The first time I heard Scott Walker was not through Burt Bacharach's music. At least not consciously, although when hearing 'Make it Easy on Yourself' on compilations and collections I then put two and two together and became slightly more fascinated by the 60's crooner. To celebrate the launch of 4AD's new compilation '1980 Forward' in 2005 I went to see Blonde Redhead with Jóhann Jóhannsson with a trailer dividing the two acts. It was of '30 Century Man', the definitive biopic about Scott Walker's life post-Walker Brothers. As soon as I came home I went looking to listen to The Drift. As much as I was curious, I couldn't handle it. The first track 'Cossacks Are' pounded at my head with its incessant off-kilter drum beat and it was brilliant to hear this man, late fifties into his sixties, producing something so heavy, but not in a way I had experienced before. The rest of the album was a blur of dissonant strings, meat pounding and Walker's tender, slightly brittle voice that insisted on laying the most beautifully contoured vocal melodies over jarring instrumentation.
Since my first encounter in 2005 I've started from the beginning with the Walker Brothers, become a fan of 'Scott 4' and now find myself engrossed in his last two major albums, Tilt and, once again The Drift. In the whole scheme of Walker's career, both albums are fairly similar to each other, especially considering Scott 1 to 4 is particularly informed by Bacharach and Jacques Brel. On these two albums the soundworld is a complete new ballgame, Walker doesn't really write songs, not in the way a pop musician is expected to. It could be said that the music serves the lyrics, even poems, that accompany it, detailing each actions found in each line. Take for example 'Clara', detailing the public exhibition of the Mussolini's corpse along with his mistress, Claretta Petacci, where a slab of meat is used to represent the public beating the lifeless bodies as they left strung up by their feet in the street. Not exactly top 40 material.
Lyrically, Scott Walker isn't far off from his previous efforts. Found on Scott 4 are homages to many influences on his work, such as Ingmar Bergman, Albert Camus, and a letter to the 'old man', Josef Stalin. But the change of musical direction in Scott Walker is brutal, having personally been a sufferer of reoccurring nightmares. Only now, having full licence over his work since 1995 has he been able to manifest music so haunting. And haunting is not to be taken lightly. I once listened to Tilt on headphones from beginning to end at a decent volume and could not do anything but pay full attention to each small detail found in every song, the ticking cogs, the distant militaric thumping, the orchestration that at times creeps up on you, at times threatens a heart attack. That reverb soaked voice. Respite is found occasionally halfway through songs, perhaps most interventional being 5 minutes into 'Bouncer See Bouncer...'.
What draws me to the works of Scott Walker is his unashamed ability to make his music overly dramatic, and isn't afraid of sounding a little ridiculous. And his music is all the better for it. It is hard to do the music justice without actually hearing it, solely because it is the most idiosyncratic of works by someone considered to be a pop songwriter, in so far as it has almost nothing to do with pop music, and bears little resemblance to anything, even his own music preceding (except perhaps 'Boy Child' from Scott 4). Hearing the last of his orchestral pop records then straight into his newer works may have you questioning his sanity. His records are perhaps insane, but what is the problem in that? We as a society indulge in films and art unbelievably twisted, The Drift is merely another exploration into the darker side of music. Luckily for Walker, he stands on a pedestal above avant garde artists due to his fame beforehand. And if you're a fan of The Drift and Tilt then perhaps you'll want to venture further down the modernist orchestral genre, moments of George Crumb's 'Black Angels' come through, As well as sections of Eastern European chamber orchestral scores (Penderecki and Shostakovich come to mind immediately, I'm no expert, though). Then of course you have Walker's near operatic voice, but in so far as the melody and the open-voweled stretches, not in terms of gymnsatic melismas.
The only real way to experience it is to hear it.
'Boy Child' from Scott 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVPCivE7JsA
'Bouncer See Bouncer' from Tilt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnY18mxoqs8
'Jesse' from The Drift http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYyOkQUyJZM
No comments:
Post a Comment