%20ALL.jpg)
SWAGGER & TENSION
VA - Marquee Nights, Guitar Swagger & Tension (A Butterboy Compilation) (4 x CDs)
In 1977 Marquee Moon revealed a new kind of guitar language. The recordings gathered here follow the path that language opened.
When “Marquee Moon” appeared in 1977 it quietly redrew the map for guitar-driven rock. At a time when virtuosity often meant speed, density, and technical display, the track by Television introduced another possibility. Its power comes from patience, clarity, and the slow accumulation of tension.
Across more than ten minutes of Marquee Moon the music unfolds with unusual control. Two guitars move around one another in long, deliberate phrases, sometimes mirroring a melodic idea, sometimes drifting apart into counter lines that reshape the rhythm beneath them. The playing is intricate, yet it never announces itself as technical showmanship. Instead, it feels exploratory, like a conversation unfolding in real time.
What makes the performance distinctive is its sense of space. Notes ring out cleanly, rhythms remain steady and restrained, and repetition becomes a structural tool rather than a limitation. Small variations gather momentum until the music reaches a quiet intensity. The effect is hypnotic without becoming indulgent, precise without feeling rigid.
This balance between restraint and complexity forms the guiding idea behind this compilation. The selections across its four discs trace artists who share the same musical instinct revealed in “Marquee Moon”, guitars used as dialogue rather than spectacle, tension built through repetition and interplay, and songs shaped by clarity rather than excess. Some tracks anticipate this language, others emerge from the late-seventies moment that surrounded it, while later recordings show how the approach continued to echo through independent rock.
Across the box set the sequencing reinforces an aesthetic of restraint. Each track presents a variation on the same language, clean tone, patient rhythm, and guitars that converse rather than compete. The challenge lies not in playing more notes, but in choosing fewer and letting them resonate. Every phrase carries weight because nothing is wasted.
The collection reveals how a single recording suggested a different kind of guitar virtuosity. Not louder, faster, or more elaborate, but sharper, leaner, and driven by the charged space between two players. (B)
==========================================================
%20ALL.jpg)
OR
OR
===========================================================
Track lists
CD1
01 Television - Marquee Moon 10:38 1977
02 Fall - Totally Wired 3:29 1980
03 Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Blank Generation 2:45 1977
04 Talking Heads - Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town 2:49 1977
05 Wire - Three Girl Rhumba 1:23 1977
06 Gang of Four - Love Like Anthrax 3:19 1979
07 Magazine - Shot By Both Sides 4:06 1978
08 Suicide - Cheree 3:42 1977
09 Pere Ubu - Final Solution 4:59 1976
10 Feelies - Crazy Rhythms 6:10 1980
11 Joy Division - Candidate 3:05 1979
12 Public Image Ltd. - Careering 4:35 1979
13 Mission of Burma - Fight Academy Song 3:07 1982
14 Lines - Nerve Pylon 3:45 1979
15 Blondie - Fade Away and Radiate 4:02 1978
16 Only Ones - Another Girl Another Planet 3:01 1978
17 Saints - Know Your Product 3:14 1978
18 Modern Lovers - Roadrunner 4:06 1976
19 Dictators - The Next Big Thing 4:22 1975
20 Patti Smith - Radio Ethiopia 10:03 1976
CD2
01 Roxy Music - Editions of You 3:47 1973
02 Brian Eno - Baby's on Fire 5:19 1973
03 Velvet Underground - What Goes On 8:58 1969
04 Neu! - Hallogallo 10:06 1972
05 Can - Moonshake 3:01 1973
06 Magazine - The Light Pours Out of Me 4:38 1978
07 Raincoats - Fairytale in The Supermarket 2:59 1979
08 Mekons - Where Were You? 2:44 1979
09 David Bowie - Beauty and The Beast 3:36 1977
10 Lou Reed - Kill Your Sons 3:39 1974
11 Iggy Pop - Nightclubbing 4:15 1977
12 Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead 9:33 1979
13 Pop Group - She is Beyond Good and Evil 3:25 1979
14 Ultravox! - The Man Who Dies Every Day 4:11 1978
15 Simple Minds - Changeling 3:31 1979
16 Echo & the Bunnymen - Villiers Terrace 2:46 1980
17 Sound - Winning 4:18 1981
18 Cure - A Forest (Album Version) 5:55 1980
19 Teardrop Explodes - Treason 2:58 1980
20 Luna - Slide 4:19 1993
CD3
01 R.E.M. - Pilgrimage 4:30 1983
02 Smiths - Still Ill 3:32 1984
03 Church - Almost with You 4:14 1982
04 Gun Club - Sex Beat 2:48 1981
05 Wake - Favour 4:20 1982
06 Psychedelic Furs - Imitation of Christ 5:29 1981
07 Replacements - Unsatisfied 4:01 1984
08 Hüsker Dü - Celebrated Summer 4:02 1984
09 Dream Syndicate - Then She Remembers 4:07 1985
10 Clean - Anything Could Happen 2:37 1981
11 Go-Betweens - Cattle and Cane 4:22 1983
12 Rain Parade - I Look Around 3:06 1983
13 Cocteau Twins - Blind Dumb Deaf 3:41 1999
14 Triffids - Wide Open Road 4:09 1986
15 Chameleons - Up the Down Escalator 3:57 1983
16 This Heat - Horizontal hold 8:28 1981
17 Residents - Constantinople 2:24 1980
18 Chrome - Static Gravity 3:22 1979
19 dB's - Black and White 3:07 1981
20 Orange Juice - Rip it Up 3:45 1982
CD4
01 Interpol - Leif Erikson 4:00 2002
02 Strokes - Trying Your Luck 3:27 2001
03 Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out 3:57 2004
04 Editors - Munich 3:49 2005
05 Iceage - Ecstasy 2:28 2011
06 Savages - Husbands 2:50 2013
07 Preoccupations - Continental Shelf 3:18 2015
08 Protomartyr - Pontiac 87 4:31 2014
09 DIIV - Doused 3:43 2012
10 War on Drugs - Red Eyes 4:58 2014
11 Real Estate - Green Aisles 5:01 2009
12 Beach Fossils - Youth 2:36 2011
13 Walkmen - The Rat 4:27 2004
14 Parquet Courts - Borrowed Time 2:32 2013
15 Ought - Beautiful Blue Sky 7:43 2014
16 Women - Eyesore 6:25 2008
17 Soft Boys - I Wanna Destroy You 2:53 1980
18 Yo La Tengo - Tom Courtenay 3:25 1997
19 Drones - Jezebel 7:51 2005
20 Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - French Press 5:27 2017
=============================================================
=============================================================
Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.
=============================================================
=============================================================
Great job! Thx you
ReplyDeleteHi Unknown,
DeleteThanks so much for the kind words. It was a joy pulling these threads together. If you enjoy it then the work feels worthwhile.
Cheers.
Thank you ΒΒ for gathering this scattered universe into an interesting collection!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I prefer clarity over exaggeration and collaboration over the display of individuality.
Hi John,
DeleteReally appreciate that. This set was all about drawing a clear line through a very wide, very scattered landscape, so it’s great to hear that clarity comes through on your end.
I’m with you on collaboration over showmanship, when the pieces speak to each other, the whole thing breathes differently. That was the spirit guiding the selections here.
Cheers.
Great collection, and very nice to see a lot of artists having been influenced years after the fact. The way forward includes looking back to how we got there.
ReplyDeleteThanks Richard,
DeleteYou can hear how ideas planted decades ago keep resurfacing in new shapes, sometimes quietly, sometimes boldly, but always with that lineage intact. Looking back isn’t nostalgia here it’s a way of tracing the DNA of where the music eventually travelled.
Cheers.
You're on a roll - I'm enjoying the "Beyond the Veil" set immensely, and this looks just as good (albeit in a different way).
ReplyDeleteThanks, JWDen.
DeleteGreat to hear you’re deep into the "Beyond the Veil" compilation. That one was all about slow drift and atmosphere, so it’s nice knowing it’s still unfolding well for you. This new set moves with a different kind of energy, but it’s cut from the same cloth: a clear thread, a bit of swagger, and plenty of connective tissue between eras.
Hope it gives you just as much to sink into.
Cheers.
Thanks for yet another excellent collection that sheds light on music in a fresh, enlightening way. Truly appreciate your work here. I can't wait to dig into this one!
ReplyDeleteHi RickB,
DeleteReally appreciate that. It’s always fascinating seeing how ideas echo forward, sometimes subtly, sometimes in full colour, and pulling those threads together into something coherent is half the joy of these sets. If it shines a bit of new light on familiar corners, then it’s doing its job.
Hope the deep dive rewards you.
Cheers
Marquee Moon was/is a milestone in my sonic socialization, too. So: what a great and intriguing concept to follow the Marquee (not the club!) traces and impacts. I am very keen on going through all these stages, BB. Many thanks & Best, TC
ReplyDeleteThank you, TC,
DeleteMarquee Moon leaves a long shadow, not just as a record, but as a way of hearing. Once it gets into your internal wiring, you start noticing those angular shapes, that tensile glide, that sense of space‑as‑rhythm everywhere. That’s really what this set tries to map, not the club, not the mythology, but the ripple effect of that particular sonic attitude.
Tracing those echoes across eras becomes its own kind of journey, and I think you’ll find plenty of familiar signposts alongside a few unexpected detours. It’s a lineage that never quite stops revealing itself.
Cheers
You’ve really outdone yourself this time! Great picks and a solid intro to those later bands channeling that classic era. Thanks a bunch!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Wolfgang.
DeleteIt was a joy to trace that line from the original spark to the later bands who carried the attitude forward in their own ways. Once you start listening for that mix of poise, tension, and wiry swagger, the connections reveal themselves pretty quickly, and it becomes a surprisingly rich little universe.
Hope the full run gives you plenty to dig into.
Cheers
Thanks a lot BB! Brilliant and complete as usual.
ReplyDeleteHi Hervé,
DeleteThanks so much for your generous comment. I always appreciate your steady support. This one was a pleasure to shape and knowing it reads as both brilliant and complete on your end means the intent landed just right. The lineage here is wide, but the through‑line is strong, and that’s what makes sets like this worth the effort.
Cheers.
One of the best you've done, so much to dig into
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mark I,
DeleteI really appreciate that. This one was a joy to shape, and it’s great to hear it stands out for you. There’s a lot of connective tissue running through these tracks, even when the eras and aesthetics shift, and pulling those threads tight without losing the spark was the real challenge. Knowing it gives you plenty to dig into makes the whole exercise worthwhile.
Cheers.
Hi BB, to listen to every song ,I have to dance a whole WeekEnd....... Thank You
ReplyDeleteHi Christiaan111,
DeleteHa, a whole weekend of dancing sounds like the perfect way to take this one in. There’s plenty of movement baked into these tracks, so if it keeps you on your feet from Saturday to Sunday, I’d say the set is doing exactly what it should.
Enjoy the ride and the rhythm.
Cheers.