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Crash and Burn
Foxx, Gordon
Crash and Burn
Genre: Dance & Electronic
 
  •  Track Listings (12) - Disc #1

His first solo disc, Metamatic, was issued in 1980 through his own label metal beat, with Virgin handling distribution. With the exception of some bass, the sound was completely synthetic. It became his biggest selling alb...  more »

     

CD Details

All Artists: Foxx, Gordon
Title: Crash and Burn
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Artful Records/Fulfill Distrib
Release Date: 7/1/2003
Album Type: Import
Genre: Dance & Electronic
Style:
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 723724583924

Synopsis

Album Description
His first solo disc, Metamatic, was issued in 1980 through his own label metal beat, with Virgin handling distribution. With the exception of some bass, the sound was completely synthetic. It became his biggest selling album, featuring the single "Underpass." A livelier album, The Garden, followed a year later. Named after the studio where it was recorded and which Foxx would frequent for the next few years. The opening "Europe After the Rain" is perhaps his finest moment. The Garden also included a version of the "Lord's Prayer (Pater Noster)" sung in Italian to a disco beat! Initial copies came with a booklet entitled Church, complete with Foxx's photomontage images, poems and lyrics. 1983's The Golden Section was one of the few Foxx releases produced by an outsider, Zeuss B. Held. As with The Garden it peaked slightly lower down at 27. If that was a shame, it was nothing compared to the shock of his fourth and final album for sometime, In Mysterious Ways, charting at number 85 on its release in 1985. Two singles featured, both failed to chart despite the usually stunning Foxx illustrations on the sleeve, especially on "Stars on Fire." After this John Foxx vanished, his name bearing 'whatever happened to..' conversations. On the sleeve notes for 1992's compilation Assembly, Foxx hinted he was totally disinterested in the mid-eighties music scene. He spent his time lecturing (helping shoot the video to techno band LFO's debut namesake single), illustrating book covers and collaborated with Bomb the Bass mainman Tim Simenon on the short lived project Nation 12. In 1997 Foxx re-appeared almost as mysteriously as he had disappeared with two new albums: Cathedral Oceans and Shifting City (with Louis Gordon). The former was primarily ambient in nature and namechecked musician Harold Budd who, during an interview, cited Foxx 'a fantastic artist.

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CD Reviews

Like A Bomb
alec way | San Francisco, CA United States | 01/04/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)

"The John Foxx of the first Ultravox! record, of the mid-1970s, and the earlier Tiger Lily recordings, is fully present here; the vocal delivery, the music/arrangements, sound and the lyrics still send chills up this spine. He had something really unique that was let go of when the Foxxless Ultravox had such commercial success in the 1980s. Foxx, too, ventured in a different direction, until the very last glimmer of that decade when he became Nation 12, with Tim Simenon of Bomb The Bass, after living in the U.S. for a time involving himself in Acid/House. Nation 12 released two 12" singles that were fantastic with the same calibre of unusual and evocative artwork that Foxx fans know well! These are nearly impossible to find but well worth experiencing once found. Crash & Burn continues the Metamatic (1980 first Foxx solo record) feel that many of us missed during the Reagan/Thatcher decade and it is expanded upon because of his collaboration with Louis Gordon, an established artist on his own, which he's had since his mid-'90s "return." In fact Gary Numan also returned in the mid-'90s and both Foxx and Numan continue to get better, which is great! Even though my favorite on this one is Sex Video, because of its departure from the norm, Dust And Light really stands out for me. It's got the Ultravox Systems Of Romance feel of isolation, exhilaration, (non) participation and sexuality. Ultraviolet Infrared is another that evokes some Ultravox and some Foxx solo, like The Garden and The Golden Section. But only slightly. This is all really new stuff. A must."
Artistic and heartfelt
Bram Janssen | The Netherlands | 10/01/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)

"This artist can best be described as the Belgian Tori Amos; though I think she has heard it often enough to go up in angry flames when you do. "An Pierlé" rhymes to originality - no really, it does! To peculiarity as well, and eccentricity - and variety - and sensibility.
She entertains by improvising on stage. The instruments you hear playing the songs on the album are largely replaced by other instruments at live-performances. The only constant factors are An's voice and her piano. Guitars become cellos, country riffs become jazz, short songs grow in length, and arrangements fall away to become solo voice and piano etcetera. She also entertains by means of her Belgian humour and slender appearance. She enters clichés, nestles comfortably, and then makes them burst like bubbles of soap. Or rather: she forms new shapes with them - makes us smile, or ponder them and think of how we see our reflection in them.That should be enough review, really. An Pierlé is fresh and modern, big and exciting. At the same time, she is intimate and small-theatre. She performs for thousands on pop-festivals and achieves a similar effect on people when she plays for a music-cafe audience of twenty-four, twenty-five (which she does, by the way, which is where she started her career). Her lyrics are personal and poetic, yet confronting and straightforward. At times, her piano causes inertia to creep up your spine.Not the whole album can be called pure brilliance, but the number of great songs is rather alarming. This woman deserves to break through for the entire world to know her music. If she will ever do such a thing? Let's hope for it: this is brilliant music. Way to go An!This one gets three for the music and one for the presentation. Four stars. Bram Janssen,
The Netherlands"
Good, but......
Amy | south florida | 02/28/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)

"While I do greatly enjoy this album, and sincerely do wish An Pierle would break through in the United States, I have to admit, I do prefer the really hard to find first album by her, Mud Stories. Haven't been able find it ANYWHERE in the states, but I was able to pick up a copy from someone in Belgium via eBay. I HEARTILY suggest getting that cd first."