You Took

I heard this song for the first time at The Church's amazing show at The Sinclair in Cambridge MA a few weeks ago. Simply amazing. Kilbey's voice is so much richer than it was back in the day. And as good as the studio version is - it rocked incredibly hard on stage. Take it away boys...

It Remains Elusive

"People often take the truths of a tradition on faith accepting the testimony of others but find that the inner kernel of the religion, its luminous essence, remains elusive."

- Karen Armstrong

SK sings about this idea in the church song "feel."

Steve Kilbey's "Narcosis"

I’ve never understood the allure of Heroin. I don’t get what it is about a drug that has killed so many people that makes other people say “Hey, I’ve got to try that!” It’s a tragedy that some deep need inside certain people drive them towards such a destructive thing – from what I understand, it’s such a powerful opiate that it just takes over your life to the point where nothing else matters. But without disregarding the drug’s power, it does seem to spark an incredible creativity in some artists. I can think of many musicians just off the top of my head that have made fantastic music despite – or because of? – their Heroin additions, including Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley, The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, Eric Clapton, and Kurt Cobain. In all of these instances, the drug seemed to exasperate their best and worst tendencies, but since their best was often close to genius, the results were often stunning.

For Steve Kilbey, heroin was a mixed bag. On one hand, he and the church used the drug to inspire the incredible sounds and atmosphere on the 1992 Priest = Aura album. Unfortunately, this creative spark didn’t entirely translate into other albums; as his drug addiction took over, it also resulted in a number of sub-par albums, the first of which is his solo album Narcosis. This isn’t to say that it's all bad – despite what I’ll say below, it’s really not! – but a lot of the music here is opaque and missing the moments of pop clarity and catharsis that so effortlessly popup elsewhere in his work.

(Note that most of the Narcosis tracks were released under that name in 1991 ("Somna" through "Space"), and then Kilbey introduced four more tracks in 1992 (along with a truly horrific album cover) as Narcosis+ More. This review will cover the whole group of songs as presented in the monsters n’ mirages box set.

Musically, I find this album to be rather static. Most of the songs find a mood or riff and ride it for the entire song. For example, "Somna" kicks off the album (starting a trend of excellent openers on his next three albums) with a with a wonderfully uplifting guitar lick. But as great as it is, the song never takes off to the next level, making it in the end nothing more than an interesting mood piece. In fact, for the first time in SK’s output, some songs just do nothing for me, including “Space”, a plodding instrumental notable only for the excellently evil bass, the groupie song “Linda Wong”, and “Sleep with Me”, an aimless song with a metronome guitar lick among other awkward rhythms. Other songs are merely average, like “Midnite in America” with its perfectly nice chorus and piano, or the trancey groove of “Over”. Other than “Somna”, the musical highlights are “The Egyptian”, a gorgeous ballad, and “English Kiss”, one of the first examples of the space-lounge music that SK would do much better in his work with Martin Kennedy (listen to the background touches: a simple piano lick, keyboard flourishes, something that sounds like a flute; all contributing to the feeling of smoking hashish in some muhamaadeen’s tent outside the bazaar).

No, what really makes this album stand out are the lyrics, which are mainly focused on the death of inspiration as a result of his Heroin. SK was well aware of his predicament: his biographer Robert Dean Lurie writes that “Narcosis captured Steve at the tail end of his smack honeymoon: still reeling from the creating possibilities that his new drug of choice offered but also well aware of the darkness ahead.” (p. 221) And Kilbey himself noted that “I realized that this was the same path a lot of other low-life people… had taken. I was becoming that—and at the same time I could still stand back and see that I was. Yea, and seeing how it was going to end up.” So he was creatively inspired by and aware of his situation, and this is perfectly captured in “Somna” which lyrically and musically describes the allure of the drug. Next comes "Limbo" which powerfully describes the plight of those corrupt souls that are not evil enough to be truly punished (being a Pynchon-nerd, I read these as the preiterate in Gravity’s Rainbow – those foax who are neither beneath or below but merely cannon fodder in life’s game):

Jesus does not love you
Lucifer does not want your soul
Made a mistake—
No one will forgive you
The servants you love to dismiss
All will outlive you

The most fascinating words here are from “Fall in Love,” which is an  extremely repetitious song (perhaps to underscore the story?) but tell the story of a man slowly losing all of his passion:

I knew this man, he had some kind of fatal affliction.
Each day, a tiny particle, a small drop of his soul, leaked or escaped into the air,
out beyond the insipid gray sky and into dead space. ...
Who can describe the agony of this gradual soul depletion?...
Eventually he could derive pleasure from nothing,
the most lurid pornography or the most holy scriptures
failed to arouse him from his stupor, his boredom.

Unfortunately, in truly perverse SK fashion, he drowned out these lyrics in double-tracked talk-speak, making them extremely hard to understand. Yet another “what if” moment in the man’s career!

The album closes with SK reading, Rimbaud’s  "Night In Hell" (part of the larger A Season In Hell) over some freaky ambient sounds.  And with this, SK’s uneven Narcosis draws to a close. It would be another ten years until SK was able to kick the smack and find the inspiration into the studio by himself to record Dabble.

(This post is one of a series of reviews of all of SK’s solo albums included in the monsters n mirages box set. Previous post: Remindlessness. Next up: 2001’s Dabble.)

Steve Kilbey's Remindlessness

SK’s 1990 would-be epic is a glorious mess. Kilbey aimed to produce a timeless classic, and viewed Remindlessness as "…the one that'll make them understand, right...?" Unfortunately, he allowed himself to become dominated by his new multi-track recorder and drum machines. Parts of the album are absolutely fascinating, but the sound is way too crowded and dense to achieve what it wants to. As SK puts it in the liner notes to monsters n mirages:

The atmosphere is oppressive and humid/ sounds crawl all over the place/It seems now that I left very few spaces … The drums pound like a migraine headache / the guitars howl like a tortured beasts / and the strings loom like executioners / It’s ambitions defiantly outweighed its abilities / but it failed gloriously and I was happy

Along those lines, parts of this album are absolutely unlistenable. Even good musical ideas have too many notes and instrumentation that’s annoying or just plain abrasive without adding anything to the song. I’ve got nothing against abrasive – I like Sonic Youth after all! – but here the loud sounds are simply exhausting. Part of that has to do with the static nature of the albums relentless iron drums. For example, take Goliath, a song built around a good drum riff – it might have worked with a live drummer, but with the drum machine pounding away, you just get a headache. All it all it’s not his best work.

I should also mention that my version is married by technical issues: two of the songs are mistakenly a combination of two different songs: "Music From Commercial for 'Eternity Inc' / No Such Thing" and "Soul Sample / Celebration of the Birthday of the Elephant God." This is particularly annoying because it means that whenever I want to listen to "...Elephant God" – my favorite track – I need to do some fast forwarding. Come on man, I want my instant gratification!

Anyways, I’m not going to detail the songs one by one like I did with his previous albums mainly because I don’t want to focus too much on the negative so I’ll just point out some of the standout tunes:

- The Neverness Hoax. This song is really good. A fade in sets the mood and then Kilbey adopts his lounge singer in space persona, singing:

Have I told you about the neverness hoax
A vile trick perpetrated on you innocent folks
Was it in the fall of '93
During the rise of the galaxy
A tiny shift in our trajectory
A little more substance to the unimaginary

-Music From Commercial for 'Eternity Inc' is a nice little pop song – driving and fun.
- Amphibian. If you can get past those drums, and the high-pitched Indian-style noise, there’s actually a pretty good white-boy groove going on.
- Random Pan. An acoustic song with some pretty slide guitar that’s a welcome change of pace from the relentless rawk of the rest of the album.
- Soul Sample – a nice driving rock n’ roll song.
- Celebration of the Birthday of the Elephant God. The epic of the album. This tune takes a while to grow on you, but it’s plodding bassline, Indian marching melodies, and dramatic lyrics really take you for a journey. Here, Kilbey’s at his most insinuating, singing of an unbeliever who has made it to the Elephant God’s throne room:

With the faint whir of leathery wings
Evoking all impossible things
Eternal twilight feels so cold
When the money's all gone your love's been sold
The elephant god sits impassive
His ivory tusks are black and massive
We sway and we curve and we splinter in fits
Drum 'round his throne where he patiently sits

This song effectively handles what SK describes as "...this records major obsession/the reconciliation of the gone mythic world / with the bright new miraculous future / which it seemed I was living in” As if to make that point, even the drums don’t sound as harsh in this one. In fact, the muted bass drums and strumming guitar of the "Servants" chorus contribute a nice respite to the dramatic journey.

Note: I’m planning on writing up my reaction to all of SK’s solo albums included in the Monsters n Mirages box set. Previous post: The Slow Crack. Next up: 1992’s Narcosis + More.

Poem for the Weekend

After Everything

Now that it's over I find myself leaving
The sound permeating all directions at once
I never said goodbye to the family, lovers
Brothers and daughters, the rest of the bunch

It seems so strange that the things I was chasing
Have all evaporated like a distant dream
Petty ambition, petty obstruction
Something in between

And I really thought it would go on forever
Never believed they would sever the ties
All of the questions remaining unanswered
Stranger's reflection in a stranger's eyes

Here is a child playing in a garden
Here is an old man with a broken heart
Here comes a train to take you away
It all goes round and round and comes back to the start

I was never really sure what I was waiting for
When the moment came I was looking away
Obsessed with the past, scared of the future
Never took the time to be here today

And I really thought it would go on forever
Never believed they would sever the ties
All of the questions remaining unanswered
Stranger's reflection in a stranger's eyes

After everything now this happens
It's not a grand illusion, it's a stupid little trick
The show must go on, these people have paid
You're standing in the wings feeling kinda sick

Never really sure what you were waiting for
When the moment came you just couldn't choose
The fog sweeps down over the marine city
Standing backstage trying to put on your shoes

I really thought it would go on forever
Never believed they would sever the ties
All of the questions remaining unanswered
Stranger's reflection in a stranger's eyes

- Steve Kilbey

Quote of the Day

He drums impatient fingers on the chrome and on the leather
Running through the reasons in the corners of his mind
Sifting tiny diamonds on his shaky mental islands
Where he often claims asylum from the structures left behind...
All that I ever wanted to see
Was just invisible to me
- Steve Kilbey, from "Invisible" off of After Everything Now This

Atmosphere and Genre

At the church show last Friday (write up coming!), I picked up an album of the Refo:mation (i.e., the church-minus-marty) and – bonus! – was given a free download of four songs from Hammock's Chasing After Shadows...Living with the Ghosts LP. Holy crap. Not sure what this type of music is called, but it’s absolutely beautiful atmospheric “rock”, feedback a-buzzing in the background, chiming guitars soaring above it all, the backbeat driving it all home. You know – like the best church music! But while the church have really foarged their own unique path – combining elements of glam, Pink Floyd, Byrds jangle rock, and aching 80’s sensitivity into one thick, hearty stew – Hammock appears to be in a different tradition. The first thing that came to mind was Kevin Shields’ solo work, but I suppose that you could call it emo (the tinny vocals on "You Lost the Starlight in Your Eyes" do not help their case).

I’m really not sure what to call this music. The genre listed in iTunes genre is "indie", which is so vague as to be meaningless. I’ve changed it to "Ambient Rock". If you have a chance, give it a listen and let me know what you think.

Anyways, listening to this album got me to thinking about how much I value atmosphere in my music. To me, the sound of a song is everything. It’s why I like Sonic Youth, Suzanne Vega, the various electronic artists I listen to from Boards of Canada to Aphex Twin to Innerfuze, and it’s absolutely what draws me to the church. So it was only natural that I’d be drawn to Steve Kilbey’s work with Martin Kennedy. Kelly gave me their first album – Unseen Music Unheard Words – for Christmas, and unfortunately we tried to listen to it in the car on the way home and the ambient car noise and kid distractions did not do the album justice. But once I got the headphones on: oh my. Silky sweet and oh. So. Chill. Kennedy is a member of All India Radio a band that Wired has touted as a mashup of “DJ Shadow, Tortoise, and Thievery Corporation with the instantly recognizable guitar soundtracking of Ennio Morricone and Angelo Badalameni.” Sign me up!

While the album is infused with SK’s personality and obsessions – death, the cosmos, alternate realities, etc. – the music gives the tunes a keyboard ambience that the guitar-based church just doesn’t aim for. It’s just different: the church, as mellow as it might get, has an edge that’s an inevitable result of the tensions of the personalities involved. But SK and MK’s stuff searches out the grooves and rides them home. Occasionally, this lack of edge is to the toons detriment, but most of the time SK’s master of melody pulls you in, and the music’s subtleties – and those grooves! – keep you listening. Listen to the muted drum machine in the background of some tunes (like “”Uh I Donno”) or the subtle electonica touches on others. All these details build up a tapestry that really does reward close listening. And it’s not all couch music either: SK has a way of adding a really subtle edge to the stuff. For instance, “Sumer” (off their 2011 release White Magic is still very chill, but the small details give an incredible energy: the drum fills that pick up intensity as the song continues, SK’s angry vocals, the echoes of the chorus as the song continues, and that one verse where the entire thing is run through some sort of electric treatment so that it sounds like Tron’s singing for one short glorious moment. (To get a sense of what it’s like, you can download a free track from their website here. Limited time only!)

So, in short: ambience rules. Note the title of this blog. I’ll close with an antidote about how much this type of music means to me. I know that now that I’m a father twice over I’ve become much more sentimental then I ever was, but I never expected that I’d spend a Sunday running unfortunately necessary errands in the corporate wastelands of the Natick Mall (er, “Collection” that is) while softly singing SK & MK’s “All Is One” to Mr. Trey as I navigated my way through SUV strollers and people searching out Presidents day sales. If you ever doubted my SK obsession, let your fears be laid to rest!

Quote of the Day

Say goodbye
There can never be an ending
We are endless like the sky...
But why can't I feel it
Is it just a lie?
- steve kilbey, from "Feel", of the church's Priest=Aura

Quote of the Day

Lost myself a picture book
Best you've never seen
Slowed half down I take a hook
Hang it on the ring
Got my head
Got my red
Got my violet-green
Just give back my old stranger
Wherever you have been

And it's all in the photographs
And it's all in the past
It's at home in the memory
It's the least and the most
- Steve Kilbey, from Pantechnicon

Poem of the Day

After pondering Suzanne Vega's "Penitent" the other day, my head started playing The Church's "Radiance", another musical take on a confrontation with God. Although this song is much more focused on the enigma of God's signs, rather than the personal emotions that Vega presented.

Radiance, by Kilbey/Willson-Piper/Koppes/Powles

When a cloudy morning rain touched our little town
Three small sisters and a friend walking in the fields
A strange light in the sky blotting out the sun
Whatever happens next changes all our lives

And the children ran home sobbing and half blind
Said our lady has a message for mankind
Frightened and bewildered, not making any sense
Dazzled by the virgin's radiance

And the icons in the church crying tears of blood
The water in the wells curing all who drank
Pilgrim lunatics arrive in a ragged stream

In the fields around the village sprang up tents
People from the outside world want more evidence
Four tired children questioned day and night
All they can remember is her blinding light

So the circus drifts away and the noise dies down
Life goes on as before all the people came
And the children never say what her message was

And the children ran home sobbing and half blind
Said our lady has a message for mankind
Frightened and bewildered, not making any sense
Dazzled by the virgin in her radiance

People from the outside world want more evidence
People from the outside world want more evidence
People from the outside world want more evidence

Steve Kilbey's The Slow Crack

SK’s third solo album – The Slow Crack, released in 1989 – doesn’t have a theme running through it's 57 minutes. Part of the reason for this is that the CD, in its current form, is a collection of songs that were originally released in three formats: 1) the original The Slow Crack that ended with “Starling St., 2) the Transaction EP ("Transaction" to “Song of Solomon”) and 3) "The Asphalt Eden" single with extra tracks (the rest of the CD). Regardless, even the original The Slow Crack album was a grab-bag of songs recorded during the 1986-7 time frame and was all over the map. What's this mean? At times the songs work, at times they don’t, and absent any overarching lyrical or musical theme making it into a cohesive album, the CD really can only be judged by the strength of the songs upon it. So here they are:

"Fireman": Dig that 80s sax! At least SK had the taste to leave it in the background. A fun little song that was a minor hit for our hero.

"Woman with Reason": A cover (of an old company caine song) that starts out sounding like an unplugged version (SK says that he wanted to “do a “harvest” like version of the song”) but it doesn’t really go anywhere. Does have great bass.

"Favorite Pack of Lies". This song is simply Earthed’s “The Dawn Poems” expanded with vocals, and it works much better in this format. It doesn’t hurt that the lyrics and singing is excellent – I love his halting delivery on “I am not… the kind of man… given to… extravagance/ Even so… I must confess… a weakness for… your elegance”

"Something that Means Something": Sounds just like a Church song with the chiming
guitars and chugging bass pulse underneath it. Something about this song sounds lightweight, tho I’m not sure what it is – perhaps the drum machine! In short, it’s a nice lilting ditty, but nothing special.

"Ariel Sings": Short, dull, droning instrumental. Skippable.

"A Minute Without You": A stream-of-consciousness tune with a driving, propulsive beat.

"Surrealist Woman Blues": Interesting Jazz-like piano with mood keys in the background. SK does Tom Waits but with his trademark acid imagery and mind-fuck plotting. Easily the best song on the album.

"Starling St.": Aching, lovely and lonely Westerberg-type song. Separated at birth from Liz Phair’s “Canary” with simple piano melodies with strange muted feedback sounds off in the distance. You don’t normally think of SK’s voice as vulnerable, but he really achieves it here.

"Transaction": Holy big drums! Belew-type guitar. Good lyrics ("The Voice in your ear that says anything it can find/enter this transaction blind") and fun guitar in the background. However, this song suffers from the drum machine. I can’t help but think that with a real drummer the song would kick into the higher gear that the song demands - especially in the bridges, and at the end where the drums are trying (and failing!) to reach some kind of crescendo. It really lets down the rest of the song, so this is one of those instances where I like the tune more for its promise then what it really is.

"Consider Yourself Conquered". Dated keyboards set the rhythm behind an interesting melody. But the cheesy chorus of “consider yourself… CONQUERED!” where “conquered” is all echoey and dramatic and thus is too silly to take seriously. Perhaps that's the point...

"Like a Ghost". Now this is a melody! Catchy as hell, this one’ll stick with you. After a descending key intro, SK sings over a simplistic piano piece before launching into the chorus where the counterpoint keeps the driving energy going. The drum machine kicks in an inadequate contribution, but the melody is so strong that the song drives right past it. Probably the second best song on the album.

SK writes "'Song of Solomon' is me once again trying to play the bible as rocknroll/ wondering what the music these cats listened to was like.” I don’t think its particularly successful.

"The Asphalt Eden". Big ol’ 80s drums and abrasive horn fills. SK says that “everything got quantized and it very much works to the songs detriment” There’s a decent melody in here somewhere.

"Never Come Back". A downbeat folksy tune. This one doesn’t do much for me.

"Shell". Angelic keyboards fill out this sensitive song. A nice soft closing to the festivities.

Note: I’m planning on writing up my reaction to all of SK’s solo albums included in the Monsters n Mirages box set. Previous post: Earthed. Next up: 1990’s Remindlessness.

So Much Unbearable Talent!

Finally got a chance to watch Steve Kilbey's acceptance speech at the ARIA awards (basically the Austrialian Rock n' Roll hall of fame). Vintage modern Kilbey, off the wall and entertaining and unpredicable and a touch unhinged. The ending was the best touch, so make sure you fast forward to the end of Marty's thanks before stopping.

Steve Kilbey's Earthed

Despite their complete absence from mainstream culture, there’s nothing inherently wrong with "rock" instrumentals. You can do a lot with them – the two instrumentals in Quadrophenia are, IMO, quite possibly some of the most moving music on that excellent album. Booker T & the MGs made an entire career riding a groove and replacing the singer with an organ. It’s really a neglected art form, as opposed to the electronic instrumental, which makes up a large chunk of that type of music. To name just a few of the highlights, look at the emotions that the Boards of Canada generate without any sung words.

Steve Kilbey combines these two genres in his 1987 album Earthed. Despite the similar name to his solo debut Unearthed, the two albums couldn’t be more disparate. Earthed is an entire album of instrumentals meant to be played while reading the book of poetry of the same name. Where Unearthed was unforced and organic, Earthed shows Kilbey straining a bit. The music here is interesting, but much of it feels undeveloped, or at least contains interesting ideas that should have been developed more rather then being left as is. I also have to mention that the album does suffer from its time – like listening to old Tangerine Dream albums or Steve Hillage’s Rainbow Dome Musick, excellent music can be hidden by the primitive technology that produced it. What I mean by that is some of the sounds here sound a bit cheesy to the modern ear just because we’re so used to more advanced electronic techniques. Having said all of that, there’s much to enjoy here, especially if you can get past the dated production and hear the songs for what they want to be. Given that, here’s my impression of the album’s high and low lights:

Robert Lurie writes in his SK biography that the more successful pieces here are the "organic sounding ones," but I disagree. For instance, "The Dawn Poems" starts off well enough, with the deep keys playing a repeating riff, but once the chiming (organic) guitars come in, those interesting keys disappear and the song becomes simple strumming. It’s fun to listen to, and sounds great, but it goes nowhere as a song until the very end, when the guitar disappears and the keys and piano take over for a fleeting moment before the guitar enters again and strums us off into the sunset without having taught us anything. After listening to it a few times it’s got nothing left to offer.

"Newman" – the hero of the Earthed poetry – is treated musically here by a pondering bassline. It’s relatively static for a while before taking off into a walking melody with simplicato keys washing the background. It’s decidedly low-tech, and like most of the touches of this in the album, not for everyone, but I like it. Even more effective is the bridge here which injects a sense of climbing drama to the proceedings. It’s not a highlight but a solid song: as SK puts it: "it's what youd expect from sk trying to write a german spy theme."

"Dreambeings" does a lot in its 40 seconds. There are many different instruments, each one telling a different melody. It’s playful and fun and I wish there were more tunes like it on the album.

"The White Plague" – a pulsing, static bass note contrasted by the music-box keys playing naively above it. Not much going on here.

"A Loveletter from Sydney." One of the "organic" tunes. This one could have been turned into a pop-song with no problems. It’s a fun little ditty, distinguished by a fun guitar line that plays the vocals, and Kilbey’s fretless bass swooping and diving along.

"Carthage" has a pondering dignity about it, but also sounds like a traveling tune – Kilbey’s muted take on an ill-fated trip through the desert (like a soundtrack of to cowboys riding across the American West, but without the optimism) – no here, there’s a somber note, as if foreseeing the sacking of the town. Kilbey also successfully winds in some Arabic-sounding melodies and bass chanting, all of which successfully adds to a mood piece that is reminiscent of that ancient world.

"City of Women." Wonderfully melancholy. A piano riff in minor chords over an eerie woman’s voice wailing ghostlike over a ravaged town as the wind whips down the abandoned streets and small animals cower in the moonlight. Evocative, as you can tell. Continuing the theme of the shorter songs being the more effective.

"The Empire Mourns Her Sun Without Tears" sounds extremely dated, mainly because the main focus of the song is a keyboard riff that sounds like it’s straight from the 70s. It makes me think of Tangerine Dream, and not in a good way. The key washes here also sound dated. What’s interesting is that it sounds like a regular piano is playing underneath the keys, adding weight to them, but over all I can’t get past the cheesy-sounds in this tune.

"Cornucopia" sounds like it could have been on Unearthed. It’s a fun melody, presented as a bit of a nursery rhyme, and doesn’t overdo any of its elements. There’s an acoustic guitar that strums occasionally that adds to the song, but doesn’t overwhelm it did "The Dawn Poems." Some thunderstorm sounds in the background also add texture, but this is a sound experiment that’s just a fun listen.

"Memory" – this song does nothing for me. It starts off as an experimental sound collage with backward sound loops and a woman speaking in French before introducing an ominous rhythm and chugging industrial-style noise that builds up to overwhelm the speakers. Eventually, this all crashes into a gong-like crescendo, presenting the listener with a wind-swept plain where the camera tracks to a surprisingly green oasis painted by some very pleasant keyboard melodies. The second half of the song is extremely relaxing, and made me think of one of those Japanese gardens in the middle of the city where wind chimes are playing over an orderly nature scene. If you can get past the beginning, the ending is worth the journey.

"Aphrodite" is all tom-tom drums with the same kind of plodding keys that Carthage gave us. It’s a similar song, but doesn’t tell as much of a story.

"...The Reality Generators Malfunctioned" starts up with interesting "machines running down" sounds (that must represent the "malfunctioning") is followed by a dark piano riff and raindrop keyboard sounds before the tom toms kick in again and build the song up. After the first minute, there’s a lot going on – sounds everywhere competing for space, but also contributing to the whole – before the whole thing stops. Perhaps the repairman arrived?

"Napoleon’s Army, Christmas Eve, Outside Moscow." Pure sad nostalgia piano music. Sounds like something Deckard might hear in Bladerunner as the bar closes after a few too many whiskeys.

"Sad Little Piano Piece." Just as it sounds. No more, no less.

"Atlantis." Another of the "organic" songs. A typical rock instrumental in that the guitar plays the melody that would typically be sung.

The carnival rhythm of "The Woman Who was Married to Love" carries this song (minus the bizarre musical dithering of the bridge).

The album closes with Kilbey reading a series of poems. They’re evocative of a certain quizzical mindset, of the idea that everything is connected, and really an extension of Kilbey’s songwriting. It’s hard to describe the effect of these poems on me – I find them very entertaining and moving, even the ones that expound upon the idea that everything’s connected by simply presenting lists (along the lines of Church song "Welcome"). It did inspire this poem of my own that was a lot of fun to write.

In conclusion, it's an interesting album, but not one that I would recommend to anyone who didn't want to spend the time listening through the album's limitations. It's an oddity, to be sure - who would have thought that the verbose Kilbey would put out an album of instrumentals! - but one that, for me, is worth the listen.

Note: I’m planning on writing up my reaction to all of SK’s solo albums included in the Monsters n Mirages box set. Previous post: Unearthed. Next up: 1989’s The Slow Crack.

Steve Kilbey's Unearthed

I’ve always been fascinated with noble failures then masterpieces. Perhaps it’s the dreaming of the possibilities that’s more alluring than the admiration of something that’s powerfully perfect. For instance, I’m mesmerized by the writings of Philip K. Dick despite his obvious failings as a writer, and I prefer The Who’s Quadrophenia over the more acclaimed Who’s Next.

Along these lines, I find artists’ home recordings fascinating. They’re interesting because they’re the pure vision of the artist, the dream before the band or orchestra brings the song to its full potential with the energy and skills of the whole group. To go back to Townshend for a moment, his Scoop series is a prime example of these (with the benefit that he includes Who songs, so you can compare Townshend’s version with what the Who did to them). Another good example is today’s subject: Steve Kilbey’s Unearthed. (Note that here I’m writing about the 2010 reissue included with the Monsters n Mirages box set.)

Released in 1986, the album consisted of a group of recordings SK made by himself. As SK relates at various points in the liner notes to Monsters n Mirages: “this was a bunch of recordings lying around at the time... I never intended these recordings to be released... I recorded a song a day. ” The raw creative energy of recordings that were never meant to be heard is alluring, and the absence of an overarching goal of making an album or a grand statement must have been freeing. As Robert Dean Lurie, the author SK’s biography, “No Certainty Attached”, sez, even a song called “My Birthday, The Moon Festival” does’t pretentious here; it’s a two minute song with a fantastic melody and dreamy atmospherics that has you humming it for days to come.

Unearthed was released in 1986, and it marks one of the first times that Kilbey really emphasized the atmospherics of his songs over all else. Most of these songs are lush, and cast a soft velvety spell over the listener, lulling them into contemplation. This dreamy quality has since become a SK trademark, and here we see its humble beginnings as he worked away at them from "a downstairs bedroom of a terraced house sandwiched between 2 other houses". (Of course, he also has an abrasive and pushing side, but it’s mainly missing from Unearthed; we’ll see that side of him come to the forefront in 1990’s Remindlessness).

Another differentiator for Unearthed – and a notable difference between his work with The Church – is the lack of guitar solos. The songs here are mainly just melodies and interesting sounds, augmented with consistently stellar bass playing. Indeed, the bass, as you might expect from a bass player, caries many of the tunes with the melody. For instance, the swooping bass line in “Arm Chair” that really lends the song its swing. It's always moving, each note covering several bars, except for the few moments before the drum fill when it pounds with the beat.

This isn’t to say that the album isn’t without its drawbacks. To me, the album’s big weakness: a drum machine that contributes a stiff feeling to many tracks. In one respect, it contributes an amateurish, do-it-all- yourself charm, but mainly it’s just frustrating in that you know how much better it could have sounded with live drumming (or a modern drum machine). Another issue is that there’s a fair amount of the blatant monotone that he used to mar SK’s early music (see “Someone calls you on for a blatant example”), which can be off-putting, but overall there's more than enough melody to make up for it.

My personal highlights include:

- “Out of this World”: A minor pop gem with a wonderfully catchy descending bassline augmented by a mirroring guitar lick.
- “Swampdrone”: Along with “Rising Son”, some interesting keyboard mood music reminiscent of the second Enoish part of Bowie’s Low. SK will do more of this, and more skillfully, in his next album Earthed.
- “Judgement Day”: Typical early-era Church-style song, with its chiming Byrds-y chiming guitars, lilting melody, and catchy chorus. Even the bridge sounds like something off of Heyday -- and that’s a good thing.
- “Tyrant”: A catchy earworm of a song. That “Oooooohhh, Tyrant” chorus sticks with you for a while. His melodic skill on display for what is basically a minor song (not sure what, if anything, the lyrics mean).
- “Design Error”. One of SK’s fun white-man-groove toons, replete with a sweet popping bass.
- “Nothing Inside”: A beautiful ballad. Excellent chiming guitars and a gently driving beat.
- “Heliopolis”: Wonderful droning background vocals here cast a nice spell of a lazy afternoon. Only qualm is that the toon is just a bit too long for what it is.
- “Famine”: Another fun instrumental with wonderfully soulful sounds coming from antiquated electronic instruments. The walking organic bassline contrasts wonderfully with the muted staccato drums. The fascinating background sound - like a razor running underwater - seems to me like a precursor to the bubbling keyboards in the background of so many songs in his career (like in Painkiller's “Outbound”)

Overall, Unearthed is an easy album to love. It’s fun and melodic and is comprised of a good mix of rock and pop and experimental qualities. It’s probably his most accessible solo album, and well worth checking out if you’re looking for an introduction to SK’s solo world.

Note: I’m planning on writing up my reaction to all of SK’s solo albums included in the Monsters n Mirages box set. Coming up next: 1987’s Earthed.

A Journey Begins

monsters n mirages arrived yesterday, all eight disks of it. What I have in front of me is all of Steve Kilbey's solo work with the exception of 2009's Painkiller. Six solo albums spanning 15 years and two disks of outtakes and rarities. Exciting!

As SK sez in the liner notes:

[this is] the real sound of my brain
my solo albums are for the ultra SK fan
for the ones who really understand and knew all the stuff i was going on about
here i was undiluted
deluded maybe
but undiluted nonetheless

These albums range from home recordings that weren't really intended for a larger audience to focused efforts that SK hoped would stand up there with his work with the church (such as Remindlessness, about which SK sez: "i did remindlessness the same time we were doing g.a.f./ guess which one got all my best ideas...?"
Anyways, I’ll be taking some time to write about all of these albums over the next month or so. I’m already deep into Unearthed, the first album, and have my first earworm song in “Tyrant”.

Psyched to Get Lost in the Song

Monsters n Mirages is on its way. I fully expect to disappear into this music for a month or more upon its arrival.

Quote of the Day

time carves me into this shape
the random currents of flux
ready to let go
come and take it
spirit come and take me now
my eyes hurt in the cold electric light
reality has set in it has congealed
the room is warm
i glow dull red
my sins screaming after me
they demand my anxiety
i cough up my brains
i visit the houses of the dead mornings
no you dont wanna be me
no you dont wanna be you
no you cannae do what ya like
but no you never do what you must do
i give up
i surrender
things are going well...

- Steve Kilbey