nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (Doug Alan) (06/20/85)
["Buy 'Suzanne Vega'!]
I'm told that a message has been posted to net.music which looks like it
is from me and which maligns persons other than Hugh Jansic or
Fun-People. As some people have apparently been offended by this, I
should let you know that this is a forgery! I have posted no such
message. It must be a good forgery since the posting was never received
by mit-eddie (I have not yet seen it). Eddie must not want something it
thinks it generated...
Fun-People have a remarkable Doug Alan algorithm that can do a fairly
good impression of me, so it is most certainly their doing. I also find
it unlikely that Hugh Jansic really exists, other than as the legend he
is. His name is too much like Mike Hunt. Hugh Jansic. Huge and sick!
Now, on to the point of this message. Thanks to a pointer from Mark
Mallett (mem@sii.UUCP), I am very happy to report that the cover article
in the July issue of "Keyboard" magazine is on Kate Bush ("Britain's
Renaissance Woman of Concept Rock")!!! It contains a pretty good
article on Kate Bush (there are a couple innacuracies, but nothing major
-- they should have hired me to write the article! Oh to go to England
and interview Kate Bush!) and a very interesting interview. Go buy the
issue and be enlightened! Yes, now you can now know almost as much as I
do about the person who has created the best album ever pressed ("The
Dreaming").
I'm very surprized to see Kate Bush on the cover of Keyboard! None of
her records have ever reached higher than 150 in the U.S. on the
Billboard charts. But this certainly is a pleasant surprise. Maybe the
U.S. is becoming ready to accept her music! Probably not, but we shall
see... In the next six months or so, there may be some more articles on
Kate Bush in other magazines. If anyone sees any, I would be VERY
interested in hearing about it! In fact, I'd appreciate (just not quite
as much) hearing about any article about any of the musicians that I
have said that I like!
The description of the article in the table of contents says:
Kate Bush -- She's one of the best-kept secrets in contemporary
rock, a flamboyant performer who hasn't appeared onstage in
seven years, whose fans savor memories of spectacular concerts
and complex conceptual albums. Well, the long wait is over.
Kate Bush's new album is about to hit the stores, and it's
crackling with her own electronic and acoustic keyboard work.
In this special interview, Kate discusses her transformation
from an Elton John-style pianist to a Fairlight enthusiast, and
the impact of keyboard technology on her artistic direction.
Here are some excerpts from the article:
Despite enormous success in her native England, evidenced by a
string of hit albums and singles that goes back to her debut in
1977, Kate Bush is practically anonymous in the States. Even
with in an intense cult following and a Canadian fan club that
is so fanatic that they hold Kate Bush conventions and publish a
fanzine [I'm in that club -- we're not fanatic, just enlighted!
:-) --Doug], she has had no luck breaking into the American
charts. Lost somewhere in the trans-Atlantic crossing is the
fact that Kate is a vital and innovative composer, singer,
keyboardist, and producer who has shaped a uniquely personal and
organic [Pay attention to that word jcp! --Doug] sound. Her
brilliantly orchestrated vocals weave effortlessly in and out of
structures whose foundations are built on Bush's own piano and
Fairlight playing. The stories told by her lyrics, the way she
intermingles the music of many cultures, the shifting rhythms
[Wow shifting rhythms? But she uses drum machines Marcel...
How is that possible? --Doug], and even the drum sound on her
1982 tour de force, "The Dreaming", have caused many to draw
comparisons between Kate and another British luminary Peter
Gabriel.
...
"The Dreaming" is full of tribal rhythms and swirling electronic
atmospheres. The album's title is taken from the concept of
"the dream-time", which Australian aborigines consider an
alternate state of reality. This is what "The Dreaming" is -- a
harrowing pychological foray into another world. From the
opening song of failed spirituality, "Sat In Your Lap", with its
African [African? Sounds Spanish to me... --Doug] percussion
and Geoff Downes' Fairlight trumpets, to the trance rhythms of
the title track, to the emotional catharsis of "Get Out Of My
House", "The Dreaming" thrusts you into an uncharted realm and
won't let you escape.
Kate Bush leaves no doubt that she is the master of this dream
world that, frighteningly, has its roots firmly seated in
reality. This is not the woman-child of "The Kick Inside" (if
she ever was that). This is the mature and experienced artist
whose own arrangements have a clarity and depth that make her
previous records, as professional as they were, sound flat and
lifeless by comparison. Her voice becomes a full orchestra,
alternating between hellish choirs, ascending angels, and
compelling exhortations....
I'd like to note here that they have lots of good things to say about
most of her other albums elsewhere in the article. All her albums are
great, but Keyboard is right -- her other albums pale in comparison to "The
Dreaming". In fact, all albums pale in comparison to "The Dreaming"!
Here's something from the interview that might interest jcp:
Keyboard: You seem to go for more natural sounds, rather than
electric ones, on "The Dreaming" LP.
Kate Bush: There's a human element in that album, like a
tormented human that has to sort out all these problems and
pain. And I think that these sounds are right, the human
sounds, the sensitive emotional sounds. It's quite an emotional
album really. I think that the combination of very accoustic
real sounds and very hard electronic sounds fabulous too. I
like to create contrasts and extremes for the atmosphere that
you're building around a particular song.
Keyboard: You get those extremes in "Night of the Swallow",
going from the Irish folk music played by members of Planxty to
a very sparse piano part.
In the interview, Kate makes it perfectly clear that she has no
intensions of moving back towards a more commercial direction and won't
let herself be pushed around by the record company (thank goodness!!!).
In fact, in the interview, she practically disowns her first two albums!
(They're her commercial ones -- or as commercial as she ever was,
rather).
Well, it's going to be a long two months until August!
"But my instincts tell me to
Keep Breathing"
Doug Alan
nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (or ARPA)