New single?

[Simonp]

I doubt very much this new track will win fans back for Sylvian. I don't think as a "single" is any more commercial sounding than "I Should Not Dare" from DITW to be honest. Ill wait until I've heard the entire song (and lyric) before I make a full judgement but based on the short clip available, I think it sounds rather lovely. And how do something else (an album?) isn't going to follow...Sylvian works in mysterious ways

[kitaj]

My mind is drifting back to when the track Jacqueline just seemed to indiscriminately appear out of nowhere a month or so before the extremely challenging Manafon was to be released. Now we have this new song - as was Jacqueline, this track is apparently unattached to any full length release - as was Jacqueline, it is evidently manufactured for those listeners who require an easily detectable rhythm, chord structure and hummable melody. It's quite possible that Sylvian remains fully aware that The Kilowatt Hour is guaranteed to alienate those listeners. So like Jacqueline, he releases a mild and innocuous track to serve as some sort of consolation to those who prefer to be merely entertained and do not wish to be challenged.

dear Baht, with all due respect garnered from your long-served, high-quality forum activity, I think you're being all too ideological and paternalistic in your assessment of what is a few seconds' sample of a song. I'm sure Sylvian is allowed to work on different wavelengths contemporaneously without implying he "manufactures" things by way of a "consolation" for a 'challenge-challenged' audience.
I don't think Jacqueline was a mild and innocuous track at all - in fact, as almost everything he has done lately whatever the musical form, lyrically at least it's very upfront and hard-lined in its sentiment, albeit subterraneously - specifically, implying a rupture of sorts.
I don't know how you could discount the fact there don't seem to be any drums whatsoever on this new track.

Simon and Tin Bird, I agree with what you wrote wholeheartedly.

[Simonp]

I'm sure Sylvian is not adverse to the idea of releasing music that is both entertaining AND challenging? He himself has stated in interview he still enjoys writing a 4 minute "pop" song as much as his more experimental work. I'm quite excited about the new song. His vocal delivery on this short clip sounds...intriguing...somewhat different from the monotone crooning of late. He sounds weary but gentler, more melodic.

[Simonp]

And yes Kitaj, I also agree with you...on 2 counts, I don't think Jacqueline was mild mannered at all. Far from it. I also agree that Baht is a wonderful forum member and I respect his input on the forums immensely. I don't always agree with his thoughts but isnt that what makes the forums interesting? Baht has always been courteous towards anyone who doesn't share his views and I respect that enormously.

[baht habit]

Hold on now guys. My previous post obviously set a few of you off into quickly interpreting that I am knocking the song - which was not my intent at all.
Please go back and read my post again. I'm just pointing out the timing of the release seems quite similar to how Jacqueline appeared on some compilation included with a magazine prior to the unveiling of Manafan. My use of the word 'innocuous' also seems to have caused confusion - I meant that the song did not offend or elicit any adverse response, in the way that Sylvian surely must have known how Manafan was going to do exactly that. Sylvian even placed Jacqueline as a free download on his site after the onslaught of derision from a certain segment of the fanbase claiming that he had 'lost it'.
Now prior to his taking part in the Kilowatt Hour tour, this song is released. Sylvian has claimed that he had been writing these type of acoustic 'miniatures' for some time now. This song might have been written a while back, and now it is being released at this particular time - as a product for purchase...hence, my use of the word "manufactures" - not as if he just composed something quickly in a workmanlike manner, but literally manufactured as a product. The gist of my post was all about the timing of the release and the proximity to the Kilowatt Hour being similar to how Jacqueline served as a more mainstream piece being put out right before Manafon.
Also, drums were brought up in the discussion. Drums are not required to create an easily detectable rhythm. And judging in this case from the short snippet, the strum of the acoustic guitar not only provides the chordal structure but obviously creates the detectable rhythm and measured tempo that one can count quite easily....just as it had been the case with Jacqueline.
I just wanted to head off this misinterpretation that I am negative in any way about the track before it gains any more traction.

[kitaj]

Baht, I hear you, but I still think you're simply overelaborating. DS doesn't strike me as one putting timing strategies in place for his output. I think the proximity of the Jacqueline download to the release of Manafon was pure happenstance.

I personally don't enjoy giving any further thought to the prospective polarising of tastes within DS' audience. as others have, I've seen it all happen with the obligatory flame-throwing in tow, and it saddens me to no end. to me his music is an overall beautiful continuum I can hop on or off wherever it takes me genre-wise (or no matter the genre). The First Day to Manafon, Alchemy to Zero Landmine, personal preferences notwithstanding, I mostly love it all and don't rank his many projects. I am about to enjoy the prospective album with Joan Wasser as much as I'm going to be thrilled to be in the audience for the upcoming KWh tour. there is such a thing as a Sylvian touch and, though I'm sometimes bothered that it often results in him overshadowing his equally valiant collaborators on 'brand name' alone, I happen to like it.

my reference to drums was a joking one and had entirely to do with your 'trauma therapy' regarding - for some - the sore absence of Steve Jansen in his brother's work of late.

[Tin Bird]

I agree with this, "I think the proximity of the Jacqueline download to the release of Manafon was pure happenstance" as well. That was the point of my previous post. I do not think David is as calculating as you seem to be suggesting Baht. I honestly do not think he cares or even factors in what his audience wants in his music. And it's all the better for it!
Either way, the snippet of the new track sounds quite intriguing to me.

[Tin Bird]

"To even use the word 'career' in connection to what it is I've been doing all these years seems strangely odd," he muses. "I've just been pursuing personal goals and dealing with personal issues that surface in the work."
"There's no desire to alienate," he argues. "If the work doesn't communicate itself successfully then it's really a failure, in my opinion. But the flipside of that is that you have to be true to the work itself, and some avenues you choose to walk down are just not going to be accessible for everyone, and I accept that. So if I'm working on a piece that is largely experimental and has very little familiar form to it, I know it's going to alienate a certain number of listeners. I've been doing this for a long time now, and the trick is to stay totally engrossed in what it is you're producing so that you follow your instincts. And sometimes that means you take a road that's slightly less travelled musically. I wouldn't want to dilute the work for the sake of making it accessible, because basically you're making the work weaker by diluting it, and you probably won't reach that many more people anyway. You can't second-guess an audience, and I think that's also underestimating the intelligence of your audience, and you might as well just go for it 100% and hope for the best." D. Sylvian

[svendutchmountains]

Jacqueline was released through the inclusion on a compilation CD given away with The Believer. I had never heard of the magazine before and have to assume it has a relatively small audience (compared to mainstream magazines such as Q, Wired etc.). It was then made available as a digital download. Overall the costs involved with the release must have been minimal.

The new single is a 10" record, released through EMI. It also comes as a download. Compared to Jacqueline the costs of pressing/artwork/releasing the record will be high...

It does make you wonder whether there is a 'release strategy' in the David Sylvian marketing plan!

Rather than comparing it to Jacqueline the release seems to be more in the vein of Pop Song - this was released quite suddenly as a one-off single as far as I remember.

[kitaj]

I'm very aware we're practically speaking of thin air at this point, but I'll say I'm sensing more of an Americana vibe, with a nice ambient background that reminds me of Michael Brook/Eno/Lanois a bit. so for me it takes me back to his material à la Ballad of a Deadman and the like. his somewhat frazzled voice contributes to the feeling.
re: the lyrics, um, I venture to plead, 'oh God, please do not let it be about the marriage again'

[Simonp]

Think the lyrics probably do make reference to his marriage break up but in a more positive way than Blemish. This could be the accepting it's over and moving on song. Blemish was obviously created while Sylvian was in a fragile state of mind following break up with Ms Chavez.

[Blemished]

Is it my imagination or did David mention at the time Victim Of Stars was being released that he was working on two new tracks to go with that album?

Where's Your Gravity was the first. "The second one wasn't ready in time, but might surface later?" That's my vague recollection of what was said. Does that ring any bells?

[kitaj]

ah, bravo. that's it then. the riddle's solved, I guess.
a one-off single with those two tracks, suitably released as a 10' and digital single only.

[after the bullfight]

I might be able to shed a little light on this. I visited the Phil Collins exhibition in Cologne, that was mentioned on another thread. There were a number of old style listening booths arranged with a view over the main railway bridge, with 7" singles of lots of fraught conversations juxtaposed with Scritti Politti and a number of artists I've not heard of and David's new single. On hearing the track a number of times in a short space of time, I would say the Jacqueline comparison was apt. I was also reminded of the more minimalist RTC tracks. Very melodic and the lyrics offer a number of throwbacks to old references. I personally thought his voice sounded rather different - maybe just a little older. I've attempted a rough transcript (my apologies, it was from an iPhone recording, the brackets are where I've made a phonetic guess).

If you think you knew me then
You don’t know me now
As the ground grows up to meet me
I kissed your mouth

You were your border
Like an ….
But I turned you out

And if that brought us to our knees
We left all the way down
I brought my Daddy’s ring from my hand
And I made a bride

We grew a flower in the desert
We got terrified
We were one, and one and the same
Something was lost somehow

And if you think you knew me then
You don’t know me now

The heavens high above you
(Spawning) houses of their own
You were dropped
And hit the ground running
But they failed to lead you home

And if you think you knew me then
You don’t know me now

I grew a child inside of you
Just (like) myself
I stole the face of joy
A perfume of words

I had admired the boy within
Before he cut himself
You found the blood
Upon my clothes

And if you think you knew me then
You don’t know me now

There were children in the classroom
(Wretched) without a name
There were hornets in the heads of cattle
(upgraded?) to the sun

You cried wolf
I tracked one down
And lived with it
There were lambs
Sure there was blood
There were psalms to sing

You could just see the bone jut out
Penetrate the skin
Did it (inspire) beyond all that
The mess we’re in

(You swished your hair)
I stared you down
You still run around

And if you think you knew me then
You don’t know me now

I was happy, satiated
I was satisfied.

[Chet]

Thank you afterthebullfight