The King of Nothing Hill
(Mute STUMM176 / Double LP STUMM176) 2002 (62:53)
Cinematic Soul (5:27)
Whispering Streets (5:00)
Black Amour (5:05)
When Darkness Calls (5:54)
The Second Stain (4:43)
Twisted Smile (5:52)
Le Matin Des Noire (10:26)
That Fool Was Me (5:35)
The Crime Scene (6:26)
Cold Comfort (8:25)
press release:
EXHIBIT 1 NOTHING HILL: AN IMAGINED SYNOPSIS
NOTHING HILL. Or was that Rotting Hill? It's sometimes hard to figure out if the place where you reside really exists, or if it's just a 51st State of mind. Whatever. Nothing Hill is everywhere and nowhere, and you can be sure as hell that it's never what it seems to be. It's like a magnetic force that draws in the sharp opportunist dying to reinvent himself. Assume your desired identity, be somebody, anybody but be prepared to walk the talk. If not, your grindingly protracted fall and ignominious retreat is assured, baby. Don't bother relating your hard luck story, no one will empathise. They've heard it all a million times before.
When you've come back from the dead you tend to see things in a different light, especially 'WHEN DARKNESS FALLS' over a city you thought you knew. If you need any forensic evidence Kojak, just check out the spent 9mm cartridges, the tyre marks on the rain blasted tarmac, the frosted shattered glass and the freshly spilt claret found at 'THE CRIME SCENE'. Who killed ya, baby? You better find out fast, because this time the bullets are hitting pretty close to the bone.
Gangster lean and gangster mean; he meant business. After just a few brief engagements in various salubrious emporiums of pleasure, word spread across town fast - The Outsider was the hottest thing from the Grim North that ever came down to the Big Sleazy South. Hold the front page! The hardest stone-to-the-bone groove funk, the bitterest sweet soul, and the deepest, swinging jazz, all filtered through the distorting mirrors of Fun House punk - he had that music down cold, all the sounds that had inspired him to take it to the stage in the first place.
But most of all, The Outsider had a vision; a crystal clear 20/20 wide screen vision that he would christen 'CINEMATIC SOUL'. "The deeper you go, the funkier it gets", was the fitting tag line for this auteur's very adult feature. It's the kind of sound that's always been rated 'X', makes you choke on your popcorn, hits you in the gut with all the force of a well timed knuckle dusted stomach punch and emanates from Downtown Soulville by 'THE BEATEN SIDE OF TOWN'. It's also perpetually co-opted and bleached by the well-healed and vampiric citizens who dwell in places like Nothing Hill.
Sly, Isaac, Ike, Marvin, J.B., Miles and Big Bazza W all lit the short fuse to the dude's compelling original soundtrack imagination. They rocked his world and still do. Right On! He loved the black velvet soul screen dream with a vengeance. The Outsider knows what time it is, but who stole the soul? Time to take it all back with menaces. Grab that jubilant, empowering groove of yesteryear by the scruff of the neck and remake/remodel it for more desperate, tougher Yesternow. Right now. Wah Wah, Big Muff, The Stone and don't forget The Guvnor. These are the specialised tools of the trade for this kind of job, melded to the hypnotic mechanised rhythms of the block rockin' hip hop/drum 'n' bass Underground train. The ensuing hallucinatory feedback will be shifting the gears. Just watch those Hallowe'en orange sparks fly.
The Outsider is the Director of his own life's movie and the guy who still calls the shots. He always figured that God wasn't dead, He'd just taken a more artistically rewarding career path in the motion picture business. Perhaps that's why he could never reach him on the phone. Though totally alienated from the fast and loose Nothing Hill world ever swirling in front of him, The Outsider is nonetheless actively engaged within it. It's a familiar blues-y story, one that he's spent his life singing with the raunchy ring of versilmilitude. 'THAT FOOL WAS ME' is the number. It's a crying shame that Curtis didn't live long enough to hear it.
Next stop, Dysfunction Junction.
The superfly 'BLACK AMOUR' was the character he played to perfection in every steamy boudoir scene. Inevitably, the Sweet Smell of Success assailed his nostrils. The Outsider hit heights he only fever dreamed were possible. The mansion in the Hamptons was finally his.
A Number One, top of the heap. Word on the street is, take it Easy, Rawlins. That long journey to the end of the night is well and truly over. Rejoice! 'THE LIGHT HAS COME', that triumphant new dawn is here. But what did it really cost? Just around the corner it's still welcome to the ghetto and the faded picture is all too familiar. Pick up 'FIVE BULLETS FIVE NAMES' and a contract for five hundred grand from The Big Boss. The libidinous ambience of temptation is palpable in the damp, feted night air. But a word to the wise - if you think you're big time, you're gonna die big time. Lights, camera, TV news crew and ACTION!
Don't try to run, nobody can. 'J'AIME PARIS' may be The Outsider's jazzy refrain but after a long sojourn here, Paris sure as hell doesn't like him. You see, Nothing Hill recognises no archaic territorial boundaries. It really is a 51 State of mind, and it's inexorably spreading. Our Outsider knows this. 'COLD COMFORT' indeed. Fade out. Can you dig it?
EXHIBIT B THE BARRY ADAMSON FILE
Name:
They call him MR ADAMSON AKA The Big Bamboozler, Oscar de la Soundtrack, El Deludo, Mr Moss Side Gory, The Moss Side Tory, Dirty Barry and Harry Pendulum - the last of the big time swingers.
Occupation:
Musician. Soundtrack composer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist. The face of the bass.
Background:
Born and raised in Moss Side, Manchester, UK. A love of cinematic scores and the advent of the punk explosion in the mid '70s inexorably leads Adamson headlong into a career in music.
Previous Form:
* Bass player in the innovatory post punk band, Magazine. 1978-1982
* Founder member of Nick Cave's illustrious Bad Seeds. 1984-1986
* Since 1988 Adamson has forged his own highly acclaimed solo career, with a series of distinctive and thematically linked soundscape albums and EPs.
* Anguished songs and poignant instrumentals, comprised of a veritable miscellany of musical styles, are deftly blended together in Adamson's hands. The result is his own assiduously distinctive and deeply personal cinematic sound. The titles of his records, which all evince his narrative gift, tell the story:
* The Man With The Golden Arm - 1988
* Moss Side Story - 1989
* The Taming of the Shrewd - 1989
* Delusion - 1991
* Soul Murder - 1992
* The Negro Inside Me - 1993
* Oedipus Schmoedipus - 1996
* As Above, So Below - 1998
* The Murky World of Barry Adamson - 1999
Present Form: NOTHING HILL - 2001
* CINEMATIC SOUL
* FIVE BULLETS FIVE NAMES
* BLACK AMOUR
* WHEN DARKNESS FALLS
* THE LIGHT HAS COME
* THE BEATEN SIDE OF TOWN
* J'AIME PARIS
* THAT FOOL WAS ME
* THE CRIME SCENE
* COLD COMFORT
Film scores to be taken into consideration:
* Derek Jarman's Last of England - 1989
* Carl Colpaert's Delusion - 1991
* Allison Ander's Gas, Food, Lodging - 1992
* David Lynch's Lost Highway - 1997
* Michel Blanc's The Escort - 2000
Evaluation:
Watch this man, approach with extreme caution.
note: a promo CD-R also exists with an additional closing titles style track, "'Welcome to the Megaplex". It's another version of "Cinematic Soul" with only the son's vocals and saxophone soloing.