piece of music.