Mark Knopfler - Music From The Film Comfort and Joy

One of the most overlooked records in the Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler catalogue, Music From The Film Comfort and Joy was released to little promotion or fanfare in July 1984.  It came after the double live album Alchemy and preceded Brothers In Arms.  It was Knopfler's second film score, after his work on Bill Forsyth's Local Hero (1983).

The record was released as a 12" maxi single.  It featured three instrumental tracks, composed and performed for the film Comfort and Joy (also directed by Bill Forsyth).  The film tells the story of a local radio presenter caught up in a conflict between rival ice cream sellers.  The director also included in the film music from the Dire Straits album Love Over Gold.  

The soundtrack album features three tracks and plays for a little over eleven minutes.  Neither the film or the soundtrack achieved commercial success, however the record remained in print for several years after release.  The music contained on this record is nothing short of delightful; both musicianship and recording quality are superb. 

Two of the tracks have appeared on compact disc, however briefly: - 

• Joy & A Fistful of Ice Cream appeared on the CD single of Irish Boy (1995).  This single was released to promote Knopfler's compilation album Screenplaying.  Somewhat illogically, the Screenplaying album did not contain any music from Comfort and Joy

• Joy appeared on Filmtracks, a various artists compilation from 1985

• All three tracks have appeared on an unofficial CD single: - 

We now present a lossless rip of the original 12" single, recorded from a Nottingham Audio Spacedeck turntable and Audio Technica AT-F2 MC cartridge.  Please enjoy this somewhat exquisite and seldom-heard record.  You'll find the download link in the comments.

Apologies/acknowledgements

At some stage, the sleeve to my copy of Comfort and Joy suffered extreme water damage (see below).  Children, eh? The (undamaged) artwork shown above has thus been nicked/borrowed from elsewhere on the internet.  My bad.

 

Download here

Scott Walker - Pola X (FLAC)

Scott Walker's largely-overlooked (and hopelessly rare) soundtrack to the 1999 movie Pola X, directed by Leos Carax and starring Guillaume Depardieu, Yekaterina Golubeva, Catherine Deneuve.

The music on Pola X verges from utter discordancy to fragile beauty. As a result, this CD perhaps represents the most accessible route to understanding and appreciating the music on Scott Walker's latter-period albums. 

Pola X was released in Japan and France only.  The album was not in print for long; it soon became a collector's item.

 

All of the tracks composed by Scott Walker on Pola X were compiled in the 2003 box set Scott Walker In 5 Easy Pieces.  However, they were presented in a different order to the original album, and interspersed with other examples of his film songs and compositions.  

At the time of writing, both Pola X and the box set In 5 Easy Pieces are out-of-print, and command high prices on the collector's market.  

Meanwhile, I am not aware of any other available lossless download of the CD Pola X anywhere on the internet. 

Download here

Scott Walker – Any Day Now / The Moviegoer / Sings Songs from his TV Series – official (withdrawn) CD reissues

In 1999 Universal Music scheduled three Scott Walker albums for re-release.  These albums, originally recorded for the Philips label, were:

• Any Day Now
• ‘Til The Band Comes In
• Scott On Screen

The albums were remastered for CD, promotional CDR discs were circulated to the media, but due to intervention from Mr Engel himself; the reissues were cancelled.  The CDs – due for release on the Fontana label - did not appear in the shops.  

• Any Day Now was Scott’s last album for Philips.  It has yet to receive a full official CD reissue. The withdrawn 1990 CD contained two bonus tracks – I Still See You & My Way Home, originally A & B sides of a 1971 Philips single.
  

• ‘Til The Band Comes In reappeared on the BGO label in 1996 – this issue was soon withdrawn.  The album has since received an official release as part of the CD set The Collection 1967-1970.  This collection was repackaged as a bargain-priced 5-disc collection on the Spectrum label[i].   There is also an unofficial reissue of the album on the Water label in the United States. The 1990 CD included bonus tracks (Lights Of Cincinnati & The Rope & The Colt).

• Scott On Screen was to have been a 2-on-1 disc that combined the LPs Sings Songs from his TV Series (1969) with The Moviegoer (1972).  It is not to be confused with the fifth disc in the 2003 box set compilation, In 5 Easy Pieces (also known as Scott On Screen).  Meanwhile, for some unfathomable reason, the last track on The Moviegoer (Easy Come Easy Go) was omitted from the Fontana collection.
  
    

Although these records are not quite in the same league as Scott 1-4, they are nonetheless wonderful albums.  They absolutely belong in your collection. 

Here are lossless downloads of the withdrawn compact disc versions of Any Day Now & Scott On Screen.  I have added back the missing track (Easy Come, Easy Go).

As discussed, ‘Til The Band Comes In is now available on CD.  The album has also been reissued on vinyl (Back To Black / Mercury 602537323647). Thus, I have not included the album as a download here. 

Download here

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[i] The box set 5 Classic Albums (Universal / Spectrum) contains the albums Scott 1-4 and ‘Til The Band Comes In.  At the time of writing, it sells for under £10.

The Dream Academy – The 12” Single Collection

Thanks largely to their near-perfect debut album and single, The Dream Academy attained a cult following in America, Japan and The United Kingdom.  The band displayed lyrical intellect over fresh and memorable melodies, combined with sophisticated (and largely acoustic) musical arrangements.   

Signed to Geoff Travis’[i] & Mike Alway’s[ii] Blanco y Negro label, the band combined the spirit of early 80s Pillows & Prayers indie-innocence with late 60s hippy sensibility.  With the multi-national financial clout of The Warner Music Group, the band should have realised considerable global success.  

Regrettably, only the debut album and single made any real impression on the charts.  Nonetheless, the music of The Dream Academy has matured, rather than aged - especially when compared to much of the music released by other contemporary and indie acts in the 1980s and early 90s.  

Several non-album tracks, demo recordings and extended versions of LP tracks can be found, scattered across the six UK 12” singles.  Certainly, the 12” mixes of Indian Summer and Love may be considered definitive, over the album versions.   In addition, there are “Easter Eggs” to be found on several of the 12” singles.  These are mostly snippets of other tracks, as often as not played backwards. 

Here now are both sides of all six 12” singles, ripped from the original UK vinyl pressings.  If you don’t already possess the band’s three albums, make it a priority to add them to your collection. 

Most of all, enjoy these stunning maxi-singles, all of  which can be downloaded here

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[i] Founder of Rough Trade Records

[ii] Founder of él Records

A brief discography

In the UK, The Dream Academy released three LPs and six singles.  

• The Dream Academy (1985)
• Remembrance Days (1987)
• A Different Kind Of Weather (1990)

• Life in a Northern Town (1985)
• The Love Parade (1985)
• Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (1985)
• Indian Summer (1987)
• Love (1990)
• Angel of Mercy (aka Twelve-Eight Angel) (1990) 

 The super-rare US radio CD of Indian Summer

Further LP tracks were released as 45s in the US, some as promotional-only items: -

• The Edge Of Forever (1985) (promo)
• This World (1985) (promo)
• The Lesson Of Love (1987)
• Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime (1987)

The American CD and 12” singles of Love contain further mixes that were unavailable in the UK. 

A non-album single (In The Heart) was released in Japan

• In The Heart/Power To Believe (1988)

A promotional video was prepared for the LP track This World. 

Compilation albums: -

• Somewhere In The Sun (Japan only, 1999)
• The Morning Lasted All Day (2014)

A promotional album mixing interviews with tracks from the debut LP was issued to American radio stations in 1985.

Their music has appeared in two major films: -

• The Edge Of Forever & Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want feature in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. 
• Both vocal and instrumental versions of Power To Believe feature in Planes, Trains & Automobiles. 

The single Life In A Northern Town has appeared on countless various-artist compilation albums, it has been sampled on at least three dance/pop records: -

• Sunchyme by Dario G
• Never Let You Go by Jakaranda
• Walk on By by Picco

Life In A Northern Town has been covered by at least five different acts: -

• Chris Collingswood
• Voice Male
• The Coats
• Rick Springfield
• Sexton Blake

Thanks to Rick Springfield’s 2005 version, the song appears in a lullaby arrangement on the children’s album Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star.

The song Moving On was sampled by: -

• Erica part1 by Dom Kennedy.