Fatalist
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Re: Joy Division and the uncanny in music
Mar 03, 2015, 13:08
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spencer wrote: Spirit of Eden
Right, both Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock sound like they're coming from a different place altogether from what we're used to hearing.
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Robot Emperor
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Edited Mar 03, 2015, 13:10
Re: Joy Division and the uncanny in music
Mar 03, 2015, 13:09
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spencer wrote: Spirit of Eden
Both those last two Talk Talk albums. Something pursued by the band in the ritualistic conditions they set themselves in the studio. Good call.
I think Van Der Graaf and The Fall consistently attained this encroachment of the sinister or uncanny. Popol Vuh and Faust also spring to mind.
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Fatalist
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Re: Joy Division and the uncanny in music
Mar 03, 2015, 13:15
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IanB wrote: I like the second side of Closer a lot the rest of their output not so much but I know exactly what you mean about their sound and as others have noted it's the production as I haven't heard any live recordings where they came close to that on stage.
What has that effect on me is when non musical elements get introduced (someone else mentioned the clankings on Unknown Pleasures). Rock is littered with examples but looping back to a previous thread, the end of Porcupine Tree's "Even Less" (from Stupid Dream) when the woman starts to read a sting of numbers turns a fairly meat and potatoes modern prog track into something really quite chilling. And it did that to me before I knew anything about the numbers station phenomenon. Doubly so now I know the background.
The sound of the ducks on John Martyn's "Small Hours" has that element but in a completely different way. You are placed in a very specific and different space. That kind of thing is the closest we get to time travel.At least unaided. That's pretty uncanny.
When I was a teenager the "Sonic Attack" section of Space Ritual was that in spades. Seems a bit corny now though I have probably heard it too often.
Agreed, Small Hours has an odd quality that's above and beyond the trippy signifier of the echoplexed guitar itself.
KC's Starless is obviously tremendous in its own right, but the picked guitar in the middle section also flirts with uncanniness.
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Robot Emperor
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Re: Joy Division and the uncanny in music
Mar 03, 2015, 14:29
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Looking at the old aotm (rip), I think Cope was often trying to document these albums. Some surprising (yet accurate) ones as well. That Tractor album for example.
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flatboxertwin
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Re: Joy Division and the uncanny in music
Mar 03, 2015, 15:41
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IanB wrote:
When I was a teenager the "Sonic Attack" section of Space Ritual was that in spades. Seems a bit corny now though I have probably heard it too often.
Have you heard the version with Brian Blessed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8pGS4cWbHo
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Eyesheikh
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Re: Joy Division and the uncanny in music
Mar 03, 2015, 16:03
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I'd also add Robbie Basho's North American Raga. My suspicion is that his recording engineer recorded him in a large space with a close mic and numerous room mics to capture the reverb and rich harmonic overtones of the 12-string. The room mics gradually take over the sonic spectrum as the song peaks in intensity. It creates this ghostly, huge sound, coupled with Basho's creepy falsetto, also distantly mic'ed. I have a hard time listening to it without getting nervous and sad...in the best way.
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Fatalist
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Re: Joy Division and the uncanny in music
Mar 03, 2015, 16:23
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flatboxertwin wrote: IanB wrote:
When I was a teenager the "Sonic Attack" section of Space Ritual was that in spades. Seems a bit corny now though I have probably heard it too often.
Have you heard the version with Brian Blessed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8pGS4cWbHo
I have, and have been trying to block it out of my consciousness ever since :-0 The SR version is unsurpassable for all kinds of reasons, and the very start in particular is indeed quite uncanny.
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flatboxertwin
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Re: Joy Division and the uncanny in music
Mar 03, 2015, 18:53
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I apologise for reminding you. Stewart Lee played it when standing in for Stuart Maconie on the Freak zone recently, otherwise I would have been blissfully unaware.
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Monganaut
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Edited Mar 03, 2015, 20:23
Re: Joy Division and the uncanny in music
Mar 03, 2015, 20:22
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That's a great documentary, beautifully shot and put together. Bought it last time I saw it for the extras. Sadly those stories and asides mentioned by Barney and Hookey when JD played in Belgium were not included in the extras, some of those tales sound hilarious.
I'd like to put a vote in for Bowie's 'Man Who Sold The World' LP to your list of the inadvertently 'uncanny'. For me, this is deffo Bowie's darkest album. Maybe it's cos' much of the subject matter touches on mental illness, but tracks like 'After All', with that minor chord mellotron and subtle sound effects definitely leave me a little unsettled.
After All https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJRk1pz3tk4
Also, the Echo and the Bunnymen album 'Heaven Up Here' has a few moments that to me, appear to be greater than the sum of their parts. I'm particularly thinking of the tracks 'Turquoise Days', 'Over The Wall' and 'The Disease'. Such an evocative cover to. I used to stare at it for ages whilst playing the album, it really led my mind to other places.
Turquise Days - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEc-axg8av0
The Disease - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2rNPwbkn-I
Over The Wall - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erKtIsnisp4
All My Colours - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC_VRXenP4Q
The Coil soundtrack -'The Angelic Conversation', deffo has a few uneasy moments. If you're not familiar with it, it was a soundtrack composed by Coil to accompany Derek Jarman's film of the same name. Beautifully constructed, with Judi Dench reading several of Shakespeare's sonnets over very atmospheric sounds. Parts of earlier EP How To Destroy Angels, cut up with choral and string pieces, noises like ticking grandfather clocks, and water/bathing, it's very effective. It could almost be a lost soundtrack to the movie 'A Field In England'. It has a similar vibe and feel.
Angelic Conversation (Full Album Stream) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YarAULw2-1w
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dave clarkson
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Re: Joy Division and the uncanny in music
Mar 03, 2015, 21:30
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'Over the Wall' definitely has that feel for myself.
It hauntingly reminds me of living in merseyside in the 80s, no job, no future and getting wasted.
Other 'uncanny' music from Liverpool that had an unearthly feel in the production was Revolutionary Spirit and dead or alives 'I'm falling'.
The genius of Joy Division were Martin Hannett and Ian Curtis
:-)
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