Type: Lyrics are included with the album, Soundtrack
Genre: Avant-Garde
Review
There were intermittent soundtrack and score contributions of varying magnitudes, as well as a couple other low-key projects, but The Drift is Scott Walker's proper follow-up to 1995's Tilt, an album that also happened to trail its predecessor by 11 years. If 1984's Climate of Hunter put the MOR in morose, Tilt avoided the road completely and went straight toward the fractured, fraught images inside Walker's nightmares. It was entirely removed from anything that could've been classified as contemporary. The Drift isn't an equally severe leap from Tilt, but it is darker, less arranged, alternately more and less dense, and ultimately more frightening. Maybe it'll make your body temperature drop a few degrees. Working with what Walker has referred to as "blocks of sound," only a few of the album's 68 minutes have any connection to rock music, and many of those minutes are part of a harrowing 9/11 song that also obliquely references "Jailhouse Rock" as Elvis Presley cries out ("I'm the only one left alive!") to his stillborn twin brother. The songs swing from hovering drones to crushing jolts. The blocks that make them, then, differ tremendously in weight, from one that could be pushed by an index finger to one that could only be hauled by a forklift. Whenever a vast shaft of space opens up, it is eventually stuffed with drastic, horrific dissonance. While a song might contain a constant element or two, they're all in a constant state of unease and flux. Walker's voice matches the activity levels of the sounds, providing a kind of paranoid croon one minute and then, during another, casting almost demonic projections that are nearly as rattling as the accompaniment. From the outset, the album seems impossibly insular and impenetrable, especially if you've been led to believe that Scott Walker's name is synonymous with recluse, but it has everything to do with real lives (or, more accurately, real deaths). Walker is acutely aware of what's going on with the world outside his supposed candle-lit bunker; he's only finding very unique (OK, bloody minded) ways to bring them up. Any mystique behind the recordings is laid to waste by one scene from a documentary, titled 30 Century Man, which shows Walker -- a baseball hat-wearing sixty-something man from Ohio -- instructing another man on how to thump a slab of meat. It looks and sounds absurd, of course (the participants seem to be aware of this), but then again, the results are used in a song inspired by the public executions of Benito Mussolini and his mistress. Broken spells aside, how much more bleak could this album be? None more bleak. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide
Derek Watkins (Flugelhorn), Andrew Cronshaw (Concertina), Andrew Cronshaw (Shawm), Andrew Cronshaw (Bamboo Flute), Hugh Burns (Guitar (Acoustic)), Hugh Burns (Guitar (Electric)), Hugh Burns (Guitar (Electric Baritone)), Hugh Burns (Guitar (Baritone)), Jane Fenton (Cello), Brian Gascoigne (Keyboards), Brian Gascoigne (Sound Treatment), John Giblin (Bass), Janice Graham (Violin), Clare Hoffman (Violin), Steve Morris (Violin), Richard Nelson (Orchestra Contractor), Steve Pearce (Bass), Celia Sheen (Violin), James Stevenson (Guitar), James Stevenson (Arp Echoplex), James Stevenson (?), Geoff Foster (Engineer), Benjamin Buckton (Violin), Jonathan Williams (Cello), Pete Long (Sax (Baritone)), Pete Long (Wind Instruments), Julian Tear (Violin), Paul Willey (Violin), Alasdair Malloy (Percussion), Alasdair Malloy (Drums), Ian Thomas Band (Drums), Chris Bigg (Design Assistant), Vaughan Oliver (Design), Mark Warman (Percussion), Mark Warman (Keyboards), Mark Warman (Ocarina), Mark Warman (Orchestration), Mark Warman (Sound Treatment), Mark Warman (String Conductor), Mark Warman (Vox Continental), Marco Atkins (Photography), Richard Wilkinson (Assistant), Alison Kelly (Violin), Amanda Smith (Violin), John Tunnell (Cello), Neil Tucker (Assistant), Chris Barrett (Assistant), Deborah Widdup (Violin), Tamsy Kaner (Cello), Clare Tyack (Bass), Adrian Hall (Assistant), Roger Linley (Bass), Nick Roberts (Cello), Peter Walsh (Sitar), Peter Walsh (Producer), Peter Walsh (Engineer), Peter Walsh (Performer), Peter Walsh (Mixing), Peter Walsh (Sound Treatment), Michael Davis (Violin), Philip Sheppard (Cello), Philip Sheppard (Orchestration), Philip Sheppard (Electric Cello), Philip Sheppard (String Conductor), Clive Dobbins (Violin), Andrew Fuller (Cello), Rohan Onraet (Percussion), Rohan Onraet (Clapping), Rohan Onraet (Assistant), Ofer Falk (Violin), Robert Salter (Violin), Simon Masterton Smith (Violin), Judith Herbert (Cello), Dom Morely (Assistant), Tim Painter (Construction), Matthew Scrivener (Violin), Grant Gee (Portraits), Iain Gore (Assistant), Matt Paul (Assistant), Karin Leishman (Violin), Charles Sewart (Violin), Thomas Bowes (Violin), Joely Koos (Cello), Robert Max (Cello), Sophie Barber (Violin)
The Drift is a critically acclaimed album from singer-songwriter Scott Walker, released on the 4AD label in May 2006. It has been cited by many critics and fans alike as a disturbing and complex album that departs from Scott Walker's previous albums while still remaining true to his experimental roots.
The Drift is Walker's first album composed entirely of new material since 1995's Tilt. In the interim, Walker's released output comprised a few instrumental tracks on the soundtrack to the film Pola X and a track on the soundtrack to the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough, as well as a few compilations of previously released material, including the retrospective box set5 Easy Pieces.
The sound and subject matter for the album is unrelentingly dark and unsettling, often juxtaposing quiet sections with sudden loud noise to induce discomfort in the listener. Subjects include torture, disease, 9/11, and numerous subjects in keeping with the horror genre.
Drums: Ian Thomas Bass: John Giblin Electric Guitar: Hugh Burns Keyboards: Brian Gascoigne, Mark Warman Percussion: Alasdair Malloy
"Clara"
Drums: Ian Thomas Bass: Steve Pearce Electric Guitar: Hugh Burns Echoplex Guitar: James Stevenson Ocarina: Mark Warman Shawm: Andrew Cronshaw Percussion and Meat Punching: Alasdair Malloy Sound Treatment: Peter Walsh and Mark Warman
Vanessa Contenay-Quinones as the voice of Claretta Petacci Strings Orchestrated and Conducted by Philip Sheppard
"Jesse"
Electric Baritone/Electric Guitar: Hugh Burns Mosquito/Echoplex Guitar: James Stevenson Strings Orchestrated and Conducted by Mark Warman
"Jolson and Jones"
Drums: Ian Thomas Bass: Steve Pearce Electric Guitar: Hugh Burns Violin: Thomas Bowes Alto Sax: Scott Walker Keyboards: Mark Warman Percussion: Alasdair Malloy Sound Treatment: Peter Walsh Man Descending Stairs: Peter Walsh Concertina: Andrew Cronshaw Strings Orchestrated and Conducted by Mark Warman
"Cue"
Drums: Alasdair Malloy Bass: John Giblin Acoustic Baritone Guitars: Hugh Burns and Scott Walker Electric Guitar: Hugh Burns Flugelhorn: Derek Watkins Big Box Percussion: Alasdair Malloy Big Box Construction: Tim Painter Strings Orchestrated and Conducted by Philip Sheppard
"Hand Me Ups"
Drums: Ian Thomas Bass: John Giblin Vox Continental: Mark Warman Children Scream Vocals: Ralph Warman, Rebecca Painter, Lucy Painter Choirboy: Ralph Warman Tubax/Baritone Sax: Pete Long Percussion-Claps: Rohan Onraet
"Buzzers"
Bass: John Giblin Electric/Acoustic Guitar: Hugh Burns Percussion: Alasdair Malloy Newsreader: Beverly Foster Sound Treatment: Scott Walker and Peter Walsh Strings Orchestrated and Conducted by Philip Sheppard
"Psoriatic"
Drums: Ian Thomas Bass: Steve Pearce Electric Guitar: Hugh Burns Sitar Guitar: Peter Walsh High Sus Guitar: James Stevenson Electric Cello: Philip Sheppard Sound Treatment: Brian Gascoigne and Peter Walsh Di-Zi: Andrew Cronshaw Percussion: Alasdair Malloy
"The Escape"
Drums: Ian Thomas Bass: Steve Pearce Electric Baritone/Acoustic Guitar: Hugh Burns Cello: Philip Sheppard Harmonica: Scott Walker Keyboards and Percussion: Mark Warman Strings Orchestrated and Conducted by Mark Warman
