Björk Band

Because I needed to get there before anyone else did, and because I'll need a thread to bump every 6 weeks or so.

If you aren't familiar, familiarize yo self.

 

yay Bjork! Great avatar.

 

Apparently she may be on a version of Kanye's Wolves???!!!

 

yeah I read that. That would be perfect and now I'll be disappointed if it doesn't happen.

 

She wrote some songs with Wu-Tang in the mid-90s, but they've never surfaced.

Edit: Here's a RZA remix of Bachelorette

 

I saw this and was like "If anyone other than George made it..."

I need to listen to something other than her most recent soon.

 

"soon" is a year in Chris time!

 

Pretty much.

 

apparently she's working with arca again!

 

revisiting vulnicura for the first time in a while. this is still such an excellent record, bjork is simply incredible and im glad shes taking someone young and fresh like arca under her wing, they make such an excellent team and arca himself has said how big of a fan he is of hers, and ive always been able to hear her influence in his music.

 

I remember this video every now and then, never fails to make me smile.

"You shouldn't let the poets lie to you."

 

One of my favorite videos ever. Actually what got me to seriously check out her stuff. That and a little video of her singing Unravel that I found on the same day.

 

One of these?

That whole Riverside Church performance is remarkable actually.

 

Yeah first one.

 

Unravel is top 3 songs of all time for me - also, Debut, Homogenic and Vespertine are sacred, and Medulla too on certain days... I mean, Desired Constellation!! out of this world

nothing can touch her, such a beautiful, intelligent, compassionate being

 

Listened to Vespertine, Post, Homogenic, and Debut this weekend. All really great records, but Post was probably my favorite. This is probably the worst I've slept on an artist, haha.

 

Haha, well done for taking the plunge! The second half of her discography is definitely weaker than the first, but make sure you check out Medulla too!

 

björk is cool. been wanting to dive more into her discography so I guess now is a good time.

 

Thanks! Haha. I always liked the tracks you put on the old AP mixtapes. Medulla will be next!

 

I've started listening to more of her stuff over the last year. Nothing has quite stuck with me like Vulnicura but everything I've heard is fantastic.

 

If you like Vulnicura, you will love Vespertine. One of the most powerful albums of all time, an immense artistic expression.

I find it amusing how everyone praises Radiohead for introducing (avant/experimental) electronic sounds into popular music (i.e. Kid A), when Björk was the first (i.e. Homogenic), and obviously influenced them.

 

I mean, saying she was the "first" is a bit reductive. Radiohead were obviously influenced by Bjork (check out their beautiful cover of Unravel, if you haven't already), but Bjork took a hell of a lot of influence from acts like Massive Attack, Portishead, Aphex Twin, LFO and The KLF to name just a few, who were similarly introducing electronic sounds into popular music. She loved that whole mid-90s house scene, which is so evidently present in her early stuff, that saying she was the "first" is a little unfair to the other artists who were also pushing genres along with her in the mid-90s.

 

You are right, although I do believe her sound was a bit more "far-out" than the trip hop acts you name - not to mention, some Trip Hop stuff sounding a bit dated (to me) now.

Aphex Twin is one of the "avant" acts I was thinking that influenced Björk, but not even close to being as popular as her - just check out the chart-listings @ Wikipedia for Homogenic and the Richard D. James album... miles apart...

 

Sure, but a group like the KLF were the biggest selling singles artist in the world in 1991 and they were a "far out" acid house group. House Music had been getting to the top of the charts since the late 80s. Paul Oakenfold and that whole Balearic sound was springing up then and gaining mainstream recognition basically around the time she was starting up with The Sugarcubes, a decade before Homogenic.

Bjork was a benefactor of the rising popularity of house / electronic music stuff, not an originator. I don't want to downplay her contribution, I (obviously) adore her records, and the combination of house music with her strong classical and jazz influence was pretty damn unique for the time, however describing her as the "first" to popularise electronic music isn't correct.

By the time Homogenic was released, The Prodigy had had a massive hit with Firestarter, crossing dance / electronica with aggressive punky stuff. We'd had stuff like Ebeneezer Goode get to number 1, Tricky had released Maxinequaye, Dummy by Portishead won the Mercury Prize. Underworld's Born Slippy was a big hit after being on Trainspotting. Bjork was riding that wave and putting her own spin on it, she wasn't the reason for that wave.

She left the Sugarcubes in the early 90s because of her love for dance music, and wanted to make music in that style. 6 or 7 years later when she released Homogenic, that music had soared in popularity. It was also after her biggest hits, both Debut and Post had higher charting singles.

Again, don't want to downplay anything she's done, I think her records are better than any of the above artists, but she wasn't necessarily doing it first. Just better haha.

Edit; damn that came out longer than I wanted haha.

 

agreed with all of that, I just think she was the weirdest from all that popular bunch (don't know Ebeneezer Goode tho)