This Mortal Coil – 1983~1991

Picking favourite tracks or albums can be difficult, inappropriate or weird. As Colin Newman might say, “I didn’t see the point”. When you pick ‘favourites’ it can be mean or exclusive. I like all three TMC albums, there is no doubt the musicianship and curating are top notch on all of the albums. So in this case, it is not “mean” to state a favourite as it is not a matter of which is better, but where your musical taste is. More: the point of choosing a favourite This Mortal Coil album is telling, about individual taste and how the label’s sound shifted after, say, 1985. This shift in 4AD sound puts the second and third TMC albums distinctly into a different musical territory to the first.

I have no trouble choosing a favourite. DEFINITELY, my favourite TMC album is the first. For me it is a sampler of 4AD at its genesis, treasure-house best. When the music seemed out of this world. Honestly: where did this music come from? And why was it not just one group but around ten, all performing amazing sounds, not like each other, but somehow fitting well with each other. 4AD released gem-groups which all further inspired and created trends; no other 80’s label did this so beautifully, with such varied artists. The label started with some rare, idiosyncratic punk bands of interest, but then coalesced into something else, the phoenix from punk – postpunk. Certain groups started to emerge, Cocteau Twins, Wolfgang Press, Dead Can Dance, Modern English, Colourbox, Clan of Xymox, X-mal Deutschland, Wolfgang Press – other artists hanging around and quickly moving on: The The, Bauhaus, Nick Cave, and the best artist 4AD didn’t latch on to, Gordon Sharpe.

I have heard people say their favourite TMC album is a later one. For me, unequivocally, my favourite is the first. The first TMC album is different in its musical content to the subsequent two. The first is an esoteric collection of music from stunning performers getting together. Though the second TMC album arrived two years later, closer in time to the first TMC album; the second has much more in common with the third which came out five years later. For the subsequent albums John Fryers and Ivo, the producers / management of the music must have been more determined to achieve a tightly controlled, and particular / cohesive vision (a more classical, traditional vision with added violins; it is also a more mainstream vision). Can I assume the artists have freer reign in the first album? (Also of course, those same artists largely didn’t appear on the 2nd and 3rd . . . but I think the control of the sound, the reigning in, is as important an issue).

First album: 3 x tracks by Lisa Gerard, all transcendent, with the trademark DCD attention to strings in Dreams Made Flesh (is it a mandolin?) creating music of breathtaking, pure beauty. Everybody knows Liz Fraser’s contribution with Song to the Siren, but also her rendition of Harper’s Another Day. There’s Gordon Sharpe’s Kangaroo and Fond Affections. These three singers, together on one album is an extraordinary combination. There are the musical interludes such as Fyt and Baramundi, giving the album space, room to breathe, then Holocaust (!) and finally Not Me.

I loved Not Me* so much. After the eternal lamenting of the core of the singing on the album, Not Me is such a relief (!), also a strong song of independence in its own right. Brilliant, fun, peppy. Post-punk pop (from a serious lineage – Colin Newman of Wire, on this occasion sung by Robbie Grey of Modern English). Much of TMC album is lovelorn, a deep plea of unrequited love, the problem of ATTACHMENT to mortal life and individual suffering. Except Not Me – Not Me is the exalting joke of the album, a fool aloof, the antidote. Whether it takes position of the question or the answer, it is a kind of Buddhist stance (but who wants to be detached from the world?) The coiling, paradoxical woe of the album is clear, we wouldn’t have it any other way, if it weren’t so beautiful, universal, relatable, it would be self-obsessively overbearing (“let’s all sit down and cry”). Not Me is a pin to the balloon. “It may be as well that, I didn't see the point, You didn't touch me, You didn't touch me, You didn't touch me ad infinitum . . . “

Altogether the first TMC album is a rare gem, unlike any other album; there is a strong FINALITY in its (questioning?) statement. Importantly, it is also unlike its TMCII TMCIII successors. It doesn’t need to be a double album. It represents a unique collection of music from genius musicians, at a special moment in time, a collection which cannot be repeated.

* A favourite track of mine, I searched for the original of Not Me for years, I think it is hard to find because it wasn’t properly released (?). It finally appears, as demos, on Colin Newman’s “A-Z”, the double CD edition, and having waited all that time for it you get it twice! The Riverside demo is of high quality and fantastic to listen to. The choice of Not Me is critical to the first TMC album, it’s like the addition of pepper to a stew. Bad metaphor, but you know what I mean.

Although the 'Original Versions' CD is a very nice addition to this box set, it is unfortunately not complete. These are the missing tracks with their original performers.
- 'Fond Affections' by Rema-Rema
- 'Not Me' by Collin Newman
- 'Tarantula' by Colour Box
- 'My Father' by Judy Collins
- 'Come Here My Love' by Van Morrison
- 'Firebrothers' by Quicksilver
- 'Late Night' by Syd Barret

Though the more recent TMC box set materially has a higher packaging standard, this box set is the one to have.

Apart from the original releases on the first three discs, the fourth disc collects what would be awkward to collect individually - the original sources of the songs sung and reinterpretted. And they are all mini-revelations. This fourth disc has some classics: of course Tim Buckley's original version of Song to the Siren, also Roy Harper's wonderful Just Another Day (which Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel also sung as duet - to an odd video of a sedate marital quarrel).