As I mentioned in Sunday’s blog entry, the soundtrack in my head covered a lot of territory while I was riding my bike through the woods.
At one point, I thought of XTC’s brilliant Skylarking, because that album was practically glued inside my Walkman during the summer of 1987. It is, as the band’s Andy Partridge described it, “a summer’s day cooked into one cake.”
Then my thoughts turned to the perfect counterpart to Skylarking: Shriekback’s Big Night Music. If Skylarking is a summer’s day, Big Night Music is the space between dusk and dawn, when all the creatures who have been asleep during the day come out to play. And haunt.
Interesting factoids: (1) both albums were released around the same time; and (2) one of the key players in Shriekback is Barry Andrews, who was XTC’s keyboard player from 1977 to 1979. (1) is probably a coincidence, but when you hear the two albums together you can definitely hear the thematic complements.
The liner notes from the band on the album read as follows:

Big Night Music – songs to sing in your sleep. Shriekback celebrate the blessed dark the place where they were always most at home… Big Night Music is the shape and rhythm of two different kinds of nights: nights of heat and weirdness in which we alone are awake, humming with forbidden energy, nights into which we would not send our dogs wild sea and wet forest and eyes and teeth or those other nights fragrant with blossom, incandescent with moonlight and dreams, possessed by a cool beauty which evaporates with the dew.
It is, perhaps, worth mentioning that Big Night Music is entirely free of drum machines, sequencers, Fairlight Page R’s – digital heartbeats of every kind. Seductive though they are, Shriekback have opted to make a different kind of music – one which exalts human frailty and the harmonious mess of nature over the simplistic reductions of our crude computers.
We Shrieks are well pleased with our record, (this side of smugness and occasionally the other) and we obviously hope you will buy it voraciously. But we also want to leave you with an intimation that the universe, all its horrors notwithstanding, is strange and marvellous; that love is the law and the drug and the pull and the push of all we do; that the pursuit of beauty is useful, honourable and healing; and that our actions in this time, in choosing forgiveness over vendetta, brilliance over mediocrity, the clean difficult way over the dubious easy option, will determine whether or not we will realise the wealth of possibilities implicit in our existence.
As for Shriekback, we have a suspicion that it’s all going to be fine, just fine. With this in mind, here is Shriekback’s fifth album – Big Night Music – and it’s as good as we could make it. Now it’s all yours…

Awesome. Not only are these the most accurate liner notes I’ve ever read, but probably among the most inspiring.
On to the music:
The album opens with a blast of horns and rhythms in the song “Black Light Trap”. The lyrics are a stream-of-consciousness that reminds me of one of those dreams where everything happens so fast that you just go along for the ride, watching the images fly past.
From there, we’re on to a less frenetic adventure with two guys who could be CIA operatives or just plain old hitmen. Or maybe neither of the above. “Gunning For The Buddha” also has the distinction of having the prettiest background vocals I’ve ever heard on a rock record.
“The Shining Path” and “The Reptiles and I” take us on moonlit walks through the jungle.
A little later, there’s the underwater dream sequence “Underwaterboys”, where all sorts of creatures and characters float through the song.
My favorite track on the album is “Exquisite.” I’m immediately placed on the sand under the trees, near the bay of some steamy tropical jungle, in the relaxed pursuit of complete pleasure. The guitars, pianos, chimes, and percussion all flow together in a perfectly smooth mix of leisure and urgency. (This is a dangerous one to listen to while you’re commuting to work. 🙂
The album closes off with the very pretty lullaby “Cradle Song” which tells you that in spite of all the monsters and other critters who’ve invaded your dreams for the previous 40 minutes, everything is okay.
The CD has been out of print for a while, but there are copies to be found on ebay. It’s definitely worth seeking out.

Exquisite
(Dave Allen, Barry Andrews and Martyn Barker)
Wicked moon – framing us against the light
Bodies in deceitful silence
Shining – when the night has turned to gold
Aching – as our illusions fade into the mist:
What other sweetness could we find?
What other fragrance on the wind could be as Exquisite as this?
Languid sun coming up across the bay
Leopard yawns with breath like flowers
Amour – the love that kisses and recoils
Nothing – could steal this dream of bliss
And now we rest upon the sand
Waiting for the blessed dark and something Exquisite as this…
Yes… it was a desperate indulgence
All the more poignant for its emptiness
But you know… beauty can be terrifying
And there is nothing straightforward about pleasure
Wicked moon – framing us against the light
Bodies in deceitful silence
Shining – when the night has turned to gold
Aching – as our illusions fade into the mist:
What other sweetness could we find?
What other fragrance on the wind could be as Exquisite as this?
What other sweetness could we find?
That was as exquisite as this?
It was a strange, luxurious encounter
And… all flesh is grass
And decay can be glorious