Word: fripp
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Like last year's Lodger album, Bowie serves up his techno-rock blend with great coolness and calculation here. Scary Monsters' atmosphere of brooding paranoia is constructed with meticulous care, emphasizing abrasive musical textures. Clattering percussion, slithering keyboards and piercing guitar (courtesy of Robert Fripp) surround Bowie's sometimes morose, sometimes hypertense vocals. Oddities, such as a Japanese translation of "It's No Game," are included just for the sake of bizarreness...
...analogue for the psychological violence of the cold war days, all pouty and conformist. She invests her love in new shoes and a blonde bleach job. The soundtrack is credited to Chris Stein, the other Blondie personage, but his electronic accompaniment resembles a melodramatic mix of Robert Fripp and Bernard Herrmann, not the band's dance beat...
Wonderfully rebellious, Hall displays a variety of talents on Sacred Songs that proves he can do more than croon sweet ballads. Fripp mainly provides a shelter for Hall from the influence of 1977 pop trends, and lets Hall experiment in an unrestrained environment. Familiar Hall and Oates themes still dominate the lyrics, but the music now stings with a vitality that the duo could never achieve. The change doesn't necessarily stem from the separation of Hall from Oates; more important is Hall's escape from the whole H&O production staff...
Regrettably, the listening public will probably never realize the true audacity behind Sacred Songs. The impositions of society often force us to compromise our values in order to be accepted--as Hall and Oates had to in the days of "Sara Smile" and similar sappy material. Once Robert Fripp opened the gilded case whch restricted Hall's development, Hall's imagination thrived...
...prove his artistry, Hall needed the production capabilities of another self-proclaimed "artiste," Robert Fripp. With Fripp as producer, Hall found someone who understood what Hall was trying to do. Fripp gives Hall all the space Hall needs, and he rarely tries to force his own musical style on Hall. The only discernible Fripp trademarks, some thickly textured synthesizer backgrounds, never cramp Hall's vitality. Fripp calls his electronic touches "Frippertronics," but the sounds they produce differ very little from other widely used synthesizers that simulate orchestral timbers. Fripp proudly displays his toy on his solo in "Urban Landscape...