Barry Adamson "The Murky World of Barry Adamson" Mute Corporation Mute 9093-2 1999 (54:55)
The Man With The Golden Arm (5:15)
Jazz Devil (5:06)
The Big Bamboozle (3:36)
What It Means (3:59)
The Vibes Ain't Nothin' But The Vibes (4:49)
Mitch And Andy;(4:25)
The Snowball Effect (4:25)
Can't Get Loose (5:31)
007, A Fantasy Bond Theme (3:59)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (4:34)
Walk The Last Mile (5:01)
Saturn in the Summertime (4:15)
Overall impression: very good. Barry Adamson, former bass player for Magazine, the Birthday Party and Nick Cave's Bad Seeds, fired up a solo career in 1988 with his debut single on Mute Records, "The Man With The Golden Arm". Adamson's music is cinematic in nature combining elements of orchestral arrangement, jazz, big band, rock, hip-hop, noise, etc to create soundtracks for films that don't actually exist, and a few that: "Delusion", "Gas, Food and Lodging" and "Lost Highway". Eleven years, 4 albums and numerous singles and eps later Mute has seen fit to release a compilation of Adamson's tracks. Don't you just hate it when a label puts out a "best of" compilation with a few extra tracks to make you buy it? Yeah, so do I. "The Murky World of Barry Adamson" does just that: 3 previously unreleased tracks are thrown into a mix of 9 previously released tracks. Of the 9 previously released tracks 6 are from the 2 most recent albums "As above So below" (1998) and "Oedipus Schmoedipus" (1996). The unreleased tracks sound to me like they're from the same time frame as those 2 albums. "The;Man.." is from the debut single of the same name as well as "Moss Side Story" (1988), "The Snowball Effect" from "The Negro Inside Me" ep (1993) and "007, A Fantasy Bond Theme" from "Soul Murder" (1992). The uneveness and non-chronological tracking puts me off a bit, it's really not a true "best of" but it is a damn fine collection of tunes and a great introduction to the uninitiated. "Murky.." is really more song-based than soundtrack, a nice balance of Adamson's many styles: the bombastic big band orchestrations of "The Man..", "The Big Bamboozle" and Adamson's take on the 007 theme, the cool jazzy swing of "Jazz Devil" and "Something Wicked..", the upbeat grooves of "What It Means" and "The Snowball Effect", etc. Even though I'm a longtime fan who already has everything released to date, the 3 new tracks alone were worth the price of admission. "Mitch And Andy" is a clever spoken tale of the fate of two low level thieves over a plodding piano and hi-hat line. One of those tracks that's best on the first listen (like "Vermillion Kisses" from "Oedipus.."), before you know the punchline. "Walk The Last Mile" is a gentle, smooth and funky bass line driven track with Adamson's mellow whispered croonings. "Saturn in the Summertime" is a somewhat uncharacteristically bright and cheerful, upbeat instrumental featuring catchy trumpet lines throughout. Great stuff. If you like what you hear here, do yourself a favor and track down all of the albums and eps. None are to be missed. And don't let this disc fool you, Adamson has shown no sign of letting up any time soon ...
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Where did I get this cd? - mail order via CD World