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SCOTT WALKER RETURNS
An issue or so ago I put Scott Walker in our “Super 8” column, anticipating his new album, his first in ten years. Now it’s got a title — The Drift — and the musician Momus has an early review on his blog:
Fuck me, this is terrifying! I’ve come by The Drift, the new Scott Walker album. Don’t ask me how. It’s on 4AD. I used to be on 4AD, but that’s by the by the by the by. But the thing is, this isn’t a pop record, it’s a nightmare. It’s a horror film, part Cocteau, part Jodorowsky. It’s a donkey being slaughtered, it’s a sudden screaming orchestra, it’s Elmer Fudd jumping out from behind a pillar and turning into a cloud of bees and stinging your face with a million ghoulish obscenities!
In fact, at the first listen that’s the main thing you notice. That things jump out at you, like jump cuts in a horror film. Completely unexpected things, things you’ve never heard on a pop record before. Everything is ghostly, drifty, abstract, croony, brooding — and suddenly it all erupts into noise, sheer livid horror.
Walker was also recently on the BBC, chatting amiably with an interviewer about the record and his career. The piece includes old concert footage, interviews with Brian Eno and Jarvis Cocker about Walker, and some passages from the new record.
And then there’s Stephen Kijak, who is making a documentary about Walker. He’s maintaining a blog, which I’m sure will heat up as the record’s release approaches.
