The Wire review: Died in the wool

From Brilliant Trees through Died In The Wool...

The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby Blemished on Mon Jun 13, 2011 1:21 pm

Not going to be The Wire's album of the year by the sounds of it...

*****************

Died In The Wool prompts an unkind thought: the songs on Manafon barely deserved to be released once, never mind twice. But here they are: new versions of most of Manafon's songs, rerecorded with composer Dai Fujikura and a group of improvisors including John Butcher, Evan Parker and Keith Rowe. Manafon already felt like an unconvincing successor to Blemish, Sylvian's most accomplished solo record. But, on the first few listens, Died In The Wool had the effect of not only making me withdraw the benefit of the doubt that I'd extended to Manafon, it also threatened to retrospectively undermine Blemish. Was it really as good as it seemed back then? So I go back and listen, and I'm relieved to say that, no: Blemish remains the moment when Sylvian found a post-Japan setting that suited his voice, a voice that has always been about evasion, hesitation and inhibition.

Blemish worked because it played upon this; the songs were about what the voice could not (bring itself) to sing, traumatic wreckage it could only allude to. Manafon sought to be as cryptically suggestive, but, instead, the words too often seemed obfuscatory, and Sylvian's delivery of them laboured. The voice frequently seemed like an intrusion on Manafon. Still, there was something sombrely seductive about the blend of turntablism, piano and electronics that his collaborators came up with: and, though he didn't quite rise to the challenge, the very fact that Manafon raised the possibility of reconciling some of the leading edges of 21st century experimentalism with song meant that even its failures intrigued.

Giving new backing tracks to the Manafon songs compounds the problem that dogged the source album: the impression that there was no real connection between Sylvian's vocal and the music. Here, as on Manafon, "Small Metal Gods" feels like its straining towards a significance it can't reach (there would have to be a very good reason for using a word as clunkily prosaic as "umpteenth" in a song, and Sylvian doesn't come up with it). But, if anything, Fujikura's strings seem even more disconnected from Sylvian's voice than the original backing was. This goes for most of the alternative variations of the Manafon material.

You're forced to the conclusion that the problem lies in the songs themselves. To work in so exposed a setting, they needed to have a prose-poem starkness; instead, they seem almost clumsy, certainly unwieldy, unformed: not quite songs at all, and not quite anything else either. There's so little differentiation between Sylvian's delivery on each track that you feel you could practically take a line from any song and insert it into any of the others and it would have no effect.

Died In The Wool's non-Manafon songs work best. "Died In The Wool" itself has an eerie stillness; while "A Certain Slant Of Light" (one of two tracks with words by Emily Dickinson) and "Anomaly At Taw Head" constitute a kind of ruined pastoral. The suspicion with some of Sylvian's recent work is that it demands more from the listener than it offers in return, but these tracks do repay the effort of repeated listening.

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Re: The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby Simonp on Tue Jun 14, 2011 2:28 am

Oh dear. The Wire just didn't "get" Manafon I think. Surprised there is no comment on "When We Return..." in the review. Sounds like the reviewer gave up after disc 1
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Re: The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby baht habit on Tue Jun 14, 2011 7:25 am

When Manafon was released, I got the gist that there were clear indications of certain writers at the Wire who held expectations of Sylvian creating music within the framework of electro-acoustic improvisation, rather than incorporating elements of eai into his own artistic style of music.
We usually seem to find ourselves in disbelief when members of the fan base allow their own preconceptions and preferences to affect their reception to Sylvian's musical directions, but there have surely been clear cut examples of music journalists being equally guilty of such preconceptions. I recall how many 'professional' reviewers were still so hung up in their awe for Blemish that they were unable to fairly judge Nine Horses' Snow Borne Sorrow for what it was, rather than what they had wished it to be like.
It is sort of a shame that this particular reviewer allowed his admiration for Blemish and his disdain for Manafon to cloud his overall assessment of the new material, which he obviously has a positive reaction toward yet writes so briefly about, and in such a nondescript manner -- merely as a footnote. Let's face it, the re-interpretations of Manafon tracks make up less than half an hour on the material presented, while the new tracks account for nearly an hour's duration - and so this reviewer is basically neglecting the bulk of the release. To focus so firmly on the re-interpretations simply to stress how much one despised the content on Manafon seems slightly irrational in my opinion, and a bit unprofessional as well. Even if the subtitle of the disc is Manafon Variations, one should be objective enough to recognize that the main title is Died In The Wool.
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Re: The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby afternoonfix on Tue Jun 14, 2011 4:35 pm

But, if anything, Fujikura's strings seem even more disconnected from Sylvian's voice than the original backing was. This goes for most of the alternative variations of the Manafon material.


I agree totally with the wires review above,when I read strings would be added to the Manafon tunes
on DITW I thought this would be interesting,but I'm sorry to say they only weaken these songs further.
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Re: The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby Tin Bird on Tue Jun 14, 2011 6:29 pm

Ugh...as much as I hate to say it...I completely agree.I honestly cannot sit through it. I wasn't a huge fan of Manafon, but three of the tracks definately grew on me to the point where I could say, I liked them...Appalachia, Emily D, and Small Metal Gods. The new treatments really ruin any of the "feel"I grew to enjoy and I simply cannot find the relevance or connection needed to appreciate these remixes. That said, disc two is pretty cool in a bernhard gunter-esque kind of way.
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Re: The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby javier on Wed Jun 15, 2011 3:21 am

I too agree that the addition of strings has detracted from the originals. It's intrusive and not in keeping with the emotional or lyrical content of the Manafon tracks.

Snow White in Appalachia is of course the worst offender, but the others too just don't work for me. The stark emptiness of Small Metal Gods is gone, the sinister menace of Random Acts, etc.

If one listens to Sylvian's voice as just another instrument, then perhaps one can argue in favour of the new arrangements. But Sylvian is singing words, and words have meaning, and meaning creates mood.

If Fujikura spoke no English, this might explain things somewhat.
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Re: The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby Simonp on Wed Jun 15, 2011 3:42 am

It's interesting to read that people are commenting on only the Manafon re-workings and NOT the new tracks. I'd be more curious to know what people thought about I Should Not Dare, Certain Slant and The Last Days of December (which for me is certainly one of the most beautiful tracks he has written).
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Re: The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby baht habit on Wed Jun 15, 2011 7:45 am

Simonp wrote:It's interesting to read that people are commenting on only the Manafon re-workings and NOT the new tracks. I'd be more curious to know what people thought about I Should Not Dare, Certain Slant and The Last Days of December (which for me is certainly one of the most beautiful tracks he has written).


:twisted: Thankfully, there are a few reviews acknowledging the existence of the brand new material with more attention than just a blurb confined to the end of their articles:

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=39607

http://www.musicomh.com/albums/david-sylvian-4_0611.htm
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Re: The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby missouriman on Wed Jun 15, 2011 8:35 am

Does it really matter what some reviewer thinks? Is the casual fan ever going to consult a magazine like The Wire for recommendations? I think anybody who disliked "Blemish" and "Manafon" is going to dislike "Died in the Wool" and will dislike anything Sylvian writes. I ask again: What are they waiting to hear? There will be no more 'Brilliant Trees' type songs from David.
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Re: The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby Six One Cynic on Wed Jun 15, 2011 8:44 am

They gave DS the cover of their magazine, praised Manafon and thought it to be the 9'th best record of 2009, and now they're hating it and accusing David of re-hashing!
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Re: The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby Simonp on Wed Jun 15, 2011 9:35 am

they did anything BUT praise Manafon when it was released if i remember correctly. The original reviewer said Manafon was the first release of Sylvian's in 30 years that he was disappointed with. I don't think there was one positive thing said in The Wire magazine about Manafon around the time of its release despite Sylvian appearing on the cover and getting several pages dedicated to him for an interview
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Re: The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby untitled on Wed Jun 15, 2011 2:59 pm

I think certain people at Wire were wetting themselves over the album THEY THOUGHT David was going to produce.

Ian Penman's review of Manafon seemed to critique it on a set of criteria that David had never to set out to achieve. It was like he had decided a separate set of aims for the album, which funnily enough, weren't the same the artist's. David was never going to get in there and improv his vocal along with the musicians; he chose people to create a sonic landscape for him to respond to at a later date, in way as close improv as he could. Also, David has also always been very clear about what is a David Sylvian album and what is a collaborative project. Penman seemed insulted on behalf of the musician that they weren't given more credit. Last time I checked they were all grown-ups and knew exactly what they were signing up for.

Mark Fisher's review is pretty poor in my book. He says very little to back up the hideous opening paragraph. I think there is a difference between an album that “barely deserved to be released once” and an album where “even it's failures intrigued”. Yet he describes Manafon as both in this review.
"There would have to be a very good reason for using a word as clunkily prosaic as umpteenth”. Firstly I can't believe he is wasting his time on such a small issue and secondly even the smallest amount of journalist endeavour would have revealed DS had stated his intention to give the album an English feel through use of language. So, for me that is a very good reason. The amount of space devoted to the new work, which he grudgingly seemed to like, was terrible. Not to even mention “When We Return...” featuring some genuine Wire golden-boys, just seems rude.

I like the Wire, but every year it gets closer disappearing up it's own back side.
I found the way, by the sound of your voice.
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Re: The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby mejekel on Wed Jun 15, 2011 3:29 pm

Don't let some music journalist tell you what you should like. If you like it great, if you think its awful then don't listen to it.

I'm not a big fan of Manafon but I do like this. But then again I also think The first day is a great record which puts me in the minority.
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Re: The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby baht habit on Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:39 pm

Hey look, this gentleman also took note of the abundance of new material as well. :-)

CRITICAL MOB MUSIC REVIEW
Died in the Wool: Manafon Variations

BY JIM ALLEN

More than just Manafon revised.

Being a David Sylvian admirer can be a maddening proposition. Over the last decade or so, his forward-looking brilliance has gone hand in hand with an inexplicable tendency to revisit, rework, remix, and repackage his material, to the extent that his latter-day catalog is dominated by this seemingly pathological retooling. So it's only natural to approach Died in the Wool with a wary eye upon learning that it reworks material from Sylvian's previous album, Manafon. However, it turns out to be more of a "new" album than anything else. Only half the tracks are actually re-jiggered Manafon cuts, and most of those are drastically different, and arguably improved by replacing the original ultra-minimal/barely musical settings with young Japanese modernist composer Dai Fujikura's arch-but-melodic avant-chamber orchestrations. The new material includes both Manafon outtakes and pieces that build on the ideas explored on the earlier record, sometimes sounding like a more austere cousin of Tim Buckley's Lorca/Starsailor explorations, or even King Crimson's Islands-era chamber-rock ballads (Sylvian has, after all, collaborated extensively with KC mainman Robert Fripp). Died in the Wool isn't for Sylvian beginners, but fans needn't fear it.
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Re: The Wire review: Died in the wool

Postby Tin Bird on Wed Jun 15, 2011 7:34 pm

I did comment on the 2nd disc and said it was good. As for the other "new tracks", I really enjoyed the original version of Slant of Light...new version...is, whatever, in my mind it doesn't improve over the original, it just adds a few strings and clicks and pops, preferred the stripped down acoustic version. I Should not Dare is OK...it's no Fire in the Forest, but it's OK. frankly the rest of the new tracks just sound like Manafon rejects to me and like I said, this remix stuff hasn't connected with me at all. I suppose I am in the camp of truly hoping that he returns to a somewhat more traditional song structure. He is such a brillant song writer that it seems such a shame to have him mired in such dire waters forever. The world has enough click and pop experimental records (I should know, I've made quite a few of them myself ;-), it will never have enough heartbreaking, soul chilling Sylvian classic songs. My 1 1/2 cents.
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