Björk

[Mirror Image]

My favorite Bjork vid, I was thrilled that they'd work together!

The fact that she wore a Ren & Stimpy t-shirt for a promotional photograph alone solidifies her into my 'coolest person' category.

[Mirror Image]

From the 'Non-classical purchases' thread -

Oh and I was able to snag an original US release of Bjork's Debut. So now I have the US release and the international release. The main different between the two besides perhaps some slightly different artwork is the international release contains a song called Play Dead which wasn't included on the US release.

I'm also interested in remix recordings. Anyone own any of these? Looks like Biophilia has quite a few of them.

[Rinaldo]

Your favorite is Homogenic, correct? If yes, why do you feel this recording to be her strongest?

Hmm, where to start? With Homogenic I feel she reached the apex of what makes her special - great tunes, great production (the bass in Hunter just kills) & orchestration, very experimental yet memorable at the same time. For me, it's the perfect cross between Björk the adventurer and Björk the pop star (although she has left the pop market a long time ago).

[Mirror Image]

Hmm, where to start? With Homogenic I feel she reached the apex of what makes her special - great tunes, great production (the bass in Hunter just kills) & orchestration, very experimental yet memorable at the same time. For me, it's the perfect cross between Björk the adventurer and Björk the pop star (although she has left the pop market a long time ago).

Sounds like Homogenic is quite a special album for many people. What little I heard of it is just remarkable. I've been reading that many people who disliked Debut or thought it wasn't a very strong album initially have come around in full circle. It seems that this album has stood that test of time. Last year marked it's 20th anniversary and it seems that a re-evaluation of the music came into light. Now, it's heralded as a masterpiece and I personally wouldn't disagree with those that feel this way about this recording. I love Debut and Post equally right now. I think the strengths in Debut are in it's pure, almost youthful energy and so much of it does still sound strikingly modern to my ears. I know some musicians' or bands' recordings don't age well like so much of Rush's 80s output, which I love BTW, but you know it's the 80s by just the sound of the keyboards. With Debut, the music retains a freshness and vitality that I just didn't hear on a lot of albums around early 90s.

All of this said, I'm really looking forward to listening to Homogenic and going further up the ladder in Bjork's output.

[Marc]

During my teen years, we 'blessed' Dutch boyz and girlz knew that there were some interesting music festivals going on, like No Nukes (Utrecht) and Pandora's Box (Rotterdam).

KUKL from Iceland, with a certain Björk Gudmundsdóttir as one of the vocalists, appeared at the latter in October 1984, delivering some crazy punky performance with a mix from, say, B-52's, Bow Wow Wow and .... heaven knows.

http://www.youtube.com/v/VJ41aVoJZVM

Goodness gracious, great balls of fire - it's KUKL! Boy and girl charging around, shouting and screaming, while four others contrive to make one hell of a racket, lapsing into occasional bouts of melody. I'm not sure that it was their intention, but I found them jolly entertaining, and they should be seen if only to witness the extraordinary performance of that manic little girl".
(Sounds, October 13, 1984)

[Mirror Image]

Cool, thanks for that, Marc. It only rectifies the fact that Bjork is 'all over the musical map.' She has such a wide interest in music that thankfully has been well-documented.

[Mirror Image]

Another song from Debut that I just love to pieces:

http://www.youtube.com/v/PJ10NHdU11Y

Again, I wish I had written this! Damn, Bjork!

[jut1972]

From the 'Non-classical purchases' thread -

I'm also interested in remix recordings. Anyone own any of these? Looks like Biophilia has quite a few of them.

Got literally dozens    (think my record is about 20 remixes of big time sensuality!)

A couple of good places to start:
[asin]B000006SXQ[/asin]

The debut remixes are pretty cool, nice down tempo stuff.
Back then there were a series of vinyl only releases of the main songs from debut, each one had about 500 pressings.  These were then cherry picked for the CD above.

The biophilia album had a series of spin off remixes which were released over 8 volumes.  These were then narrowed down onto the remix album bastards :

[asin]B009MFA2A2[/asin]

There were also lots of sugarcubes remixes lots of which are captured on this:
[asin]B0000248CL[/asin]
This is the 2 disc version, there's also a 1 disc version.

Not the best listening now, but good at the time. 

Start with the debut remixes would be my advice...

Oh and check this out while you are at it...

[asin]B000002MUW[/asin]
Written by Bjork.

[Mirror Image]

Thanks for the suggestions, jut. I'll check those out.

[snyprrr]

Bjork's lookin like that chick from 'Splice'. Her eyes are sooooo far apart.

[TheGSMoeller]

Bjork's lookin like that chick from 'Splice'. Her eyes are sooooo far apart.

Just keep Adrian Brody away from her.

[Mirror Image]

Now listening to:



Absolutely outstanding so far! I really loved every song so far. I'm on Bachelorette right now. I'm digging the string ensemble she uses on this album.

[Mirror Image]

I really enjoyed Homogenic and I'm obviously going to need multiple listens before the album sinks in completely as this one was much complex than Debut or Post. But next up is Vespertine. Then I'm going to listen to Homogenic. Whoever said Homogenic was Bjork's 'darkest' album I don't really agree. I think Post had more darker moments but that's just my opinion. Pluto from Homogenic is downright sinister.

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Not enjoying this album as much as the others at the moment. I liked Hidden Place but absolutely hated Cocoon. I am really enjoying It's Not Up To You, however, at the moment. Beautiful. I can tell also that this is quite a personal album. Perhaps her most personal one yet? What do you guys think?

[Mirror Image]

Okay, so I think Homogenic and Vespertine are two very strong albums and both help piece together strands of Bjork's multifaceted musical persona. They also reveal a musician who is in constant evolution and who is gaining more experience.

[Mirror Image]

Giving Homogenic another listen and then off to bed. Love the strings in Hunter.

[Mirror Image]

A good little read about the 20th anniversary of Debut:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/jul/05/bjork-debut-20-years-of-innovation

[jut1972]

20 years? ! Where did that go?  I remember queuing outside the record store waiting for it to open to get this on release day...

[Mirror Image]

20 years? ! Where did that go?  I remember queuing outside the record store waiting for it to open to get this on release day...

You must be a pretty hardcore fan, jut? Awesome! I'm certainly getting there.

[jut1972]

Indeed! Your cd buying and listening is prolific by any standards!