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Broadcast (are really, really good!)

Started by Dirty Boy, October 05, 2015, 07:43:35 PM

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Dirty Boy

I'm sure there have been threads before, but maybe we're due a new one.

While i first unfairly dismissed them as a Stereolab tribute act[nb]in a similarly idiotic way as  i initially wrote off Tindersticks as a Bad Seeds rip off[/nb] i certainly love the shit outta them these days. I don't think they have done anything uninteresting or bad... ever. All the albums are great (i'm torn between The Noise Made By People and Haha Sound as a favourite. Tender Buttons took me a bit longer.) as are the other b-sides and compilation tracks i've heard. There's still quite a bit of stuff i haven't heard yet, which pleases me.

Should maybe throw up a few songs in case anyone wanted to check them out.
Man Is Not A Bird
Unchanging Window/Chord Simple
Winter Now (i do rather believe that this is a perfect pop song)
Black Cat
Message From Home (the ending is one of their many 'stomach gone all fuzzy' moments for me)
Until Then (one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs i've ever heard, even more so now given the tragedy of what happened to Trish. I often imagine the lady in the radiator from Eraserhead singing this for some reason)

There's supposedly an unfinished record (or recordings at least) that will likely emerge one day. I truly hope so. One of my holy grails that, probably not far behind the last(!) Cardiacs album.

I think a while ago someone posted a recording of one of their final performances in Australia. Haven't been able to find that since.

I miss Trish :'-(

Puce Moment

Broadcast are so important to me, and I listen to them with such regularity, that I'm not entirely sure how to even post one comment on this that encapsulates my feelings.

I was aware of them for a good while at the point where I heard there was a Birmingham band who were a bit Pram/Broadcast, with a bit of a 70s soundtrack edge to them. I liked them well enough but to some extent the releases that made up Work and Non Work were interesting but unremarkable to me. I carried on with them, considering them a band that really improved on The Noise Made by People (particularly the TV soundtrack and BBC/Derbyshire influence) but they were still very much on the periphery of my musical passions.

I can remember the moment they fully clicked for me. It would have been 2003 on the release of The Haha Sound and Andrew Collins on his 6music afternoon show played Man is Not a Bird. I remember stopping what I was doing and soaking up the mix of that really complex jazz drumming, with the full-on reverb, ringing synth and Trish's cool, multitracked voice. I still have a lot of affection for that album just because it was the one that really hooked me to Broadcast.

There is so much to love, but I have to say that although I am fairly neutral about The Focus Group, I think the two releases they did together are the best things Broadcast ever did. The Familiar Shapes and Noises EP and Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age LP are fucking brilliant. The LP is my favourite post-millennial album.

I really do hope that James manages to find a place to work on the surviving recordings, and to mix, master and release them. If it makes him happy, and he wants to do it. If he wants to keep those last recordings of Trish, then so be it. He deserves to that have those all to himself.

Norton Canes

Quote from: Puce Moment on October 06, 2015, 01:38:12 AMI'm not entirely sure how to even post one comment on this that encapsulates my feelings

Me neither.

I'll just go with


Puce Moment

I would also like to post these two 'videos' that Julian House put together for the Witch Cults release:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqINetENovg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlVaRcNf9nc

For me they are the best visual presentation of Broadcast's music - all retro-futurism, surrealism, pagan horror, Czech new wave, 60s experimental film, cut-ups, dreamy, psychedelic and more. I could watch the whole album done in this was and be as happy as a pig in shit.

Also, as I have mentioned elsewhere on this forum, I have close to 10 hours of live stuff ferreted away. I am actually a big fan of late-stage Broadcast live, when it was just James and Trish. This is a real favourite version of Corporeal although the sound is a bit shit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbgbqmF2Arw

As a Broadcast completist I absolutely hate that they have such a generic name that is extremely obtrusive to searching for their material online (just searching for Broadcast + meltdown brings up people freaking out on TV). But even in those frustrated moments I also really adore how problematic the name is for finding their work.

One last thing mentioned recently, from the excellent Wonder Muddle youtube channel, this fan-made video for the not very well known song Misc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6n2UREnDWc

Ahhhhhh, Broadcast.......

G.C.

Also for me they were a band I didn't quite get for a long time, but they gradually seeped in, in the woozy, misty way they did. The records actually seem to improve, and grow richer and stranger, as time passes. I'd say they are my favourite band nowadays.

The tragedy for me is that they were snapped shut at a time were it felt they could've gone anywhere, somewhere genuinely unmapped. It's also a tragedy that they remain pretty much an obscurity.

One you may not have heard - cover of Nico's '60/40': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvq9kDlIXNw

Dr Rock

This thread made me check them out, knowing they were highly regarded but I'd somehow never heard them. Wow! Love them! My first impression, aside from the Stereolab reference in this thread, is this track by Elephant's Memory on the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack. I love this song but have never heard anything else by them. If you like Broadcast and haven't heard this, I think you'll like it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrdts7ABjZY

Ok back to hunting down all the Broadcast stuff I can find now.

holyzombiejesus

I started a really early Halloween thread (for which I was rudely but understandably insulted by Biggy) just so I could draw people's attention to this...

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/sep/25/fright-night-radio-4s-halloween-includes-new-versions-of-the-stone-tape-and-the-ring

QuoteThe inaugural annual Fright Night kicks off at 10pm with a new radio adaptation of Nigel Kneale's classic 1972 teleplay The Stone Tape, from film director Peter Strickland.

Jane Asher returns for a smaller role in Strickland's version, with Romola Garai taking over her original part in a cast that includes Julian Rhind-Tutt, Julian Barratt and Dean Andrews. The script is from Strickland and Matthew Graham (Life On Mars), with the radiophonics being handled by James Cargill from the band Broadcast and Andrew Liles, sometime member of Nurse With Wound and Current 93. Both previously worked with Strickland on his second feature film, Berberian Sound Studio.


Has anyone checked out Children of Alice? Less than the sum of their parts on early listening.

Phil_A

I love this song that was apparently only ever played once for Peel.  I wonder how many tracks of this standard never saw the light of day?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwe2f8HBlso

The same session also includes an early, stripped-down version of City In Progress(before it was even named) that it is a rather wonderful thing;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3lD1CVI5ac

If you haven't heard it, I recommend everyone look-up the "Mother Is The Milky Way" mini-album that was only ever sold on tour. It's a bit rougher round the edges than their other stuff, but it has a delightfully playful element that you wouldn't normally expect(it's almost reminiscent of Position Normal at times) and hints intriguingly about where they would've gone under Julian House's direction.

I remember listening to a lovely interview with Trish recorded before they set off for that ill-fated Australian tour, full of optimism and plans for the future. Then just days later she was dead. Still breaks my heart even now.

hummingofevil

As a very wet behind the ears 17 year old I had discovered Stereolab but whilst the Tiv in Buckley was great fun i was fed a fairly solid staple if Britpop shite in Northern Uproar, Shed Seven, etc.

One Wednesday night they put Gorkys on and a very new Broadcast supported.  I can remember exactly what they were like that night with simple guitar, moog, bass, drums, trish combo. They were fucking great and I can hear that version of the Book Lovers now.

Someone posted a Meltdown (I think) set of mainly early stuff on here a few years back and it was great. Will see if I can find it.

Amazing group.

thraxx


I first saw them on an NME Brat Tour in 96 or something like that. The lineup was this:

Mogwai
Broadcast
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
Pavement

I had heard of Broadcast as a stereolab clone type band, but straight away I thought that was misplaced.  They were fucking awesome that night.  I went out the next day, bought Work and Non Work on vinyl and I must have played it hundreds of times since.  For me the best LP is The Noise Made by People. 

One of my favorite ever bands and I know that they can never be deplaced.  Like you lot, I can't put into words how much they mean to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LicRs6WXVo

This is for me their definitive live performance.  It's early, but hey.

I fucking love the early City in Progress track.

Bobby Treetops

I really hope the unreleased album finds the light of day at some point, here's an unrecorded song from what was sadly their last tour.

Unsurprisingly it's fucking amazing

Broadcast  - Cloud Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJR-UOZriDQ

There's loads of archived stuff here so fill yer boots
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B7XDxeKRJi6iQUVRTk9JVFlpUTg&usp=sharing

Puce Moment


Dirty Boy

It is. I was hoping for some things i hadn't heard and there have been, including that goldmine that Bobby Treetops posted. I know what i'll be listening to the next few weeks.

Can't believe i forgot to mention the Focus Group album, i might have listened to that more than the others recently. It's been soundtracking some nice walks.

Are there many other bands comparable on a similar level to Broadcast? Death and Vanilla were mentioned here and i quite like them but don't think they're anything spectacular. I haven't delved too far into the hauntology stuff either, but have heard Pye Corner Audio and the Advisory Circle.

Crabwalk

'The United States of America' are brilliant Broadcast ancestors, if you've never heard them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0tgPs6S_pE

Norton Canes

Quote from: Dirty Boy on October 07, 2015, 11:42:02 AM
It is. I was hoping for some things i hadn't heard and there have been, including that goldmine that Bobby Treetops posted

Wow. It's got the University of London gig from 30.05.2003, the first time I saw them. Cheers, Bobby Treetops.

McQ

I'm really glad this thread has popped up. I used to listen to Broadcast all the time, but I've not really been back to them since Trish died. I think it might be time to return! Perhaps I'll treat myself to those lovely vinyl reissues.

Also, I can't believe that Broadcast and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci played at the Tiv before I was hep to good music. I used to go there and dance my cares away every Wednesday for years!

Crabwalk


Puce Moment

I would also recommend the informative and friendly Broadcast forum:

http://forum.broadcast.uk.net/

I don't post there but I check in most days to see what has been posted. As you will see, the Sharing Thread is the most active (and usually is unless there is something Broadcast related going on like a soundtrack or the vinyl reissues). It has a lot of really great stuff in it that is not Broadcast specific, but great for hearing new bands that influenced or were influenced by Broadcast.

poodlefaker

Quote from: Crabwalk on October 07, 2015, 12:10:36 PM
'The United States of America' are brilliant Broadcast ancestors, if you've never heard them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0tgPs6S_pE

"Coming Down" by the USA is the one that sounds most like Broadcast, I reckon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jwi78dYK2o

Puce Moment

Quote from: poodlefaker on October 07, 2015, 02:54:09 PM
"Coming Down" by the USA is the one that sounds most like Broadcast, I reckon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jwi78dYK2o

It is a bit. I have always thought it sounded like Belle and Sebastian.

Crabwalk

Quote from: Dirty Boy on October 07, 2015, 11:42:02 AM
Are there many other bands comparable on a similar level to Broadcast? Death and Vanilla were mentioned here and i quite like them but don't think they're anything spectacular. I haven't delved too far into the hauntology stuff either, but have heard Pye Corner Audio and the Advisory Circle.

Hong Kong in the 60s are more than worthy of a spin. Often more pastoral and yearning than Broadcast but none the worse for it.

Patricia
Disintegration (The Advisory Circle Reshape)
You Can Take a Heart But You Cannot Make it Beat
The Ungrateful Root

Norton Canes

Quote from: Dirty Boy on October 07, 2015, 11:42:02 AMAre there many other bands comparable on a similar level to Broadcast?

Thinking off the top of my head (I'll have to have a root around my music when I get home), there are plenty of other bands sharing the same influences – many listed on this thread – and a couple of direct copyists, but the only current artist who strikes me as comparable in terms of vision and creativity is Jane Weaver. Give Argent from her last album Silver Globe a listen (I hope it's the right track, no sound here at work).

Crabwalk

Jane Weaver's a great shout. Here are a couple from The Fallen by Watchbird, which is an astonishing album:

The Fallen by Watchbird
My Soul Was Lost, My Soul Was Lost, And No One Saved Me

Dirty Boy

I know about (and like) Jane Weaver's last album, but haven't heard the others mentioned. Never even heard the United States Of America, something i will soon rectify.

One album i'd put money on having  had a big influence on Broadcast and the associated hauntology 'scene' (horrible word, i know) was the debut album by The White Noise. Best listened to in an old dark room with a shitty carpet and cats yowling outside.

Brundle-Fly



I started a thread in Jan 2013 about the Berberian Sound Studio OST. Lot of love for Broadcast on CAB. I wonder if all the links still work? Same old TAG gags, I notice.

http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,34377.0.html

I first discovered Broadcast through an intriguing music paper album review of Work And Non Work at the time. It was the fact the reviewer compared them to 1950s French music concrete pioneers, Lasry-Baschet* that really piqued my interest.  I've even started a thread about them in the past to minimal interest.

http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=40096.0

Can't win then all.

Anyway, as already a fan of Stereolab, they completely won me over and I then went onto witness one the best gigs of my life at Camden Dingwalls (with I think Pram and Comet Gain in support)?  The first thing what struck me was their brilliant use of a riff from an old favourite psyche track of mine bu Al Stewart on Message From Home

TURN TO EARTH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGhvXa_uxNU

Like Stereolab's Mary Hansen's premature death, the passing of young Trish Keenan was equally as tragic. In case nobody has heard it, Jonny Trunk recorded a Trish tribute on his Resonance FM show.

Link here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCs7hxtFtPc

Another vote for The United States Of America here but also a heads up for Mum And Dad on Twisted Nerve who slipped under the radar in the early, '00s. Nowt on YouTube, but if you like ya Broadcasts, their Castle Heights EP (2001) (available on iTunes) is essential listening IMHO.


Dr Rock

Mary Hansen died??? I used to know her a little. 2002?? Fuck.

hanley

She did, tragically, road accident I think. Lovely woman, met her once after a Lab gig in 94, when I was young and drunk on snakebite, but she was lovely and gracious enough to talk to me for a good 5 minutes about the band and her background in Australia.

But, Broadcast, where do you begin really? I may as well say from the outset that I think they are genuinely one of the best and most innovative bands on the planet over the course of the past 20 years, criminally underrated, reverentially adored by those who know them, and a massive gateway into a maze of brilliant music from (amongst others previously mentioned) psych (the USA who were genuine inspirations, Trish called their album a "bible"), folk, soundtracks (especially Lubos Fiser and the likes of Kryzsztof Komeda and Zdenek Liska, much helped by Trish's good friend Andy Votel at Finder's Keepers in getting a wider audience), the Radiophonic Workshop, Morricone (very much James's preserve), and the early electronics of the likes of Roger Roger, Nino Nardini, Bernard Parmegiani and so on, including the wonderful Lasry-Baschet collab.

They just encapsulated every lovely thing about the music I love, and made it somehow even better. In terms of their sound, I think although a lot of stuff has been lauded about their instrumentals, the best comes when Trish is singing. Her voice only got better over the years, and to my ear you can sense the improvement between Work and Non Work, when  to be honest, it was a bit reedy, although she'd by then sang for 5 or 6 years on the Birmingham folk scene (and supported Paul Weller in 94 in Brum, as far as I know), to The Noise Made By People, and then improving again to a cool wave of calm on Haha Sound, but achieving that accentless, uncanny perfection on Tender Buttons, carried through to Witch Cults.

And you can hear that in the live gigs, like in Corporeal posted above from Autumn 09, her command by that time was absolutely imperious, and the penultimate gig in Melbourne is astonishing, just piss-takingly amazing.

Sorry, I just love them, there's a mighty case for them to be essayed properly in maybe one of those 33/3 books, they certainly merit and deserve it.

Kane Jones

Not Broadcast exactly, but I've seen a few mentions of Ghost Box in the thread.  I didn't want to start a new thread, so thought this would be the best place to mention this.

Ghost Box are celebrating their tenth anniversary with a double LP.  Some blurb;

To mark the label's tenth anniversary Ghost Box have compiled a double album of highlights from the back catalogue. Thirty one especially remastered tracks and extensive sleeve notes by music writer, Simon Reynolds.

I'm a huge fan and there were quite a few tracks I didn't have in my collection so I forked out for a vinyl copy of this. 

As usual, the vinyl came with a code to download the MP3s.  However, they seem to have given me two cards by accident.  Would anyone like the code so they can download this for themselves?  PM me if you're interested. First come, first served obs.

hanley

#28
A few more things from YouTube people might be interested in, and pretty hard to find, echoing the sentiment above about how difficult it is to find things given the band's name:

Interview from 1998, on a German show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKlJXZT1MhE

Trish's own self-directed video for Black Cat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOobFF1mXLU

The interview on Australian radio referenced above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7cmKF4mkHk

A pretty fuzzy recording of Trish doing Tears In The Typing Pool with Bradford Cox in 09: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdr0yUTgEcs

Three live recordings from the brilliant Melbourne Hifi Bar show
Lunch Hour Pops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kt43abEsow

New song Eyes Open: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRnDmDC2tVk

and, You and Me in Time, as a completely off the cuff a capella encore by Trish (she wasn't expecting for them to encore on that tour - "we didn't think we'd be asked"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFYw3vjfRc4

There's a passage during that Eyes Open song where Trish incants "My eyes are shut for eternity". If that song does appear on the final album, if it emerges, it will have absolutely stunning power and resonance.

Phil_A

Although they were contemporaries, Pram started some years before Broadcast and were originally more of a lo-fi experimental group, but their album Dark Island from 2003 is clearly very Broadcast-influenced.

https://youtu.be/RTOOEDUcW1c?list=PLRvL6NefXaBvCdQHIY1OSWQN9KE9lIn5y