Fascinating chat as usual with Mrs X just now.
She's great for bouncing all things Foxxian against and tells it like it is when I expound theories and ideas about the man and his music that I'm trying to get down in words.
Struggling with the whole "sound" thing at the moment, and examining John's argument that electronic music is like the blues.
It's true - there is much evidence in his stuff (particualrly Metamatic and Crash and Burn of an ingrained dub influence. The heavy, massive bass lines. The elements of other sounds, the reverb and echo.
There's the birdsong in Just For A Moment of course, and the reggae hook of Dangerous Rhythm, Touch and Go and She Robot
It's not rubbish. And so it's no coincidence that Ultravox signed to Island. Home of Lee Perry. Bob Marley. Third World.
The whole punk thing was very much a product of London at the time - it came almost from nowhere and burned itself out just as quickly. It wasn't going anywhere. Foxx wrote "I Won't Play Your Game" to describe his frustartion with the culture of aggression and lads leaping around in mindless violent gangs with theirt mates. Punk was the sound of the crowd. And the sound of London.
In the north of England, lonely individuals in grey council estates were isolated, detached young men without a peer group. Lost and detached. They identified instead with the darker, montonous tones of the synthesizer, the alienation of electronic music suited loners. Ian Curtis. Genesis P.Orridge.
Electronic music was less reactionary than punk. It had roots.
And there's the word I was looking for. Roots.
Ska and dub. Experimental music. Using the studio as another instrument. Putting bits of this and bits of that into a machine. Huge basslines. Birdsong.
Cathedral Oceans is really not a million miles from Metamatic at all.
Metanym.
And thus back to Glimmer

I'll rewrite this waffle, but I can see my thread shining through now.

Click, click, drone…