Blemish

[Cheery Cherry]

I just got "Blemish" in the mail and listened to it, twice, while driving around...I haven't listened to any of David's solo albums (except Brilliant Trees) and "Blemish" is definitely a different sound than any Japan albums...I was a bit surprised.

I am waiting on "Brilliant Trees" and "Secrets of the Beehive". I can't wait.

I am curious to know what you think of "Blemish" and how it makes you feel when you listen to the CD.

[krausy]

All I can say to you starting your solo-David experience with Blemish is......whoah!!!!

um, let's just say the ones you haven't heard yet are different. I think all of his work is great.

For me, Blemish IS difficult to listen to----I kinda have to be upset about something to listen to it----seems to make things better in it's own way.

[Cheery Cherry]

Yeah...lol...it IS very difficult to listen to "Blemish" and to fully understand it. I didn't want to say that...but it's the truth.

[Poisoned_Apathy]

I love Blemish, although I don't listen to it very often. Not only because it's very difficult to listen to it musically, but emotionally it's devastating.

I think it's his bravest album. The lyrics, and the sound is so free , in melodic and harmonic aspects ,it reminds me a lot to the atonalists' and expressionists' music which is something very risky for a popular musician.

[untitled]

Stick with it - is my advice. I thought it was interesting when it was first released – but didn’t listen to it much. Over the years, I became increasing impressed by it - but it was a long journey and some tracks took longer than other to “get”. How Little We Need To Be Happy took about two years! It is a perfect snap shot of a short period in his life. You can hear all the anguish and confusion he was experiencing at that time – a great contrast to the Nine Horses work where the lyrics are colder and blame has been assigned.

I agree – not something you might listen to when you are in a party mood. But for those quiet, introspective moments…it really does it for me. Last year it finally overtook Secrets of the Beehive as my favourite DS album.

[baht habit]

I can still recall my initial reaction to 'blemish':
Oh my, Sylvian has went completely insane while attempting to cope with the New Hampshire winter....ala Jack Nicholson in The Shining
In order for this particular listener to have found enjoyment in listening to the music on 'blemish', I've had to make some modifications to the content, adding and subtracting material. Here is the tracklist:
Blemish / The Only Daughter / Mothlight / Late Night Shopping
Trauma / The Heart Knows Better / Camphor / A Fire In The Forest
Since the release of 'To Play - the blemish sessions' by Derek Bailey, I have mixed in the three Bailey/Sylvian collaborations with songs selected from that disc:
Play 7 / The Good Son / Play 2 / She Is Not / Play 1 / How Little We Need To Be Happy / Play 8
As I have surely stated on a post or two before, I know some may think it to be sacrilege to tamper with another's art, but I thought this made for a much more cohesive listen.

[Silver Moon]

I can still recall my initial reaction to 'blemish':
Oh my, Sylvian has went completely insane while attempting to cope with the New Hampshire winter....ala Jack Nicholson in The Shining

Haha! That is hilarious, Baht!

... Anyhoo... About 'Blemish'--I didn't listen to it that much either. I listened to the re-mixes much much more. But one night I was in a really depressed mood so I decided to listen to it again and I fell in love with it.

As for my father, he said it would have gone right out of the house if it wasn't the fact it was a David Sylvian album... But I encouraged him to give it another chance, and now I think he is really starting to dig it!

So I guess... Right Mood + Passing of Time = 'Blemish' growing on you!

-K-

[sisterlondon]

Woha, starting with Blemish is quite a hard option! I have tried it with that album, but darn... probably I need more time. It's just a difficult one to get into. I dig the remixes one a lot more to be true.

[krausy]

Now that I have read more accounts here, and thought about what has been said, I believe that the longer you are a David Sylvian fan, and the more you become familiar with all of his work, and then heard the work on Nine Horses, you can appreciate Blemish for what it is. You know what David has done before and after Blemish, and you see it as an important part of that whole that is his work so far.

Of course there are always those who hear Blemish before anything else and love it right off the bat(t) (couldn't resist the play on word there ) but for the rest of us I'm thinking the above is true, or I could just be full of ka-ka. That is just my conclusion.

[baht habit]

That is a really excellent point, Krausy. Now that I have heard Sylvian's subsequent work with Nine Horses, I was able to go back and absorb blemish much easier. At the time I first received and opened the package, placed the disc in the player and listened intently, I was stunned by how brutally awful I initially perceived the disc to be.....'What a nasty case of cabin fever Mr Sylvian must have caught while dealing with NH in February'....I thought....'How could he release something so blatantly unmusical?' Now I respect it for what it is...or thankfully, what is was at the time...and not a new direction to continue following in the future.

[Melaszka]

I have to admit, I'm still working on Blemish. I totally respect the artistic reasons behind it and David's choice to go in that direction, but it's not an album I frequently listen to the whole way through (not helped by the fact that I initially bought one of those samadhi sound mail-order teething trouble dud CDs that kept sticking and jumping. I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me a few weeks to realise that I had a warped disc - the whole thing was so avant-garde anyway, I wasn't sure if it was supposed to sound like that!).

I love Blemish itself, plus the obviously accessible ones like The Heart Knows Better and A Fire in the Forest. I really ought to invest the time in the Bailey tracks, though, because I'm sure they'll repay the investment in the end. Usually, the less I like a DS album on first lesson, the better a sign that is (Gone To Earth just sounded like white noise on first listen - now I just weep at the god-like genius of it all).

Every time I listen to the Good Son Vs the Only Daughter (which I do frequently), I feel like I'm taking the easy option and going for Blemish lite.

I also thought the angry reactions of some fans to Blemish were way, way over the top. I accept that a few people were disappointed, but when people went on about David "cheating" his loyal fans, "conning them out of their money", "treating them with contempt" and "owing" them more than that, I felt furious.

Ironically, a lot of the "fans" who vowed never to buy a DS album again after Blemish would probably have loved Nine Horses. Their loss.

[BeehiveSecrets]

That is a really excellent point, Krausy. Now that I have heard Sylvian's subsequent work with Nine Horses, I was able to go back and absorb blemish much easier. At the time I first received and opened the package, placed the disc in the player and listened intently, I was stunned by how brutally awful I initially perceived the disc to be.....'What a nasty case of cabin fever Mr Sylvian must have caught while dealing with NH in February'....I thought....'How could he release something so blatantly unmusical?' Now I respect it for what it is...or thankfully, what is was at the time...and not a new direction to continue following in the future.

that is so true. thanks!

[Burnsjed]

I have to say, apart from the obvious tracks, well the ones that eem obvious to me (Blemish, The Heart Knows Better, Late Night SHopping and A Fire In The Forest) I thought it was crap.
I really love it now though, and the more I listen to it, the more beautiful it seems.

[Sylvie]

as i am a new fan of sylvians work, i can't really be disappointed or upset with blemish since i can't compare it with something else. on its own it's a great record. he has had a long career and i find it very interesting how he has evolved over the years. it reminds me of talk talk and the brilliant mark hollis. the only sad thing is that i didn't the discover the man earlier (but maybe i hadn't been ready for it), because when i see the live stuff on youtube i so wish i had been able to go to see him on the blemish tour.

on the other hand, i try not to get too involved with the lyrics. i sort of feel his divorce is none of my business. if my ex-husband had written that record i would have killed him.....but maybe that's why i don't have a husband

[godisinthesilences]

i'm impressed that is the album which introduced you to david's solo work. It is a devastatingly beautiful emotional journey. Love this album for all its difficulties.

You will enjoy the other albums if you enjoyed this one. They all quite different. I enjoy how his music reflects where he is at certain periods in his life.