Friday, July 11, 2008

chilly blue?




Photos show two birthday cakes- swans crossing a crocodile and shark infested- um- septic tank, and a dragon about to lift off from a lava lake. Unfortunately the strawberry head made it look more like a plucked chicken.
Neither of which has anything to do with the Chills' moody, soaring Night of chill blue, then purple girl by the same band, followed by:
-two colourful fragments from Coldcut's journeys by DJ remix album:
Manganese in deep violet, and Balthus bemused by color.
Boat with no ocean, by Clean spinoff The Great Unwashed. "red and yellow, and black, are the colours I see in my head..."

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6 comments:

steenbeck said...

Another good list, Nilpferd. Really liked the CHills, as I always do when you post them I liked what you wrote about the blue light over on RR. When I was a teenager taking piano lessons with Olga Von Till (of teacher-of-Bill Evans-fame) she stopped mid-lesson one snowy winter day at gloaming and said, "what color is the light outside?" I ventured "Blue" and she gave me a pat on the knee. A moment, it seems, I'll never forget. Like Boat w/ No Ocean, too.

nilpferd said...

Thanks Steenbeck. I do miss the light sometimes, and the smells. We're going back on holiday in December, looking forward to it.

ejaydee said...

I loved Night of Chill Blue, so I think I should get something by them, or, after hearing the Nerdcast, should I get a Flying Nun compilation? Where should I start? Something on a single CD would be nice.

nilpferd said...

Probably the best available "new" option for The Chills is their compilation album "Heavenly pop hits"; while it doesn't contain the tracks I recently featured, it is a good overview of the band.

I considered it a bit of a travesty that the Guardian "1000 albums you should hear" blog rated this compilation before any of the albums, but it undeniably contains many of their best tracks. However even better, if you get lucky in 2nd hand record stores, (or look carefully online) is the out of print Chills LP "Brave words" which has both "Rain" and "Night of chill blue", as well as Pink Frost, and is probably their best work, if somewhat indifferently recorded.
The other album of theirs I would unconditionally recommend is "Submarine Bells".
The versions of Chills songs I have been 'spilling recently come from a compilation called Secret Box, which was released in criminally small numbers, and contains demos which the group performed as Peel sessions. Probably unobtainable at the moment, but may be reissued soon.

There are a number of Flying Nun compilations; setting aside the recent four disc set, which is excellent but pricy, the best bet is the double album "Pink flying saucers over the southern alps/in love with these times", which features many great FN bands.
Each available to sample on Lastfm:

http://www.lastfm.de/music/Various+Artists/Pink+Flying+Saucers+Over+the+Southern+Alps

http://www.lastfm.de/music/Various+Artists/In+Love+With+These+Times

If you want to hear any of the tracks in full let me know; I have most of them in one form or another.

To get a lead in to Flying Nun itself, there is an 8 part documentary on Youtube called Heavenly Pop Hits which introduces many of the bands, and there are a lot of video clips of singles around on Youtube as well.

Lastly, there is a good Verlaines compilation available called "You're just too obscure for me".

nilpferd said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
nilpferd said...

Added an early Church gem, "Constant in Opal", to my post. Tangential to this week's theme, I'll save it for "songs about precious stones", but it does include the line "digging for the blue and green, constant in opal or ultramarine".
A beautiful pop song.