Just a few things regarding HNIA (Stars On E.S.P.) & Hope Blister (Underarms)

Written by "D. Dutton" on Fri, 25 Jun 1999 02:41:10 -0700.

I wanted to point out a small correction that needs to be done with the last track of His Name Is Alive's "Stars On E.S.P." (CAD 6010 CD) The last track is called "Last One." It however is mislabeled as "Last Song." When it is changed it will then be linkable to the promo item following which has the right song title listed.

Also I have in my possession a copy of the Hope Blister mail order only cd "Underarms" (4AD M2). It stands as the most expensive single cd I have ever bought to date! (But that might have something to do with Canada's weak dollar.)

The digpak is shockingly simplistic in design. It's a dark blue, construction-like paper with absolutely no printed matter in the outside or inside. Only a pressed design (the Hope Blister logo from the last page of the "Smilies O.K." cd boolket) gives you a clue as to which side is the front. You open it up and on the left is a slip for a postcard insert with all of the printed information of the cd on the back and the pic of Ivo (?) with his dog Anakin (like in the promo cd single) on the front. The pic has a dark blue border around it.

The cd runs a total of 40:42 minutes and there are seven songs in total on the cd:

1. Sweet Medicine (O'Keefe/ Watts-Russell)        (7:46 min)
2. Friday Afternoon (Fryer)                                     (6:40 min) 
3. Iota (O'Keefe)                                                      (2:29 min)
4. Dagger Strings (Riley & Halstead)                     (2:00 min)
5. White On White (Watts-Russell)                       (4:02 min)
6. Sweet Medicine 2 (O'Keefe/ Watts-Russell)     (13:39 min)
7. Happiness Strings (Riley)                                    (4:06 min)

Recorded at Protocol London by Alex Russell Additional Recording / Mixed at Battery, New York by John Fryer and Daniel Boom Mastered at Arc, Los Angeles by Chris Staley Strings arrangement by Audrey Ridley

All the songs are instrumentals and there are no real breaks in them. It's all one continuos cd.

The 1st and 6th tracks are basically the hypnotic sample from "Is Jesus Your Pal" (CAD 8008CD). Personally I didn't need to hear that particular sound a 2nd time on the same cd for 11 mins of a 13 mins song.

"Dagger Strings" & Happiness Strings" are obviously the string arrangements for "Dagger" & "Let The Happiness In" (CAD 8008CD). They are quite beautiful and the closest I think The Hope Blister will ever allow itself to come to is 80's predecessor; This Mortal Coil. (My only regret with these tracks are their short running times. I personally could listen to a full hour of these two tracks! But then that's just me.)

The 2nd track has samples of the main theme for "Hanky Panky Nohow" (CAD 8008CD) that runs for about the first 5:30 mins of the track.

Tracks 2 and 5 are unique to this cd. "White On White" contains the only spoken words on the cd; sounding like a low volume radio or t.v. documentary in the background. On the first few listens (without headphones) I wasn't even aware that there was any vocals at all.

Like their first cd, this one took some getting used to. Now it stands well on it's own. And I am glad that I took the time to "invest" in this rarity. Hats off to Mr Watts-Russell once again!

I may try to see if the cover will in fact scan properly to show the indentation of the logo on the front. If you'd like I can send this to you once it's done.

I hope this has been helpful for you and for your fantastic website and I hope to see an update soon! : )

jd3prod@direct.ca

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