-=- SHGZ -=- * Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal * ARTIST..: Cocteau Twins ALBUM...: Treasure Hiding - The Fontana Years GENRE...: Indie STYLE...: Ethereal, Dream Pop, Alternative Rock, Downtempo YEAR....: 2018 LABEL...: Phonogram ENCODER.: LAME 3.98.4 -V0 BITRATE.: 250 kbps avg QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo SOURCE..: CD TRACKS..: 53 SIZE....: 383.41 MB URL..: https://www.cocteautwins.com - TRACKLIST Disc 1 - Four-Calendar CafΘ ------ 1 Know Who You Are At Every Age 3:38 2 Evangeline 4:28 3 Bluebeard 3:53 4 Theft, And Wandering Around Lost 4:28 5 Oil Of Angels 4:37 6 Squeeze-Wax 3:46 7 My Truth 4:31 8 Essence 3:01 9 Summerhead 3:37 10 Pur 5:03 Disc 2 - Milk & Kisses ------ 1 Violaine 3:46 2 Serpentskirt 3:57 3 Tishbite 3:51 4 Half-Gifts 4:18 5 Calfskin Smack 4:58 6 Rilkean Heart 4:02 7 Ups 3:36 8 Eperdu 4:41 9 Treasure Hiding 4:53 10 Seekers Who Are Lovers 4:41 Disc 3- EP's & Rarities ------ 1 Mud And Dark (Evangeline) 3:42 2 Summer-Blink (Evangeline) 3:09 3 Winter Wonderland (Snow EP) 2:50 4 Frosty The Snowman (Snow EP) 2:55 5 Three Swept (Bluebeard Single) 3:36 6 Ice Pulse (Bluebeard Single) 3:45 7 Bluebeard (Acoustic Version) 3:08 (Bluebeard Single) 8 Rilkean Heart (Twinlights) 2:22 9 Golden-Vein (Twinlights) 2:50 10 Pink Orange Red (Twinlights) 4:31 11 Half-Gifts (Twinlights) 4:14 12 Feet Like Fins (Recycled by Mark 5:30 Clifford) (Otherness) 13 Seekers Who Are Lovers (Recycled by 5:41 Mark Clifford) (Otherness) 14 Violaine (Recycled by Mark Clifford) 5:07 (Otherness) 15 Cherry Coloured Funk (Recycled by Mark 5:47 Clifford) (Otherness) 16 Tishbite (Tishbite) 3:13 17 Primitive Heart (Tishbite) 4:07 18 Flock Of Soul (Tishbite) 3:36 19 Round (Tishbite) 3:36 20 An Elan (Tishbite) 4:38 Disc 4 - Sessions & Rarities ------ 1 Smile (Violaine EP) 4:26 2 Tranquil Eye (Violaine EP) 3:54 3 Circling Girl (Violaine EP) 3:33 4 Alice (Violaine EP) 4:29 5 Circling Girl (Volume Magazine Track) 3:36 6 Touch Upon Touch (Volume Magazine 4:06 Track) 7 Serpentskirt (Mark Radcliffe Session, 3:46 12 March 1996) 8 Golden-Vein (Mark Radcliffe Session, 2:47 12 March 1996) 9 Half-Gifts (Mark Radcliffe Session, 12 3:50 March 1996) 10 Seekers Who Are Lovers (Mark Radcliffe 4:22 Session, 12 March 1996) 11 Calfskin Smack (Robert Elms BBC 4:27 Session / 10th April 1996) 12 Fifty-Fifty Clown (Robert Elms BBC 3:15 Session / 10th April 1996) 13 Violaine (Robert Elms BBC Session / 3:50 10th April 1996) Total Playtime: 212:23 Notice! Typo throughout on box/cover: Volaine EP - correct is "Violaine" https://www.discogs.com/Cocteau-Twins-Treasure-Hiding-The-Fontana-Years/relea se/12640725 Discogs informs that Cherry Coloured Funk written without a hyphen is a typo. This is only partially correct as the track WAS labelled Cherry-Coloured Funk on the original release of "Heaven Or Las Vegas" - https://www.discogs.com/Cocteau-Twins-Heaven-Or-Las-Vegas/release/58433 But the reissue of this song on the "Otherness" EP omitted the hyphen. https://www.discogs.com/Cocteau-Twins-Otherness/master/13549 INFO: Disc 3- EP's & Rarities - Tracks 12-15 - Otherness EP The EP "Otherness" was the only official remix record released by Cocteau Twins. It features 4 "recycled" tracks remixed by Mark Radcliff of Seefeel. (booklet08.jpg) https://www.cocteautwins.com/html/discography/discog_23.html INFO: Disc 4 - Sessions & Rarities - Tracks 5 & 8 An alternate mix of "Circling Girl" (Track 5) was originally released on the compilation CD/magazine Volume 15. This was the last Cocteau Twins release to appear on Mercury/Fontana (with the exception of the song "Touch Upon Touch," (Track 6) which was released in late 1996 on the compilation Volume 17). * There was perhaps a sense, after a while, that the world was taking The Cocteau Twins for granted. Late Eighties reviews had routinely described them as The Voice of God, yet 4AD, concerned that we'd get tired of appreciating the rarefied genius which shimmered in front of our noses, would keep reminding us that they were truly special. The irony was that The Cocteaus were themselves evolving, morphing, reconstituting and taking on new shapes. This wasn't widely registered at the time. It can be now, as The Fontana Years demonstrates a musical marvel which still makes your ears feel like they're sucking citrus fruits after years of licking ashtrays, while the rings of Saturn crash-land in your front room. This 4-CD set brings together the two albums the band recorded for Fontana along with B-Sides, EP's, Radio One sessions and the odd rarity. The set was mastered at Abbey Road from the original tapes and approved by Robin Guthrie. Housed in a study box designed by James Issacs û the booklet contains photos a discography from the era as well as a sleeve note by noted author Chris Roberts. * Collecting the sometimes-dismissed output of these pioneers between their masterpiece and their breakup, this box set sheds welcome light on how relevant many of these songs remain. Before Cocteau Twins released their perfect sixth album, Heaven or Las Vegas, in 1990, they had spent the previous decade building a discography as innovative and amorphous as, say, Bowie in the 1970s or Aphex Twin in the 1990s. Their catalogue of curiosities sounded nothing like what had come before. Elizabeth Fraser's voice could do anything and did everything, groaning like a rusty switchblade being opened, soothing like a dopamine flood in the brain, performing runs like Mariah Carey and Maria Callas combined. Her partner, Robin Guthrie, played guitar and programmed drum machines with the sui generis, near-mystical ease of Mark Rothko's painting or Martha Graham's motion. Simon Raymonde, who joined soon after the Twins began, offered unexpected choral basslines that propelled it all. And then, Cocteau Twins began to break down. They left the label they'd defined, 4AD, in a flurry of financial and personal acrimonyà and cocaine. The birth of Fraser and Guthrie's child had largely inspired the wonder of Heaven, but becoming parents was no panacea. The survival of their marriage and the band seemed unlikely. When a single, "Evangeline," arrived in 1993, the first shock was its mere existence. Treasure Hiding: The Fontana Years gathers their creations for a new label after "Evangeline"ùfour subsequent singles, their B-sides and the albums they accompanied, a pair of lovely EPs, some typically beautiful odds and ends, and a few live sessions. But Treasure Hiding is sometimes just good, its miscellany confirming suspicions that the Twins sometimes settled for spinning their celestial wheels. Nevertheless, revelations abound. The second shock of "Evangeline" was the sound. It begins with a guitar being picked, something more identifiable than Guthrie had ever offered. And almost never before had Fraser just sort of stood there and sang. Michael Stipe could mumble and be haled, and other guys made careers of bad poetry inspired by Burroughsian cut-ups. Fraser shaped assemblages of academic and arcane lexicons over the Beach Boys' close and complicated harmonies, forming an inimitable style. Perhaps because she was a woman, fans sold it short as divine inspiration, while foes dismissed it as some girlie bullshit. A power ballad that could make Diane Warren proud, "Evangeline" suggests these poetics were always protective cloaks. "I had to fantasize just to survive," Fraser announces over a tear-jerking final key change. That directnessùalong with the title and unexpected singer-songwriter vibe of the accompanying album, Four-Calendar CafΘùcarried through on "Bluebeard," the next single. "Are you the right man for me?/Are you safe? Are you my friend?" Fraser asks over a very good imitation of the Smiths. Guthrie mostly abandons pyrotechnics for conservative comfort, but Fraser's plain words take the risks as she ask questions we all should have for the men in our lives, our homes, our courts, our culture. Four-Calendar CafΘ is full of trauma's echoes. On top of a very troubled marriage to Guthrie, a lifelong anxiety disorder, and issues of addiction, Fraser had finally decided to stare down the lingering effects of what, in Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD, author Martin Aston calls "sexual abuse she suffered in her youth, from within her own family." In the icy "Theft, and Wandering Around Lost," she sings, "My body is mine alone/And I deserve protection." Out with the glossolalia and in with Kathleen Hanna, just sung like Karen Carpenterùthese are easy-listening songs about the difficulty of being kind to yourself. At a moment when society has never seemed more divided between those who have survived abuse and those amused by its prospect, Fraser's expressions of fury on her own terms feel timely and urgent. A pair of EPs offered two paths forward in 1995: Twinlights is essentially Cocteau Twins Unplugged, asserting the good bones of early standards on "Pink Orange Red" and offering new odes to self-care on "Rilkean Heart." Otherness adds the dubby languor of Seefeel's Mark Clifford and remains fascinating. Further steps in either direction might have been fruitful, and the latter path might have even restored some critical acclaim. Instead, they retreated for 1996's Milk & Kisses; Fraser's voice and Guthrie's guitar meet halfway, both showing up but not showing off. CafΘ's rage has settled into turbulence, with Fraser beautifully exhibiting her linguistic filigree and Guthrie putting on a shoegaze workshop. "Half-Gifts" and "Eperdu" approach the old cathedrals of Blue Bell Knoll; B-sides like "Round" and "An Elan" are ineffable epics, not to be missed as the Twins neared their end. When Kisses closes with the bleak "Seekers Who Are Lovers" and the sound of blowing wind, it's tough to imagine what could have been left. There wasn't much, turns outùa few compilation appearances, a live session that doesn't capture the fury and magic they summoned onstage. And then they split, probably for good. More than 20 years later, it's easy to remember Cocteau Twins for their otherworldly grandeur, their belief in turning toward beauty in the face of ugliness. That's achievement enough. But Cocteau Twins did more. When, after years of hiding within invention, Fraser finally asked to be heard, she sang the words she needed to hear. We needed them then and now, too. The grandest of finales, CafΘ's "Pur" ends with words as charged as the band's most groundbreaking music. "I'm glad you are a girl," she sings. "You are angry and that's OK/I am not afraid of your anger/What do you need? What do you want?/I love you, and I know that you can figure it out." * Over their final five years, Cocteau Twins released some of the bravest, most enthralling music of their career. So why didn't it seem so at the time? One virtue of Treasure Hiding: The Fontana Years û a 4CD compilation of the two albums and other recordings that followed the trio's tenure with 4AD û is how it creates a fresh context for music that was often dismissed as more of the same, only not quite so sublime. Yet the problem was not with them (though as indicated by the revelations of Rumours-level messiness that emerged after their split in 1998, the Cocteaus had no lack of problems). It was with those of us who foolishly took them for granted. If we'd only known how seldom we'd hear Elizabeth Fraser sing new songs in the decades since, we would not have been so cavalier. Even so, there was bound to be a comedown after 1990's Heaven Or Las Vegas, the rapturously received sixth album which yielded the band's first Top 10 entry in the UK and commercial breakthrough in the US. That sort of success has many side effects, one being that a band whose sound had been so unique now had to compete with many stylistic descendants. In the case of Cocteau Twins, this progeny ranged from more commercially savvy acts who aped Fraser's sumptuous soprano and the songs' lush, melancholy swirl (Sundays, Cranberries), to shoegazers even more in love with their pedals than Robin Guthrie was (Slowdive, Ride). The unexpected split with 4AD û Ivo Watts-Russell dropping the act after a falling-out with Guthrie û also stirred up the suspicions that arose when any much-cherished artist of the era crossed the indie-major divide. There was wariness about changes to the formula as well. The most dramatic was Fraser's continued shift away from the ecstatic swoops of glossolalia that filled Treasure and Blue Bell Knoll. In their place were lyrics that could seem disconcertingly comprehensible even if their full meaning would not be clearer until much later. It's now far more obvious how much Four-Calendar CafΘ û originally released in 1993 and presented here with a new remaster supervised by Guthrie û reflects the fraught circumstances of its creation. As Fraser's relationship with Guthrie crumbled under the pressures of parenthood and his worsening addiction issues, feelings of uncertainty, anxiety and anger poured out of her. "Are you the right man for me?" she wonders in "Bluebeard". Elsewhere, the language of psychotherapy sessions and late-night diary entries predominates. ?"I am not the same, I'm growing up again," she sings in a wrenchingly vulnerable passage in "Evangeline". "There's no going back, I can't stop feeling now." The album's recording was interrupted halfway through when Guthrie entered rehab. He'd later note how he'd crafted the album's more upbeat material while still "bombed", the graver likes of "Essence" emerging from his new sobriety. Fraser was also briefly hospitalised for a nervous breakdown. However painful the duo's breakup, they found the means to persevere. There were rosier developments too, like Fraser's intense affair with a young singer who idolised her: Jeff Buckley. She'd later pay homage to him on "Rilkean Heart", an especially lustrous song on 1996's Milk & Kisses. The album's spareness and serenity may suggest it was born of less difficult times, but Fraser's struggles remain palpable. In "Rilkean Heart" she apologises for the demands her need for love create for anyone she expects to "transport me out of self and aloneness and alienation into a sense of oneness and connection, ecstatic and magical". Such is Fraser's genius at phrasing, she makes even this potentially ungainly confession seem transcendent. Another virtue of Treasure Hiding is how it proves Cocteau Twins albums were often trumped by their accompanying EPs. That was certainly the case for Milk And Kisses, which was preceded by two stunning and stunningly different four-track releases in 1995. While "Twinlights"' largely acoustic versions of new songs like "Half-Gifts" and Tiny Dynamine's "Pink Orange Red" are stunning for their grace and intimacy, "Otherness" sees them venture into the field of post-rock abstractions then being explored by acts like Seefeel, whose Mark Clifford contributes a dubby deconstruction of Heaven Or Las Vegas' "Cherry-Coloured Funk". More riches lie among the trove of rarities, radio sessions and, of course, renditions of "Winter Wonderland" and "Frosty The Snowman". -=- SHGZ -=- P.S. ** Thanks *** *** BCC FNT IPC SSR *** *** For Knowing Where The Music Is At *** *** Props to CaHeSo, awesome Asian Indie/Shoegaze *** *** And to FANG/HOUND for supporting all the Indie lovers out there *** --===-- ********************* * NuHS we miss you! * *********************