@IMAGE: http://brainwashed.com/lpd/images/covers/asylum.gif @ARTIST: Legendary Pink Dots @ALBUM: Asylum @SONG: Alan Ezust Date: April 25, 1995 This album is the second album I ever heard by LPDs, and I am glad it wasn't the first, as I really didn't like it very much when I first heard it. It is rather hard to get past the cheezy sounds and the AWFUL recording quality of this album, to really appreciate the brilliance in the songs themselves. But indeed, this album came out during one of the LPD's creative apexes, right after Island of Jewels and right before Any Day Now, two absolutely mind-blowingly awesome releases. I'd love to hear these songs re-done by the LPDs on more modern instruments and recording equipment, but wishes aren't horses, so we can't exactly shoot them. There are some very psychadelic synth sounds which were not very common in previous releases, Gordon Zola's baby coming to mind in this area. Some say that this is largely due to the influence of Steven Stapleton, but if you ask me, it doesn't remind me very much of Stapleton. But apparently, this is one of the first albums which had so many different cooks in the kitchen, without spoiling the soup! Patrick Q.'s participation is very welcome and appreciated. We also hear the occasional female vocals, such as on Femme Mirage and Agape... I'll go through a few of the songs which made me start listening to this CD again: The Hill: This song really flows, and tells a cool story. Reminds me a little of Maxwell's silver hammer... Kooky sound effects though. Demonism: Wonderful violin solo at the beginning. So Gallantly Screaming: This is one of the most famous tracks on Asylum, 'cause it's so different from anything else LPDs have done before or since. Lots of tape loops, no singing just spoken word, and some musical bits which at first sound as insignificant as the silly tune on CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, but which will stick in your brain forever and always remind you of this song. I'm the way, and the truth and the light: This is one of my favorite songs on the album; I like the tune, I like the words, and I love the bass and the violin. What I HATE is the recording quality and the way Edward sings out of tune on the first verse. I will never again play this for a friend who doesn't already know and love LPDs (i've tried, and it's a bad idea!) Golden Dawn: This one must have been recorded during a different session - it sounds much better produced than the other songs on the album. A wonderfully sad spooky melody and masterful harmonies all through the song. Although the lyrics don't make much sense to me, this is one of my favorites on this album, and one of the FEW songs which I actually agree DID belong on "Stone Circles". The Last Straw: "Although he knows he's getting weaker, he just takes it MORE AND MORE!" This one is so sarcastic and melodramatic, I LOVE IT! A very biting song about drug addiction, which for a change isn't all symbolic, but very explicit. Little lyric-bytes in this song creep up in other songs often. This Could Be The End: Another very sad and melodramatic song, perhaps about a recently committed murder. Plodding along with lamenting vocals and interesting sampled sounds. Sometimes I imagine the end of "Oo ee oo" (on Tired Eyes Slowly Burning) fading into a song which sounds like this, I dunno why. One of the things I noticed about Asylum is that it has a disproportionate number of "depressing" songs on it. By "depressing" I mean in both musical and lyrical content. Often you will find that it LPD songs are either one or another, but rarely both at the same time, because they enjoy laughing at misery, or lamenting about happy things, to keep the yin and the yang in balance. I felt that the yin and yang was very unbalanced in these songs, which is by no means a bad thing. It's just different. Anyway, Asylum took a while to grow on me, but I am very glad I gave it the chance. @SONG: David Tibet, SOUNDS, January 4 1986. Page 19. SOME LIKE IT DOT THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS 'Asylum' (Play It Again Sam BIAS 12) ***** Born far, far too late...The Dots are probably the quintessential English underground band. They should have been playing with John's Children at the UFO Club, being featured by John Peel on the Perfumed Garden, churning out their uniquelydepressing and lovelorn sounds, wandering around in their dreadful greasepaint make-up, resplendent in awful names like Adantacathar and The Prophet Qa'Sepel. But they cant, and we should be pleased. Because that means that we've got them. And 'Asylum', a double LP revelling in some of the most miserable lyrics since Leonard Cohen: "A bouquet of black orchids for you as you weep in the ruins of all that you knew" (So Gallantly Screaming). 'Asylum' sees the Dots moving even further away from their earlier Syd Barratt whimsy into a polarised world full of broken hearts,, broken buildings, broken dreams. It's harrowing and funless. --- David Tibet @SONG: Paul Wehby pwehby@indy1.CALARTS.EDU Asylum is a notable Pink dots release, although somewhat eclectic. This album takes off on the first track "Echo police", which is an abstract description of some sort of police activity set to a fantastically catchy tune. "Gorgon zolas baby" on the other hand moves into a more humorous realm, poking fun at aggressive types. Quickly we are lifted into "Fifteen flies in the Marmalade", a truly strange song where Edwards voice seems to assume a whimsical sort of mood, with a circus like keyboards floating in the background. Startling waves of sound envelop you on the track "Femme Mirage", a track sung by a guest(god no), Julie Niblok. Although I couldnt tell what she is saying even with the transcription of lyrics its just not that enjoyable to listen to. Next up is one of my favorite tracks "The Hill". The Hill is a sweeping tale of a madman who "Was Abused confused at all the schools they sent him to - gave him the view to leave". This song has yet another guest who sings in duet with Edward, which is a weirdly enjoyable situation. The real stand out in the song though is the guitar which blends perfectly with the violins. "Prisoner", the next song is a journey into the labyrinth of a tormented mind, stuck in an elevator, intense indeed. "So Gallantly Screaming", is a quite sort of song filled with mellow keyboard riffs, and a great sound collage of sorts, including stampeding army sounds. The lyrics are post apocalyptic and quite sad, yet there is an outcry for the culture of the past to rise out of the ashes. But where are you George?, now that we need you... Next up is the flawless "I am the way and the truth and the light". This song is filled with stinging metaphors and hard hitting imagery, strong contrasts, and great atmosphere. "Agape" is anouther female vocal tracks thich leave you in a trance like state of impassivity. "Golden dawn" is up next, providing one of the best combinations of sparce guitars and spacy heavily sequenced keyboards. In addition it also features well placed violin adventures. We dive headfirst into the unknown desperation in the track "The Last Straw", a journey into the mind of someone consumed by addiction. Our sympathy is toyed with as Edward points out the gloomy facts in human desolation. "A Message From our Sponsers", shows us yet anouther slant on edwards strange outlook on religion. This time he paints a portriat of a god who hears our praise, but he'd "never interfear" so sing, sing while we may, an utterly fasinating look on life. On the wonderful "Go Ask Alice" we find a completely backwords song, in which edward is having an abstract conversation with (phil?), while a guitar solo's quietly in the background. This song is in a class by it's self. Finally we come to th dirge-like track, "This could be the end", not exactly the most upbeat of songs. It has a noir sort of feel, and it engrosses you in a haze of intense fever building up to the end, a violent orgy of ghostly sound which sound as if it's erupting from hell. All that aside this is a formatable Pink Dot's release, definatly one that get's high praise from me for it's diverse nature and exellent craft in song writing. Review by Paul Wehby pwehby@indy1.CALARTS.edu @SONG: Timon ten Berge Date: Thu Oct 24 14:19 EDT 1996 I first thought that I liked Echo Police so much because it is the first track on the album, but it's not true. It's just another masterpiece of our heros. And there is Golden Dawn on that Album. And So Gallantly Screaming, the lyrics of which I tend to mutter over and over while taking a shower because they are so beautiful and subtle and ambiguous on all levels language can be ambiguous. I am very glad for obtaining the lyrics of A Message From Our Sponsor, too (hey, I just didn't feel like taping the track and than reversing the tape to listen to it). And there is Gorgon Zola's Baby, which took me years to appreciate, but I finally succeeded :-) The album never tires me. @SONG: Rex The Dots' original game plan, according to the clues on The Tower, seems to have been thrown aside to make room for Asylum, a sprawling double-album released on PIAS in 1985. This is a tour into the darkest, cluttered recesses of Ka-Spel's mind and features the band's most elaborate work, both sonically and thematically. Though no credit is given, the album is rumored to have been produced by Nurse With Wound's Steven Stapleton, explaining the sonic edge. The spoken-word of "So Gallantly Screaming," the backwards masking of "Go Ask Alice," the distorted speech from God on "A Message From Our Sponsor," and the eerie female vocalisms on "Femme Mirage" and "Agape" are all reasons why Asylum isn't geared for the faint-of-heart. The orchestration of semi-member Patrick Q. Wright starts making its progressively more frequent appearances here, as do the romantic Pink Floyd-like mellowisms of tracks like "Golden Dawn." @SONG: "Coma White(WK)" chameleon@owl-online.de Asylum is in my opinion one of the masterpieces and a very important album by the dots! Before I myself came in touch with the dots through the Stone Circles Album and espacilly "Love Puppets" (read it in my Stone Circles review) I had seen this album a few times in my local record store, during my hunts for new music. The cover always facinated me, this pink and blue colour, the abstract and also real painting of faces! However, it was not until after I had stone circles and at least 2 or 3 other albums that I finally purchased Asylum. The Album is a double Vinyl, and split in two sections at those both albums. The first album is mostly a song album, the second album is more conceptual! Echo police is a strange pop song with a flying guitar over the mashine rhythm. Gorgon Zolas Baby is a mix of unharmonic sounds, a strange rythmn and clasical female sounds, that are in the background and a "manic" talking Ed overall. This leads directly to 15 flies, which is one of the strangest and also finest Dots songs ever. It has a waltz rythmn, Mr. Paganinni plays classical violins over it and E refers and sings to it. From the middle, the flies are coming in....... Femme Mirage is very dark, floating sounds from silverman and The female voices are very classical! Again great Violin lay on this one! The Hill is the one pop song from this album. It reminds me a lot to the late beatles, even if there are only electonix used, only a strange sort of guitar sometimes is in it. But it really reminds me a lot to the Lennon songs from the White Album or Sgt. Peppers. It has a funny rythmn by a dark ground theme, dealing with themes about this mad man sitting on the hill with his gun and shooting at kids. I love this song; it is far out but also goes in your mind and ears. Demonismn starts the second album side and is another song made for Paganini's Violin. It leads us into Prisoner which is a very fast electronic dominated track. The doubleplay of the keyboards is very great here! So gelantly screaming is the first real masterpiece of this album. Started by classical Violins like heard on the Lovers, it grows to a electronic song, that is arranged very low. It was a lot of times discussed on CZ what Ed really refers about in this song. In my oppinion and by also hearing the german version of it "Der Schrei" he talks a lot about famous places, people and films, and all those things are connected some way to times or countries that were lead by dictators or fascistic parties! And he tells about the people that surrvived thoese times and told aftrely :"Wir hatten keine Ahnung" We havenīt had any idiea! After that comes Way Truth Light. One of the best "Dance" songs of the dots. A straight rythmn, a good keyboardplaying, and how ironic, after "So gelantly" Edward here plays that one, who knows the way, who is the truth..........and he knows all the answers. Lyrix remind me of what Hitler says in his "Mein Kampf" Books: he tells us all that we will become puppets and followers, to do his bidding as the instruments of destruction, and dares us to lock him away, warning us that disaster will come if we do not, all the while knowing nobody will ever try it. A great guitar and Violin are also in this great song! The second Album starts with agape, a dark lead into the dark area of this album. It is a very sweet song anyway..... he plays with his dark melodies and the smooth female vocals mix in nicely. Golden Dawn is so dark with his keyboards and violins, sometimes a lost guitar comes in, Ed talks about being on a lost island after the (or shortly before) the apocalypse......in this stage of the Album I always think of Pink Floyds the Wall......espcially the song "Stop". It is musically totally different, but also so quiet and lost, and refers to a lost one after leaving a world of violince! Now we are running into side 4 of the album. I needed so long to get into this, today they are among most listened-to LPD songs for me. The Last Straw starts with dark violins, keyboards and guitars. Than it gets distorted. The sounds come and fade for some time until the violin starts his ground theme! And suddenly, it gets rough and fast until the guitar breaks again! Then deep keyboards start to lead the song. We are now set in a soundscape of helpless noises and Ed talks dark Lyrix about the dark shades of Life!" ......to forget! Message From Our sponsor has some of the most interesting keyboard sounds I know. Those sounds, beginning with a helicopter noise ("The Wall"?!?!) surrounds you all over and over again. Listen to this loud and on headphones.............In this song the electronic reworked voices start. Ed changed to the "Leader" . He now speaks (just my IMHO) as the devil inside us all. Go Ask Alice is that famous backward lyrix song (Beatles?!?!) All those noises around!! Strange and also, in a way, very smooth to me.......! This could be the end sounds realy apocalyptic and closes this Album. I needed a long time to get into it, but if you open your ears and your mind to this one, I am sure you will also agree that this one is a very important album to us, and to the dots. As I understand, the dots were very close to breaking up around this time, and you hear it in this album. If this album had been scrapped or never completed, I believe that they wouldn't be around still, or wouldn't be what they represent now.....the most innovating and independent band I know! Take your trip out of the Asylum.........