I wasn't sure about Thighpaulsandra when he joined Coil. I liked Julian Cope, obviously and Spiritualized for a while seemed about the best white 'indie' rock we were going to get but when he joined Coil I feared for the worst; as if he was coming from the other side, breaking in and taking over the poor Coil pixies, pushing them towards a light that would blow them apart...
The first Music to Play in the Dark worried me a little - the synths seemed less deformed now, more rooted in the hippy float of Hawkwind, Namlook, The Orb etc. It was good but it didn't always seem out there in the way that their acid house jaunts - even The Snow - hopelessly mangled the reference sources. Coil seemed to be coming up to earth and heading for space when I always loved the fact that their music seemed so dirty and plagued by jesters. Like Goth for people with a sense of wonder.
But then things seem to settle and he integrated himself into the Coil framework, seemlessly adopting the skewed, intricately planned shambles that I'd come to love.
And he even got them to play live.
Still, I've so far resisted buying any of his solo stuff, acting like a spoiled child with left over invites for the Birthday Bash... but now Coil are no more I've thought maybe it's time to start digging again and I just wondered if anyone out there has any of his stuff? From the tracks I've heard I'd guess that he doesn't exactly have a representative sound but I'd appreciate some nods in one direction or the other...
This track's apparently from I, Thighpaulsandra and takes him off on a jazzed up, sub-Sun Ra (doing Disney - I swear there's echoes of Pink Elephants on Parade) sprawl with odd toasting and a side order of,er, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (yeah, I hate it too but it's in there somewhere, just out of sight, an Eyrelative):
What's the rest sound like?
5 comments:
The rest of his debut album is a sprawling monster encompassing so many genres it does fit in any, Mr Thighpaul loves to give you your moneys worth it would seem and hidden within the delectable swamp of creative doodling there be some groovy songs too. I love all the albums he has done so far, I tried to review this album at
http://freespace.virgin.net/indernacht.mondlicht/tps2.html but with every listen, I feel I could have added more…
I Thighpaulsandra was my favourite album of 2001. As cloudboy says, it sprawls all over the place. A couple of the pieces are taken from the Queen Elizabeth session with Julian Cope, so if you've heard them, you'll get the general idea of what the more ambient bits are like. You will definitely want it simply because of 'Optical Black': an incredibly intense piece with Balance on vocals (I think Sleazy features as well).
After that, Double Vulgar was a huge disappointment: I'm all for homo-eroticism, but he fails to pull it off (ho ho) big style. Musically it's a lot less interesting than the first album.
I've been told that the other albums aren't that much cop, but I haven't heard them.
The Some Head and Michel Publicity Window eps are worth a listen.
cheers guys...that's settled it... now where are those Virgin gift vouchers...
Wow, this tune is f*cking PHENOMENAL. Spiritualized is one of my favourite bands but I'd never gotten a chance to check out Thighpaulsandra's stuff. Wicked good. I'll have to check more out. Thanks for posting this!
I thought Rape Scene from last year was quite amazing. Very Can like in parts, but with moments of ferocious industrialism, and hectic/hectoring vocals worthy of Mark Stuart. Really really good. Everyone I've lent the album to has been absolutely repulsed by it, but I reckon this consensus of hate means there's got to be SOMETHING distinctive there.
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