Stuff you'd like Sylvian to release...

[Chet]

Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins and Adrian Utley of Portishead are also using this "Volume" technique alot...
Love it

[kitaj]

great idea Kitaj... lovely comment.

thank you : )

The technique used on flux is could be done with a simple volume pedal...or a volume knob.

Basicially, strike the guitar note then higher up the volume. Build up some tracks (one note over another) and hey presto you have the effect. Done it myself - but it takes FOREVER.

thanks for the hint! indeed, on the remixed 'Plight' you can hear him strike the strings before the 'volume swell' (TM) sets in.

I think that's part of why I admire Sylvian's guitar-layered pieces so much: he seems to be working rodent-like to lay these layers which then end up making up those beautiful chords ('The Wooden Cross', 'Praise'). (I somehow doubt there was a creatively-conducive drug-induced haze going on there.)

and what about the layering of solos in, say, 'Nostalgia' or, especially, 'The Stigma of Childhood'? I'd say they display a keen sense of structure, pacing, and polyphonic taste.

I forgot to mention the dizzy 'hi-wire whirliesound' (C) which is to be heard at the beginning of 'Incantation' and in 'Preparations for a Journey'. delay pedal, I suppose? I sense Bill Nelson could have been a possible influence.

I also like his guitars when they're a bit ruder than usual - say, the distorted first-beat markers on 'Incantation', or the strangled atonal thingy he loves spouting forth nowadays ('Trauma' and various recent collaborations). there's a primitive charm in those timbres and stylings that I often - uncannily - connect to that which I perceive as being the Russian spirit (cue possible connection with Tarkovsky).

of course I'm sounding nerdish, but what the Jersey : )

[camphorvan]

What is 'polyphonic taste'?!

[kitaj]

Taste for contrapunct, layering of cross-melodies and the like (as in the guitar parts on 'Stigma', 'Nostalgia' etc).
I don't purport for a minute it being the correct musicological term, though.

[camphorvan]

It's just music.

[kitaj]

oh boy, camphorvan. talk about sweeping statements.

so that's just my enthusiasm for said music, expressed in my own way (and hoping to connect with others who might be drawn to the same details).

actually, I don't think anything is 'just'.
calumet?

[Melaszka]

Kitaj, never let anyone make you feel apologetic for being the person you are and talking about a subject you love in the way you feel happy.

I must admit I feel very stupid and intimidated when I read some of your posts, because I don't know anything about music and could never express myself as well as you. I wish I could, though, and I'm full of admiration for you. Don't change.

[kitaj]

it's certainly the last thing on my mind to wish to intimidate anyone by wielding anything in my possession. : )

as, on the other hand, is the thought of irritating anyone (there are a number of reasons why my writing style might come across as stilted, bordering at self-righteous at times; I'm working on it).
but I must say it baffles me every time to find out how quickly one gets to the confrontation stage when exchanging opinions in an Internet forum. this is, I think, something completely unnatural if one compares it with a real-life exchange.

I'd like Sylvian to release anything he's not yet released, actually. : )

[Adrian]

Yes mr. Sylvian: release the new album already!!!
And Kitaj: I think Forums have a tendency to quickly become confrontational (this one is nothing compared to the other one I belong to, PTForum), because 1. it's quite anonymous; 2. typing and sending is easy and 3. most people there are fans in one way or another and will have strong opinions on everything even slightly to do with the forum's topic.
peace!

[camphorvan]

There is no confrontation from me; merely irritated statement.

Whilst I respect your opinion, I will confess that pretentiousness irritates me and your post came across to me as pretentious, (regardless of whether it did to anyone else). I recognise you don't mean your posts to come across in that way and wish you good luck in finding a less static way of expressing yourself.

On the subject of pretentiousness; well, I've spoken about that before on this forum. I just find it very, very tiresome and I find the over-use (and often clumsy use) of language more revealing than not. I am not referring to your post in particular, but in general. As I've said before, I even pick up sentences/phrases that Sylvian has said in interviews and whatnot. Seems to me people want to 'be' Sylvian half the time. That, I find kinda disturbing. If you're an over-weight balding estate agent BE an over-weight balding estate agent; don't try and come across as something you're not. I've worked in the performing arts professionally (in one way or another) all my life and I come across a lot of pretension which, I guess, is why I am quite sensitive to it.

Anyway, typically of me, I'll probably make this statement, lots of people will go 'grrrr' and I will completely forget about it and check back in about 6 months, released I caused a stir but it'll be too late to respond. But anyway - here's hoping I don't.

C

[Melaszka]

I'm probably making things ten times worse stepping into someone else's argument, but I feel so strongly about this I'm going to, anyway.

I spent a lot of my childhood being bullied mercilessly for being "pretentious" and "trying to make out I'm better than everyone else" when all I was doing was being myself and speaking in the language that came naturally to me, and it really upsets me when apparently intelligent adults show the same intolerance to me or anyone else.

People are different, OK? Just because they choose to use words you wouldn't or choose to talk about aspects of Japan/Sylvian you wouldn't, that doesn't mean they are pretending to be something they're not or doing something wrong.

I know this website is better in this respect than most internet forums, and as a ule people on here are accepting and lovely, but even on here you occasionally encounter snide comments and it seems you can't win - if you talk about something light you are too "fangirly", if you want to talk about anything in depth you are "being pretentious", "talking about something you know nothing about" or "missing the point by reading too much into it". It's getting to the stage where I'm scared to say anything at all, because it's apparently always wrong.

[camphorvan]

No - I think they are helpful comments. I guess what I am saying is 'be yourself'. Just because you use complex vocabulary doesn't mean you're not being yourself. I think you're not being you when the language used is evidently clumsy resulting in malapropisms and grammatically incorrect usage. THAT is pretension, i.e. it is not natural to you.

It's really my hang up not anyone else's; my annoyance at pretension. Even when Sylvian speaks sometimes I think 'What a d--ck'.

[anortherncod]

Yes mr. Sylvian: release the new album already!!!
And Kitaj: I think Forums have a tendency to quickly become confrontational (this one is nothing compared to the other one I belong to, PTForum), because 1. it's quite anonymous; 2. typing and sending is easy and 3. most people there are fans in one way or another and will have strong opinions on everything even slightly to do with the forum's topic.
peace!

I actually think PTF is pretty friendly and things get resolved quickly if people do fall out, personally...

Natasha

[proggrl]

I will confess that pretentiousness irritates me and your post came across to me as pretentious, (regardless of whether it did to anyone else). I recognise you don't mean your posts to come across in that way and wish you good luck in finding a less static way of expressing yourself.

Well My interpretation of it is that the downside of being better than everyone else (especially in Sylvian's case) is that people tend to assume that you're pretentious.

I actually think PTF is pretty friendly and things get resolved quickly if people do fall out, personally...

Natasha

Look don't you make me take out the chair you *&*#$!!




And by *&*$! I mean 'lovely'! I agree - that place is awefully nice. Mind it's had it's share of strange folks and issues, but they are usually handled civily.