The story goes something like this:
28-01-2011 - an e mail from Nash:
"I also want to do a compilation CD.
Your input in this project would be greatly appreciated.
You know my early stuff, and it's very difficult for me to edit the material. I'm too close.
What do I choose? What year does it go up to?
If the compilation is a bunch of the noisy stuff, then new fans might wonder
'what the hell made this guy listenable?'
If it's a bunch of rock tunes, then some young fans might wonder
'what made this guy so innovative?'
3 DAYS LATER..........
"Well..... here it is...... don't know if it will surprise you or not.
As it's 2.28am here,. don't have time right now to go into detail about all my reasonings for the tracks and the running order, but having listened to all the tracks on all the albums, I feel that this represents the true breadth of the best of Nash the Slash and, dynamically, it's one hell of a good running order.
Tracks I reluctantly left out in the end were just 2 - Mooncurse and, from "Decomposing", The Calling.
So, see what you think and do get back to me - by the way, I'd love to write some sleeve notes for the CD booklet if that's what you had in mind.
Here goes......
Million Year Picnic 3.13
Something Weird On My TV 4.26
The Hypnotist 4.07
Swing Shift (Flexi Version) 3.22
Fever Dream 3.21
We Will Be The Leaders 5.10
Ylla 2.29
Wolf 4.51
Citizen 3.56
Remember When 2.41
In Search Of Prey 2.14
Islands 3.10
I'll Wait For You 5.46
Children Of The Night 4.15
Lost Lenore 4.04
Pretty Folks 3.30
Lake Ontario Suite #1 1.24
Dance After Curfew 3.47
Reactor No 2 4.19
Metropolis 1.00
Underground 5.10
Crab Waltz 1.42
Speak soon,
Andy G."
02-02-2011 - A Reply From Nash.....
The Compilation Dum...Dum...Dum..Dum..
Great stuff! I would never have thought of this mix.
Now, before we get too excited, I haven't actually put this set together
and listened to it. I need to download my own old songs from the past.
I am about to re-master Blind Windows the CD so the material will be fresh
and the others are all ready and waiting.
There are two distinctive songs missing; 'Vincent's Crows' and 'Womble'.
Vincent has great music and lyrics.
Every time I play 'Womble' for my younger sound engineers (30's to 40's) they all marvel at it's sonic magnitude. It's from tape to vinyl so it's a sound experience they've rarely heard.
Go to your turntable right now and check it out.
That sound has been preserved and mastered onto CD.
I have never wanted to put out 'Decomposing' on a CD but I LOOOVE WOMBLE!!
It is instrumental. It is sonically unique. It is kick-ass.
I would love it if you did the liner notes.
THERE FOLLOWED A DISCUSSION.....
Nash:The Compilation Dum...Dum...Dum..Dum..
Andy G:Yep.....for sure.....
Nash:Great stuff! I would never have thought of this mix.
Andy G:I know!!!!
Nash:Now, before we get too excited, I haven't actually put this set together
and listened to it. I need to download my own old songs from the past.
Andy G:Well, I tell you something - you'll be absolutely astounded when you hear it in the order in which I've put it - the whole thing hangs together superbly and has a "flow" to it that's exceptional and the dynamics in terms of the album's power rising to more power then dropping back before starting all over again from a different sounding musical standpoint, really work.
Nash:There are two distinctive songs missing; 'Vincent's Crows' and 'Womble'.
Andy G:OK.......
Nash:Vincent has great music and lyrics.
Andy G:Agreed - I can substitute that for one of the songs I've already selected without interrupting the flow of the album
Nash:Every time I play 'Womble' for my younger sound engineers (30's to 40's) they all marvel at it's sonic magnitude. It's from tape to vinyl so it's a sound experience they've rarely heard.Go to your turntable right now and check it out.
I have never wanted to put out 'Decomposing' on a CD but I LOOOVE WOMBLE!!
It is instrumental. It is sonically unique. It is kick-ass.
Andy G:Wow!! I guess you like it then - to be honest, I do agree with you.....but it's 9 minutes and 40 seconds long!!!!!!
Nash:Here's my take on 'Decomposing'. It was a great novelty piece of vinyl. The tracks are a
combination of under-developed (The Calling and Life in Loch Ness) and spontaneous brilliance (Womble).
I'm surprised you never mentioned Pilgrim's Lament. It's another favorite of mine.
It isn't my intention to release the product but 'Womble' is the best un-released track I have. It has to go somewhere!!!
Andy G: Back to "Womble" - we'd have to lose so much of what's already there to put the whole thing on. You see, you wanted the compilation to be a reflection of all that you are, and I think the tracks I have selected truly do this - even the one minute tracks have their place to say "this is me" and putting "Crab" at the end is illsutrative of the humour you have instrumentally as well as being serious.
However.... if you really want it on here then I'd suggest an edited version - say, about 5 mins. That way I could stick it in.
Nash:No more talk about Womble. It's time will come. Perhaps it will fit on the next CD of new material.
Andy G:So, what would this mean - well, I've been listening as I write and I would substutute "We Will Be The Leaders" with "Vincent's Crows" - that way, time-wise, nothing lost only a bit gained - good as equal.
Nash:Please keep 'Leaders'. It's too good to drop. We need to add 'Vincent' into the set and then it's done.
Andy G:As to "Womble", I've cracked it - if you can do an edit for around 5mins 24, (slightly longer as I think we have about a extra minute to play with for the maximum running time of the CD), then I'd take off "In Search Of Prey" and "islands" and stick "Womble (edit)" there, OK? Not only does it fit there but the flow from "Womble" to "I'll Wait For You" still doesn't interrupt the "flow" and "dynamics" of the album as a whole entity.
On that subject, you only have to listen to the way the substituted "Vincent" (even though "Leaders" has the same effect) followed by "Ylla", followed by the almighty "Wolf" then just as you think nothing can top that, we don't - instead we move into the rising power of the commercially strong "Citizen" - well, it's Nash at his finest - a whole career in four tracks - almost!!! The way that "Children" followed by "Lenore" then "Pretty Folks" comes across is equally jaw-dropping. I really think this is one amazing album.
As to the songs, I've chosen them on the basis first that they are what I think are some of your best songs, some of your most accessible songs to a non-Nash audience, songs that reflect what Nash is all about while at the same time choosing songs that are varied - the pop of "Pretty Folks" to the anthemic ""I'll Wait For You" via the darkness of "Children" - just awesome!! But you have to listen to it all as an album - I think it might even surprise YOU!! how good it is.
Nash:I would love it if you did the liner notes.
Andy G:It would be a pleasure and an honour!!!
Nash:How about this for a title - Nash the Slash - The Million-Year Compilation 1978---?
Andy G:Not bad - how about "The Million-Year Window: 1978-2010" - that way you don't have to use the dreaded "C" word in the title
Nash: I hear you about the 'C' word. As I consider it, I'm not crazy about the song title references either.
It needs a catchy title plus a historical date reference. It can be called a compilation with full description
on the website but not as a title on the cover. How about.............
The Reckless Use of Electricity
1978-2005
or
A Celebration of Grooves, Songs and Noise
1978-2005
Andy G:To my mind titling it "Compilation" sounds somehow throwaway - this should be treated every bit as "seriously" as a "normal" album.
Regarding the above, I am no singer and I can't play any instruments, so that bit about the key just blows me away - I had no idea and still don't!!!
As to the descriptions and me being the worst spell-checker, known to man, this is what Nash is talking about:
NASH THE SLASH – The Reckless Use Of Electricity CD
Subtitled “a definitive collection of solo music from 1978-2008”, this whole album was thought about, compiled and assembled by me. The reason I sing my praises here is that the album had to be two things – it had to sum up what Nash is all about to someone who'd never heard his tracks before, and it had to be an album that, for all this variation, flowed like a mighty river and made you want to keep coming back to it. It's not as though I'm compiling a best of Meatloaf or Lynyrd Skynyrd whereby as long as you include “Bat Out of Hell” and “Free Bird”, it doesn't actually matter a toss what else is on there; here, every track had to count. Also, it had to have an appeal to existing Nash fans – an album that they, too, would want to own and play to get the ultimate fix of their favourite musician and singer in one glorious hit. All of which probably explains why there are 22 tracks on here (yes – 22!!!).
Nash The Slash does instrumentals and songs – he is a one-man band – does it all – primarily electric mandolin, electric violin, later on, electric guitar, the most enormous “box of tricks”, electronic percussives of all varieties and his voice. The opening track had to be the one to hook you in – the obvious choice was the sheer mind-blowing power of “Wolf” but I wanted you to have one with a melody that was going to stick in your head from the first play onwards as well as having a sense of dynamics, power and an adrenaline-rush that would send shivers up your spine – so it had to be the sequencers, searing heat violin, electric mandolin (sounding like a fuzzed guitar so don't panic!!) and more, all swirling round this mighty layer of melodies, rhythms and percussives like a punk-rock Tangerine Dream on steroids. In and out in three glorious minutes. Then, by complete contrast, there's the roaring fuzzed-to-feck guitar riff intro to “There's Something Weird On MY TV”, the first song with heated guitar-like leads that shoot out like solar flares over this driving sea of electronic and acoustic percussives, all embedded on a layer of squealing violin undercurrents as Nash delivers the one-line lyric with all due seriousness and force, the song twisting, turning, decelerating, accelerating and ultimately rising up on this huge, almighty torrent of a riff and percussive strength – absolute dynamite! Again, by contrast, but in keeping with the flow and feel of what you've heard so far, “The Hypnotist” reprises the opener's instrumental strength, only here the sequencers are faster, the melodies are faster, the layers still towering and the fuzzed-up textures, gloriously dirty, as the whole thing lifts off to the skies on the heat of the instruments that are like other-world guitars and electronics only not produced on guitars and electronics, all adding to the unique effect and mesmerising pleasure that the speedy track produces in the listener, every time you hear it. “Swing Shift” judders along on “Instant Karma”-styled wardrobe-door beats as the evil intonation is sung to perfection by Nash, surrounded by the airy textures, wheezing fx, shuddering beats and assorted electronic and electric textures, all very dark but with a menace and might to its jaws as the lead instruments rise into the night sky. “Fever Dream” takes the idea of the melody-drenched instrumental of textural magnificence only this time decelerates the pace, taking nothing away from the multi-textured layers of violins, electric mandolin, percussive spells and sparkling electronic-like textures, as the assorted tunes swirl and drive to perfection. A live version of “We Will Be The Leaders” shows that Nash can deliver the force in concert with every bit the darkness of his studio work as another menacing song unfolds and it's hard to believe that everything you're hearing is just one guy doing it all, not to mention that the song's got a positive anthem of a chorus that will have you shouting along with it at every opportunity. “Ylla” is the calm, texturally cosmic, almost Fripp & Eno-ish, side of Nash instrumental work as the violin weaves its spell over almost mellotron-like backdrops and the sound of distant thunder, taking you off to a spacey place indeed – only for you to be ejected from your spell by the nuclear charged fuzzed roar of the intro to “Wolf” as the sequencers fire up and the violin melody drives along on top with intent, Nash's wordless vocals adding to the effect as the assorted driving layers and beats take off like a rocket, another example of Nash's humour coming into play briefly when the melody line almost goes into the theme of Radio 4's “Desert Island Discs then out the other side into the great black hole of melody and force that is “Wolf”. From here, the only thing you could follow this with is a song that you'll be singing along with almost before the chorus arrives, as Nash bites out the lyrics on a wry observational, questioning and darkly humorous lyric, set to Eno-esque “Third Uncle” rhythms and the usual multi-layered sea of textures, fx, fuzzed electric mandolins, solid bass-y undercurrents, crashing percussives and mighty melodies, as powerful a song as Nash delivers, in every way.
Here, we're 9 tracks in, 13 to go, and I hope I've already whetted your appetite to want to hear all of this and more.
From here there are slowly cyclical instrumentals (such as the three minute “Remember When” where you can't believe he fits so much melody and texture and rhythm into just three minutes); the dark evil instrumental power (“In Search Of Prey”); the almost sprightly textural, rhythmic electronic bounce of the lightly melodic “Islands”; the nearest Nash gets to a song-as-anthem (the near 6-minute and almost electrically and electronically AOR “a la Nash” of “I'll Wait For You”); the commercial evil of the song-as-hit single (“Children Of The Night”); the cyclical gorgeousness of multi-layered, melodic instrumental music at its most beautiful and heart-rending glory (“Lost Lenore”); another “typical” slice of song-writing that reflects Nash's lyrical biting sarcasm and dark humour (“Pretty Folks”); the almost classical Eno/Roedelius-esque brief thematic splendour of the one and half minute “Lake Ontario Suite No 1”; the modern techno-drive of the racing, flowing, rhythmic, hypnotic “Dance After Curfew”; the 1973 Krautrock-era Harmonia-like only more biting and powerful rhythms, electronics and “guitars” of “Reactor No 2”; the electronic experimentation that is one minute of “Metropolis”; a final slice of strength in the song that is “Underground”; ultimately ending with a smile on your face as you go from the previous song's darkness and power, to the album's finale in the form of the one and half minute melodic, swirling, old-style arrangement that is the electronic and quite gorgeous slow-slow-quick-quick-slow of “Crab Waltz” - that fades into the night.
So there you have it – nearly 80 minutes and not a second of anything less than absolutely enjoyable, solid, satisfying and repeat playable – as you discover – or rediscover – the unique musical world of Canada's amazing one-man band sensation that is Nash The Slash.
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