#Alison Statton

[joanofarc]

two french sisters, pants yell! (2007).

i'm not ashamed to say that i would be happy to never complete an honest day's work

[bandcampsnoop]

2/2/24.

Young Marble Giants have been a favorite of mine since I first heard them about 15 years ago. Alison Statton's perfect voice and melodies combined with Stuart Moxham's guitar and Philip Moxham's bass created some of the most unique music of the rock era.

Alison Statton has collaborated with many musicians (including Stuart Moxham in The Gist), but her collaboration with Spike Williams is approaching it's 30th year.

Stuart Moxham has worked with many musicians over his career - Barbara Manning comes to mind as an excellent collaboration.

Tiny Global Productions (UK) has released "Bimini Twist" and "The Devil Laughs", the latter an LP where Stuart Moxham works with Louis Philippe. Both albums are great, and currently on sale. And if you buy both, Tiny Global Productions will throw in Nightingales' "The New Nonsense" 12" for free! This sale runs through Sunday.

[jt1674]

[spilladabalia]

Weekend - The End Of The Affair

[daggerzine]

Throwback Thursday #69!- Young Marble Giants- Colossal Youth (1980 Rough Trade)

This Welsh trio of Alison Statton and the Moxham brothers, Stuart and Philip, weren't around long, a few years, but released a couple of excellent EPs and this, their lone LP in 1980. 

Stark and minimal doesn't even begin to describe it. You've got ultra-nominal guitar/bass/organ and a hushed drum machine. Oh and the recited vocals of Statton, all to create this totally unique record. 

You have stellar cuts like the opening "Searching for Mr Right," the echoey/jagged "Include Me Out," and the weirdly haunting "The Taxi," ...and that's the first three songs. 

Elsewhere, "N.I.T.A." comes directly out of the future, while you can almost dance to the title track, and "Credit in the Straight World"  (covered in the 90s by Hole) stabs a plastic fork in every direction, and hits each and every time.

The EPs are totally worth your time as well, but man, Colossal Youth is the one. A magical debut by a band that wasn't long for this world, but made the most of it.

www.dominomusic.com

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Verity Den

Verity Den plays a soft-focus, trance-state shoegaze with glimmers of Zelienople, Bark Psychosis and Movietone. The band, out of North Carolina, is comprised of Casey Proctor, Trevor Reece and Mike Wallace, all three of the DIY veterans who formed the band in early 2023. Reviewing their 2024 self-title debut, Jennifer Kelly wrote, “Though their album is enjoyable as rock, it is very clearly not just that; it pools and looms and gently probes improvisatory effected guitar zones that sit pretty far from conventional song structures.”

Casey Proctor “Chant Arabe” (Anonymous) from Suzuki — Piano School: Volume 1

I started taking Suzuki Method piano lessons when I was five years old, and “Chant Arabe” was one of the pieces in Volume 1. During my first recital, my teacher exclaimed how I connected with that piece more than the others, saying that some people can emote ominous (minor-key) music more effectively. It was an early realization that I might be one of those people, and I still enjoy listening to and writing with those tonalities.

Mahavishnu Orchestra — “Meeting of the Spirits”

Every Sunday morning for a solid five-year period when I was a kid (like 7-11), my dad would blast “Meeting of the Spirits” while making breakfast. Undoubtedly, I was influenced by all the music he listened to, but that song in particular is probably the reason I went on to listen to other prog bands from the 1970s and later bands like Meshuggah and Animals as Leaders. We weren’t a religious family but during that era we were attendants at the church of prog rock.

Young Marble Giants — Colossal Youth

The first time I heard a Young Marble Giants song it was Hole covering “Credit in the Straight World.” I didn’t “discover” that it was a YMG song until later and then finally listened to the entirety of Colossal Youth. Front to back it’s a perfect album. It has minimal instrumentation, but it’s completely engaged and never boring. Alison Statton’s lyrics are nuanced and poetic but very punk. I don’t know how to make music that sounds like that, and I haven’t heard anyone else do it.

Mikhail Kalatozov — Letter Never Sent (1959)

Letter Never Sent is my favorite film. Beyond it being one of the most beautifully shot films I’ve ever seen (Sergey Urusevsky is the cinematographer and it’s in black and white), the subject matter feels like it’s personally tailored to me in a few ways. It’s about a group of government-funded geologists who are sent to Siberia to find diamonds. Their expedition is interrupted by a forest fire that cuts off communication with rescue crews and disorients them into a survival situation. Much less dramatically… I worked for the US Forest Service for 12 years, building and maintaining trails in the front and back country, almost majored in Geology and was a certified wildland firefighter for a few years. Also, honorable mention, from the same director… Salt for Svanetia (1930) is fantastic cinema and one of the earliest ethnographic films ever made.

Trevor Reece Roedelius — Wenn Der Südwind Weht

Right before the pandemic, I wasn't playing much “rock” guitar or listening to most of my long-time go-to-records. Leaning more towards experimental, drone and synth-based music. A friend put this Roedelius record on my radar around that time and it inspired me to record some questionable but exciting stuff at home. A classic record and always there to help.

Alex Chilton — Like Flies On Sherbert

Alex Chilton & his weird friends making a mess in the studio.

Bill Daniel — Who Is Bozo Texino? (2005)

I first saw this film during a screening tour through the south around 2006. I was somewhat new to town, wandering around and only cared about making art. Highlighting old outsiders making their mark and telling stories through a grainy film collage felt new but familiar. The ethos of this film is one that I still relate to today.

Mike Wallace Allen Toussaint — “Southern Nights”

A totally transporting song, Toussaint showers you in layers of piano and keys, the percussion chirps along like crickets at night and that perfect, unhurried hook. It really captures a certain kind of feeling, that particular humidity, the sun going down over the field. It's strange though because I didn’t hear this song until I was probably 25 or something, so I didn't have a memory of listening to it as a kid or something, but like a lot of songs, it became like a lens to look back on that, maybe memories I wish were there in some way. I guess it taps this strange kind of nostalgia whose origin is hard to locate and also comes with its own load of complications. That’s a part of the Southern experience, too, in a way that's unique to this part of the country. Memory and history are omnipresent, written and rewritten. I don't even hate the Glen Campbell version of this song. That’s its own type of “Southern Night.” Sometimes it's like that. I didn’t always embrace being from the South, but nowadays I’m into it and I know that when I’m living somewhere else someday, I will finally get to have that feeling of honestly missing a place and wishing I was back home for just a night.

Grouper — “Alien Observer”

This is the first Grouper song I heard and I remember feeling just stunned by it. It has this depth of interiority and a meditative cycle that’s like breathing. I think this song really struck me because I encountered Liz Harris/Grouper at a transitional period. After the end of a long relationship, I was living for a little bit with several people in a house in Greensboro, NC called Hellraiser Haus, named because some scenes from Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth were supposedly filmed at the church across the street. It was a show house and the people I lived with were great, but I was kind of struggling with what was next and who I was in the wake of everything kind of disintegrating. There was something so bleak and comforting in this song, I really did kind of feel like an alien, observing myself, kind of detached. A few years later I saw her play kind of a large theater in Raleigh for this festival Hopscotch, and waking up several minutes after she had finished, kind of disoriented and crunched up in the seat and thinking I just saw one of the best shows of my life.

Wong Kar-wai — In the Mood For Love (2000)

What more can be said about this movie that hasn't already? Wong Kar-wai is a master, and a really singular stylist. I never tire of watching this one, but I rarely put it on, it's just really worth savoring. It's also one where one’s feelings may change over time in relation to the basic plot points. Maybe you recognize yourself at different points or scenes than you did before, or see a new detail in a gesture or glance, like every moment’s a prism and would mean something different if it was just slightly turned. Being in a state of longing can really feel awful, but there can also be a kind of solace in there. Even once it's over, you can return to it sometimes, to remember. I mean just see it; this isn’t making any sense anymore!

[racefortheaudience]

2. The World Is Your Oyster… But Your Future’s A Clam

1. Max Tundra - Lights

2. Fad Gadget - Jump

3. Pet Shop Boys - It Couldn’t Happen Here

4. John Maus - Don’t Be A Body

5. The High Llamas - Hi Ball Nova Scotia

6. Soft Cell - What?

7. Stereolab - Super Electric

8. White Noise - My Game Of Loving

9. Donald Fagen - New Frontier

10. Gary Numan - M.E.

11. Björk - Cocoon

12. King Crimson - Providence

13. Broadcast - O How I Miss You (Demo)

14. Ian Gregory - Can’t You Hear The Beat Of A Broken Heart

15. Feist - Past In Present

16. Yo La Tengo - Private Doberman

17. Elvis Costello - No Dancing

18. The Sonics - Strychnine

19. The Jam - When You’re Young

20. Good Dog Nigel, Kate Bollinger - Ain’t It Funny

21. Big Star - Femme Fatale

22. The Pop Group - Thief Of Fire

23. Adam Green - Baby’s Gonna Die Tonight

24. Gang Of Four - Outside The Trains Don’t Run On Time

25. Gladys Knight & The Pips - Where The Peaceful Waters Flow

26. Steely Dan - Almost Gothic

27. The Monochrome Set - The Ruling Class

28. XTC - Scarecrow People

28. Talking Heads - The Good Thing

29. R.E.M - Catapult

30. Brian Eno - Backwater

31. Orange Juice - Dying Day

32. Mekons - Chivalry

33. Television Personalities - I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives

34. David Byrne - Finite = Alright

35. Alison Statton - Corridors Of Blue

36. R. Stevie Moore - Don’t Let Me Go To The Dogs

37. Aretha Franklin - First Snow In Kokomo

38. Crosby, Stills & Nash - Everybody’s Talkin’

39. Shirley Collins & The Albion Country Band - Banks of the Bann

[ozkar-krapo]

YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS / The GIST / WEEKEND

"Nipped in the Bud"

(LP. Celluloid. 1983 / rec. 1980-82) [GB]

[not-my-generation]

[appletonwisconsin]

Alison Statton, of Young Marble Giants

ink, acrylic and watercolor over Xerox image

[bandcampsnoop]

3/12/20.

Tiny Global Productions will be releasing another release from The Gist.  As before, this appears to be an oddz n’ sodz collection.  The Bandcamp page did mention that the original 1982 7″ Yanks/This Is Love is on “Interior Windows”. 

Right now there are only two songs here - Yanks, which while sounding like Young Marble Giants, it also has some Flying Nun-inspired keyboards.  The 2nd song is a demo with Alison Statton and is equally excellent.

The Gist is mostly the work of Stuart Moxham.  He was (and is?) based in Cardiff, Wales.

[spilladabalia]

Young Marble Giants - Wurlitzer Jukebox

[chaunceyandchumleysdad]

Over the weekend, at the suggestion of @positivedisplacement, I listened to Young Marble Giants. A Post-Punk band from Wales, they released just one full album, 1980’s Colossal Youth, before splitting up in 1981. As I was enjoying the LP, I was reading up on the band and band members. Lead vocalist Alison Statton played with other bands/artists for awhile and then went on to become a chiropractor. She has managed to hold a career as a chiropractor while periodically releasing new music and also performing in YMG reunion shows.

I don’t know why, but chiropractor does not seem to me to be a likely second career choice for a musical artist. Yet it did remind me that I know of one other musician who became a chiropractor. That would be Arthur Tripp, one-time drummer for Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention and Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band. As far as I know, Tripp never returned to music. However, while searching the internet, I came across this wonderful television performance by Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band. The drummer, who gets a lot of camera time, is Arthur Tripp. I’m trying to imagine how I would feel if I walked into his chiropractic office and he looked like that, in a sleeveless shirt that looks like it was carved out of a pumpkin, wearing a pair of women’s underwear on his head and staring me down with that monocle. However bizarre, it’s a great look for performing Captain Beefheart music. A couple of other musicians played in the Mothers as well. The guy with the Hawaiian shirt is Elliot Inger who was on the very first Mother’s album Freak Out. The bass player is Roy Estrada who played in Little Feat as well as The Mothers. The other musicians I believe are Rockette Morton (wearing the hat), Bill Harkleroad (rose colored jacket), and of course, the Captain, singing in his distinct gravelly voice and playing blues harp and what I think is a soprano saxophone. It is awesome that this great performance was captured on film in a day when videography of bands was somewhat or a rarity.

[polaroidblog]

(Pants Yell)

in a room with no TV an open window and company and smiling faces to say that they missed me

:’)

(ps: ma di sicuro ti avrò già raccontato della stazione dei treni di Emmaboda, quella che si intravede nella foto della copertina di questo disco, dove i Pants Yell! sfuocati stanno aspettando infreddoliti e contenti sul marciapiede, e della mattina in cui è stata scattata questa fotografia, finito il festival, poco più in là c’eravamo anche io e Lucio che sbirciavamo Mark Monnone dei Lucksmiths che stava dando l’addio a Lupe dei Pipas, un abbraccio di felpe infinito mentre il treno si fermava fischiando, ed era una scena quasi proibita per me, e il cielo aveva proprio quel colore che si vede sul disco - “Alison Statton”, già il titolo ha un suono stupendo)

[aaronmcmillan]

Young Marble Giants - ‘Colossal Youth’

[lukomorye]

1982. Alison Statton, Spike Williams, Simon Emmerson (z1227) 1982. Alison Statton, Spike Williams, Simon Emmerson. 16 more words