Bill Nelson 1992-2000 - sorting a decade?
I was recently trying to guesstimate the recording sequence of BN non-album tracks circa 1979-1985, and someone asked about doing something similar with Noise Candy. I responded too casually that I found pretty much all 1992-2000 BN of a piece - a mega Noise Candy that I might designate as my desert island BN decade, if I could choose only one.
However, after reviewing the recording date information on that decade, I saw that Noise Candy is credited as having been recorded 1990-2000, but “the bulk of it hailing from” Atom Shop’s moment (1996-1997). If I knew that the Atom Shop moment yielded four our five hours of home recordings, I’d forgotten.
So, I gathered recording date info from the post-Demonstrations of Affection period, and I find the artistic/recording arc question pretty intriguing.
You don’t reach the full-on, beat poet/retro-Americana/trip-hop/jazz-inflection/insane-analogue-sampling-looping until Atom Shop (1996-1997). Seeds/samples are apparent on Magnificent Dream People, After the Satellite Sings, etc., but it’s not there yet as emphatically as it is on Atom Shop through Noise Candy.
My Secret Studio: rec. 1988-1992
Weird Critters/Magnificent Dream People: rec. 1992-1995
Practically Wired: released 1995 (studio album)
After the Satellite Sings: rec. Winter 1995 (studio album)
Atom Shop: rec. 1996-1997
Whistling While the World Turns: released June 2000
Caliban: made semi-public August 2001
Noise Candy: rec. 1990 to 2000, “with the bulk of it hailing from the Atom Shop sessions.”
The above releases document Nelson clearing the vaults of his analogue recordings, prior to receiving his first digital setup in January 2001 and commencing “Whimsy.”
What does this have to do with trying to figure out which Noise Candy tracks date from the Atom Shop moment, or before it, or after it? I have no idea. But I kind of want to puzzle it out with my ears.
It would be wonderful to have a track by track chronology of all of Bill's work but I doubt that he even has a record of such events. When listening to any particular album or track by Bill I am often reminded of Zappa's perspective of "conceptual continutity", that every track is a peice of one whole work. Maybe Bill hasen't used Zappa's technique of "xenochrony" to blur past and present takes to emphasize the athstetic, which would be interesting, but I can't think of any other artist other than Zappa where each track is a just a tiny peeophole into massive painting.