Still kinda stunned a coup

le of days later to realise that Scott Walker has died. He w

as truly an original (and dammit, 2019 looks set to be one of those years when you start to worry when you see someone’s name trending on twitter).

I’d covered Scott Walker’s releases both here and over on God Is In The

TV, and you can find links to pieces I wrote here:

 Soused (with SUNN O))) review at 17 Seconds

The Childhood Of A Leader OST review at GIITTV

We Had It All re-evaluated at GIITTV

And some thoughts on what I think might be the best Scott Walker track, ‘It’s Raining Again‘:

I don’t normally run many news pieces in here, but when there’s a box set coming of the first five Scott Walker albums, that’s worth shouting about, right?

Right. Scott: The Collection 1967-1970 contains his first five solo albums (Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3, Scott 4 and Til The Band Comes In). Amazing pieces of work in their own right, and with awesome songs on it. It’s out on June 3.

I think I picked up on Scott Walker in my

mid-twenties, as I was working my way through the influences. He’d been a big influence on David Bowie, Ian McCulloch and Julian Cope. Plus I’d loved Marc Almond’s cover of ‘Jacky’
, which was a hit in 1991. This wasn’t a Walker original, but he’d made it his own, and Almond’s cover, looking back, is just as much a tribute to Walker as Jacques Brel, the author.

You

can see the tracklisting here.

Meanwhile, here’s a few videos for songs from the collecti

on. Enjoy.

From Scott ‘Amsterdam.’

From Scott 2 ‘Plastic Palace People.’

From Scott 3 ‘Winter Night’

From Scott

4 ‘The Old Man’s Back Again (Dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime)’

From

Til The Band Comes In ‘The War

Is Over (Sleepers).’

Somehow, you just know that there are going to be people out there who wonder why Scott Walker can’t continue making records full of songs like ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore’ and ‘No Regrets.’

Granted, they may be more accessible than the work he has produced over the last thirty years. But with his new album Bish Bosch, he’s certainly continuing to pursue a vision of enquiry that is more radical than many o

f his contemporaries from the 1960s. Actually, more radical than many other musicians full stop.

This is the video for ‘Epizootics!’ the first track to do the rounds from Bish Bosch. It’s porbably best summed up by a comment on YouTube which says: ‘Brilliant music. Creepy, enigmatic visuals. I’d like

to imagine David Lynch see

s this today and says “Shi

t, I’ve got to step up my? game!” ‘

Enjoy…

Blimey. Not only have we had three albums from Kate Bush in the last seven yea

rs (ok, so one of them was a collection of re-workings, but substantially reworked, so we’ll count it), but Scott Walker is set to release another album, a mere six years after the last, 2006’s The Drift.

Entitled Bish Bosh, Walker started writing new material around 2009 (whilst also scoring the ROH 2’s Duet For One Voice ballet) recording it sporadically over the following three years. Bish Bosch is described as

being ‘a tauter but more colourful experience than The Drift, with greater emphasis on processed, abrasive guitars, digital keyboards and thick silences.’ (This means it is unlikely to be Scott 4 part 2, in other

words.)

Walker has worked with co-producer Peter Walsh and a regular core of musicians, Ian Thomas (drums), Hugh Burns (guitar), James Stevenson (guitar), Alasdair Malloy (percussion) and John Giblin (bass). Musical director Mark Warman also played a prominent role, both as condu

ctor and ke

yboardist, while guests include trumpeter Guy Barker and pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole, who worked on three of Scott’s mid-seventies LP

s. For tracks ‘SDSS1416+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)’, ‘Dimple’ and ‘Corps de Blah’, Scott drafted in an orchestra, recording them in The Hall at Air Studios last November.

This is the tracklisting for Bish Bosh, released on 4AD on December 3:

1. ‘See You Don’t Bump His Head’
2. Corps De Blah
3. Phrasing
4. SDSS1416+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)
5.

Epizootics!
6. Dimple
7. Tar
8. Pilgrim
9. The Day The “Conducator” Died

This is ‘Clara’ from The Drift, releas

ed on 4AD in 2006. Very good, very weird and not a little scary…