eyegasm

 

Is it mean to say an artist peaked - exhausted their artistic existence - with their very first single? 

Undoubtedly it would be mean.. but it may not be unfair, or inaccurate. 

That guitar sounds like lens flares and eyelash diffraction 

So dazzling, it makes you want to close your eye-ear

It's like a perfect Anglophiliac concoction of "See For Miles" Who and first-album Jimi Hendrix Experience (I count the Experience as 2/3 English, you see)

Stop me stop me oh stop me if you've heard this one before:

I once met Todd R - in Oslo of all places - and peeved him by asking whether he was going to play "Open My Eyes" at the following night's concert. I was drunk, probably couldn't think of anything else to say as we all stumbled out into the street after many ultra-expensive vodka sours. Perhaps there was some wanting to indicate an extremely narrow form of fandom, or at least, awareness of his work.

Todd said something tinged with tetchy, like "it would be hard to get the sound with just one guitar, don't you think?"

But surely such a techwhizz could find a way around the problem?

I suppose he gets quite close to Nazztastic levels on A Wizard /  A True Star  - particularly this tune

Whenever I play this, I always think, "why has it been so long since I last played this?"

But then another ten years go by

I suppose the problem - the reason it doesn't stick as a personal pantheon fave - might be that it's all dazzle and no reason to be. 

(Whereas "Open My Eyes" seems to be part of a cultural moment... the phasing signifies). 

(Isn't it true that TR only started taking psychedelics in the early '70s... then he does that pointless album painstakingly recreating songs by the Beatles and such.....  it is important to be in step with the times, you know)

Like, "International Feel" - what is he on about? 

This is all right - a tripped-out voicescape

This is from a phase of spiritual exploration that inspired NME's Ian MacDonald to coin a rock archetype: "the Cosmic Buffoon"

I suppose in some ways Todd R's counterpart at this time - in terms of guitar texturitis, synth-love, and keeping the  freak-flag flying despite the imminence of punk  - would be Steve Hillage. 

Previous kvetching about Todd