From Northern Dream To Studio Cadet

I know next to nothing about Bill Nelson's solo ouevre, whether pre- or post-Be Bop Deluxe, the band he formed in 1972. In fact, I know even less about Be Bop Deluxe.

For all that, Bill's music has been slowing creeping into my collection, such as the appearance of Everyone's Hero, a track from his 1971 debut album (and re-released today), on Mojo magazine's 2022 compilation Heavy Nuggets Vol. 6. 

I also seem to have acquired the 1986 mini-album Living For The Spangled Moment along the way. But the sum total still amounts to fewer than 20 songs and a smidge over an hour's worth of music.

Trying to delve deeper is a daunting prospect: Discogs lists 130 albums; Wikipedia's discography is a dizzingly long list; Bandcamp has 30 releases on sale, many of them albums at £10.00 a pop.

So, I've selected nine songs from the latter, starting off with a few from my own collection, the rest a random trawl through time, washing up on the shores of Bill's current album, Studio Cadet, a collection of lost songs from 2015, released in December 2024.

I like some more than others and I'm not sure I've found the key to tracing my way through Bill's musical history. But it's a start.

1) Everyone's Hero (Northern Dream) (1971)

2) Atom Man Loves Radium Girl (Do You Dream In Colour? EP) (1980)

3) He And Sleep Were Brothers (Eros Arriving EP) (1982)

4) Another Kiss For Your Slender Neck (Pavilions Of The Heart And Soul) (1985)

5) Broken (Heartbreakland) (1990)

6) The Orson Welles Memorial Sleighride  (Wah-Wah Galaxy) (2004)

7) Another Slice Of Wonder Cake (Modern Moods For Mighty Atoms) (2010)

8) Cassidy's Electric Campfire Song (The Last Of The Neon Cynics) (2012)

9) Dance Of The Anti-Gravity Enthusiasts (Studio Cadet) (2015)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KarnAge

Last July, I picked up Mick Karn's 2001 album Each Eye A Path along with it's 2002 remix companion, Each Path A Remix. 

I'll confess that I've not really followed Mick Karn's career, post-Japan, bar his first two solo albums, Dali's Car, a short-lived collaboration with Pete Murphy and a one-off single (After A Fashion) with Midge Ure. I'm slowly trying to catch up.

Mick Karn fought cancer and sadly died on 4th January 2011 at the age of 52. I turned 52 in December, so it strikes a chord, listening to his music and appreciating what the legacy of what was a ridiculously short life. 

I really like both albums, which both complement more than contrast with each other. I've spent the last couple of months integrating the two, playing them simultaneously in different running order, finding combinations of tracks that seemed to work well until I ended up with the selection presented here. 

 

I've used ten of the nineteen tracks across the two albums, ever so slightly favouring Karn's original, produced by Karn and Steve Jansen. Richard Barbieri and Ryuichi Sakamoto both provide remixes, alongside other Karn collaborators David Torn and Yoshihiro Hanno. It makes for an interesting and satisfying three quarters of an hour and, like me, hopefully a prompt for you to seek out more of Mick Karn's body of work. It will reward you.

1) Angel's Got A Lotus (Album Version By Mick Karn & Steve Jansen)

2) Latin Mastock (Album Version By Mick Karn & Steve Jansen)

3) Puppeteer Night (Remix By David Torn)

4) The Forgotten Puppeteer (Album Version By Mick Karn & Steve Jansen)

5) Up To Nil (Album Version By Mick Karn & Steve Jansen)

6) Re-Nil (Remix By Yoshihiro Hanno)

7) The Salmon Of Knowledge (Album Version By Mick Karn & Steve Jansen)

8) Big Left (Remix By Ryuichi Sakamoto)

9) Venus Monkey (Album Version By Mick Karn & Steve Jansen)

10) Angel's In The Asylum (Remix By Richard Barbieri) 

2001: Each Eye A Path: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9

2002: Each Path A Remix: 3, 6, 8, 10

KarnAge (46:15) (KF) (Mega)

 

It was only when scheduling this post that I realised that it almost coincides with Ryuichi Sakamoto's birthday on 17th January. Sadly, it has also coincided with the sad news of the death of fellow Yellow Magic Orchestra founder, Yukihiro Takahashi, who passed on 11th January but news of which has only been reported in these parts in the last few hours.

 

Again, I'm shamefully ignorant of his post-YMO work but as a brief tribute, I'm posting Glow Worm from Bill Nelson's 1983 mini-album Chimera, featuring Takahashi's superlative drumming and Mick Karn on bass. I didn't hear this until roughly twenty years later, but it still sounds spectacular in the 21st Century.