Posts Tagged ‘Elizabeth Fraser’

JONSI – ” Cannibal ” Feat LIZ FRASER (Cocteau Twins)

Posted: August 15, 2020 in MUSIC
Tags: , , , , ,
0

Image may contain: one or more people and closeup

Jonsi and Liz Fraser…two great voices that sound great together. Jonsi of Iceland’s Sigur Rós is releasing his first solo album in 10 years, “Shiver”, on October 2nd via Krunk Records. Early this morning he shared another song from it, “Cannibal,” which features the unmistakable guest vocals of Elizabeth Fraser (formerly of Cocteau Twins). Jónsi co-directed the video with actor/director Giovanni Ribisi. Jónsi had this to say about the song in a press release: “When Sigur Rós was starting, we were always compared to Cocteau Twins and I really didn’t like that. I hated being compared to anybody. Then I got really into Cocteau Twins like two or three years ago. They’re so good. I now understood the comparison .

“Shiver” includes “Exhale,” a new song Jónsi shared in April via a video for the track he co-directed with Ribisi. When the album was announced, he shared another new song from it, “Swill,” via a Barnaby Roper-directed video for the track. Shiver also features guest vocals from Robyn and was co-produced by A. G. Cook (of PC Music).

It’s been 10 years since Jónsi’s last solo album, 2010’s debut solo album Go. Since then he’s kept busy, including contributing songs to the How to Train Your Dragon films and teaming up with Stockholm-based visual artist/electro-acoustic composer Carl Michael von Hausswolff as Dark Morph (the ambient project released a second album in May). Sigur Rós has also released two albums in that period, 2012’s Valtari and 2013’s Kveikur.

The COCTEAU TWINS – ” Peel Sessions “

Posted: May 17, 2020 in MUSIC
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0

See the source image

On the surface, this isn’t as essential a release as other BBC John Peel sessions LPs. Because the Cocteau Twins used drum machines, the backing tracks and the rhythms replicate the known versions much more than other bands forced to record live in the studio. Yet these BBC John Peel Sessions is still a whopper of a treat for fans and the uninitiated, A sound that builds and builds until one is overcome with unspeakable, barely understood emotions  as Elizabeth Fraser starts to blossom into one of the most riveting voices to ever blow air into a mic.

The original members were Elizabeth Fraser (vocals), Robin Guthrie (guitar, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass guitar), who was replaced by Simon Raymonde (also bass guitar) early in the band’s career.
These BBC Sessions were released as an an album of BBC studio recordings by the band The Cocteau Twins released in 1999 by Bella Union in the UK and Rykodisc in the US. The album spanned the band’s career from the early 1980s through the 1990s. Taken from a series of early 1980s Peel sessions. Throughout most of the Eighties, Peel made favourable comments on the band in interviews.

The band were discovered by Peel when they sent demo tapes to him and the 4AD label. After hearing the demo, Peel invited the group to do a session for his show in 1982. The 4AD label heard the track and signed them. Peel would play their songs throughout most of the Eighties, although by the time the band released their 1988 ‘Blue Bell Knoll’ album, his interest appeared to have waned. At the end of 1988, Peel’s listeners voted their track ‘Carolyn Fingers’ in the 1988 Festive Fifty, despite the DJ not playing any tracks from the album throughout the year.

John Peel Session, 15th July 1982

“Alas Dies Laughing” – 3:29
“Feathers-Oar-Blades” – 2:19
“Garlands” – 4:19
“Wax and Wane” – 3:50

John Peel Session, 31st January 1983

“Hearsay Please” – 4:23
“Dear Heart” – 3:37
“Blind Dumb Deaf” – 3:41
“Hazel” – 3:22

John Peel Session, 4th October 1983

“Strange Fruit” (Billie Holiday cover written by Abel Meeropol) – 1:52
“From the Flagstones” – 3:
“The Tinderbox (Of A Heart)” – 4:46
“Hitherto” – 3:57

In 1984 Peel included ‘From The Flagstones’ by the Cocteaus in his selections for “My Top Ten” and discussed the band with Andy Peebles. Cocteau Twins – From the Flagstones .Well, this is my favourite record of last year. And they were one of those bands again, like when I first heard them I thought, “Great, I’m glad I lived long enough to hear this.” My favourite record of last year, The Cocteau Twins and From The Flagstones. It’s a very, very pleasant voice actually. I like listening to that. Well, I like the extreme voices. I was just thinking that. Over the years it has always been people who have got the really idiosyncratic voices that I like Beefheart, Marc Bolan, Rod Stewart, Elizabeth Frazer of the Cocteaus, Mark Smith of The Fall people like them.

John Peel Session, 5th September 1984

“Pepper Tree”
“Whisht [Beatrix]”
“Peep-Bo [Ivo]”
“Otterley”

JEFF BUCKLEY with ELIZABETH FRASER – ” All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun “

Posted: August 12, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: ,
0

Image result for jeff buckley and elizabeth fraser images

The prodigiously talented Jeff Buckley only made one studio album, 1994’s Grace, before his accidental drowning in the Mississippi River in 1997, but his estate has continued to release a wealth of posthumous material. These range from top notch material like the drafts for his second album, released as Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, as well as great songs like ‘Forget Her’, a Grace outtake, but his clearing of the decks has also felt like it’s scraping the bottom of the barrel with releases like Grace Around the World.

But despite all the archival activity, one fascinating song by Buckley remains in the archive – collaborator Elizabeth Fraser has dismissed the song as “unfinished, you see. I don’t want it to be heard.” Fraser, the lead singer of the Cocteau Twins, previously recorded a version of Tim Buckley’s ‘Song to the Siren’ in the mid 1980s. She was in a relationship with Jeff Buckley in the mid 1990s, and they sang together on ‘All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun’. Even if it’s unvarnished, with Fraser and Buckley only accompanied by an acoustic guitar, it’s still enthralling – two unique, spectacular voices in an unlikely pairing.

Fraser struck up an intense relationship with Jeff Buckley after they became infatuated with each other’s voices. Again, emotion produced music. This sublime duet they recorded called All Flowers in Time Bend Towards the Sun is around the internet, to her irritation.

“Why do people have to hear everything?” she complains. I tell her it’s wonderful. “But it’s unfinished, you see. I don’t want it to be heard.” There’s a pause. “Maybe I won’t always think that.”

Buckley died in 1997, by which time they had lost touch – Fraser had grown frustrated with his constant touring, a reaction that weighs heavily on her. “I just wish I’d been more of a friend,” she says, softly. “His career was everything to him, and I wish I had been more understanding – happy with a different kind of relationship. I missed out on something there, and it was my fault.”

The news that Buckley had disappeared – he drowned, swimming in the Wolf river in Memphis – came while Fraser was recording Teardrop with Massive Attack. “That was so weird,” she says. “I’d got letters out and I was thinking about him. That song’s kind of about him – that’s how it feels to me anyway.” It seems she is haunted by guilt: for not being there for Buckley, for everything. As she puts it: “I need to forgive myself.”

Unreleased (unfinished) acoustic track by Jeff Buckley and Elizabeth Fraser. Recorded sometime around 1995-1996.

Thanks APHORISTICAL for this article

FELT – ” Ignite The Seven Cannons ” Remastered 12″ Vinyl Edition

Posted: February 9, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , , ,
0

Anyone who’s been living on the grapevine these past few years must have heard the rumours about the coming of the FELT reissues – well they’re here.

Felt was a 1980s UK indie band hailing from Birmingham, led by enigmatic Lawrence Hayward (or, just Lawrence for preference), and usually included guitarist Maurice Deebank. The band claimed to have released ten albums and ten singles in ten years but actually released 11 singles if you include their debut Index on Shanghai Packaging. They were influenced by, among others, New York band Television and 60s icon Bob Dylan.

Forming in 1979, Felt never broke through to the mainstream, but enjoyed a substantial cult following. Throughout the early 1980s, Felt released a number of oblique, minimalistic guitar pop gems. In 1986 they broke through with the single Primitive Painters (featuring the Cocteau Twins Elizabeth Fraser), and the album Forever Breathes The Lonely Word. Here, Haywards trademark melodic songs are matched by a fuller sound – catchy organ lines from Martin Duffy (now with Primal Scream) and Deebanks cascading guitars feature throughout. Following this, releases in 1987 of Poem Of The River, in 1988 of The Pictorial Jackson Review, and in 1989 of Me And A Monkey On The Moon, cemented Felts cult following and reputation, before Hayward split the band up to pursue 70s-influenced project, Denim, and subsequently Go-Kart Mozart. Felts influence continues to reverberate in the music of current bands.

These vinyl records, unavailable for many years, have been remastered and revisited by Lawrence, and he has fashioned the ultimate definitive collections. They are available in a deluxe gatefold sleeve. During the ‘80s Felt made ten albums and ten singles for the Cherry Red and Creation labels. This beautifully produced series examines the work of one of the greatest underground groups of modern times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCRdY7ZH7xo

The first five albums will be released on 23rd October 2018. These vinyl records, unavailable for many years, have been remastered and revisited by Lawrence, and he has fashioned the ultimate definitive collections. They are available in a deluxe gatefold sleeve.

Produced by Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins and featuring the skyscraping vocal of Elizabeth Fraser on the mighty track “Primitive Painters”. Felt found themselves at the top of the independent charts. Unhappy with the overall sound though – it was as if some of Lawrence’s best songs were lost in an “ethereal swirl.” John A. Rivers has been given access to the original master tapes and six songs have remixed. Also – side 2 has been focused, edited and “made symmetrical.” Finally these songs can be heard as intended by Felt. It has become at long last a cohesive whole.