THAT voice
"I felt like it was the end. I was at the point where I hated my voice. I felt I couldn't turn in any direction because I'd exhausted myself with 'Camouflage Heart'. Then I did two songs for This Mortal Coil, and, to me, that was a lie. I'd gone in and used by voice purely technically. I'd never done that before. I'd always been instinctive about it.This Mortal Coil was an interesting experiment, but I could live without "Kangaroo" quite easily. It doesn't mean anything to me. As a vocal performance, it astonished me, but it also disgusted me. As soon as I sang it, I knew it was a lie. I knew it was a hell of a lot less soulful than anything I did with Cindytalk...
People tell me I'm perverse. Or difficult. That I should sing properly. Like with This Mortal Coil. I can't see it like that. It's not even a matter of compromise. I just can't think that way."
(Melody Maker, April 16, 1988)
Two versions of this single were released:
one with a silver border and one with a red border on the sleeve and labels.
The run-out grooves read «I dream of Cindy».
It entered the UK Indie Chart on 15/9/84 and spent 20 weeks in chart,
peaking at number 2.
31 comments:
I'm probably thought to be one of those "people" who say "sing properly". It's time to clear my name, I have never said or believed that. Yes I like TMC - and not just Gordon Sharp TMC, I like all the albums to some degree. With regard to It'll End In Tears, we all talk about Kangaroo because it is the purest we've ever heard the 'singing' voice and while I love it I personally prefer the voice as used within the often chaotic stramash that is cindytalk. Going back to It'll End In Tears, we have always thought Kangaroo, Fond Affections and A Single Wish are the full contribution. Not so, there's also an uncredited intake of continuity breath hiding in there.
I would add that the devil who appears so frequently in cindytalk maybe draws a little from the cherub on TMC. All that guilt, anger and mistrust didn't come from The Freeze - they were just a bunch of good lads who happened to play particularly well together.
I agree with you Plastic Orcadian.If you listen carefully to "Fyt", just before Fond Affections,for example,you will hear some voice and both tracks melt into each other through it.
From what I have been told,the original TMC project revolved around three people mainly,one of them being Cindy.Ivo was particularly keen on having "Everybody is Christ" as part of it but Cindy wouldn't let him because s/he saw it as a crucial element of and belonging to Camouflage Heart.
FYT, yes. There must be something that only I know and I thought this might be it.
I did not know Ivo coveted Everybody Is Christ, a perfectly understandable desire. Do you know if it would have been the version as recorded or would it have been given the TMC sassy treatment?
Interestingly, the first time I ever heard CH was in Gordon's parents house and I told him I thought Everybody Is Christ was the focal point, the glue that held things together. I just got 'the look' so I really don't know what he thought.
Audio and Video is an excellent enhancement to the blog. Very well done.
Thank you,Plastic.The idea of the blog is to present a comprehensive view of Cindytalk and the artist/artists behind it.
Most of the titles are also links to related stuff.For example,one of the Bambule posts links to your "Joy is the Aim" mp3!
I wish there was more visual stuff-not that there is that much- but we'll get round that some day.
;-)
Back to TMC,I suspect Ivo would have tried to "mortalise" the track.
As Cinder said to me once:
"It worked out for the best for both of us,I think.I doubt TMC would have developed into the easy listening classic it has become if it had included Everybody is Christ!".
Damn right!
I like TMC,my view of it is that it came just at the right time for the right label.
Interestingly enough,a few years after "It'll end in tears" was first released, a friend of mine back in Barcelona bought himself some equipment and started making music and he came to me one day saying:"you just have NO IDEA of how easy AND simple it is to make This Mortal Coil music!!!".
Cinder,naturally, knew back then at the very beginning.
We,as usual,didn't...
Cindytalk,explained to 4AD fans...
;-)
or this one...
Does anyone know what the TMC players are up to these days? Last year I heard cinder talking to a 3rd party about Elizabeth Fraser, he spoke very fondly of her, I remember thinking at the time that if he had a sister, Elizabeth would the sister he wanted. That's just my thoughts by the way, and I could be wrong, I nearly was once.
Clicking through Spaewaif's URLs, I came across a mention of the After The Flood 2 relaease. Can't say I've ever heard the tracks Cindy sings on before... are they any good? They wouldn't be available somewhere on Cindyradio by any chance?
Hello,Permutations!
You can find samples here:
After the Flood
I am particularly fond of "Touching Still" though the two other tracks are also beautiful.
You can also visit this website for more information:
OAR
My particular favourite is Follow Sun Ra, unfortunately the sample for this on the page linked appears to play a differnt song altogether.
I managed to get After The Flood on ebay so that might be a good place to start the search.
The album is like This Mortal Coil without Ivo's template IMO and I would recommend getting a copy.
Thanks Spaewaif... doesn't float my boat enough to warrant frantic chasing :)
Also have to say that TMC does less for me now than 10 years ago, but some classics surely remain.
Oops!Should've checked it worked properly before posting a link!
Ah,yes,Follow Sun Ra.
I think this is possibly cinder's favourite track too.
"i sold everything i owned yesterday
and what i couldn't sell i threw away
what i didn't throw,
i lit a fire i dug a hole
some things need a ritual
before you let THEM go...
carthage,ninevah,jupiter,mars
carthage,ninevah,jupiter,mars
carthage,ninevah,jupiter,mars
carthage,ninevah,jupiter,mars
i'm going home..."
Yes,the classics remain and some if it goes into the bin.
;-)
I should like to point out that nothing was sold, nothing was thrown, nothing was burnt or buried. "It's all in storage at my folks." And how the royal we, cling to that oft heard quip.
"It's all in storage at my folks."
Oh,didn't I laugh at these famous words...
;-)
there speaks the man who does interviews on my behalf!!! if anybody has any questions regarding cindytalk or related things in the future,don't aim the queations in my direction,mr plastic accordion has all the answers,ask him.
and i should like to point out that the ephemera can stay there for all i care.it seems to be of much less interest to me than certain others that hang around these parts....
Reread all my comments and can't find anything that could be construed as an interview on your behalf.
As for the ephemera it is quite normal for less creative people - like me - to cling obssessively to the past because that is where our hopes and dreams died on the battlefield of life.
I could've let people use the phone tonight after all.
Ephemera:
1398, originally a medical term, from M.L. ephemera (febris) "(fever) lasting a day," from fem. of ephemerus, from Gk. ephemeros "lasting only one day," from epi "on" + hemerai, dat. of hemera "day," from PIE *amer- "day." Sense extended to short-lived insects and flowers; general sense of "transitory" is first attested c.1639. Ephemeral is from 1576. Ephemeris "table of astronomical calculations" is from 1551.
Short-lived?
Transitory?
Unimportant?
Methinks not!
Ephemera,yay!
;-)
Anybody wanting to find the etymology of words, try www.etymonline.com
It's Spaewaif's fave website.
Guess this one:
1770, used by Capt. Cook and botanist Joseph Banks, supposedly an aborigine word from northeast Queensland, Australia, usually said to be unknown now in any native language. However, according to Australian linguist R.M.W. Dixon ("The Languages of Australia," Cambridge, 1980), the word probably is from Guugu Yimidhirr (Endeavour River-area Aborigine language) /gaNurru/
Hmm,that seems difficult...
wallaby ?
mais oui!
tout de suite
je comprendre!
w-a-l-l-a-b-y = b+a+l+y+l+w+a+l . . .
balylwal!
Is that your new nickname?
;-)
Spaewaif you should come to France and play at "Des chiffres et des lettres" !
You'll be the champ' for sure...
;-)
dear o dear.you thicko's.it's kangaroo!!!funny har har.
Oh,no,give me "les lettres" but never trust me with "une chiffre"!
I just had to bring the discussion back to the topic.... Wallaby has no relation (yet) to Cinder, although there may be some kind of 'ephemera' lying around. Glad it kept you busy for a wee bit.
"oh I want you... like a wallaby..."
"Let those who hear my voice become aware that Night has fallen. We are in the dark. I do not see you, but in my mind's eye you sit in lighted rooms marooned by darkness. My message is sent out upon the waves of a black boundless sea to where you drift, each in a seperate lit room, as though on rafts, survivors of the great lost ship, The Day."
From "Night Thoughts" by David Gascoyne
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