Oct 14, 2018

Sundaze 1841

Hello,

Today's Artist is  an English guitarist and singer, originally from Bristol, England and now based in France, who plays dark folk music. He also produced and recorded electronic music under the name The Third Eye Foundation.  .....N'Joy

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Matt Elliott's work as the Third Eye Foundation melds layers of droning noise with clattering drums and harrowing samples, resulting in disturbing yet captivating reflections of a life plagued by fear and hopelessness. Elliott originated from Bristol, England, and his work has combined influences from the city's space rock, drum'n'bass, and trip-hop scenes. He'll often combine supremely fast, chopped-to-smithereens breaks with other drums or samples that are heavily slowed down or stretched out, producing an extremely disorienting effect. Following a burst of activity resulting in several acclaimed albums, singles, and remixes from 1996 to the beginning of the 21st century, Elliott put the Foundation on hold and focused on writing downcast, experimental folk-influenced songs under his own name, but he's revived the project on occasion.

During the early '90s, Elliott played in a group called the Secret Garden along with Richard Walker, who left in 1992 and founded the experimental group Amp. Elliott contributed to early releases by Amp and Flying Saucer Attack, two groups from Bristol that blended harsh noise with ethereal elements, and were often referred to as space rock. Semtex, the Third Eye Foundation's debut full-length, appeared on Linda's Strange Vacation in 1996, and pushed these elements further, with vocals and guitars by Debbie Parsons (aka Foehn) trapped under a maelstrom of relentless distorted drums. Three other singles appeared during the same year, including an unrelated EP on Domino that also bore the title Semtex, and featured overdriven breakbeats similar to the work Alec Empire was producing at the time. Another release, In Version, featured remixes of tracks by Amp, Flying Saucer Attack, and Crescent.

In 1997, 3EF shared a split 12" with V/Vm, kicking off FatCat Records' split series. The Foundation remained with Domino in the U.K., while signing to Merge in the United States for second full-length Ghost, which appeared in 1997, as did the Sound of Violence EP. Pan Odyssey, a collaborative EP with Bump & Grind, was released by Sub Rosa in 1998. Shortly following the Fear of a Wack Planet single, the full-length You Guys Kill Me appeared by the end of the year. Little Lost Soul, a slightly more restrained full-length, was released in 2000, and 3EF's remixes for artists including Yann Tiersen, Tarwater, and Blonde Redhead were rounded up on 2001's I Poo Poo on Your Juju.

In 2003, Elliott began releasing music under his own name, drifting away from electronic music and closer to dark, dreamlike experimental indie folk. The Mess We Made, Elliott's debut solo album under his own name, was released in 2003. The name change also marked the shift in his work from electronic music to dark, dreamlike experimental folk. Following the album, he moved to France and signed with French label Ici D'Ailleurs. His subsequent albums were far more influenced by chansons and Eastern European music, but they continued the dark themes of his previous work, as evidenced by titles such as Drinking Songs and Failing Songs. In 2009, Elliott participated in This Immortal Coil, a tribute to Coil's Jhonn Balance that also included contributions from Tiersen, DAAU, and Bonnie "Prince" Billy. The project's full-length The Dark Age of Love was issued by Ici D'Ailleurs. Elliott also toured with Yann Tiersen that year, opening for the composer as well as playing in his band. In 2010, Elliott made a surprising return to the Third Eye Foundation moniker for the release of the politically motivated The Dark. He returned to his given name in 2012 for The Broken Man. Only Myocardial Infarction Can Break Your Heart followed in 2013, and The Calm Before arrived three years later.  The Third Eye Foundation returned in 2018 with the dub-influenced full-length Wake the Dead.


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Former Third Eye Foundation principal Matt Elliott has spent most of his recording career as a modish UK hipster in a dark disguise: thus, the leap from "Third Eye Foundation" to "Matt Elliott" should involve a nice dose of lurid confessionalism, some newfound honesty, a running-around-naked-in-daylight reinvention of self. Right?

Overarching artistic sensibilities endure, and name-altering is about as thematically relevant as changing your clothes. Technically, though, there are loads of notable switches here that indicate an immediate (if not sweeping) content transformation to accompany Elliott's bright new cover text. Mostly beat/percussionless, and sprinkled with muted, heavily layered vocals, The Mess We Made is full of peculiar, often-inaudible chants, lots of piano, horns, strings, chimes, and the vocal prowess of something called "The Drunk Ensemble of Chancelade".

Disturbing, complicated, and enthrallingly strange, The Mess We Made requires patience, and, ideally, an already established taste for Elliott's previous ambient output. For the uninitiated, this is a record that will open up more and more with each subsequent listen; it's like giving blinking eyes a chance to adjust to a dark room-- shapes emerge slowly, breaking up and coalescing as your vision adjusts, realigns, modifies. Schedule some time for this record's somber, protracted payoff, and loosen your grip on that stereo remote, friends: The Mess We Made is a gradual realization.



Matt Elliott - The Mess We Made (flac  239mb)

01 Let Us Break 7:00
02 Also Ran 6:25
03 The Dog Beneath The Skin 7:50
04 The Mess We Made 5:26
05 Cotard's Syndrome 8:43
06 The Sinking Ship Song 7:20
07 End 2:52
08 Forty Days 7:11

Matt Elliott - The Mess We Made  (ogg 113mb)

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Matt Elliott's second solo CD, even more than his first, finds him moving further away from the feedback-and-beats trademarks of the Third Eye Foundation, though to be sure his path was already marked out by the concluding years of that incarnation. Living up to not only the title but the striking cover image -- a drawing of Elliott as a louche 19th century barfly, cigarette in hand -- Drinking Songs is not far removed from the kind of musical and psychic landscapes of early the Black Heart Procession or the Tindersticks at its most restrained. Guitars are either acoustic or, if anything, barely electric; instead piano and keyboards, for the most part, take the melodic fore, while drums as such aren't audible at all. But like Elliott's work in general the emphasis is not on lyrics for the most part -- what songs have them, like "The Guilty Party," feature them as distanced, very softly sung chorales, the type of drinking singalong when all at the bar are at their most reflective and melancholic. "What's Wrong" features slightly louder singing at points, but again compared to most they're barely there. If nothing else Elliott's gift for unusual but memorable song titles remains strong -- there's the closing "The Maid We Messed," a nod back to his first solo album (in a possibly related note, it's also the only song that sounds entirely like his previous work), but even better is "What the Fuck Am I Doing on This Battlefield?" Yet perhaps the most striking, heartbreaking song is "The Kursk," named after the Russian submarine that suffered a tragic accident, killing all onboard. The musique concrete rush of claustrophobic sound which starts the song -- grinding mechanisms, dank metallic noises -- serves as backdrop for guitar and strings, plus, as the song continues, an increasingly chilling, wordless mass chorus, portraits of souls going to an early grave.
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Matt Elliott - Drinking Songs  (flac 320mb)

01 C.F. Bundy 9:21
02 Trying To Explain 2:40
03 The Guilty Party 7:15
04 Whats Wrong 4:08
05 The Kursk 11:35
06 What The Fuck Am I Doing On This Battlefield? 5:16
07 A Waste Of Blood 5:51
08 The Maid We Messed 20:24

Matt Elliott - Drinking Songs   (ogg  139mb)

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Eventually We Will Be Gone
“And the world was lost some years ago when the tyrants upped and seized control and we lost our lives to worthless toil and we're worth less than our weight in oil.” Failing Songs comprises all tinges of melancholia – from despondency to gloom and from blues to depression and from misery to darkness. “We're falling asleep at the wheel, fellow slaves, we must rise from this bed that we've made and never forget that we're all on our way to the grave, to the grave, to the grave.” But a lamenting guitar and bawling violins make the album enjoyably bittersweet.



Matt Elliott - Failing Songs  (flac 257mb)

01 Our Weight In Oil 3:37
02 Chains 5:09
03 The Seance 4:26
04 The Failing Song 4:13
05 Broken Bones 4:47
06 Desamparado 5:14
07 Lone Gunman Required 3:41
08 Good Pawn 1:53
09 Compassion Fatigue 2:08
10 The Ghost Of Maria Callas 4:11
11 Gone 3:27
12 Planting Seeds 6:38

Matt Elliott - Failing Songs   (ogg  95mb)

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Howling Songs is like a pale black and white photo of a man that begins to fade away into smoke, only to reveal another picture, a self-portrait of the same person, painted with a giant brush and with flashy colors. The painting seems to express a hypnotized state of mind, it reveals a shade of melancholy that flirts with insanity in a manner that's breathless and almost daring. This man is all alone, out in the dark, exposed to his own essence, bleeding, full of doubt and full of fear, the fear of having lost everything he can remember, and the fear of losing even his memories.

Loss seems to be a dominant theme here, whether it's about losing your health, losing your loved one, losing your mind, or all of that at once. These songs begin slowly, almost shyly, only to grow, then suddenly explode into an intensity that seems earth-shattering. It's the thoughts of a broken man, stranded on the coast of regret, watching a sinking ship, and all of a sudden realizing he's not on that ship, he has solid ground under his feet. Because in the end, there's a new day, and there is hope again.



Matt Elliott - Howling Songs (flac  255mb)

01 The Kübler-Ross Model 11:32
02 Something About Ghosts 6:54
03 How Much In Blood ? 1:47
04 A Broken Flamenco 5:17
05 Berlin & Bisenthal 3:00
06 I Name This Ship The Tragedy, Bless Her & All Who Sail With Her 6:32
07 The Howling Song 4:43
08 Song For A Failed Relationship 2:17
09 Bomb The Stock Exchange 4:22

Matt Elliott - Howling Songs  (ogg 114mb)

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The Broken Man is a brawny, robust album, the type of record that carries an uncommon weight and honesty. When Elliott darkly intones, "this is how it feels to be alone," on "Dust, Flesh and Bones", there's complete conviction in his dead-eyed delivery, conveying an unwavering faith in his emotional regression. In lesser hands it's a line that could read as trite; with Elliott it feels well-worn, as though it's been churning around his head for years, gathering emotional baggage with the passing of time. But this isn't just a highly crafted plummet to the depths. There's an eerie, unearthly sense of displacement to much of the material, such as the spindly cries of bowed saw (or something simulating the sound of one) on "How to Kill a Rose". Those atmospheric touches make this feel like Elliott's most complete work to date, forming a vital link between his sunless balladry and the shattered electronica of Third Eye Foundation.



Matt Elliott - The Broken Man (flac  265mb)

01 Oh How We Fell 11:49
02 Please Please Please 2:34
03 Dust Flesh And Bones 9:16
04 How To Kill A Rose 1:59
05 If Anyone Tells Me "It's Better To Have Loved And Lost Than To Never Have Loved At All"................ .....I Will Stab Them In The Face 13:23
06 This Is For 3:51
07 The Pain That's Yet To Come 3:41
Bonus
08 Impro 3 3:07
09 Christ In Everything 1:42

Matt Elliott - The Broken Man  (ogg  120mb)

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4 comments:

bobbysu said...

thank you so much

W. said...

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

TY

Anonymous said...

sundaze should not be so dark & dismal...perhaps...