OFF: Ship of Fools

[Jon Jarrett]

On Fri, 4 Feb 2005, Nick Lee wrote:

> M Holmes wrote:
>
> >Getting really into "Out There Somewhere". What else have these folks
> >done? Has anyone a complete discography?
> >
> There's also 'Close Your Eyes Forget The World'.  I have the two as a
> double CD.  I think 'Out There Somewhere' is slightly the better of the two.
> Christopher Williams' 'Adrift In The Ether' also lists a cassette
> ('Visions') and a 10" single/EP which draws on tracks from 'Out There
> Somewhere'.
> I have a feeling there might also be a compilation.

        Compilation there is, called _Let's Get This Mother Outta Here_
which is rather unfortunate, but it claims to be remastered (and from the
few other tracks I've heard on compilations I can well believe it,
quality's far *far* better) and is all remixed to flow as a whole, and I
think it's rather great apart from the disappointing `Diesel Spaceship'
and `L=SD^2' (which is still a lot better than the original by reason of
being cut down).

        Tracklist:

Diesel Spaceship
L=SD^2
Where is Here
First Light (it starts to get really good here)
In The Wake Of
>From Time (and from here it's all the absolute business; the bass-player
        even wakes up for some of it but mainly gorgeous textures and
        big chord sequence washes, very nice indeed)
Passage By Night
Western Lands
Guidance Is Internal

        There also claims be a video of `L=SD^2' on it but I've yet to
stick the disc into a computer that can read it so I'll have to pass
judgement on that one. It's on Peaceville, alarmingly, by reason of one
member's connection to Anathema it seems. Definitely worth picking up
especially if you don't have the original albums.

On Fri, 4 Feb 2005, Nick Lee wrote:
> >>
> There was also the band Nine Invisibles which featured members of Ship
> Of Fools, I also have an album by them ('Pureheadspace') which is rather
> good, not that I've listened to it lately.  Similar stuff but, I think,
> a little more ambient - I'll need to give it a whirl.

        And I've got the second album of theirs, _Soundbombing_, which is
also rather good though about as like Ship of Fools as you'd expect from
the discovery that it only shares one member and a guest synth player with
the older band. It's much much more like Orbital except with a bottom end
that does something (in which, with all due respect, it is again not much
like Ship of Fools) and overall a thicker more textured sound than
`classic' Orbital has, though _Middle of Nowhere_ is a much better
comparison. I think it's rather good, and it also has Pat Fulgoni from
Kava Kava doing what John Lydon did for Leftfield over a lot of it to
pretty similar effect. Unfortunately, it was on Delerium, so whether it
can still be obtained is anyone's guess but as dance/techno albums go it's
a winner I think. Not that this is really my field, but I know what I
like, sort of thing. Yours,
                            Jon

--
                Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College, London
    jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk/ejarr01 at students.bbk.ac.uk
  "As much as the vision of the blind man improves with the rising sun,
       So too does the intelligence of the fool after good advice."
       (Bishop Theodulf of Orleans, late-eight/early-ninth century)