This is Brad Evans with an important update: our primary writer and editor, Fin, has successfully crossed the pond and arrived alive back stateside in the gateway to the west, St. Louis.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a computer or easy to access to one. He has ordered a laptop and expects to have it in hand by the end of the week, with the expectation that our regularly scheduled updates will resume by next week.
Thanks for your patience while he gets back up and running. Have a great week, and remember to stay Offbeat, but On Point!
slide show of the artists UNKLE has collaborated with
I originally found Unkle from some housemates I used to live with years ago who played the song “The Answer – on a wire” [instrumental] which really struck a chord with me, one of my favourtie parts of the song is the transition between the two tracks “the answer” and “on a wire” from 4m20s to 4m40s. After that song, I looked at their “War Stories” album and it was all downhill from there.
I’m a sucker for good album art.
Unkle is celebrating their 25th year anniversary this year and announced their new album “The Road pt 1”. They did an exhibition called “Daydreaming with UNKLE Presents…THE ROAD” at the Lazarides in SOHO London in celebration of the announcement, but I’m a bit late to the party (the show ran from 20th January to 23rd Feburary) but it sounded like a uniquely Unkle event:
“The exhibition is a collaboration between a number of very talented artists, presenting everything from paintings, videos, artefacts and film screenings; this is the definitive UNKLE experience. I look forward to welcoming visitors to daydream with us.”
The first disc will contain the same songs that are on the original album but the second disc contains material from two of UNKLE’s previous EPs, plus a number of exclusive and rare tracks. It was released on 11 April 2011. (Source: “Where Did the Night Fall”, wiki)
Today I’ll be sharing with you the original 15 track version of the CD.
I always kinda thought the lady on the cover kinda looked like she was trying to obtain “form of: high heel” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I like the overall story of the album and I love the characters introduced in this story type album, like oracles and travelers, road warriors, and lovers. The story feels like getting over a heartache (lost love, lost life, lost someone), the songs bobbing up and down between depression and cynicism before bouncing off bottom and beginning the healing process, as per track 13, before coming back to a stark reality: the return from the journey with track 14 Another Night Out which I think is the strongest ending to the narrative of the album but the track 15 Close Your Eyes does work well as an “aftercare” song after the emotional journey this album amounts to. Some really specific notes:
–I love Rachel Fannan’s voice(2) with sounds like that growl opening stanza 2 at 30s (follow me down)
-The transition between tracks 5 and 6 is fucking stellar. It’s easily one of my all time favourite transitions
-I love the sound of track 6 “On a Wire”. Like not just drum line or the guitar, no. I like all of it. ALL.
-Are you really living Or do you seek loving Are you happy being Or do you search for meaning
(love this so much, “The Healing” track 13)
-for some reason a lot of places have entirely different lyrics for track 13, I have included lyrics corresponding to the version of the song here
Footnotes:
I missed my mark, it’s no ordinary joy.
She was in the band Sleepy Sun at the time of making this album (2010)
I wanted to post to say: I got home from the UK safe and moved into my new place okay however I don’t have direct/consistent access to a computer/internet quite yet. I have a post scheduled to post tomorrow that I wrote last week (it’s gonna be a good one, did an album review of “Where did the night fall?” by one of my favourite artists UNKLE) however I’m not sure if I’ll get around to getting back to a regular schedule until next week (I’m basically waiting on my new laptop to come in the mail, which should be soon).
Anyway happy ‘MURCIA day to my USA readers. Be safe and have fun.