The Golden Section
Encyclopedia
The Golden Section is a 1983 album by English
musician John Foxx
. A progression from the sound of The Garden
(1981), Foxx called The Golden Section "a roots check: Beatles
, Church music
, Psychedelia
, The Shadows
, The Floyd
, The Velvets
, Roy Orbison
, Kraftwerk
, and cheap pre-electro Europop".
The album was Foxx's first work with a producer since his final Ultravox
album, Systems of Romance
, in 1978; The Golden Section was co-produced by Zeus B. Held
, well known in the Krautrock
scene of the 1970s. In addition to Foxx's wide array of synthesizer
s, the production made extensive use of vocoder
effects and sampling
, along with traditional rock guitar.
(1980) and The Garden
(1981), had included a number of compositions written for earlier projects but shelved for one reason or another, such as "He's a Liquid" and "Touch and Go", originally performed live with Ultravox
, and "Systems of Romance" and "Walk Away", written during sessions for the album Systems of Romance
. In contrast The Golden Section was almost wholly made up of material written especially for the album in 1983, the exceptions being "Like a Miracle" an earlier version of which was recorded during the Metamatic sessions and released on the deluxe edition of that album, and "Endlessly", an early version of which Foxx had released as a single in mid-1982. Another eight songs he recorded around the same time as "Endlessly", that were to have formed an album, were scrapped.
The album's psychedelic rock
flavour was evident on tracks like "Someone" and "Endlessly". The latter was described by Trouser Press
as "the album's clear standout, a magnificent multi-level pop creation". "Ghosts on Water" opened with vocal samples
from the embers of "Endlessly", the preceding track on the album. It utilised sitar
, backwards cymbal
s, a shehnai
, and a reversed string arrangement at the end, set to an adaptation of The Beatles
' "Tomorrow Never Knows
" drum pattern.
"Sitting at the Edge of the World" evoked sounds from "Strawberry Fields Forever
", whilst "Running Across Thin Ice With Tigers" utilised Beatlesque harmonies and the sound of a tiger
's roar. The final track, "Twilight's Last Gleaming", shared its title with a 1977 World War III
film, a William S. Burroughs
short story, and a phrase from "The Star-Spangled Banner
", though it did not overtly reference any of them.
and Lyceum Theatres
in London were released in 2002 as part of the double concert CD The Golden Section Tour + The Omnidelic Exotour.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
musician John Foxx
John Foxx
John Foxx is an English singer, artist, photographer and teacher. He was the original lead singer of the band Ultravox before being replaced by Midge Ure, when he left to embark on a solo career in 1979...
. A progression from the sound of The Garden
The Garden (John Foxx album)
The Garden is a 1981 album by John Foxx, the follow-up to his debut solo album Metamatic, released the previous year. However its instrumentation and highly romantic style is more comparable to Systems of Romance, his last album with former band Ultravox, released in 1978.-Production and style:The...
(1981), Foxx called The Golden Section "a roots check: Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Church music
Christian music
Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely across the world....
, Psychedelia
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
, The Shadows
The Shadows
The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s. Cliff Richard in casual conversation with the British rock press frequently refers to the Shadows by their nickname: 'The Shads'...
, The Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
, The Velvets
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...
, Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...
, Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
, and cheap pre-electro Europop".
The album was Foxx's first work with a producer since his final Ultravox
Ultravox
Ultravox is a British New Wave rock band. They were one of the primary exponents of the British electronic pop music movement of the late 1970s/early 1980s. The band was particularly associated with the New Romantic and New Wave movements....
album, Systems of Romance
Systems of Romance
Systems of Romance, released on 8 September 1978, is the third album by British band Ultravox...
, in 1978; The Golden Section was co-produced by Zeus B. Held
Zeus B. Held
Zeus B. Held is a German music producer and musician, known for his work in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. He was involved with several artists of the Krautrock, Disco and New Wave era, such as Birth Control, Rockets, Gina X Performance, Dead Or Alive, John Foxx, Fashion and Men Without Hats on their...
, well known in the Krautrock
Krautrock
Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...
scene of the 1970s. In addition to Foxx's wide array of synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s, the production made extensive use of vocoder
Vocoder
A vocoder is an analysis/synthesis system, mostly used for speech. In the encoder, the input is passed through a multiband filter, each band is passed through an envelope follower, and the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated to the decoder...
effects and sampling
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
, along with traditional rock guitar.
Production and style
Foxx's two previous solo albums, MetamaticMetamatic
Metamatic is an album by John Foxx, released in 1980. It was his first solo album following his split with Ultravox the previous year. A departure from the textured mix of synthesizers and conventional instruments on Systems of Romance, his last album with the band, Metamatics hard-edged...
(1980) and The Garden
The Garden (John Foxx album)
The Garden is a 1981 album by John Foxx, the follow-up to his debut solo album Metamatic, released the previous year. However its instrumentation and highly romantic style is more comparable to Systems of Romance, his last album with former band Ultravox, released in 1978.-Production and style:The...
(1981), had included a number of compositions written for earlier projects but shelved for one reason or another, such as "He's a Liquid" and "Touch and Go", originally performed live with Ultravox
Ultravox
Ultravox is a British New Wave rock band. They were one of the primary exponents of the British electronic pop music movement of the late 1970s/early 1980s. The band was particularly associated with the New Romantic and New Wave movements....
, and "Systems of Romance" and "Walk Away", written during sessions for the album Systems of Romance
Systems of Romance
Systems of Romance, released on 8 September 1978, is the third album by British band Ultravox...
. In contrast The Golden Section was almost wholly made up of material written especially for the album in 1983, the exceptions being "Like a Miracle" an earlier version of which was recorded during the Metamatic sessions and released on the deluxe edition of that album, and "Endlessly", an early version of which Foxx had released as a single in mid-1982. Another eight songs he recorded around the same time as "Endlessly", that were to have formed an album, were scrapped.
The album's psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
flavour was evident on tracks like "Someone" and "Endlessly". The latter was described by Trouser Press
Trouser Press
Trouser Press was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow Who fan Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" ...
as "the album's clear standout, a magnificent multi-level pop creation". "Ghosts on Water" opened with vocal samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
from the embers of "Endlessly", the preceding track on the album. It utilised sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
, backwards cymbal
Cymbal
Cymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s, a shehnai
Shehnai
The shehnai, shahnai, shenai or mangal vadya, is an aerophonic instrument, a double reed conical oboe, common in North India, West India and Pakistan, made out of wood, with a metal flare bell at the end...
, and a reversed string arrangement at the end, set to an adaptation of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' "Tomorrow Never Knows
Tomorrow Never Knows
"Tomorrow Never Knows" is the final track of The Beatles' 1966 studio album Revolver but the first to be recorded. Credited as a Lennon–McCartney song, it was written primarily by John Lennon...
" drum pattern.
"Sitting at the Edge of the World" evoked sounds from "Strawberry Fields Forever
Strawberry Fields Forever
"Strawberry Fields Forever" is a song by The Beatles, written by John Lennon and attributed to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. It was inspired by Lennon's memories of playing in the garden of a Salvation Army house named "Strawberry Field" near his childhood home."Strawberry Fields...
", whilst "Running Across Thin Ice With Tigers" utilised Beatlesque harmonies and the sound of a tiger
Tiger
The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
's roar. The final track, "Twilight's Last Gleaming", shared its title with a 1977 World War III
World War III
World War III denotes a successor to World War II that would be on a global scale, with common speculation that it would be likely nuclear and devastating in nature....
film, a William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
short story, and a phrase from "The Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
", though it did not overtly reference any of them.
Release and aftermath
The Golden Section spent three weeks in the UK charts, peaking at #27. "Endlessly", released as a single in July 1982 in a different mix to the album version, made #66 in the UK. "Your Dress" was issued concurrently with the album in September 1983, reaching #61. The album's final single, "Like a Miracle", was released in October but did not chart. Foxx embarked on a tour to promote the album in late 1983, and live recordings from the DominionDominion Theatre
The Dominion Theatre is a West End theatre on Tottenham Court Road close to St Giles Circus and Centre Point Tower, in the London Borough of Camden.-History:...
and Lyceum Theatres
Lyceum Theatre (London)
The Lyceum Theatre is a 2,000-seat West End theatre located in the City of Westminster, on Wellington Street, just off the Strand. There has been a theatre with this name in the locality since 1765, and the present site opened on 14 July 1834 to a design by Samuel Beazley. The building was unique...
in London were released in 2002 as part of the double concert CD The Golden Section Tour + The Omnidelic Exotour.
Track listing
All songs written by John Foxx.- "My Wild Love" – 3:45
- "Someone" – 3:30
- "Your Dress" – 4:26
- "Running Across Thin Ice With Tigers" – 5:37
- "Sitting at the Edge of the World" – 4:23
- "Endlessly" – 4:18
- "Ghosts on Water" – 3:12
- "Like a Miracle" – 5:10
- "The Hidden Man" – 5:44
- "Twilight's Last Gleaming" – 4:24 Produced by Mike HowlettMike HowlettMike Howlett is a Fijian-born musician, Grammy Award winning producer and teacher based in the United Kingdom and Australia....
2001 reissue bonus tracks
- "Dance With Me" – 3:29
- "The Lifting Sky" – 4:28
- "Annexe" – 3:10
- "Wings and a Wind" – 5:15
- "A Kind of Wave" – 3:37
- "A Woman on a Stairway" – 4:29
2008 reissue bonus disc
- "Endlessly" (single version) – 3:52
- "My Wild Love" (early version) – 2:48
- "A Long Time" (alternative version) – 5:04
- "Annexe" – 3:10
- "Sitting at the Edge of the World" (alternative version) – 3:59
- "A Kind of Wave" – 3:38
- "Twilight's Last Gleaming" (early version) – 3:51
- "Running Across Thin Ice With Tigers" (extended mix) – 5:50
- "A Woman on a Stairway" – 4:26
- "The Lifting Sky" – 4:50
- "Shine on Me" – 3:46
- "Young Man" – 2:56
- "Wings and a Wind" – 5:17
- "The Hidden Man" (alternative version) – 4:41
- "Dance With Me" – 3:30
- "Endlessly" (alternative extended mix) – 6:03
- The extended mix of "Endlessly" is a different one to that released on the "Endlessly" twelve inch single prior to the album's release.
Personnel
- Kevin Armstrong – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- Blair CunninghamBlair CunninghamBlair Cunningham is a drummer who has played with Haircut One Hundred, The Pretenders, Paul McCartney, Alison Moyet, Sade, Paul Rutherford, the Indigo Girls, Roxy Music, Tina Turner, Lionel Richie, Mick Jagger, Ray Davis, Andy Taylor, Marius Müller-Westernhagen, Kevin Rowland and The Big Dish...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Jo Dworniak – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- John FoxxJohn FoxxJohn Foxx is an English singer, artist, photographer and teacher. He was the original lead singer of the band Ultravox before being replaced by Midge Ure, when he left to embark on a solo career in 1979...
– vocals, guitar, keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, Magnetic Choir - Zeus B. HeldZeus B. HeldZeus B. Held is a German music producer and musician, known for his work in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. He was involved with several artists of the Krautrock, Disco and New Wave era, such as Birth Control, Rockets, Gina X Performance, Dead Or Alive, John Foxx, Fashion and Men Without Hats on their...
– keyboards - Mike HowlettMike HowlettMike Howlett is a Fijian-born musician, Grammy Award winning producer and teacher based in the United Kingdom and Australia....
– bass, drums - J. J. Jeczalik – Fairlight CMIFairlight CMIThe Fairlight CMI is a digital sampling synthesizer. It was designed in 1979 by the founders of Fairlight, Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie, and based on a dual-6800 microprocessor computer designed by Tony Furse in Sydney, Australia...
programming - James Risborough – choirboy
- Robin SimonRobin SimonFor the art historian and critic Robin Simon, editor of , see Robin JH SimonRobin Simon For the art historian and critic Robin Simon, editor of , see Robin JH SimonRobin Simon For the art historian and critic Robin Simon, editor of , see Robin JH SimonRobin Simon (born Robert Simon 12 July 1956,...
– guitar - Paul "Wix" Wickens – drums, keyboards