"Don't think it hasn't been fun, because it hasn't": Scott Walker's Bish Bosch out Dec. 4

October 20, 2012 9:45 AM

Scott Walker (not the politician) has a new record on 4AD, Bish Bosch, available December 4. The album trailer promises more of the visionary, challenging avant-rock that Walker has been creating since the first four tracks on 1978's Nite Flights, 1983's baffling Climate of Hunter, the scorched earth upsidedowntown of Tilt [nsfw, nudity] (1995) and the devastating The Drift (2006).
posted by porn in the woods (23 comments total)

I'll punch a donkey on the streets of Galway!
posted by Damienmce at 9:47 AM on October 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

wait, I thought he passed away this summer? who am I thinking of that died?
posted by TWinbrook8 at 9:56 AM on October 20, 2012

I remember the first time I heard Scott Walker. My college radio station was playing The Seventh Seal and it just grabbed me. On the surface it sounded like 60s MOR stuff but there was a certain level of genius to it.

I just can't get into his newer stuff, though. Way, way, WAY too dark.

BTW, the documentary about him, Scott Walker: 30 Century Man is great. It used to be on Netflix Instant but looks like it's not there right now.
posted by zsazsa at 10:03 AM on October 20, 2012

Mod note: Dillweed derail removed; please return to enjoying music post.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 10:22 AM on October 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

I remember absolutely hating the Drift when it came out and giving my copy to a friend (who mailed it back to me). And then after watching the 30 Century Man I went back to it and now I love it. I'm not expecting to like the new one at first. Modern Scott does not seem to about instant gratification - you need to commit and live with it a bit. I'm sure I'll end up picking up the new one the day it comes out and try listening to it while doing other things and not get it until I just put on the headphones and dig in.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 10:26 AM on October 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

I watched Bronson a few months ago and was floored to hear the wonderful use of the Walker Brothers song "the Electrician" from 1978's Night Flight album in this scene.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 10:32 AM on October 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Jimmy Walker used to say dyno-mite! That's right!
posted by Brocktoon at 10:43 AM on October 20, 2012

"The Electrician" is fantastic.

He's certainly upping the pace of his output, isn't he?
posted by kenko at 10:47 AM on October 20, 2012

btw porn in the woods, you seem to link to "The Electrician" twice. Fat Mama Kick is the missing Scott track from Nite Flights.
posted by kenko at 10:49 AM on October 20, 2012

Thank you for this post. I love Scott Walker and I loved that trailer; I will definitely have to get that album when it comes out.

He's certainly upping the pace of his output, isn't he?

Heh. I lolled harder at this than I should have.
posted by daniel_charms at 12:17 PM on October 20, 2012

And I don't know if it's proper to link this here, but I've always loved Bill Bailey's take on "a proper ballad in a sort of Scott Walker--Slayer tradition".
posted by daniel_charms at 12:26 PM on October 20, 2012

kenko, thanks for the "Fat Mama Kick" catch. Essential, like every Scott cut on Nite Flights - only Metal Box PiL at their scariest is in the same ballpark of the doomsday disco of this track.

Come to think of it, the other "brothers" efforts on Nite Flights - I don't think anybody, anywhere, has listened to them in full, outside of professional obligation (I got a minute into Gerry Walker's cut "Death of Romance" once and that's all.)

And a new Scott LP after only 6.5 years is a treat. Here's hoping the trailer is an excerpt from a full-length in the studio doc.
posted by porn in the woods at 12:26 PM on October 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Video for track 3 from Climate of Hunter. Won't link to Muriel Gray's excruciating "interview" on the tube. Wish he would play live...
posted by oh pollo! at 12:34 PM on October 20, 2012

Savage Pencil weighs in (with help from a nicked lyrics booklet.)
posted by porn in the woods at 12:40 PM on October 20, 2012

This is pretty exciting. The Drift was terrifying to me in a wholly novel way.
posted by valrus at 12:47 PM on October 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

The John and Gary songs from Night Flights reminded me of Boz Scaggs...on laudanum.
posted by pxe2000 at 1:53 PM on October 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

For what it's worth, I listen to the first five seconds of "Death of Romance" all the time, because I forget to jump up after the end of"The Electrician" to change it to something else.
posted by invitapriore at 2:17 PM on October 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Album discussion over at ILM with contributions from the lucky few who've scored advanced listens, some laughs, lots of miscellany (BB checks in at 73 minutes.)
posted by porn in the woods at 2:57 PM on October 20, 2012

30th Century Man is a good introduction to Scott's work, but I was hoping for a bit more. The film-makers seemed to be too much in awe of The Man to dig any depth in their exclusive interview. It kinda breezes through the interesting Brellish middle phase of his career around the time of Scott 3.

My personal favourites are on side one of Scott 3, like Big Louise and It's Raining Today, which I think captured that elusive balance of strangeness and melodramatic ballad profundity, and probably should have been included on that recent "Most Depressing Songs" list.
posted by ovvl at 4:13 PM on October 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Devastating is right. I feel like I'm still coming up for air after encountering The Drift.

I first fell in love with SW because of his covers of Jaques Brel. If you've never head Next, well, prepare to lose your innocence.
posted by lumpenprole at 1:28 AM on October 21, 2012

Here's The War Against Silence on Tilt:

Let me try to describe to you what this album is like.
It's like being beaten up by a performance-art troupe, and you're not sure whether this is a performance or a simple assault, or whether there's a difference.
It's like watching a painter at work, seeing him start to paint you into his scene, and suddenly feeling the touch of an invisible brush on your arm.
It's like being waited on by a robot ballet.
It's like being wired directly to the brain of a demented genius, but only receiving every six thousandth thought.
It's like eating a delicate consomme of overcharged watch batteries.
It's like landing on Mars and finding that somebody has sketched an incredibly detailed blueprint of your local grocery store on the surface, at twenty times actual scale, and annotated it with numerous suggested improvements for greater shopping efficiency.
It's like a dream in which you find yourself playing Stratego against the Pope for the hand of his daughter, and the only things that seem unusual to you about this are that his half of the board seems to somehow have more squares than yours does, and every fourth move or so he frowns and has to lean down and pick up the box top to examine the rules again, which invariably causes his hat to fall off.

More of this kind of thing!
posted by doiheartwentyone at 3:40 AM on October 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

Check out Scott on the cover of the Dec. edition of The Wire.

He also had a Wire cover story in May 1995.
posted by porn in the woods at 6:49 PM on November 6, 2012

Last bit of Scott info for the thread:
• Epizootics! video released
• Spotify playlist of 'See You Don't Bump His Head' and Epizootics!
posted by porn in the woods at 8:33 AM on November 8, 2012