John Tilbury in The Wire - comments on Manafon

[baht habit]

Thanks for the replies, Jon. It's great to know that you are still visiting this site. I personally feel you are dead on target when you mention Wrapped Islands (which Sylvian has cited as a 'significant piece of the puzzle') and the many other Erstwhile releases that helped to influence Sylvian's direction. Undoubtedly, the musical spirit of Derek Bailey was an inspiration as well. And in the one interview titled "Let's Start With The Word", Sylvian mentioned not only Erstwhile but also the many intriguing labels which you happen to distribute as well.

I've only talked to a few of them about this project in general, but I'd say that it probably depends. obviously most of them tend to work in much longer form, so just playing for a few minutes is decidedly different from playing for 60 or 70. also, Tilbury's contributions were different from (most of?) the others in that he played by himself, as opposed to the groups playing together in Vienna and Tokyo and London.

Thanks again. It is accurate that Tilbury's solo contributions were added to the track recorded in Tokyo as well as some from the Vienna sessions, but he actually had participated in person at the session in London.

[ScottR]

At the beginning of all this, ScottR dismisses Scott Walker as pretentious and a source of bad influence:

"SW has got to be one of the most irritating artists. This is where Manafon got its beginnings."

This is a bit harsh isn't it? Let me rephrase this. I think SW is actually a very likeable guy. I don't sense any pretense from him the individual, it comes more from the fans that surround him. I had this same SW conversation with a friend of mine a while back. He sent me a youtube link of a bbc interview during the release of Drift. I have to say he is not what I expected. He is a very modest down to earth guy. Its the music and the rabid sw walks on water fans I find irritating. I just think its all overrated hype.

Saying DS and Manafon are not influenced by SW is just plain silly. As Jon Abbey pointed out, step back 10 years to Tilt. I think this record had a huge influence not only on Davids music but his decision to strike out on his own and produce his music by himself. I personally think this is where his music went from great to good or even average. I'm sure Baht will correct me if I'm wrong but I think Nine Horses is the first co-produced project that he has done in quite some time.

I wonder what Steve Nye is doing these days.

(insert eyeliner hairspray jokes/references here)

[Adrian]

I just don't hear it... 'The other David' is influenced by Scott W. no doubt, but Sylvian's recent output really is different to my ears. The feel you might get from both artists (or their fanbases [and I think they overlap]) could be quite the same, but not their music I feel. There are some albums that have the same feel for me, Scott's Tilt, David's DBoaC, Peter Murphy's Dust; but I cannot see a connection past the bombast.