Thursday, April 17, 2008

This Nation's Saving Grace...

Today the opposite of tomato is the enduring ramshackle glory of the music of The Fall

Aside from its wonderful photographic quality in terms of the dialogue between various aspects of the image being in & out of focus (similar to the earlier transcription of Chuck Close's daguerreotype of Philip Glass here), the lure of this particular source image - illustrating a G2 feature publishing extracts from Mark E Smith's autobiography 'Renegade: The Lives & Tales of...' - proved irresistible, being a magnificent portrait of a singular character, a great British institution if ever there was. 'He is not appreciated...' (nearly enough).


graphite & putty eraser/20x30cm
original source: 'The Guardian' G2, 14/04/08

Soundtrack:

The Fall, obviously, although, curiously, the delights of '50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong' proved nigh-on impossible to draw along to: despite the repetitive rhythms of the songs, from 'Repetition' itself to the mighty 'Crop Dust', the sheer insistent quality of their music & Mark E Smith's fantastic, uniquely engaging lyrics (however impenetrable) & delivery made concentration on anything other than themselves difficult-to-impossible, evidence again of the singular characteristics of their sonic aesthetic!

It was left, therefore, to Belle & Sebastian's 'Push Barman to Open Old Wounds' & 'Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant', a band as individual & enjoyable in their own way, to provide 'workable' musical accompaniment.

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