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arcer 
Prog Reviewer
Joined: September 01 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 1239
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 Topic: Björk
Posted: June 04 2005 at 15:57 |
Bjork is just brilliant - one of the most interesting
artists of the past 15 years. Her choice of
collaborators, musicians, styles, arrangements,
concepts etc is enlightening and enthralling. I have
pretty much everything she's recorded since debut.
She is always interesting.
For anyone getting into her work my choices to start
with
Post and Vespertine - these are the most accessible
and to my mind the most beautiful of her albums.
Homogenic is sometimes hard going, debut is a
little too early 90s dance oriented and very much of
its time and Medulla is just plain weird!
Actually Selmasongs (her soundtrack to Dancer in
the Dark) has some wonderful moments too.
For the real enthusiast - definitely get the 5CD live
boxset, the rearrangement of her tunes for various
sets of touring musicians is amazing.
Top marks icelandic pixie woman!  
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philippe
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: March 14 2004
Location: noosphere
Status: Offline
Points: 3597
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Posted: June 02 2005 at 06:09 |
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oliverstoned
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: March 26 2004
Location: France
Status: Offline
Points: 6308
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Posted: June 02 2005 at 05:46 |
 Syzygy wrote:
She also made a pretty good album of jazz standards sung (mostly) in Icelandic with Iceland's top jazz trio. It was called Gling Glao and shows how well she can sing in an acoustic context.
Medulla does indeed feature Robert Wyatt, who compared Bjork to Nina Simone when he was interviewed about his involvement in the project. |
btw, she discovered "Rock bottom" at the occasion
of that album.
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Syzygy
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: December 16 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 7003
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Posted: June 02 2005 at 04:30 |
Moogtron III wrote:
Oh, and the best thing she ever did was a collaboration on this album:
Hector Zazou - Songs Of The Cold Seas
The track Visur Vatnnsenda Rosu, which she sings in Icelandic, is spine-chilling!
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A fine album all round, well worth checking out. Zazou has been involved in lots of interesting collaborations since his ealy days in ZNR.
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'Like so many of you
I've got my doubts about how much to contribute
to the already rich among us...'
Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom
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Moogtron III
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 26 2005
Location: Belgium
Status: Offline
Points: 10616
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Posted: June 01 2005 at 21:07 |
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Yes, Debut would be the best choice. The most varied of the two.
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memowakeman
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: May 19 2005
Location: Mexico City
Status: Offline
Points: 13032
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Posted: June 01 2005 at 17:59 |
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DEBUT FIRST!!!
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Follow me on twitter @memowakeman
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Sweetnighter
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 24 2004
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 1298
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Posted: June 01 2005 at 17:15 |
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What CD should I get first? I'm sort of debating between Debut and Homogenic, but I can't really decide. Suggestions?
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I bleed coffee. When I don't drink coffee, my veins run dry, and I shrivel up and die.
"Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso? Is that like the bank of Italian soccer death or something?" -my girlfriend
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Moogtron III
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 26 2005
Location: Belgium
Status: Offline
Points: 10616
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Posted: June 01 2005 at 15:18 |
Oh, and the best thing she ever did was a collaboration on this album:
Hector Zazou - Songs Of The Cold Seas
The track Visur Vatnnsenda Rosu, which she sings in Icelandic, is spine-chilling!
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Moogtron III
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 26 2005
Location: Belgium
Status: Offline
Points: 10616
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Posted: June 01 2005 at 15:16 |
Bjork is fantastic!
My favorite albums are her first two (well I'm not talking about the record she made when she was 11 years old): Debut and Post. Debut has the better songs, but Post has more variety.
But any Bjork album is good! For me: she's the true heiress of the progressive inheritance, together with Massive Attack and a few others, much more than Flower Kings, Arena etc. !
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Syzygy
Special Collaborator
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Joined: December 16 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 7003
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Posted: June 01 2005 at 14:21 |
She also made a pretty good album of jazz standards sung (mostly) in Icelandic with Iceland's top jazz trio. It was called Gling Glao and shows how well she can sing in an acoustic context.
Medulla does indeed feature Robert Wyatt, who compared Bjork to Nina Simone when he was interviewed about his involvement in the project.
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'Like so many of you
I've got my doubts about how much to contribute
to the already rich among us...'
Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom
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oliverstoned
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: March 26 2004
Location: France
Status: Offline
Points: 6308
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Posted: June 01 2005 at 12:44 |
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Too bad she's too much in, "techno" style -she lives with her time- the piece is seen on TV with natural
instruments was incredible, and her singing too.
I've heard her last album features Robert Wyatt.
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Syzygy
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: December 16 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 7003
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Posted: June 01 2005 at 11:27 |
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Bjork just goes from strength to strength - all of her mainstream albums have been good, and Vespertine is a contemporary classic featuring contributions from the remarkable harpist Zeena Parkins. Medulla is a highly adventurous piece of work as well - almost wilfully uncommercial but highly accessible at the same time. Whether she's prog or not, she's unpredictable and adventurous and should appeal to any open minded member of these forums.
Edited by Syzygy
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'Like so many of you
I've got my doubts about how much to contribute
to the already rich among us...'
Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom
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oliverstoned
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: March 26 2004
Location: France
Status: Offline
Points: 6308
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Posted: June 01 2005 at 05:53 |
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Vespertine (2001) is her best album, most progressive,
better sounding.
And maybe the only current "mainstream" album is can stand.
She also made something with world/jazz musicians for TV (french?) in the year 1993/94 and its amazing, by far her best work. Unfortunatly has never been release on record...
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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 20239
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Posted: June 01 2005 at 03:17 |
Bjork is one hell of an Artiste (with the big A , if you please). I certainly do not like everything she has done over the years, but she is the most daring Artiste of the last 20 years. That diminutiuve woman is really 200% involved in everything she tries: even in Von Trier's movie Dancer In The Dark , her music is awesome. Her acting however is not so succesful: she overplayed too much her character/role to the point that it was almost unbearable.
Her latest album , Medulla is incredibly un-coprmercial being mostly acapella or using voices effects. Even if not entirely succesful, it is astounding.
If you enjoy a bit of trip-hop , her debut album (called Debut ) is fabulous (certainly worth five star) and is in my top 100.
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let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
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Sweetnighter
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 24 2004
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 1298
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Posted: June 01 2005 at 02:03 |
Opinions? I just have started listening to some of her stuff online,
but to me it definitely seems 1) good 2) creative and 3) original. And
she certainly has Peter Gabriel beat in the costume department  .
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I bleed coffee. When I don't drink coffee, my veins run dry, and I shrivel up and die.
"Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso? Is that like the bank of Italian soccer death or something?" -my girlfriend
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