Listening - Sunday, Oct 20th 2019
- Cocteau Twins – Victorialand (1986 4AD)
- Miles Davis - In A Silent Way (1969 Columbia)
- Silent Poets - To Come… (1999 Idyllic)
Sometimes I wonder how well known this Silent Poets album is in the US – I think it made a splash in the late 90s / early 00s? It did for me. I found it in a record store in Chicago recommended to me because I was buying Nobukazu Takemura’s Child & Magic album with obvious excitement.
The collaborations with the all-female rap group Anomolies and Ursula Rucker’s short but stark and unforgettable cameo are still the album’s highlights for me. I have made a minor hobby of tracking down all the many alternate mixes and versions out there – prisons especially has some inspired alter-egos.
Over the years the straight instrumental dub and saccharine pop songs in between have grown on me quite a lot though. Funny that it’s one of my favorite records of the era, I’ve heard almost every version and remix (there are a lot of them) but I still haven’t listened to any other Silent Poets albums! Something to look forward to.