Fourth
Wall
LP
(UK) 1981 Virgin (VM-2211)
- Produced by David Cunningham
Side A
01) Lovers
And Other Strangers [3:09] [Palladin/Cunningham/Beresford]
02) Glide/Spin
[3:30] [Palladin/Cunningham]
03) In My
Lifetime [2:20] [Cunningham]
04) Cirrus
[1:24] [Cunningham]
05) A-Train
[5:09] [Palladin/Cunningham]
06) New Voice
[5:42] [Cunningham]
Side B
07) Hands
2 Take [4:05] [Nyman/Cunningham/Palladin]
08) An Age
[2:31] [Cunningham]
09) Steam
Away [4:47] [Cunningham]
10) Move On Up
[5:27] [Mayfield]
11) Another Story
[3:08] [Cunningham]
12) Lost And Found
[2:47] [Fripp/Cunningham]
Sleeve notes:
Players:
David Cunningham (all
tracks): guitar, siren, harmonicas, keyboards, voice,
tapes, percussion, violin, loops
Patti Palladin (1,2,5,7,10):
voice, tapes
Robert Fripp (2,12):
guitars
Steve Beresford (1):
keyboards bass, guitar
JJ Johnson (1,3,5):
drums
Peter Gordon (2):
saxophone
V. Haller (3,5):
bass
Julian Marshall (4,6,10):
keyboards, voice
Gareth Sager (5):
saxophone
Cheryl Lewis (6):
voice
Michael Nyman (7):
piano
Lucy Skeaping (7):
rebec
Nick Hayley (7):
rebec
Edward Pillinger (7):
bass clarinet
Rory Allam (7):
bass clarinet
Anne Barnard (7):
horn
Steve Saunders (7):
trombone
Keith Thompson (7):
baritone saxophone
Ben Grove (7):
bass
Engineers:
Dave Hunt (5,7) at
Berry Street
John Studwick (6) at
Pathway
Al Williams (7) at
Music Works
Rob Doran (1,3) at
Mekon
Tim Young (mastering)
at CBS
D. C. (mixing) at Brixton
and Workhouse
Tape at end of "New Voice" from "Sacred Flute Music From New Guinea" on Quartz Records (!Quartz 001). All lyrics except tracks 10 and 11 by Patti Palladin. Sleeve and xerography by Laurie-Rae Chamberlain and David Cunningham. Graphics by Studio 54.
Description:Braver
in it's experimental qualities than it's popular predecessor, this second
full album from The Flying Lizards takes a different route entirely by
plunging head-first into a looking glass world of pop paradox and strata
breaking anti-style that could be the soundtrack to anything written by
Lewis Carrol or Gilles Deleuze. Unlike the first Lizards' LP, which had
a kind of book-end symmetry to it, "Fourth Wall" is more like a hundred
concepts all thrown into a blender and then whipped up into a bittersweet
frappe - it's ideas are arranged according to the laws of chance. The album's
almost-smooth consistency is betrayed by bits and chunks here and there
that catch you by surprise; fragments of one idea present themselves briefly,
then perhaps turn up inside-out-and-upside-down in another unexpected location.
Similarly to the first
record though, this album reveals many memorable qualities once you are
coerced into it's gooey framework. More art than pop or rock, this aural
sculpture garden seems designed for headphones, bedrooms and private obsession
(you too will eventually find yourself humming these abstract anthems while
shopping at the supermarket). Despite it's cerebral goals however, there
are one or maybe two obvious attempts to reinvent the formula that spelled
commercial success for the "Money" single (most notable a cover of Curtis
Mayfield's "Move On Up"), but they get lost in the colorful musical
playground surrounding them.
This time around, David
enlisted such avant luminaries as Robert Fripp, Peter Gordon, Michael Nyman,
Steve Beresford and many others to use and abuse their various instruments,
as well as choosing a different female vocalist this time around; prolific
New York punk princess (and ex-Snatch co-founder) Patti Palladin was chosen
to sing (or sneer) the tunes as well as pen all lyrics. One has to be impressed
with Cunningham's fearless attempt to create something unheard with the
handful of artists he collided together for this project. His expertise
at production is clearly evident here, even with the most difficult and
whimsical of materials - all the surfaces of this LP are set in shimmering
technicolor, warm tones, and luminous, crisp textures (the odd, brightly
colored graphics on the sleeve perfectly capture what the listener will
ultimately discover inside). David occasionally uses sharply edited combos
of samples spliced with rhythm that, despite being hidden amongst the hall
of mirrors that is this record, are slightly ahead of their time.
Beginning with a short
sample of wind blowing, side one starts out on the lightest-of-light notes;
"Lovers
and Other Strangers" (released as a single) is an airy, kooky summer
jaunt that uses traditional instrumentation, toy sounds, odd samples and
Patti's little girl-ish, playful vocals (one of many different vocal styles
she showcases throughout the record) wrapped around an asymmetrical song
structure. This then jumps immediately into the stunning "Glide/Spin",
a floating synth and processed sample composition where the humming sounds
shimmer quickly back and forth between speakers while Patti drolly recites
lyrics about frustrated romance, closing the song by repeating the word
"you..." a zillion times (very "TV") while Peter Gordon strangles his saxophone
in the background.
"In My Lifetime" uses high pitched synths and
erratic percussion while a sample of the title and other phrases repeats.
The minimal
"Cirrus" process the sound of a flute (or someone saying
the word 'cirrus'?) into a complex pattern. The next official "song", "A-Train",
starts out with ear-splitting pipe organ(?) over a mid tempo bass and drum
beat while Patti sneers lyrics about weather, dead men's shoes, politicians
and bums. Every musician seems to slowly add their instrument to the slinky
"A-Train",
until it becomes a complex, snake-hipped lurch. Side one closes with the
awesome "New Voice", a long, soothing (and very dense) ambient sound
collage that mingles a wavering, rising-sun synth and a meandering bass
with processed, wailing voices and zillions of distant sounds that would
probably take an afternoon to document; birds, wind, water, flute, a barking
dog, the urban roar... it's one of the albums brightest moments.
The interesting
"Hands
2 Take" kicks off side two. Released as a single, but impossible to
imagine on the charts, it uses a driving beat of backward sounds made from
drums, hand claps and trumpets while Patti loudly coos lyrics like "From
one dark age to another, scream on shitsu style / Soaring telepolitics
and phones that you don't dial", leading up to the revelation; "Sitting
down, not standing / is a common dwarf disguise!" while the beat builds
and builds and builds. From that point on, the rest of side two is hard
to put into words; lots of unusual instrument combinations, nothing that
really resembles rock or pop, David's usual esoteric use of samples (a
small audio snippet of Janet Leigh talking about the effects used
in the shower scene in 'Psycho,' from a television documentary about Hitchcock,
pops up in the middle of "Steam Away"), and lots and lots of little
details you'll notice the first or ninety-ninth time you listen.
There a lots of brilliant
moments on side two (and the whole LP really) that happen very briefly,
but they never stick around for very long, making it difficult for your
conscious mind to wrap itself around anything too quickly. Only a semi-effective
cover of Curtis Mayfield's
"Move On Up" temporarily breaks the kaleidoscope
mood. Using a light beat and even lighter, synthetic horn arrangement with
Patti's vocal styles, the song's tinny sound never really wraps itself
around the intensity of the original, nor is successful in creating a unique
identity of it's own.
True to the album's
curious design, side two ends with no big bang, no beautiful ballad, nothing
really remarkable actually. The erratic permutations of sound that make
up the last track,"Lost and Found", simply come to a stop, a brief
sample of a distant old-time gramophone or radio is heard... then a sample
of wind blowing (the reverse of the beginning of the record) - and then
the record is over. Time to wake up.
This album often seems
like a meticulously produced work-in-progress or sketchbook, if there is
such a thing. It's reasons for trips down never-traveled paths (for fun?)
are just as relevant as the end result (much like Cunningham's 'Grey Scale',
just more colorful). The "songs" on this album seem to act as strange attractors,
each one a magnet drawing whatever ideas the project's participants might
have been tossing around in their heads at the time. The consequences of
such an approach? Risk and unpredictability. It's kind of like a
giant, cross-referenced omelet, and dissecting it can prove difficult but
very rewarding. In the end the listener is left not with a puzzle that
needs re-assembling, but a busy and colorful patchwork quilt. It retains
a cohesive, unique charm despite it's clashing colors and all-over-the-place
style - and produces unexpected patterns every time you fold it.
Post "Fourth Wall"?
Experiencing this album almost twenty years after it's creation, it's strategies
seem even more significant, and it's qualities more easy to palate. With
the do-it-yourself, post-rock, post-punk, post-indie, post-Cage, post-electronica,
post-post-structuralist, post-everything underground music scenes
still thriving and per mutating after all this time (and now mating with
the enormous and limitless potential of the internet) - the formless, forward-looking
music on this album makes even more sense. Fans of the weirder half of
the outer fringe of obscure, avant rock would probably enjoy this record
if it wasn't so hard to come by (thought Cunningham does have plans to
re-release this LP himself). At the time of it's release - it was marketed
as a pop product, but really had no category to call it's own; an awkward
glitch that probably hurt as much as helped the LP. Removed (mostly) from
the sanctimonious formalities of the avant-garde music scene, it was saved
from being labeled "glib" by the very fact that it was from a "band" that
was regarded as mostly gimmick-y up to that point, and therefore allowed
that freedom. Yet, dropped into the laps of an unsuspecting pop audience
who regarded the "band" in the same way, many probably became confused
by the album's puzzling, hook-less nature and became quickly distracted.
Henceforth the album was never here nor there, and without an instant sensation
to catapult it into the public arena (which definitely happened with the
first LP), the album became quickly lost. Perhaps not forever though.
Whenever this album
is mentioned in circles of avant rock connoisseurs - it's always met with
at least one or two glowing, reverent praises (and, to be fair, a few dismissals),
yet few people fess up to having actually heard the record. This can be
a very rewarding combination in the long run. It was once said about the
legacy of The Velvet Underground that, during their existence, they only
had a handful of fans - but each one of those fans went out and started
a band. David Cunningham spreading his ideas through a handful of bedroom
daydreamers a generation later? Who knows what tomorrow holds.
note: David Cunningham is tentatively planning to release a remixed/reconstructed/repackaged version of "Fourth Wall" under the David Cunningham/Patti Palladin name rather than The Flying Lizards.
Availability:
Out of print collector's item. Hard to find. Unfortunatley, this LP was
available as a Virgin Japan import CD (below) as of early 1999, but now
appears to be discontinued.
Fourth
Wall
Compact Disc
(Japan) 1995 Virgin
VJCP-17502 - Produced by David Cunningham
track listing same as
above, plus adds three bonus tracks:
01) Lovers
And Other Strangers [3:09] [Palladin/Cunningham/Beresford]
02)
Glide/Spin [3:30] [Palladin/Cunningham]
03) In
My Lifetime [2:20] [Cunningham]
04) Cirrus
[1:24] [Cunningham]
05) A-Train
[5:09] [Palladin/Cunningham]
06) New
Voice [5:42] [Cunningham]
07) Hands
2 Take [4:05] [Nyman/Cunningham/Palladin]
08) An
Age [2:31] [Cunningham]
09) Steam
Away [4:47] [Cunningham]
10) Move On
Up [5:27] [Mayfield]
11) Another
Story [3:08] [Cunningham]
12) Lost And
Found [2:47] [Fripp/Cunningham]
extra tracks:
13) Portugal
[3:06] [Cunningham]
14) Glide
[2:38] [Palladin/Cunningham]
15) Move On
Up (Single Edit) [3:51] [Mayfield]
Description:CD
booklet uses same front and back artwork (even flips the back cover upside
down), plus adds some 1995 commentary on the group (all in Japanese), some
unusual photos of David and Patti, photos of David and Sally (from 'Top
Ten' sessions and stills from the 'Dizzy Miss Lizzie' video), and all the
lyrics (in English and Japanese).
Bonus tracks: "Portugal"
(B-side to the "Move On Up" 7" single) uses a blasting drum beat (very
'Top Ten') and some sampled walkie-talkie voices rhythmically. Some police
sirens and bits of news broadcasts are thrown in, as well as that sample
at the end of "Move On Up" of that guy making a pterodactyl call. "Glide"
(an un-used extra track that was never released) is a hypnotic, soothing,
heavily altered version of "Glide/Spin" that throws in additional synth
parts (that seem like they are from other 'Fourth Wall' songs). There are
no Patti vocals, but there is the sound of someone chanting Inuit that
runs throughout the track. "Move On Up (Single Edit)" cuts out the
barrage of feedback and radio noises at the beginning of the track and
fades out after 3:51.
note: apparently the Toshiba-EMI Japan CD releases of the first LP and "Fourth Wall" were put together without David Cunningham's knowledge, were not approved sonically by him and supposedly the sleeve notes and photos are inaccurate.
Availability: Out of print. This Japanese CD of the album was available as of early 1999, but now appears to be discontinued. Note: David Cunningham is planning to release a remixed/reconstructed/repackaged version of "Fourth Wall" some day under the David Cunningham/Patti Palladin name rather than The Flying Lizards.