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Stars And Topsoil
''Stars and Topsoil – A Collection (1982–1990)'' is a compilation album by the Scottish band Cocteau Twins, released on the 4AD label on October 16, 2000. The album featured tracks released during the group's time on 4AD between 1982 and 1990, covering every Cocteau Twins album from '' Garlands'' through ''Heaven or Las Vegas''. The collection reached number sixty-three on the UK Albums Chart. Track listing All songs written by Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde; except where indicated. # "Blind Dumb Deaf" (Fraser, Guthrie, Will Heggie) - 3:47 # "Sugar Hiccup" (Fraser, Guthrie) - 3:41 # "My Love Paramour" (Fraser, Guthrie) - 3:38 # "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" - 4:11 # "Lorelei" - 3:43 # "Pandora" - 5:26 # "Aikea-Guinea" - 3:57 # "Pink Orange Red" - 4:38 # "Pale Clouded White" - 4:59 # "Lazy Calm" (Fraser, Guthrie) - 6:34 # "The Thinner The Air" (Fraser, Guthrie) - 3:16 # "Orange Appled" - 2:50 # "Cico Buff" - 3:46 # "Carolyn's Fingers" - 3:06 # "Fifty-Fifty Cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cocteau Twins
Cocteau Twins was a Scottish rock band active from 1979 to 1997. They were formed in Grangemouth by Robin Guthrie (guitars, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass), adding Elizabeth Fraser (vocals) in 1981 and replacing Heggie with multi-instrumentalist Simon Raymonde in 1983. The group earned critical praise for their ethereal, effects-laden sound and the soprano vocals of Fraser, whose lyrics often eschew any recognisable language. They pioneered the 1980s alternative subgenre of dream pop. After signing with the British record label 4AD in 1982, they released their debut album '' Garlands'' later that year. The addition of Raymonde in 1983 solidified their final lineup, which produced their biggest hit in the UK, "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops", peaking at No. 29 on the UK Singles Chart. In 1988, Cocteau Twins signed with Capitol Records in the United States, distributing their fifth album, ''Blue Bell Knoll'', through a major label in the country. After the 1990 release of their m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heaven Or Las Vegas (song)
"Heaven or Las Vegas" is a song by Scottish band Cocteau Twins. It was released by Capitol Records in October 1990 as the second single from the ''Heaven or Las Vegas'' album. The song has been described as dream pop. In the United States, the song reached No. 9 on ''Billboard'''s Alternative Songs chart in 1991. The track has been recognized as one of the greatest accomplishments in the genre of dream pop as well as one of the Cocteau Twins' most signature songs. Composition Cocteau Twins guitarist Robin Guthrie used four electric guitars during the recording of "Heaven or Las Vegas", including a 1959 Jazzmaster, a 1959 Stratocaster, a PRS guitar and a modified Levinson Blade JM during the track's slide guitar solo, which has been said to have "encapsulated the band’s staggering confidence in arrangements and execution." Bassist Simon Raymonde referred to Guthrie as a "mix king" and a "sonic master" for his work on the track. The song is built off a "simplistic" D-G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivo Watts-Russell
Ivo Watts-Russell (born 1954) is a British music producer and record label executive. He was joint-founder with Peter Kent of the indie record label 4AD. He has produced several records, although he prefers to use the term "musical director". Early years Watts-Russell was born in Edinburgh, the youngest of eight children of Major David Watts-Russell and Gina Spinola (née Baker); he "never related emotionally" to either of his parents, and grew up "on a dilapidated Northamptonshire estate in an atmosphere of almost Victorian froideur". His paternal grandfather, Captain Arthur Egerton Birch, of the Coldstream Guards (son of the colonial administrator Sir Arthur Nonus Birch), took his mother's surname at the age of 21, she being of the Watts-Russell gentry family formerly of Ilam Hall, Staffordshire.Burke's Landed Gentry, 18th edition, vol. 2, ed. Peter Townend, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1969, pp. 543-544 Captain Arthur Egerton Watts-Russell married Sylvia Grenfell, of the family of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass Guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and typically four to six strings or courses. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music. The four-string bass is usually tuned the same as the double bass, which corresponds to pitches one octave lower than the four lowest-pitched strings of a guitar (typically E, A, D, and G). It is played primarily with the fingers or thumb, or with a pick. To be heard at normal performance volumes, electric basses require external amplification. Terminology According to the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', an "Electric bass guitar sa Guitar, usually with four heavy strings tuned E1'–A1'–D2–G2." It also defines ''bass'' as "Bass (iv). A contraction of Double bas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strings against frets with the fingers of the opposite hand. A plectrum or individual finger picks may also be used to strike the strings. The sound of the guitar is projected either acoustically, by means of a resonant chamber on the instrument, or amplified by an electronic pickup and an amplifier. The guitar is classified as a chordophone – meaning the sound is produced by a vibrating string stretched between two fixed points. Historically, a guitar was constructed from wood with its strings made of catgut. Steel guitar strings were introduced near the end of the nineteenth century in the United States; nylon strings came in the 1940s. The guitar's ancestors include the gittern, the vihuela, the four- course Renaissance guitar, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir. Singers may perform as soloists or accompanied by anything from a single instrument (as in art song or some jazz styles) up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Different singing styles include art music such as opera and Chinese opera, Indian music, Japanese music, and religious music styles such as gospel, traditional music styles, world music, jazz, blues, ghazal, and popular music styles such as pop, rock, and electronic dance music. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged, or improvised. It may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual as part of music education or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Bell Knoll
''Blue Bell Knoll'' is the fifth studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins, released on 19 September 1988 by 4AD. This was the band's first album to receive major-label distribution in the United States, as it was originally licensed by Capitol Records from 4AD for North American release. After a period of being out of print while 4AD reclaimed the American distribution rights for their back catalogue, the album (along with much of the band's 4AD material) was remastered by guitarist Robin Guthrie and reissued in 2003. Vocalist Elizabeth Fraser named the album after a peak in southern Utah called Bluebell Knoll. Upon the album's release, it was voted as ''Album of the Week'' by Dutch radio broadcaster Omroepvereniging VARA. In 2014, the album was repressed on 180g vinyl using new high definition masters. Critical reception In a contemporary review of ''Blue Bell Knoll'', Victoria Thieberger of ''The Age'' appraised it as "everything that atmospheric music s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Love's Easy Tears
''Love's Easy Tears'' is an EP by Scottish dream pop band Cocteau Twins. It was released by 4AD in September 1986 as a 12" single, and was later re-released as a CD single with a fourth track, ''Orange Appled'', included. It was the eighth EP released by the band, their last EP for 4AD, and their last EP until 1993's ''Snow''. Reception The EP was critically well received. Michael Fischer of ''The Michigan Daily ''The Michigan Daily'' is the weekly student newspaper of the University of Michigan. Its first edition was published on September 29, 1890. The newspaper is financially and editorially independent of the University's administration and other stu ...'' described it as "ethereal romanticism" that made "for the closest thing in pop to a music for Gothic cathedrals". Track listing All songs written and produced by Cocteau Twins 7": 4AD / AD 610 (UK) #"Love's Easy Tears" – 3:36 #"Those Eyes, That Mouth" – 3:37 12": 4AD / BAD 610 (UK) #"Love's Easy Tears" – 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victorialand
''Victorialand'' is the fourth studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins, released by 4AD in 1986. Working without bassist Simon Raymonde, vocalist Elizabeth Fraser and guitarist/producer Robin Guthrie opted for a subtler sound on the album. Background ''Victorialand'' was recorded without bassist Simon Raymonde, who had been enlisted to collaborate on the second This Mortal Coil album ''Filigree & Shadow'' (1986). The duo of Guthrie and Fraser opted for a subtler sound which dispensed with most percussion and bass, instead consisting primarily of Guthrie's "delicate guitar filigrees and lush, produced textures." As is often the case with Fraser's vocals, the lyrics are indecipherable. For example, Fraser took a passage from a non-English language book to write the lyrics for “Whales Tails”, not knowing what the words meant. The album title refers to the part of Antarctica known as Victoria Land, after Queen Victoria (and forming the British claim to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Echoes In A Shallow Bay
''Echoes in a Shallow Bay'' is an EP by Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins, released on 4AD. The EP featured four non-album tracks. It was issued on 29 November 1985, two weeks after another EP, '' Tiny Dynamine''. The two EP sets, which featured complementary artwork, were also released as a combined double EP in a gatefold cover, and as an eight-track CD. The EP was reissued in 1991 as part of '' The Box Set'' and in 2005 as part of the singles/EP collection ''Lullabies to Violaine''. A new vinyl version, sourced from digital files created from a new transfer of the original analogue tapes, was released in 2015, combined with the ''Tiny Dynamine'' EP. Background The band did not originally intend to release these songs to the general public, presumably explaining the decision to release the material on EPs, rather than as what would have been their fourth album. The tracks on ''Tiny Dynamine'' and ''Echoes in a Shallow Bay'' were initially recorded to test the produ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tiny Dynamine
''Tiny Dynamine'' is an EP by Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins, released on 4AD Records. The EP featured four non-album tracks. It was issued on 15 November 1985, two weeks prior to another EP, ''Echoes in a Shallow Bay''. The two EP sets, which featured complementary artwork, were also released as a combined double EP in a gatefold cover and as an eight-track CD. The EP was later included in its entirety on the 1991 compilation '' The Box Set'' and the 2005 singles/EP collection ''Lullabies to Violaine''. Release details The band did not originally intend to release these songs to the general public, presumably explaining the decision to release the material on EPs, rather than as what would have been their fourth album. The tracks on ''Tiny Dynamine'' and ''Echoes in a Shallow Bay'' were initially recorded to test the production capacities of a new studio. When the band decided the material was strong enough for release, they completed the recording process and is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aikea-Guinea
''Aikea-Guinea'' is a March 1985 7" single and 12" EP by Scottish dream pop band Cocteau Twins, released on 4AD. The 7" featured two non-album tracks, while the EP added two more. Release ''Aikea-Guinea'' was included as a bonus with some Canadian pressings of ''Treasure''. The title track also appears on the compilation ''The Pink Opaque'' (1985), and a remastered version appears on '' Stars and Topsoil'' (2000). On the 7", the song "Kookaburra" has a short percussive introduction that is not present on the EP. The EP was reissued in 1991 as part of '' The Box Set'' and again in 2005 as part of the '' Lullabies to Violaine'' compilation, this time with a remixed "alternate" version of the title track. Meaning of the title According to Robin Guthrie, the word "aikea-guinea" is a Scottish colloquialism for a seashell. Track listing All songs written and produced by Cocteau Twins. # "Aikea-Guinea" – 3:57 # "Kookaburra" – 3:19 # "Quisquose" – 4:10 (EP only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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