Dear friends, fans, and followers,
Welcome to the first edition of Cocteau Twins News, courtesy of CocteauTwins.com.
If you’re receiving this in email, it’s because you subscribed via the website. If that comes as an unwelcome surprise—or if you just never thought you’d actually receive an email—simply follow the link at the bottom of this message to remove yourself. No hard feelings. For those of you who stick around, we thank you sincerely for your support. It means a lot, especially 20-plus years since the band broke up.
As you no doubt noticed, we have a new-ish and completely redesigned website. The last redesign was sometime around 2000, so to say this was overdue is, well, obvious. The new one—updated quite regularly, we promise—has been online since March 2020. (What motivation a pandemic can inspire.) We hope you like it, anyway, and find it useful, informative, inspiring, and maybe even a little nostalgic. If you come across any major mistakes or technical problems, or just have some questions, feel free to send us an email.
NEWS
There’s been a trickle of news so far this year, but there are some highlights from 2020, as well.
It’s 1984 all over again…
Suddenly it seems ”Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops” is back in pop culture. The last time was 2012, when one of the main characters of the film “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” played by Emma Watson, referred to it and it was featured in the score. Now, in a slightly unexpected turn, “Pearly” once again accompanies a key scene—the finale, really—of the new Netflix limited series “Halston,” starring Scotland’s own Ewan MacGregor as the eponymous American fashion designer who soared to fame in the 1970s and 1980s before it all went pear-shaped thanks to too much coke, booze and cigarettes. He sadly lost his battle with AIDS in 1990 after dramatically exiting the fashion business. We’re not entirely sure how the song fits the scene, but it’s rather affecting nonetheless. (Note that, if you turn on closed captions, you will get some “lyrics” that accompany the song. These are not the official lyrics but, as the French say, n’importe quoi.)
Also posted recently—with rather a lower profile than a Netflix show—is a smashing good bass tutorial for “Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops,” courtesy of musician Jed Walters of YouTube channel “Jed Makes Noise.” (Robin commented on this video to clarify that, actually, he had written the bass line for the song in late 1983, before Simon joined the band.)
New LP from Lost Horizons
Perhaps the biggest Cocteau Twins-related news so far this year has been the release of the second LP—a double LP, in fact—from Simon Raymonde’s band Lost Horizons. In Quiet Moments is available now from Bella Union in multiple formats, and we assure you it is a gem. Some listeners have likened it to a kind of 2021 version of This Mortal Coil (not the worst comparison), thanks to the broad palette and guest performers that come together in a record that feels cohesive, emotional and intimate. Here’s an interview with Simon from Under the Radar where he goes into more detail. You can keep up with Simon and Lost Horizons online at their website and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Milk & Kisses turns 25
We can hardly believe it ourselves, to be honest. Soon it will want to move back in and live in the spare room.
The last Cocteau Twins LP was released by Fontana and Capitol in 1996 on cassette, CD, and deluxe special edition CD, and has subsequently been re-mastered and re-released a couple of times on CD, vinyl, and of course digital formats. It followed two EPs in 1995—the sort of yin and yang acoustic Twinlights and electronic Otherness. Two of the tracks from Twinlights made it onto the LP in full electric studio Cocteau-fied form, and two of the heavily re-mixed tracks (by Seefeel’s Mark Clifford) on Otherness were re-constituted.
The anniversary was covered by a few outlets, SPIN, to whom Simon Raymonde said, “We worked quite closely together on this record, which we hadn’t done so much on the previous one. Robin and Liz had broken up and it was a complex time. But I actually think the band was in a really good place during Milk & Kisses. Some time had passed and they were both in relationships with different people. All of the rawness was gone from their relationship.”
The album peaked at number 17 on the UK charts over four weeks, and featured the single, “Tishbite,” which was accompanied by a promo video. The band toured in support of Milk & Kisses, and did a few radio and TV spots. If you missed any of those shows, check out the Great Spangled Library of bootlegs for some choice selections, or the select live performances featured on the Audio page on CocteauTwins.com.
File under: “Things really are easier now than they were then—but are they more fun?”
So, while Robin Guthrie was doing things no one had ever done, creating entirely new sounds, textures, and effects the hard way throughout the 80s and 90s, technology has progressed so much since then that what used to be a matter of trial and error, happy accidents, and late night studio sessions where no one could really remember how it came out that way is now a handful of fancy pedals, pre-amps, and software. The soundboards and walls of machines at September Sound now basically fit into a suitcase or backpack. Musician, gear geek and shoegaze aficionado Kenneth Estrada y Santiago—whose YouTube channel is “Shoegazer”—does a pretty marvelous job demonstrating how guitarists and songwriters can reproduce the unique sounds of Cocteau Twins with their home studio and some of the latest—and surprisingly affordable—studio equipment. (You might also enjoy Kenneth’s bass tutorial featuring a break-down of the 1983 song “Peppermint Pig.”)
In case you missed it…
Collaborator and friend of the band Harold Budd sadly passed away in December 2020 due to complications from the Covid-19 virus. We honor his memory and his music, which included a few collaborations with Robin and Simon, as well as the LP The Moon and the Melodies (4AD, 1986).
Just prior to Budd’s untimely passing, he and Robin had released a previously recorded but unreleased LP, Another Flower (Darla Records).
Robin remixed the song “In My Dreams” for singer Jack Colwell.
Tim Burgess of The Charlatans has been hosting really fun listening parties on Twitter, and last year he showcased both Heaven or Las Vegas and Four-Calendar Café (with Simon Raymonde joining in the fun). You can enjoy replays of them via Tim’s website. It’s a fun way to re-listen to the albums.
Liz Fraser has lent her vocal support to two records in the last year—Sam Lee’s “The Moon Shines Bright” in January 2020, followed by “Cannibal” by Jonsi (of Sigur Ros) in the fall.
In a delightfully serendipitous discovery, author Patricia Lockwood invokes Liz in her latest novel, No One Is Talking About This (Riverhead, 2021). While not quite name-checking Fraser, the author—in a passage about how we can never know the wonders going on behind seemingly anonymous, closed doors—refers to a woman who used to be known as “the voice of God” and who had not been on stage in 20 years (remember, this is fiction). Her partner (also unnamed), comments about how sad it is that the rest of us don’t get to hear it. Indeed. (This is partly inspired by an interview Fraser and her partner Damon Reece gave with The Guardian in 2009.) Hopefully Lockwood won’t mind we noticed. It’s really quite lovely.
Prince was into it, too. We all heard about how much he admired Cocteau Twins’ music and invited them out to Paisley Park, etc. Well, Gracie Williams of Far Out magazine believes that the late artist’s song “TICTACTOE” (from 2014 LP Plectrumelectrum) is proof that he was inspired by their sound. What do you think?
Finally, for a fun trip down memory lane from an old personal friend of the band, spend some time with Colin Wallace, who was interviewed by the Arcane Delights blog. I wanted to feature a quote, but you just have to read it. It’s all great.
Wanna help?
One of the challenges of having such a vast number of photographs of the band is that we don’t always know who the photographer was. We would prefer to give credit wherever we can, so if you happen to know the photographers of any uncredited photos on CocteauTwins.com, please send us an email and let us know so we can update the information. If the photographer has a website or social media presence, please feel free to include a link.
That’s all for now.
We hope this has been worth your time and perhaps gives you a reason to forget your troubles and listen to some beautiful music for a while.
For a longer (much longer) list of newsy bits, please visit the Press & News page. We really do keep it updated! And if you’d like to mix with other fans, please visit us on Facebook.
Milk and kisses,
Michael