Realm of Dusk: III

 

 

Mournful, nocturnal, gleamingly-futuristic, pensive, retro-glitch.
Macklin deepening in confidence and growing in stature with each release.
Sounding more like a Buddha each time the sun rotates around his world. 

1. Realm of Dusk Sound. "Bombastic Intro" - yeah right, the opposite of that... Propelled forward by funereal tabla.
2. Endless Clutter, Infinite Joy. Dual basslines. Ritual cyclicality. A nervous energy. Tremors of temple bells.
3. The Kids. Comic teacher announcement. Walking gyration.
4. Oligarch killer. Conjures up Macklin remote-controlling a giant, lethal robot. A sparkling arpeggio glitters atop like an LED array.
5. Astral Vomit. Arsequake heir. Sidereal machinations.
6. Carlos and Dub. In thousands of years time Carlos on LHS 1140 b listens to Black Uhuru' "The Dub Factor" as it distorts and diffracts through noisy asteroid belts. "Hm. Sounds good", he thinks.
7. Realm of Fucking Light. A meditation. Gazing patiently into the eclipse.
8. Stay Home. Surf dreams. Foam crests. Subaqueous wave photography.
9. I take a piece of you everywhere I go. Bittersweet rumination on the incrementally vanishing memories of loved ones. Dubbing out slowly into oblivion.
10. Bill Evans. Unlikely homage to tragic Jazz pianist. He never saw that coming.
11. Long Nights. Macklin considers his Vancouverian twilight.
12. Solitude Seekers. Carlos again, wait, what? Rachel didn't show? What happened to her? 'Til finally all that's left is crabs scuttling in the dark.

Recommended. Available here.

Cliff Richard "We Don't Talk Anymore"

 

I came across the reference to the production wizardry of a song "We Don't Talk Anymore" in Bob Stanley's introduction to James Fry's excellent "A Licence to Rock and Pop". The mysterious Alan Tarney was responsible. What's that then, I thought? I looked it up and discovered it was by the older Cliff Richard doing his version of ABBA.

 

Somewhere deep in my memory banks I remember this song from 1979 when I must have heard it when languishing (hiding) in the sanatorium at my prep school. I remember Dr Feelgood's "Milk & Alcohol" from the same year.

 

The video is pure artistry. Cliff's stilted robotic dancing makes a virtue of awkward rigidity. I love the primitive video effects, but they were once no doubt cutting edge. Indeed, there's always something attractive about the way that very carefully-made futuristic music production ages. The attention to detail is still there, but the dazzling audio confection takes on a patina from aging.

 

The track is, I feel, very moving emotionally. Cliff's seniority and his singular lack of cool invite tenderness. I should point out, however, there is a note of defiance in the song with the great couplet, "I ain't losing sleep, and I ain't countin' sheep!" I love the way the melody modulates its key, with those deeply satisfying shifts across the register. Metronomy built a whole career on the back of this song. I've watched it over and over again this past week.