Month: May 2014

 

“Baby, I’ve been, making Glass in your room again”

 

Music On Vinyl, the company that dares to release the vinyl albums others shy from, has again gladdened the hearts of vinyl junkies everywhere with their latest release.

On June 9th MOV will issue the Low Symphony by Philip Glass on vinyl for the first time since its release on CD in 1993. Here’s the MOV blurb…

 

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“Low” Symphony, composed by Philip Glass in the spring of 1992, is based on the record Low by David Bowie and Brian Eno, first released in 1977. Glass took themes from three of the instrumentals on the original and, combining them with his own material, used them as the basis of three movements of the “Low” Symphony. Movement One comes from “Subterraneans,” Movement Two from “Some Are”, which was not featured on Bowie’s original recording, and Movement Three from “Warszawa”.

 

The “Low” Symphony was performed by the Brooklyn Philharmonic orchestra under the batons of Dennis Russell Davies, principal conductor, and Karen Kamensek, assistant conductor. Philip Glass allowed ideas of Bowie and Brian Eno, who worked together on Low, to influence how he worked on the music, leading to surprising musical conclusions and becoming a real collaboration between the music of all three maestros. This is the first ever vinyl issue of “Low” Symphony!

 

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In 2012 SINFINI MUSIC posted a brief but fascinating discussion between Bowie and Glass about the recording. The film illustrates how Glass collaborated with David Bowie and Brian Eno on the Low and Heroes Symphonies, and how these influential musicians in turn influenced each other. Watch the video here.

 

The Low Symphony by Philip Glass will be issued on June 9th via Music On Vinyl. 

 

PHILIP GLASS

LOW SYMPHONY (1LP)

Cat No: MOVCL009  1  Barcode: 0028948201068 1

 

RELEASE: June 9 2014

 

~ 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL

~ INSERT

~ DELUXE PVC SLEEVE

~ AVAILABLE ON VINYL FOR THE FIRST TIME!

 

SIDE A

1. Subterraneans

2. Some Are

 

SIDE B

1. Warszawa

 

“We can beat them, for ever and ever”

 

We told you about Janelle Monáe’s cover of “Heroes” last month and the Pepsi MAX® short for their 2014 #FutbolNow campaign.

The track (from upcoming Pepsi Beats of the Beautiful Game LP) now accompanies a new short by The Young Astronauts (directed By Alyssa Pankiw) with a powerful anti-bullying message.

Pepsi Beats of the Beautiful Game is the world’s first visual soundtrack made up of 11 anthemic songs and companion short films, or ‘filmtracks,’ that capture the indelible spirit of the world’s most popular game — football.

View the film here,

 

“Any day now”

 

Less than a week to go. Got your tickets? 

 

“Mannequins with kill appeal”

 

As the headline suggests, the next in the series of limited edition 7″ picture disc releases, the 40th anniversary issue of Diamond Dogs, has been moved from June 16th to June 23rd. (Regional variations apply)

The delay has been put down to manufacturing challenges, including a faulty silicone hump and a ten inch stump.

See the original news item and press release here.

 

“Gimee your hands, ’cos you’re wonderful”

 

A big thank you to everyone reading this that helped make David Bowie’s Rock ’N’ Roll Suicide 40th anniversary picture disc the best-selling 45 for this year’s Record Store Day in the UK.

Read the full article over at UNREALITYPRIMETIME

 

“Got to keep searching and searching”

 

Hot on the heels of the BAFTA won last week, further congratulations are due to director Francis Whately and Archive Researcher Miriam Walsh for their work on the remarkably good BBC 2 documentary, David Bowie – Five Years: The Making Of An Icon.

The film won the Award for Best Use of Music Performance Footage at a ceremony this evening.

 

Award for Best Use of Music Performance Footage

 

David Bowie – Five Years

BBC Events Production   |   UK

• Producer/Director: Francis Whately

• Footage Archive Researcher(s): Miriam Walsh

• Top 5 Source(s) of Library Footage Used in Production: AVRO Broadcasting Sales (Netherlands), Mick Rock, Daphne Productions, Soul Train Holdings, LLC, NHK and all the archives who supported the project

                                                                                                                                                                                          

David Bowie – Five Years is an intimate portrait of five seminal years in the musician’s career. The film looks at how Bowie evolved from ‘Ziggy Stardust’, to the ‘Soul Star’ of Young Americans, to the ‘Thin White Duke’; then at the critically acclaimed albums Low and Heroes; and finally explores his triumph with Scary Monsters and his global success with Let’s Dance. Using an extraordinary wealth of previously unseen archive from collections around the world, and interviews with of all his closest collaborators, David Bowie – Five Years presents a unique account of why Bowie has become an ‘icon of our times’. The film was crafted using long-forgotten archive footage, rare vintage performances and out-takes from period promos and films. The material was sourced from all over the world and included ‘lost’ BBC footage as well as rushes from rehearsals and home movies. To discover new material of an artist of Bowie’s stature was remarkable, it added to the sense that we were giving the audience a rare treat. Many performance out-takes were mute and synched up with bootleg and gig audio of the same period. Bowie words which drove the narrative were culled from interviews broadcast throughout his career. This unique footage intercut with contemporary interviews from Bowie’s key collaborators made this film one of the most acclaimed documentaries of 2013.

 

“One of these nights I may just, Jump down that rainbow way…”

 

Released on April 30th 1976 as the follow-up to worldwide smash, Golden Years, TVC 15 was the second single from Station To Station, albeit in a severely edited form at two minutes shorter than the album version.

Apparently inspired by a hallucinatory episode during which Iggy Pop believed the television set was swallowing his girlfriend, TVC 15 was one of the lighter songs on Station To Station becoming a live favourite during the attendant 1976 Isolar tour.

Unusually for the UK, there was no RCA press advert for the single, possibly contributing to its poor showing on the official singles chart at #33.

Perhaps RCA thought the triumphant homecoming shows at Wembley Empire Pool the following week would be enough publicity for the track.

Backed by We Are The Dead from Diamond Dogs, the 45 was issued in unique picture sleeves around the globe, though not in the UK, and though it was also released without a picture cover in the USA, RCA did at least run a music press advert for it there. (See image)

However, collectors may like to note that a UK pressing did throw up one of the more collectable versions of the release in the shape of a solid centre 45. Very, very hard to find these days.

Check out the full-length album version here.