OPO: Disco Inferno

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Is there already one of these threads? I'd like to see what other folks have to say; for my money "Summer's Last Sound" is the one.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Saturday, 24 September 2005 14:32 (twenty years ago)

Doesn't seem we've had this thread before.

For a long time I would have picked either "Waking Up" or "Second Language," but time has shown me that *the* song is "Love Stepping Out." Simultaneously elegant and riddled with nervous tension, layer upon layer of sound in a swirl that much less overtly chaotic than other songs of theirs but all the more effective for the delicate focus, the use of making everything fit just so, and Ian Crause's reflective/angry/considered lyrics delivered as a perfect rumination.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 24 September 2005 14:41 (twenty years ago)

Spoken like a true poet.

― tolstoy (tolstoy), Saturday, 24 September 2005 15:04 (twenty years ago)

New Clothes For the New World. When the bass comes in? Damn. And the whistling? and the "it's going to be" or whatever. I wish the song was 100 times longer. But it's concise as is.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Saturday, 24 September 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

"A sky without a god / is a clear, clear sky..."

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Saturday, 24 September 2005 15:07 (twenty years ago)

"D.I. Go Pop"

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Saturday, 24 September 2005 15:08 (twenty years ago)

You must *explain* too, Sick and Bill. Tell us why. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 24 September 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

Well, I'll explain by saying that I think "Summer's Last Sound" is not only one of their best songs, but the bes representation of their approach to making music--the way the guitar appears out of the bird calls, the plinking samples-of-unknown-origin that make up most of the melody, and Ian's beautifully paranoid lyric... "Across a desert's bleached skies, chased by death in all its forms." It seems a bit obvious, being the first track on the "Five EPs" CD (you know you have one, too), but if I had to play one song for some poor soul who'd never heard the band before, to show them why I have such an obsessive relationship with them, this would be the one.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Saturday, 24 September 2005 15:37 (twenty years ago)

And "bes" should obviously be "best."

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Saturday, 24 September 2005 15:37 (twenty years ago)

And I have to agree with Dan that "New Clothes for the New World" would be a close second if it were about three minutes longer.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Saturday, 24 September 2005 15:38 (twenty years ago)

being the first track on the "Five EPs" CD (you know you have one, too)

Wouldn't know what you're talking about.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 24 September 2005 15:43 (twenty years ago)

Ned, you have no idea what you've wrought with those five EP comps of yours. I had to explain to a guy I was record shopping with the other day that no, the comp doesn't actually exist and that there's no way he'll ever find it in stores. He was heartbroken.

Anyway, "D.I. Go Pop." The last track, possibly forever, that just totally blew my mind. Though I'm probably too young to have actually Heard It All Before already, it feels that way with 99.99999% of the music I listen to--it all has precedent in some way, shape or form. Listening to "D.I. Go Pop," for the first time in ages I legitimately thought this should not be happening. There is no way that these sounds should be coming out of my headphone speakers and into my ears. This can not possibly be the music that I am actually listening to. And it was. And it WORKED.

Stills fucks me up something fierce every time I hear it.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Saturday, 24 September 2005 15:49 (twenty years ago)

"Love Stepping Out" and "The Long Dance" are not-too-distant seconds.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Saturday, 24 September 2005 15:50 (twenty years ago)

I couldn't pick one. I just love that line.

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1062

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Saturday, 24 September 2005 15:52 (twenty years ago)

"The Long Dance" for me - the lyrics, the gorgeous guitar, the weird little chant interlude not in the shorter version, the stunning sparkly finish.

But esp. the lyrics - among my favourite ever. The way they are framed by the increasingly uplifting music is incredibly poignant.

After that would probably come "Second Language" and "At The End of the Line" - but all the other tunes mentioned so far are right up there for me to.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 24 September 2005 21:43 (twenty years ago)

My, how crazy!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 24 September 2005 21:50 (twenty years ago)

I think 'At The End of the Line' has special associations for me.

but theres so many great great songs.

great enough for a tattoo even, if somebody would be crazy enough.

― Googley Asearch (Toaster), Saturday, 24 September 2005 21:59 (twenty years ago)

At the End of the Line or Waking Up for me.

― kyle (akmonday), Saturday, 24 September 2005 22:24 (twenty years ago)

"At The End Of The Line"

― Paul (scifisoul), Sunday, 25 September 2005 01:06 (twenty years ago)

(Durutti Column OPO: "At The End Of The Line"...)

― Paul (scifisoul), Sunday, 25 September 2005 01:08 (twenty years ago)

"Glancing Away". I realise it's probably the most easy-listening pick of the lot, but there's something pleasantly nostalgic about it to my ears, not because of when I first heard it as much as because of a time that it sounds like.

― Deluxe (Damian), Sunday, 25 September 2005 10:25 (twenty years ago)

"Love Stepping Out". It's all about the guitar.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 25 September 2005 11:09 (twenty years ago)

Footprints in the Snow. But this is a REALLY difficult OPO.

― Sasha (sgh), Monday, 26 September 2005 01:02 (twenty years ago)

Oh, I should have thought of that one! So uncharacteristically hopeful and purty. "Next Year," also occurred to me, what with the stomping jackboots, dying synthesizers and lyrics about how "a portion of technology has learned to make friends--is this really where it ends?" But like "New Clothes" it's just too short. Actually, they're all to short. The album's barely a half-hour long, for Pete's sake.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Monday, 26 September 2005 03:53 (twenty years ago)

This is a really hard thing to choose, I'm torn between so many songs, "The long dance", "Second language", "It's a kid's world", "Technicolour" (why has nobody picked anything from this LP? Am I the only one who likes it?), "Footprints in snow"... for some reason I don't rate the "In debt" stuff as highly, it's like they only really found their feet once they could use samplers. But once they did... woah! Anyway, if I have to choose one, it'll be "The long dance" - great words which get more relevant as the years pass by and purely joyous music behind it making it a very incongruous listen. "Was there ever a time like this?"

― Rob M (Rob M), Monday, 26 September 2005 10:52 (twenty years ago)

"At The End Of The Line"

-- Paul (scifisoul@

dude, is this the one you played me back in April? i loved that.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Monday, 26 September 2005 10:55 (twenty years ago)

actually Steve I think it would've been "Love Stepping Out" (gracefully unfurling harp-like guitarpeggios) or "Second Language" (whole world rushing thru plus anthemic guitar and whammy-bar madness). in "At The End Of The Line" the sun falls screaming from the sky and you visit liquid mercury moons.

― Paul (scifisoul), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 01:12 (twenty years ago)

(U2 OP2: Disco Inferno - "Second Language" & The Sound - "Contact The Fact"...)

― Paul (scifisoul), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 01:13 (twenty years ago)

"Love Stepping Out" b/w "Summer's Last Sound"

― strng hlkngtn (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 01:13 (twenty years ago)

(U2 OP2: Disco Inferno - "Second Language" & The Sound - "Contact The Fact"...)

Heheh.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 01:14 (twenty years ago)

"Summer's Last Sound" for right now.

― fizzcaraldo (Justin M), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 04:33 (twenty years ago)

Damn, "Love's Stepping Out", I mean.

― fizzcaraldo (Justin M), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 04:34 (twenty years ago)

HUZZAH! I just won an original CD copy of the Second Language EP on eBay! Cost me £25, mind you, but seeing as I've been after the bugger for three years that's not bad. I just need The Last Dance now...

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 16:06 (twenty years ago)

Oh good, a new Disco Inferno thread. I was beginning to miss them.

I can't pick just one. It's impossible. I listen to their music - still - so much, that it depends on the mood I'm in. Overall, I think I'd say 'Second Language'.

But then there's 'Footprints in Snow' and the sheer madness of 'New Clothes For The New World'. And (for the person who said nothing from Technicolour had been mentioned) 'Over and Over', which just completely breaks my heart every time because Ian Crause sounds so weary and it just says 'end of the band' so powerfully. And.

Well, you get the picture.

Nope, can't choose one. :-)

― Vaughan, Thursday, 29 September 2005 03:52 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

I was listening to the EP's at neighbour taunting volume in a wonderful haze at 3 am last night and I was thinking, I don't care what anyone says, but 'Second Language' is the definitive masterwork us DI devotes make it out it be. It's just transcendentally magnificent. All of it, every single sound measured and perfect.

― AnotherDeadHero, Saturday, 20 March 2010 11:19 (sixteen years ago)

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