''Real to Real Cacophony'' (sometimes incorrectly referred as ''Reel to Real Cacophony'') is the second studio album by Scottish rock band

Simple Minds Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1977. They have released a string of hit singles, becoming best known internationally for "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (1985), which topped the '' Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United St ...

. It was released on 23 November 1979 through record labels

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and Arista.

Recording

''Real to Real Cacophony'' was recorded and mixed in five weeks at

Rockfield Studios Rockfield Studios is a residential recording studio located in the Wye Valley just outside the village of Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales. It was originally founded in 1963 by brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward. Facilities Rockfield is a two- ...

. According to producer

John Leckie John William Leckie (born 23 October 1949) is an English record producer and recording engineer. His production credits include Magazine's ''Real Life'' (1978), XTC's ''White Music'' (1978) and Dukes of Stratosphear's '' 25 O'Clock'' (1985), t ...

the band had only four songs ("Premonition", "Factory", "Calling Your Name" and "Changeling"), the rest of the album was written in the studio.

Release

''Real to Real Cacophony'' was less successful than '' Life in a Day'', it did not chart, nor did its only single, "Changeling". The 2002/2003 reissues by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

incorrectly render the album's title as ''Reel to Real Cacophony'', and the opening track as "Reel to Real". The new spelling also appears in the discography section of all the inlays in the 2002/2003 Simple Minds remastered edition series. Subsequent editions render the title of both the album and track correctly.

Critical reception

''Real to Real Cacophony'' has been generally well received by critics. In ''

Sounds In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

'', John Gill wrote: "''Real to Real Cacophony'' shows a considerable – and brave – progression. It captures some of the shock-effects of the avant-garde, some of the emotional power of outfits like

the Pop Group The Pop Group are an English rock band formed in Bristol in 1977 by vocalist Mark Stewart, guitarist John Waddington, bassist Simon Underwood, guitarist/saxophonist Gareth Sager, and drummer Bruce Smith. Their work in the late 1970s crossed d ...

, yet still retains the best of the Minds tight and trebly riffing. File under impressive." Eric Chappe of ''

CMJ New Music Monthly CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

'' highlighted Simple Minds' "determination to constantly add unexpected touches to the arrangements". Retrospectively, Andy Kellman of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

praised ''Real to Real Cacophony'', saying that it marked the point "where Simple Minds ventured beyond the ability to mimic their influences and began to manipulate them, mercilessly pushing them around and shaping them into funny objects the way a child transforms a chunk of

Play-Doh Play-Doh is a modeling compound for young children to make arts and crafts projects at home. The product was first manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, as a wallpaper cleaner in the 1930s. Play-Doh was then reworked and marketed to Cin ...

from an indefinable chunk of nothing into a definable chunk of something", and calling it "an achievement that's on a plane with other 1979

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

landmarks like ''

Metal Box ''Metal Box'' is the second studio album by Public Image Ltd, released by Virgin Records on 23 November 1979. The album takes its name from the round metal canister which contained the initial pressings of the record. It was later reissued in s ...

'', '' 154'', ''

Entertainment! ''Entertainment!'' is the debut album by English post-punk band Gang of Four. It was released in September 1979 through EMI Records internationally and Warner Bros. Records in North America. Stylistically, it draws heavily on punk rock but als ...

'' and ''

Unknown Pleasures ''Unknown Pleasures'' is the debut studio album by English rock band Joy Division, released on 15 June 1979 by Factory Records. The album was recorded and mixed over three successive weekends at Stockport's Strawberry Studios in April 1979, wit ...

''". Bob Stanley wrote in ''

Record Collector ''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine. It was founded in 1980 and distributes worldwide. History The early years The first standalone issue of ''Record Collector'' was published in March 1980, though its history stretches ba ...

'' that the album "should be hailed as a singularly strong post-punk-into-

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

bridge but the shadow of '

Belfast Child "Belfast Child" is a song by Simple Minds, first released as the lead track on the ''Ballad of the Streets'' EP on 6 February 1989. The EP also included "Mandela Day" (originally its B-side). The record reached number one on the UK Singles Cha ...

' looms over their legacy." ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...

'' was more lukewarm, remarking that the album "lives up (or down) to the clever title".

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the album's liner notes. Simple Minds *

Jim Kerr James Kerr (born 9 July 1959) is a Scottish singer and the lead singer of the rock band Simple Minds, becoming best known internationally for "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (1985), which topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United States. O ...

– vocals, arrangements * Charles Burchill – guitar,

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

, arrangements *

Derek Forbes Derek Forbes (born 22 June 1956) is a Scottish bassist, vocalist, and occasional guitarist. He is mostly associated with the Scottish band Simple Minds, having joined in time to record their early demos in 1978 and stayed with the band during ...

– bass guitar, arrangements * Brian McGee – drums, percussion, arrangements *

Michael MacNeil Norman Michael MacNeil is a Scottish songwriter and keyboardist born 20 July 1958 on the Isle of Barra, Scotland. He is best known as a former member of the group Simple Minds. MacNeil joined the band in 1978 and left in 1990. He released the ...

– keyboards, arrangements Technical * John Leckie – producer,

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, mixing, arrangements * Mariella Sometimes – tape operator * Paul Henry – sleeve, packaging * Graphyk – sleeve graphics * Sheila Rock – sleeve photography * Trevor Rodgers – sleeve photography

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1979 albums Simple Minds albums Albums produced by John Leckie Arista Records albums Albums recorded at Rockfield Studios