Thread: New JDB album?
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Old 13-07-2020, 18:49
chieftan mews chieftan mews is offline
I am purity, they call me perverted
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Brighton
Age: 34
Posts: 208
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marat Sar View Post
Really gettin' those vibes too. Every now and then I get this massive appreciation for the man's work. Last time was with Futurology. Just the whole work together made me think hey, what if the Manics are actually the best? Ever. Even better than kent and Einstürzende Neubauten and Kino...

After Futurology, haven't gotten that vibe. But with these songs -- yeah it's there again. Sky high appreciation for the man's pure fuckin musical genius.

A little note -- I remember after Resistance Is Futile Nicky said (in some interview) that James is full of exciting new ideas on how to get their music sounding wider and bigger, mix-wise. I thought -- well, this bodes well. I know James has been listening to the last two War On Drugs albums a lot. That band has the biggest, widest, most technically excellent mixes ever made for rock music. War On Drugs is even better than Radiohead in many regards. (Not speaking music, just mix engineering quality). I was really expecting Resistance Is Futile to sound like that, but no -- it was nice but nothing special. So hearing Nicky say James is working on it really showed promise to me.

Aaaaand he's done it here! These three tracks are damn near to sounding as spacious and striking as War On Drugs. Colossal oceans of low end ebbing off into the darkness, wide broken guitar chords flanking the mix from the far left and right, decaying slowly. And the drums nice and low. He even does the main War On Drugs trick in Boy From The Plantation -- turning the snare drum very soft and low in the mix so it doesn't take up too much space, thus allowing everything else to breathe, especially guitars. That track's even got harmonica mixed very similarly to how War On Drugs mixes harmonica on Thinking Of A Place, for example -- just right of the left flanking guitar.

This isincredibly important to the Manics' music at this point, imo. As James' voice ages, they really have to amp up the engineering side of their music. All bands are forced to find new virtues as the youth of their singers voice fades, lest they lose "the magic". Radiohead are looking into orchestral work, for example. I really-really believe that for the Manics, wide, huge, gorgeous sounding mixes are the way to go. I don't care what they do "musically" (rock, pop, whatever) but it has to sound stellar, not just "okay", or "good."

Things like Postcards, a lot of the music on Resistance Is Futile even (International Blue is a great song but it's engineered merely okay) just won't do.

These mixes, though, are better than This Is My Truth and Lifeblood, their previous two high water marks, engineering-wise.

Very exciting time to be a manics fan. Please please please god let this carry over to the rest of their work too.
Completely agree with all of this!
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