Talking About...Bjork ‘93 to ‘01

Bjork is unlike any other musician, unconventional, independent and constantly pushing the boundaries of music!

We’re exploring her first four solo albums, from Debut to Vespertine, but also looking at everything before, including her first record, punk and The Sugarcubes amongst other things.

Gareth, James and Phil discuss their history with these albums and share some insights in to their lives growing up in Essex.

We’ll also see whether James and Gareth can work out the Bjork lyrics from the A.I’s in our lyric game!

And to get you in the right vibe here’s our 15 track Bjork playlist taken from these four magnificent albums. 

Hope you enjoy!

Contact: kissthekerb@gmail.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Before we actually get into tonight's artist, I was thinking about sort of um musicians' names. Because obviously the artist tonight we're doing is, you know, got an un probably not an unusual name for where she comes from, but an unusual name to make it into such a mainstream world. So I was thinking about what other crazy musicians' names are there out there? So I've got some names for you two today. So you can either stay as Gareth, you can either stay as Phil. So hang on, or you can be called one of these names if you so choose. Alright. So the first one, if anyone is interested, Sicky Wife Beater. Shut up, that's uh he's the guitarist with the mentors.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Sticky wife beater. Sticky wife beater. How would you call yourself that?

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Anyone feel sticky wife beater? Okay. Um the next one I've got for you guys is Ziggaboo Modelist. Oh, that's better. Yeah, and rolls off the top.

SPEAKER_04 0:54

He's the drummer in the meters. Zigger ziggar. So are we not listening to all five? Do we have to take a gamble and go, yeah, go with that one?

SPEAKER_01 1:01

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

You can I want to hear them all. You can hear them all.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Okay, number three, Lux Interior.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Oh, I know you'll know it when you say who it's from.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

That's the singer of the cramps. Yes. Yeah. Anyone? Lux Interior. Okay. Uh, number four, I've got for you is uh Jackie Kikasi. And that's the drummer in the upper crust.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Um that's the uh drummer, that's the baguette boys in Liverpool Street, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:25

It is, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I found him lying on the floor. Uh number five, Rat Scabies. Ah, it's the damned. It is the damned, yeah. The drummer of the damned. Little drummers. And uh and a bonus one, I did six, so this is a little cheeky bonus for you. Uh Bent Fabric. Bent fabric, anyone? Bent fabric. And he was a Danish pianist and composer from the 60s. Oh.

SPEAKER_04 1:52

Yeah, I'll take that one.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

You wanna be Bent Fabric? Okay, bent fabric for the rest of the episode. I'm gonna go for Lux Interior. Lux interior. Yeah. You got a Luxe exterior as well. I know this is gonna be a very bold statement. I would probably go as far as saying that Bjork is my favourite artist of all time. Yeah? Yeah. With a whole package or something. Everything, yeah. This woman, this human, is one of the most creative geniuses that I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. And I don't think there's anyone else like her in the world.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Yeah. Is that it?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Yep, agreed, we can all go home now.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Done. Um, yeah, she's she's she's pretty special. So I'll ask you, because you when we set this up, you said let's do the first four studio albums.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Yeah. Was that just because there's a lot of albums, because there's a lot of albums, and I thought I'd play it a bit safer with maybe you, Phil. Sorry, Bent, because you haven't really experienced Bjork before, have you? No. No, obviously I'll know of her buttons. You've chosen not to experience Bjork before. No.

SPEAKER_04 3:16

And is there any particular reason? What I do know, and what I have seen or heard of her, just hasn't ever grabbed me. Just never has. But to be fair, this would be probably someone I need to give more time. I think it definitely is a grower.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

And how about you? Where where where does Bjork li life like have you have you known her since she came out in terms of um debut or no no, I was only 13 when Davy came out, so it's always going to be a good one.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Did your ears go? You didn't have ears then. No, I didn't have ears then. I only had ears for um Holm and Pace Through the Stonk. Oh great, yeah, great. But uh I don't think I really got into it probably until about homogenic.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

I remember buying Vespertine when it came out. So it's that probably that sort of time.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

I went back pretty quickly. Yeah, I didn't kind of just listen to homogenic get Vespertine, and then I kind of went back and listened to the lot. Never went back as far as the sugar cubes.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

I was gonna say, has anyone heard any of the sugar cubes stuff? I've gone insanely deep on this. Probably not to most people, but can I just say the reason why I I like I got into Bjork and it was a complete random moment in time? It was Reading 95, right? And um that was the year that the Foo Fighters were playing the enemy tent, and that was obviously just r absolutely RAM, so there's absolutely no chance that I was ever gonna get anywhere near that. I'll go over to the main stage. Headline the main stage was Bjork, and her performance that night hooked me straight away, and then from that moment on I just tried to get everything I possibly could. And that was on the post tour.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

Yeah, I'd say that was must have been post, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yeah, have you seen her since then? I've only ever seen her once. I've not seen her, I'd love to see her. I saw her once in Soho, walking around, but I stayed away from her just in case. Just in case, yeah. But did you know that it wasn't her first Salo album? No, she did one about eleven or something. She wasn't 11, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

You didn't go that deep.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Yeah, listen to that. And it is, you know, very much an 11-year-old girl singing in Icelandic, doing a few covers of um Stevie Wonder and you know, things of that nature. Yeah, apparently sold 5,000 copies, which was gold in Iceland. Eleven years old, selling five thousand copies. Yeah, so apparently how it happened was that um she was singing a song. It was a school thing, wasn't it? And they recorded it. At school, yeah, and the school teacher recalled it, and um she was singing I Love to Love by Tina Charles. It was a sort of disco track from 1976, and the teacher decided to send it into the only radio station in Iceland, and it got all this airplay, and the local or the only record label on the island said, Do you want to make it out?

SPEAKER_04 5:58

And how did she get main diet come to America now? '93. So obviously I have a debut. How did how did she break that? Because obviously it's free internet, so it's harder then, especially a country like Iceland, I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Well, yeah, I mean, she'd had a worldwide career. I mean, this is the thing, like debut came out in in '93, she was 27.

SPEAKER_04 6:18

But were the sugar cubes big enough for her to live? Oh well, they would have. Absolutely must have paid a great talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

They had three albums, like you know, John Pill was playing them, Melody Maker, were giving them singles of a week, you know. I mean, they were huge. And what kind of music were they? It's it's kind of art punk. Bit talking heads, I'd say, bit B52s, bit experimental. Because she was in a few post-punk bands, wasn't she?

SPEAKER_02 6:43

I think before Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Yeah, her first punk band was um four of them, four girls. Uh they started a band called Spit and Snot.

SPEAKER_04 6:51

They sound very similar to what Garford's like hat like Iceland's version of Han and Pace. Yeah who was that?

SPEAKER_02 7:00

That was when that um What's his name?

SPEAKER_04 7:02

Silla Black's uh big trash, wasn't it? Yeah, Bob someone, wasn't it? What was it, Barry? Bob Caldri and Bob Cow. That's it. But I didn't I didn't think we were gonna mention Bukhadra and a Bjork at the center.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Oh no, what's the beauty of Bjork, right? You go you can go anywhere with uh this sort of stuff. Because she was quite she went to like the main music school in uh Iceland in Reykjavik for sort of ten years. So she she learned all classical, she was classically trained, she knew how to make piano and flute, she knew how to make instruments, you know. She's well schooled in music making, but obviously you know, punk hit Iceland, and she's sort of admitted that she loves sort of some real hardcore punk stuff like bands like Crass and Discharge, um, which I didn't know. Discharge apparently created something called D beat, which was a particular type of drum beat, um, which uh then led cleared the way for hardcore and thrash. Whoa well. I know, right? You're full of knowledge tonight. Um she had a short spell with a jazz fusion band called Exodus in 1979 eighty, before she then got into um a band called Tappy Tikras, which was uh 81 to 83. Why are you laughing at me? Laughing?

SPEAKER_04 8:22

I'm informing the other at these time, she's still only like 17-18.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Yeah, you well she's on 65, haven't she?

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Yeah, so did you manage to find any of these bands to listen to?

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah, Tappy Tikaras. I listened to a couple of their tracks. I think they had a track called London. But automatically on the on these videos you can sort of see it's her. And vocally, is it similar? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Wow, you you went deep. Do you know what? I'll tell you how deep I went, and this this might be a bit um rude for the children out there. Uh Tappy Tikras in um Icelandic. Do you know what it means? Cork the bitch's ass. Nice. Yeah. And then um she went on uh to form a band with a load of other musicians called Kulk. Kulk. Kulk. Kuk K-U-K-L. Kuk L. Kulk Kukel. Have we said her name right as well? Björk. Bjork or Bjork? It's Bjork. Björk. Yeah, have I said Bjork? I've I'd say Bjork. It is Björk. That's how it's spell. Okay, let's start again. Let's cut all of that. Let's go back to the beginning. I can't do it. Um, so this Kuk from 83 to 86, I kind of really struggled with actually. This is kind of gothic, avant-garde. I couldn't quite get there with this sort of stuff. That um wasn't in the brief though. What? To listen to all these albums. No, but because she's my favourite artist, I really wanted to sort of understand where she's come from so I could understand, you know, where she went her solo stuff. Um, and then she had a kid actually when she was 21, kid called Sindri.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Uh and that was the one that was at the airport.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

This is the one at the airport. He was born in June 86, and that's apparently the day the sugar cubes was formed. What the day she had a kid? Yeah, and uh for Eldon was her husband, and they had the kid together, he was in the band as well. And by the end of the year they were divorced.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

But they still stayed, he was in the sugar cubes.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

He was in the sugar cubes, but they they so whilst they ended their relationship, they still stayed within the band for that.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Yeah. But then post Sugar Cubes, that's when she moved to London, right? And started recording debut.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

She did, yeah. Well, actually, like originally she came she got into the dance scene over here in the sort of early 90s and recorded a couple of tracks with 808 State. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 10:52

And got to debut is quite dancy, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, very much so.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

So she got hooked up with like Grandmasse, is it, of 808 State?

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

And he co-wrote and co-produced Army of Me and the Modern Things, uh, which were apparently re initially recorded for debut, and he did some remixes of Finally Happy. So he's obviously had a quite a big early influence on her in terms of the dance scene, and she saw what the Brit Pop scene was doing and what the indie scene was doing. She was like, This is so there's nothing creative going on here, this is quite dull. She wanted to connect with people who weren't just sitting still doing the same old thing, so she looked at the club scenes and the dance scenes and the trip hop as a way of getting that sort of creativity going. And I think she did that with debut actually. She's got loads of different people involved. Uh Nellie Hooper produced it, and you got um Singh Singh on there, and I I think she sort of mentioned, you know, that in her band there was you know a guy from Iran, there was a guy from somebody from India, and and obviously you then got all of that experience and that type of musical flavours running through all the album, right? Yeah, and I think a lot of them she wrote when she was a teenager.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Yeah. Which is impressive, really.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

I think those yeah, I because I think her point was that a lot of the songs that end up on debut didn't fit. Didn't fit sugar keys. Yeah, and I think she describes debut and post as this kind of idea of getting all of that previous stuff out of her system before she sort of starts afresh. I've got to say, Debut, I was not reluctant to go back to, but I I never remembered it being as good as post. No. But the more I listen to Debut, uh I just think it's an absolutely fantastic record. Yeah, it still stands up as well. And I guess this I think she is sort of riding on this quest of dance music and trip-hop and all this sort of new, uh a sort of more mature dance world.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Yeah, she kind of absorbs, didn't she, like loads of different styles and things I think and puts them across on the album. But then Post is very much like that as well, like even more so. Yeah, post is more of the industrial stuff coming in and the trip-hop stuff coming in.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Yeah. And it is completely different. Each song is completely different, right? It has a completely different style. Whereas I think at least with debut, there's there's a there is a bit more of a consistency.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. There's not as many I mean as many styles going on in there as there is with posts.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Apparently, One Little Indian originally thought we'll base it on what the sugar cubes did, and they thought it was only going to sell about 40,000 and it had sold over 600,000 within the first three months. So it clearly exp uh exceeded any sort of expectations.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

And then I think obviously when it should Play Dead in '94, was it? That kind of probably helped it as well. Because then they had they added it in there, I think, to they added it to the UK extra.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Yeah, because it got re re-released like six times or something. Oh really? The album.

SPEAKER_04 13:53

I struggled with debut. Did you? Yeah. Because it's very dance. I'm not a dance. Yeah. I felt it was very dancing. I did struggle with debut. I went back and listened to it again. And it was uh that's why I think it on a it might be a bit of a grower because it was a bit better. I was like, oh yeah, it's growing on me. I don't know. Insta, I preferred post far better. No, because it it was more guitar and more like I said, industrial, it did sound like I say Army Man, it was like nine-inch nails for doing the music and Bjork was singing over top of it, and I thought, I was just like, Oh, this is sound, I quite like this. So it was more kind of to my ears and what I like.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

A bit more of a metal met a metal flavour.

SPEAKER_04 14:30

But was there anything in there that you did enjoy? Um obviously you had like yeah, human behaviour was probably my best one out of there, I think. Come to me, I didn't mind. I remember that violently happy. I remember quite liking that one.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

I d I yeah, I I love violently, and I think that's a perfect sum up of what she does, is she smashes if you think about it, violently happy. Like you've smashed two completely ends of the spectrum into one sort of phrase, and it just makes sense. You can feel that emotion. I think that's something that you miss a lot with she's very unique, isn't she? Yeah, very like yeah, you can't deny that. For me, I every time she sings, you feel what she is singing.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

I think more so later on as well, with her later albums. But yeah, for debut, yeah, there's a big hits, big time sensuality, it's great. And I really like there's more to life than this. Was it live live from the milk bar toilets? Or live in the milk bar toilets? Yeah, yeah. Because you can only hear all the background noise and doors closing and stuff. Yeah, it's great.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

That's what I mean. She doesn't seem to give a shit about what the convention should be to make music.

SPEAKER_04 15:35

That's something you probably do further up the line when you've you know done everything and you've got all your fans and you're just uh play around a little bit, but to do that on a debut album is brave, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 15:45

It's interesting, isn't it? Because you you you sort of talk about it being her debut album, but essentially she's already had like seven albums underneath her belt in various forms. Yeah. It must be weird to sort of is there more pressure on a on somebody doing breaking away from a band format and going off and doing something on their own, or is it easier because there's no pressure? Yeah, I don't know. I think there'd be more pressure, especially if they were quite big.

SPEAKER_04 16:11

I would say probably being in a band or something, at least there's more of you to I don't know, full, you know, if it goes wrong, you can all tell you, or if it goes well, you can do you do it all together, whereas it's solely you, isn't it? Where it goes well, if it goes wrong, even if it goes well, you've got to deal with that pressure all by yourself, haven't you? Yeah, it's all on you.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

There's no hiding place, it's like you. It's quite a smart point of debut, I think, really, because it's like you know, a fresh start, isn't it? And if people didn't know the shooter cubes or have heard of it before, then I'd think that's the first album.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Yeah. Um I loved um the anchor song.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

It's a yearning song, isn't it? It's looking for roots, it's looking for somewhere to I just it just gets me every time.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

Yeah, she can do those extremes, can't she? Yeah, both ways.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

And that's another thing about Bjork. If you know Sal, like say for example, Alarm Call was a single on Homogenic, and the single is completely different to the album track. Her live performances, every new album, she'll play the old tracks completely differently.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

So it'll be in the styling of that current album.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

Yeah, it's a bit like Bob Dylan, he does that live these days. Does he? Yeah, you go and see him, you're like, I have no idea what this song is. Then the chorus will start, and you're like, oh, it's that song. Oh, is that? He just changes them all the time. Is that because he's bored? Well, maybe he's been non-stop free since the 70s, and he's probably got close to 500 songs, and he'll say, always plays them different like that. Same as Bjork, Bjork, Bjork, Bjork.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Um, Venus as a Boy, which was the second single. Woman called Sophie Muller directed that video, and uh, she has directed over 300 music videos, which is pretty incredible, isn't it? 300 music videos, and worked with the lights of Blur, Weaser, Stone Roses, Jeff Buckley. I mean, that's insane, isn't it? She's because she's clearly like Bjork's also clearly working with a you know, people who know what they're doing, you know, like Michelle Gondry on on the human behaviour video, Spike Jones as well. Spike Jones and uh Chris Cunningham. So she's working with a lot of people, yeah. So that was um Debut. So do you think you will give Debut another lesson, or do you think you'll just go, right? Well, I've done this podcast now, I don't need to listen to it again.

SPEAKER_04 18:21

Possibly the latter. No, I I don't know if I'll go and seek it out. Yeah, I don't know if I liked that much. I I did like post. I mean, spoiler alert, that's my that was my favourite one. I like I say, I'm not much of a dance. I found Debut very dancey, and I just whereas Post was the music I actually liked. So I was like, oh, this is nice, like heavy guitars, yeah, like very industrial drums, and I think much more um influenced by the trip-hop scene as well. So, you know, like massive attack and we also there's some tricky moments in Post though where there's it's like Disney music playing in one of the songs. I think it's like is it you've been flirting again? The music to it, it's like it's like I honestly thought it's like a Disney film, like but and then a film score or yeah, like a film score, selling out frozen or something like that, and then but she starts singing these lyrics quite dark over the top of it, and it was really like weird to the ears. I was like, and then there's one track, it might have been Isabel. I think it they kind of go into one each other, and then it sounds like a Bond theme. The music's very Bondy, so yeah, it's bizarre, and then you and then you just got some really heavy industrial music, so yeah, it's different, but it's it uh it was just better to my ears, that one. It it suited me better, that album. I was like, Oh, this was better, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

It's interesting. Biorka's, I think, referred to this, and it's probably not the PC way of saying this, but she's referred to it as spazzy, it's a very spazzy album. What in what way? In terms of like it goes all over the place, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

It doesn't have one sort of cohesive sort of thing, and that's it. So many genres going on in there, aren't there? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

And that's interesting because on the last podcast, I think you were talking about how you liked albums that have a theme running through it, yeah. Or it feels unified. Yeah, yeah. So listening to post, which is not unified at all, yeah. That's quite interesting. You enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

But I think it's so different, it's also unified. Do you get because it's it's it's like it's put topically done, yeah, yeah. It's not like accidental, it's just uh just throwing some stuff together. I think that's when I don't like it. It's just it's like um someone just doing a great hits album just throwing songs together because that's what they've done. Okay. I love Army of Me, actually. Yeah, it's brilliant. What an opener. Oh yeah, yeah. I love the guitar on it.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Yeah, I can't I can't stop listening to it. Read about a brother. Oh, really? Yeah, who was um annoying her, I think. Her siblings do.

unknown 20:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

But what I what I found out today, and I didn't know, is pre-post in between Davy and Poe, she co-wrote and but on her album Bedtime Stories. A song, a song on it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

She she wrote Bedtime Stories, yeah. But standout track for me on this album is hyperballad. Yeah, like possibly Maybe's up there for me. And what did you think about it's Oh So Quiet, which is obviously the hit.

SPEAKER_04 21:08

Yeah, because it's the only one I really know, it's weird to hear it on this album, to be fair. It kind of didn't fit. Well, that I think that's just because you've heard it so many times, you know what it is. Yeah, it it just seemed a bit out of place. It was like it was just thrown in there. Uh I've never really liked that song to be fair, it's Oh so quiet.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

I think just because you got overplayed and yeah, yeah. It's funny for me because it's so overplayed that I I wouldn't listen to it. You wouldn't know, but re-listen to it, it's really good.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

And I think coming back to it, I enjoy it far more than I ever used to. German. Oh, yeah. It's a cover. Oh I did not know that.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

No, I didn't know that. I used to sort of skip the sort of darker songs, but I have to say, when listening to it properly, like the headphones, I really liked headphones, and that was produced by a tricky. And you can sort of hear those little hip hop beats coming in either side of your headphones. Possibly, maybe. Jane's Spawn strings. Yeah, that's the one it is very bondy, yeah. And that was written about a guy she broke up with, and the guy she broke up with directed the video for the song about the guy she broke up with. Does that make sense? He directed that video. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

And that was the guy she broke up with. Yeah. What is the video about? Have you seen it?

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Yeah. I remember she was eating melon. What what what kind of melon? Watermelon. Watermelon. Yeah. Bad choice. With pips. Did have pips, yeah. Yeah. Bad choice. And she was licking some sort of dust off the floor. That's another bad food. It's another bad choice. It was all very stylised, you know, it's all in kind of Garus jumper colour. Nothing quite like floor food, is it? I do love your jumper. It's cardigan, but yeah. Well cardigan, sorry, sorry. It's almost like you knew because you were doing Bjork today you were gonna wear the jumper. Oh yeah, exactly that. I wanted the colour and the crazy.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

He's gonna do that for every episode. He's gonna do in Black Sabbath next week and some of us some leather. You gotta do that now. That's your question every time you've got to come dressed as duck. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

So you like you you you you got a big thumbs up for post. Yeah, I like to, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And um, did you know she's on the front cover of all of all the albums? Yes. So apparently those reflect all the themes of the album, and they're like she described them as kind of avatars. Okay. So the sort of the girl who's quite on debut, the girl's quite sort of shy, and she's got the little tears, and it's sort of like this timid, sort of slightly worried, slightly scared kind of person. Then post is actually, you know, she's been to London, she's got all the colours, she's experienced all these different things. And then I'm gonna go and now on to homogenic. Recorded in 97 in Spain.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

Yeah, and she she was after someone who tried to kill her, yeah. But he only managed to kill himself. Yeah, it was a whole like um sent her a letter bomb. A fan. It was it's because she was going out of Goldie, wasn't it? Oh, was it? Yeah, I think it was like a jealousy of her going out of Goldie, and he thought she shouldn't be going out with him.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

So he sent a letter bomb, but he got intercepted.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

I was watching some of his videos because there was like a documentary. I mean, he was a nut job, but he filmed it all. He filmed it all, he filmed the making of a bomb and all that sort of stuff. Apparently, his first attempt he tried to make a bomb that had like HIV infected blood in it, so when it blew up, it would just make her get a sulfuric acid one, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 24:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

How did he kill himself? I think he just shot himself, didn't he?

SPEAKER_02 24:32

Yeah, I thought he painted himself like red or something.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Yeah. Yeah, he looked a bit like Darth Moore Darth Moore. Is it Darth Moore? With the little with the red and the black and the black?

SPEAKER_02 24:43

Got cut in half.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Darth Moore or Darth Moore, yeah. Right, okay. Yeah. So yeah, moved down to Spain. And this album was produced by uh Mark Bell of LFO. Um he's a long-term producer from that point onwards, I think. I think he died.

SPEAKER_04 24:59

You still don't know about Darthmore.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Yeah. Got ch got Cholton off. I don't know if you heard. Um and uh Howie B was a producer on this as well. And apparently, interesting fact, Wu Tang Clan was meant to do some producing on it as well. Oh really? Yeah, but apparently couldn't because they were in the middle of making Wu Tang Forever. So uh that uh collaboration slash production session didn't go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

When you say Wu Tang, you mean Rizza, probably, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

So yeah, recorded in uh recorded in um Malaga Malaga, white. Malaga, yeah, yeah. Uh the uh uh a friend's studio out there. Yeah, from what I understand. Yeah. Like a drummer or something like that in the band. Did he have a silly name? He didn't, no. But thanks for asking. Thanks for asking, Bent. Um and she wanted this album very unified, you know, with one narrative or a feel running through it.

SPEAKER_04 25:59

This one's quite atmospheric, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Yeah, like a homage to Iceland or something.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

Homage landscapes of Iceland. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

And again, that comes across in the cover art. She describes it as a warrior who doesn't fight with swords and guns but fights with love. And if you look at all the sort of the background art and stuff like that, it's all very icy, it's cold, it's tough, you know, it's got a tough exterior. And apparently homogenic means like one flavour.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Yeah, this was more cohesive, isn't it? This album is it? It's more of a singular thing.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

I think this is when I really fell into like complete and utter thrall with her music. It's it's over time as well. Like 97. I can't remember what I was doing, but I do remember Fish and Ferkin. Fish and Furkin. Yeah, probably was, wasn't it? Probably around that, wasn't it? Yeah, 19 1920. I I remember listening to this album all the time, just was never off. Has a lot of memories for me of that time. I love the Fish and Furkin days living up there in my little bedsit. Squalor. Did you actually live there? I did live there, yeah. Yeah, I was assistant manager for a little while. So I had to be on site all the time. Because it was a hotel, so it was all full of like root little rooms. It wasn't me. Was it an active hotel now? No, no, but I think it was still it's had separate, yeah. Like I had a shower in the corner with a sink and fucking getting train spotting visions in my yeah, it was a bit like that. But then, you know, I was I was 19 and I was living above a pub. Happy days, right? Yeah, well known. I mean it looking back in the house, maybe the entire time.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a good pub, actually. I used to like I know.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

You used to have a lot of live bands upstairs, wasn't it? A lot of live bands upstairs, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

Did you ever play there? No, it was closed by the time we we were in I worked the last night it was open. I worked the bar there.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Did you leave did you join after me?

SPEAKER_02 27:55

Yeah, yeah, way after you. I just used to work on um I should like Saturday evenings. Right, okay. And yeah, I worked the last.

SPEAKER_04 28:01

You used to have the big snakes and ladders there, didn't they?

SPEAKER_02 28:03

Yeah, yeah, on the little stage there.

SPEAKER_04 28:05

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

And uh they I think they had the massive Jenga. And Connect 4. Yeah, yeah. Connect four, that's it. Anyway, what were we talking about? Hermogenic. Uh how did you feel about this one?

SPEAKER_04 28:19

Um didn't like it as much as Post. Right, okay. But liked it more than Debut. What was it that you liked and what you what was it that you didn't like? Um, like I said, I think Post had a certain sound to it that I liked, like very industrial and that. This was the like say it yeah, I liked the atmospheric thing to it. The orchestra and strings I liked, but but it just didn't I don't know. I preferred post just as a as an album. But to be fair, I haven't listened to this one again, so it might be one of them ones that I do go, oh actually, I quite like this one.

SPEAKER_02 28:47

How did you find it? Yeah, I I really like it. As I say, I like the fact that it's more like a cohesive bit of work. I still find it it's got it's still got that kind of industrial beats to it, I think. Yeah, yeah, and I think the open again, the opening track, Hunter is like the opening tracks are always so good.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

Yeah, based on a bolero, isn't it? That sort of ding digga did ding, digga-ding, digga-di-ding, ding, ding, dig-a-di-ding. So I was gonna go into some sort of soundtrack there.

SPEAKER_04 29:16

I was going to night rider.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Buster owns. Buster owns. I really like I think I think yoga for me. Yeah. Yeah, I like stuff. Oh my god, that is just beautiful. You push me up to this state of emergency. I mean, that is a great lyric for me. Is it Hunter with the line Um I tried to organise freedom? How very Scandinavian of me.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

Yes, I think it's Hunter's Hunter.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Yeah, I think it is, isn't it? Yeah. When would you ever hear that? In a pop song or uh from a from an artist. Maybe Abba, they were scared of her. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Based on a story that her grandma told her, apparently. Yeah. And yoga is based uh is an o to her friend and to Iceland, her friend called Yoga. And that was another video by um Michelle Gondry. That was Gondry, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. And Bachelorette on uh track four, which I think is another video by Michelle Gondry. Apparently, it's the third in a series of songs that runs through the first three albums. What's the other two then? The other two is uh Isabelle and Human Behaviour. A trilogy. A trilogy. A trilogy of what though, do we know? Human behaviour is all about a girl's perspective of human behaviour and how ridiculous it is. Isabel is about how that girl then goes into the city, and then Bachelorette is how the nature then takes back over that city.

SPEAKER_02 30:39

Oh, okay. Fascinating. Where do you learn all this stuff, James? From the internet. Yeah, I don't think there's that there's nothing on there I'd skip. I just feel it's a it's a pretty complete album, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Yeah. Great album. And then the final track on it, All Is Full of Love.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Which is inspired by Norse mythology, apparently. And did you see the video to that?

SPEAKER_02 31:01

Yeah, Sports' face, isn't it? Chris Cunningham.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

That's an interesting video. Yeah. With the two robots making making out.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Really weird. But I mean this works. It whatever she does, I don't I I don't think there's anything for me, anyway. Like it all feels unified. There's a purpose to it. Everything that she does is deliberate. The videos that she makes, the clothes that she wears, the covers that she has, everything is very carefully orchestrated to represent the music that she's making every time.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

She's a complete artist, isn't she? She's not just a musician. Yeah. She's about everything. She's about the look, the videos, the music. It's a whole package rather than just making songs. She's definitely got weirder. Not in a bad way, but like, you know, saying about that video is like kind of odd, like two robots. But I think further she's gone on in her career.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

It's not like she didn't like back off, it didn't become like, you know, like mundane, kind of churning out stuff. I suppose you get to a point when you just go, How can I outdo how can I outdo the next thing? Yeah, how can I outdo that but I guess it's a whole rebellious kind of going back to the kind of like the punky side of it, like constantly evolving and changing.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

But I think this uh I think homogenic it homogenic is really the start of her as a a fully formed solo artist, wouldn't you say? Yep. It's great. Love it. And then in 2000. 2000 2001? Oh no, no, sorry. Before we get onto Vespertine, she obviously what she decided to do was write a soundtrack, star in a movie, and win a Palm Dor for Best Actor, actress. What was that? What was that shit? It's a film called Dancer in the Dark. I think I might have seen it. Lars Larson. Larson. Yeah. I think I might have seen it. But obviously, we haven't included this because it's it's a soundtrack album, but yeah, there's some great songs on there. Yeah, it was really good songs. So obviously, a year later, we have Vespatine.

SPEAKER_02 32:59

Brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

You love Ves? I love Vespatine.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

Do you? Yeah, I really like it. It's quiet. Yeah. The kind of industrial beats have gone. Yeah, there's like some good like choral bits, choiry bits in there. Yeah. Yeah. I really enjoy Vespatine.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

I think she said she wants she wanted to make the complete opposite of homogenic. Yeah. Where homogenic was, you know, look at the landscapes, look at everything. This was let's go inside, let's go small, let's but make all the small things really big. Yeah. She sort of said, you know, if you imagine like a seeing a a a blood cell under a microscope, it's that sort of thing. So you're seeing the small things large.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

What were your thoughts, Phil, on Vespatine? Where did it sit here?

SPEAKER_04 33:43

I only listened to this once to be fair. And I I didn't like this one as much. I think because I just it jumped so far from that industrial sound to the opposite.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:55

And it was a bit of a shock to the ears. This is what I'm used to. Yeah, I think it was. But again, I I think I do need to give this more time, but yeah, I I struggled with this one. I didn't mind the first song. I remember I remember liking that one.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Yeah, this album has possibly my favourite song. Yeah. Pagan poetry.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

Yeah, it's good, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 34:17

That is, and I've written it here, you can see it. Fucking masterpiece. But yeah, as as an album, I would say I would agree with you that it's it doesn't have the impact that her previous records have had.

SPEAKER_04 34:31

But it is probably more suitable for someone who's a fan of her work. I'm guessing you probably like it more. But for a new for a new listener, I'm guessing if you was an if you was to someone said to you, right, you've got to make Phil a Bolt fan, give him one album. This probably be I'm guessing wouldn't be the one where you go, yeah, listen to that one out of you a fan.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

No, but it just shows her range that she can do all these different things.

SPEAKER_04 34:56

I think that's great, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 34:58

It is beautiful, it's it's angelic, isn't it? It's choral, it's yeah, it's a lot on there.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

Aurora's great. Yeah, heirloom's grey. Yeah, yeah. This is the first one I bought the day the day it was released. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, this guy's working on HMV at the time, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

But I suppose do you I know you said you got into putt post, but you you started with homogenic, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:18

I started with homogenic, yeah, and then got this up, then yeah, went back and this is the first one I bought out of release.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

Yeah. When you do when you're doing your research on the on these artists, do you sort of play the music out loud or do you have it like just in headphones?

SPEAKER_04 35:33

Headphones. Headphones. Well, a couple of these I had on the car actually on the way to work this week. So it was they were out loud, I suppose, yeah. Yeah. But like Claire wouldn't hear Claire wouldn't have heard them or no, or should I be in the car like on the way to work or listening to them or I'd be on the train with headphones on or something.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

Yeah. Yeah, normally headphones or speaker at my desk. Okay. Does Hannah like Bjork? Does um Claire? No, I don't does she like Bjork? I don't she doesn't dislike her, but she's I don't wouldn't say she's a fan. Okay. I think she finds it a bit interesting.

SPEAKER_04 36:07

Actually, I think she is. And she doesn't mind, although she did see her live. Did she? Yeah, only because she was working as a medic at Alexander Palace. Oh, really? Yes. How long ago was that? Twelve, thirteen years ago, maybe. Right, okay. She's very weird. She was very weird.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

Shall we um have a game? A game? Oh, yeah. Yeah, as long as he comes up with a good name for I've been waiting for this for you. I can't promise that. Come on.

SPEAKER_04 36:40

So we can do the lyric game, yeah? Yes, please. Yes, please. Okay, so this week's artist. Hang on, hang on. What's the what's the name? Yeah, so we I'm getting it. So we have Bjork, obviously, or are they lyrics from AI under the name of Björkel? Björkel. That's not my name, actually. I actually typed into AI, give me names, take a number of Bjork's name. Bjork. And it gave me a list. Do you want to hear them all? Yeah. Yeah, go on.

unknown 37:09

Bork.

SPEAKER_04 37:10

Bork. Biaz. And it says in brackets if she were a jazz singer. Bjork, like a cartoon boing. Bingle, like a magical bell. Bupe, bubbly, electronic vibe. Bjorkle, cute, giggly twist. Bjornado, like a whirlwind of sound. Biornome, tiny magical creature vibes. Buf, soft and goofy. And Bjorkapella, if she went full a cappella. So yeah, anyway. But I'm choosing what one did I choose? Björkel. Björkel. Okay. He's exploring the taste of her arousal. So accurate, he sets off the beauty in her. Björk Bjork. Sorry, Bjork. Bjork. Bjork. What song? Venus is a boy. Well done. He does know he's a star. I say he's gonna win this. Different level, this isn't it? Keep a volcano in my handbag. It's a bit of confetti when I laugh too loud. The moon is a marble, I roll it on the pavement. The children chase it, their shoes squeak like trumpets. Bjurkle. Bjurkel? Bjurkel. I'm gonna get bjurkle as well. You're right, it is buccal. Ready for the next one? Unfold me like petals in the frost. Unfold me. I am infinite. I am a microscopic. I wish I'd only look and didn't have to touch. I wish I'd only smell this and didn't have to taste. Biok. Biuk. I dip my hands into a glass river, it fractures into a thousand prisms. Every colour knows my name and every shard stitches me whole. You're really thinking about them.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

Can can I can you repeat it for me, please?

SPEAKER_04 39:11

The question, please, Phil. I dip my hands into a glass river, it fractures into a thousand prisms. Every colour knows my name, and every shard stitches me whole.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

Björkle. I'm gonna go Björk just to not be boring. Ooh. Björkle. Shh. I had to let you have that one, Jones. Run that one.

SPEAKER_04 39:36

You need and you needed you would have looked stupid over. Fucking stupid, yeah. More stupid.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

More stupid. More fucking stupid. Nice one. It's the lyrics game for you guys. Oh, thanks, Phil. Always a pleasure. Nice. Albums and songs.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

Oh, I don't know if I'll both do songs, but yeah, go on. Yeah, we can do albums quite easily.

SPEAKER_01 40:07

Alright, okay. Um considering you're new to this, not this podcast, but to Bjork. Bjork. Should I go first? Fucking hell. Shall I go first? Bjork.

SPEAKER_04 40:17

Um yeah, do you want to go first? Okay, so number four. Yeah. Vespertine. Okay. Number three, debut. Yeah. Number two, homogenic, and number one post.

SPEAKER_02 40:31

Four debut.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

Three post. Yeah. I'm gonna go two Vespertine and one homogenic. Very close though.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

Yeah. Um Vespertine debut post homogenic. Nice. That's that done. Any top tracks?

SPEAKER_04 40:47

Uh probably Army of Me. Yeah. I did like the ones off post mainly. Probably was like Isabel and the other heavy one, whatever that one was. I can't figure out what that one was.

SPEAKER_01 40:59

Pagan Poetry, Hyper Ballad. I think they're my top two. She's just great. She is just great.

SPEAKER_04 41:06

Yeah. It might not be the last I hear of it. I might even know. Do you know what? Even if we have a little walk home, I might put the headphones in and I might all listen to it. Yeah, yeah. Especially the last album again. I might give that another go.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

Vespertine, yeah. She's amazing. Love her music, love her.

SPEAKER_02 41:23

She's a proper artist, isn't she? She's um yeah, she's very good.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

Amazing. Anyway, thanks for indulging me with so much. So I'm gonna say goodbye. Goodbye, goodbye, Jimmy. This has been uh Kiss a Curb production produced by Barry at Backwater Channel Studios. Music by Ben Bailey. Talking about is presented by Gareth Norman, James Gentle, and Philip Reynolds.