Category: composers

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Charisma composers Eerie Spatiality Electronica epoch-defining Eternal Gary Numan Geniuses Music music videos performers photography Singers Synth-Pop Terminal videos vocalists

The Gary Numan: ∰.

Praying To The Aliens. {studio}.
Live, 1980.

Let ∰ = “The High Priest of quasi-androgynous Synth-Pop/Electronica, the Impassive Alien Deity, The Gary Numan.” What heretofore had been used to calculate Flux Densities, and whatnot, now is more—much more—much, much more.

He created aural landscapes which allowed access to the unfathomable. His performances have been described in so many ways. Strikingly “robotic”. Otherworldly. Mesmerizing. And moreover, there’s an unease, a disquiet, accompanying his trenchant intelligence; a wariness. Aware of a certain danger we cannot grasp. The ritual held out in the open, hauntingly obvious, yet impenetrable. A language we’ve forgotten; mind-argot beyond our ken.  

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Audio Charisma composers dancing Eerie Spatiality Eternal existentialism Geniuses Ian Curtis Joy Division Music music videos performers photography Poetic Genius Poetry Punk Singers Terminal videos vocalists

The Differently-Realmed Ian Curtis, and Joy Division.

Go ahead. Choose a realm, any realm. Ian’s not from there; he’s never taken up residence there, and, for that matter, spends precious little—if any—time there. Yes. It’s been proven.

The composer/vocalist of Joy Division hails from some different locale than do most human beings. Ian’s lodgings come rent-free, and he’s been awarded the keys to The City.

We’re not talking about earth, which he departed many years ago, alas, in 1980. He certainly left his mark here on this planet, but his realm is, and has ever been, elsewhere.

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composers Elvis Costello Music music videos Nick Lowe photography Producers

Nick Lowe: Underrated Pantheon Inhabitant.

“Ol’ Drain”, as Mr. Nick Lowe is called in some circles {i.e.: The None}—it’s his middle name, and a fine one—wears more than a few musical hats, and pulls it all off in such fashion as would create, probably, a dither of aesthetic paroxysms in any milliner or hatter. Earlier on, (than…??) Lowe, often with mate Dave Edmunds, in Rockpile, showed an uncanny talent for creating clever, charming, quite diabolically catchy songs that perhaps represented the very embodiment , the K2-like apotheosis, of Pure Pop Wonderment. Really…well, it was not fair. One had little to no choice but to come ’round to the man’s idiosyncratic ways. No one, however, minded, it seemed; either that, or such monumental courtesy was shown to Nick {OK, I’ll love it…} that it exceeded the amount shown to any other mammalian, extant or extinct.

Addendum: The Lowe classic Cruel to be Kind, in its promo video, features footage from Nick’s wedding in 1979, with Carlene Carter. There’s a reason that video is so genuinely touching.

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Audio composers Music music videos Scott Walker Singers Songwriters vocalists

The Scott Walker.

Track 6.
Man From Reno.
Thanks For Chicago, Mr. James.
The Plague.
It’s Raining Today.
We Came Through.
Little Things That Keep Us Together.
Hero of the War.
Old Man’s Back Again.
World’s Strongest Man.
30 Century Man.
Cowbells Shakin’.
Jackie.
My Death.
Mathilde.
Get Behind Me.
Best of Both Worlds.
Free Again.
Plastic Palace People.
Next.
Montague Terrace.
Shutout.
Ride Me Down Easy.
Such a Small Love.
The Electrician.
Dealer.

The above are audio tracks that span a fairly large time period of Scott Walker’s remarkable body of recorded work.

In My Room.

And a few Walker Brothers masterpieces.

Scott Walker VII

{NOTE: Revised 11/19/2019}

Scott Walker, born Noel Scott Engel, 1943, a musical artist of profound depth and originality, was (and is) a cherished figure for millions worldwide. Reclusive, enigmatic, innovative, Scott occupies a unique place in the pantheon of recording artists. He’s also very near and dear to my own heart. He will be deeply missed.

Many will remember Scott Walker’s sublime work with ballads; many others love his idiosyncratic, Brel-influenced blossoming into a top-notch composer and performer; still more prefer the uneasy, discomfiting terrain and eerie beauty of his later recordings. I’ll remember him for all of it, for everything. There’s no replacing him. We’ll never see his likes again.

Memorial post here.