Blemish

David Sylvian

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 30, 2003)
• Original Release Date: May 22, 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Samadhi Sound UK
• ASIN: B00009YWAW
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #29,001 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
2003 solo album from David Sylvian, his first since 1999's 'Dead Bees on a Cake'. It's the debut release for his Samadhi Sound label. David set aside a month to write & record the album while taking a break from the project that he & his brother, Steve Jansen, are working on. He has created an impromptu suite of songs for guitar, electronics & voice. The compositions were crafted from improvisational sessions captured live in the studio. Working almost entirely alone David has created an emotionally raw, minimalist work, of immediacy & stark beauty. Adding to the intensity & air of experimentation is the presence of Derek Bailey. Three of the pieces included on 'Blemish' were written with, & feature, the legendary free-jazz guitarist. The final track of the CD features a haunting electronic arrangement by Christian Fennesz. Digipak.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New Ground, June 23, 2003

By	Stuart "stuart_377" (Big Apple, USA) - See all my reviews

David Sylvian has always broken new ground every so often and he does so again here. The tracks are stripped bare with the hums and buzzes of electronics, guitar reverb and his baritone voice. This is probably his most personal of albums. The voice is deliberately front and center (almost jarring at first)- the lyrics are also very self-conscious, more direct. The music is purely backdrop for his voice (don't expect a groove/beat in any traditional sense with this album).
To those who were introduced to Sylvian by his "Dead Bees on a Cake" album this will seem like a drastic diversion. In fact, he is right on course pushing boundaries, exploring new themes and respecting his audience by not just rehashing his prior work.
Expect to listen to Blemish many times before you start realizing its beauty. A must for all serious David Sylvian "fans".

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Life's for the taking, so they say. Take it away.", October 2, 2003

By A Customer

I for one would like to express my admiration for David Sylvian; he has enough respect for his audience to avoid recycling his past work, instead offering something surprisingly stark and somewhat impenetrable (at least initially). It seems some fans feel betrayed, screaming "where are the gorgeous, multi-layered melodies?!" I don't feel that way. As others have noted, Sylvain has delved into atonal territory before--some bits of "Rain Tree Crow", "Gone To Earth", "Pop Song" and so forth. There is melody here, though it's mostly supplied by the voice. And David's pipes have rarely sounded better, gaining a warmth with age that just wasn't there in his Japan days. Obviously this isn't music for the masses, but that's not the point. I guess I was lucky to have my head blown apart by Scott Walker's "Tilt" when I was fifteen years old; after a while, it stopped sounding so unbearably alien and paved the way for my move away from the mainstream. If not for Scott, I probably wouldn't be able to enjoy an album like "Blemish" for the great, difficult beast it is, while turning my back on the drivel that seems to have risen to epidemic levels. There are still living artists creating music that's vital, and for that I'm very thankful.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new beginning for David Sylvian...., August 24, 2003

By	Jason Parkes "We're all Frankies'" (Worcester, UK) - See all my reviews

Blemish appears to be one of those albums so extreme it'll either be loved or loathed- bringing to mind such albums as Laughing Stock, Music for a New Society & Tilt. Sylvian abandons the lush eclectism of Dead Bees on a Cake and the electronic directions of Approaching Silence for minimal climes. Blemish contrasts hugely with the last original material released on Everything&Nothing (eg The Scent of Magnolia).

Sylvian recorded it in a month off from another project with brother Steve Jansen- it has a raw, improvised quality- & listening to it makes me think of albums like Dongs of Sevotion, I See a Darkness & Mark Hollis. Blemish is extremely intense- though its perfectly suited to a 40-minute playing time (any longer would indeed be mental torture akin to Swans!)As with many artists, Sylvian has formed his own record label- preferring the indie-artistic route to the corporate path- Blemish has been a success on Amazon UK, showing that an album can be a success in an alternate domain to the usual. Sylvian joins a number of artists who have produced albums in their home studios- Mark Eitzel, Paul Westerberg, Tom Waits, Shelley-devoto. The pro-tools/sample/revolutions of Dead Bees on a Cake and the Tweaker collaboration have moved Sylvian away from protracted studio work with an array of top session musicians.

Three of the tracks here are composed with free-jazz guitarist Derek Bailey (Guitars'Drums'N'Bass) & are a challenge to the more casual Sylvian listener- Sylvian has always worked well with avant-garde guitarists (notably Marc Ribot, Robert Fripp, Bill Nelson & Bill Frisell) Earlier minimal acoustic tracks predict this territory: Dobro#1, Boats for Burning, Cries&Whispers. She is Not is very slight- The Good Son more of an endurance test- Bailey plucking atonal chords as Sylvian's voice echoes and compounds. The sound feels fractured...the best Bailey/Sylvian collaboration is How Little We Need to be Happy- which is rather soulful and ties in with Sylvian's frequent spiritual themes. The Bailey-tracks work especially well in this eight-track sequence- contrasting with the electronic of Fennesz & Sylvian alone...

The opening title track is a 13-minute slice of minimal bleakness- the pulses and shimmers reminding me of My Bloody Valentine & Gwei-Lo. The pulses of feedback etc take on an electronic form, who's precedent probably remains Metal Machine Music, the "song" over the top more of a series of ominous intonations ("I can't find the link between me and her...I fall outside of myself, she doesn't notice at all") Blemish feels very disturbed- perhaps putting words that titles like The Stigma of Childhood (Kin) alluded to? It certainly reminds me of bleak records such as Red House Painters, Time Out of Mind, Big Star's Holocaust, Everclear (AMC), PJ Harvey's 4 Track Demos for Rid of Me, I See a Darkness etc. Here Sylvian has more in common with the Leaving the 20th Century-Sonic Youth than the reformed Roxy Music...

The Only Daughter is another highlight- the soundscapes not far from Eno's Ambient4:On Land- though the sonic cracks shatter the lush surfaces- a blend of ambient and the avant-garde that might appeal as much as Pan-Sonic or Squarepusher. The Heart Knows Better takes us away from the disturbing atmospheres of The Only Daughter- though the repetition of "It's been a long time coming" suggest skeletons in closets and cans of worms becoming apparent.

Late Night Shopping advances on the sampling apparent on DBOAC, fusing with the ethos of 1989's uncompromisingly ironic Pop Song; alien guitars, handclaps and samples of crashing trollies combine in another disturbing song. Sylvian could even be accused of being political in the anti-globalist sense, lines like "Tell me what you need/Write a list, or something/We don't need to need a thing/Late night shopping" highlighting the futility of an existence centred around consumerism/materialism. Perhaps this is just a direction suggested by Sylvian's spiritual side?- it's a lot more effective that the sub-No Logo dogma Radiohead pushed on Amnesiac.

The beauty common to Sylvian releases comes back in for the closing track, a fire in the forest- which sees DS collaborate with (Christian) Fennesz (Endless Summer). This is not far from DBOAC's closing track Darkest Dreaming and feels somewhat transcendental following the preceding maelstrom:"Come and take me somewhere/Come take me out/There is always sunshine, far above the grey sky/I know that I will find it/Yes, I will try..."

Blemish is quite unexpected, extremely raw and uncompromising; it might be a sound idea to buy one of the Japan/Sylvian reissues alongside it to temper this bleak material (eg Alchemy, Secrets of the Beehive, Tin Drum). It's already one of my favourite releases of the decade so far, as great as such albums as Insignificance, 69 Love Songs, Geogaddi, Lift Yr Skinny Fists..., Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Field Songs & Gwei-Lo. Like Rain Tree Crow, it might take a while to seep in...but for me it's a highlight both different & equal to such Sylvian classics as Brilliant Trees, Secrets of the Beehive, & Dead Bees on a Cake. One looks forward to the next releases from Samadhisound, alongside Sylvian's upcoming world tour...