Tuesday 26 February 2008

BLACK MOON (the dark side of musick)

WALKER SCOTT
TILT

Original Issue: 1995 Fontana (526 859-2)

Reissue: 1997 Drag City (
DC134CD) Buy it!!!


Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

1 Farmer In The City
2 The Cockfighter
3 Bouncer See Bouncer...
4 Manhattan
5 Face On Breast
6 Bolivia '95
7 Patriot (A Single)
8 Tilt
9 Rosary


from Amazon:

You have to have an open mind to sit through this album. It is very disturbing and I would not listen to this on my personal stereo late at night. This is challenging in the extreme and not for the faint-hearted. Having said that, this is a work of such genius and beauty that, to me, it is like opera. Here is a man who can sing anything - and proves it on this album.

My advice to everyone who wants to know about this album and wonders if there is anything similar to it, is to ignore all his early albums. I listened earlier to "Boy Child" - the compilation of Scott's music from 67 to 70. It's a magnificent collection from his first six albums, but this is nothing like that - the music on "Boy Child" and "Tilt" could not be further away from each other, they're light years apart.

To have any clue about what to expect musically and lyrically here, you might listen to the last Walker Brothers album - "Nite Flights" - and Scott's previous release "Climate Of Hunter". Even then, you'll put this on your stereo and listen in wonderment and disbelief.

You can't categorise this music, you can't sing along to it - you just listen to it and marvel at it's originality and it's brilliance. The musicianship is magnificent and simple and the strings, in all of this albums oddness, stand out beautifully.

A distubing work of genius. As others have said, you can't accuse of Scott Walker of selling out, of writing to get hit records. The bad news is that there has been nothing from Scott since this album - 9 years of nothing, although I am ever optimistic that there is another album in him. The further bad news (for other writers, that is) is that most of them could not write material of this massive quality even in their dreams (or their nightmares).

This is immense in the extreme. A strange but glorious masterpiece.


Geoff Hall

8 comments:

Unknown said...
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Anonymous said...

Margot,

I just stumbled over your blog today with a little help from the cats over at Totally Fuzzy. Although I should be working it I wanted to stop and say a) thanks for taking the time to maintain such a cool little spot and b) to please ask if you would add me to your mailing list.

Choice stuff.

Best, Will (form_spectacle@yahoo.com)

Anonymous said...

Love this album; Scott walker's progression as a musician is amazing.

Anonymous said...

1995 : TILT
2006 : THE DRIFT

I still find it hard to breathe when I remember each time I heard these records. Black moon over our heads ... a twisted genius at work.

Josef

jess. said...

very nice selection! thank you.

mark said...

thanks margot.
quite striking.

Anonymous said...

That voice!
Thank you!

Anonymous said...

"it is like opera"
The voice certainly is powerful.
He has quite a bit of vocal talent
straight off the bat. This is the
first and only work I've heard from
this artist and I have to admit, it
took just over two full album plays
to really begin to get into it.

The first song "Farmer In The City"
pulls me straight away into the lyrics
and the troubling reminders of the
state of being we are in.

That said, best song (in my taste)
was the raw feel of "The Cockfighter."
Definitely part of my interest in
music. I always like to hear the
genius of an artist through the
phases of one song.

I could go on but first impressions
of the songs are best kept short.

I'll give it a few more listens to tonight :]

Thanks Margot!