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+--- Thread: Penguin Cafe Orchestra (/showthread.php?tid=17495)
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - bob_32_116 - 13-12-2016
Anyone else familiar with this "band" for want of a better term? I have their first album, "Music from the Penguin Cafe", and it's possibly the most unusual album in my collection. If you have not heard them they are hard to describe. They were a group of classical chamber musicians who got together and basically decided to try playing around without any rules. All sorts of things are used as instruments. One of their tracks is called "Music for a Found Harmonium", another is called "Telephone and Rubber Band". Despite the experimental manner of production, much of the music is quite beautiful.
I have not listened to the album for a while, but I was reminded of it by hearing this track on radio - the closing track on the album:
[video=youtube;xxBpXCBen9Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxBpXCBen9Y[/video]
I should add that their album covers were also very imaginative. They invariably feature what appears to be humans with the heads of penguins, often in rather suggestive poses.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Ruby - 13-12-2016
Yes, I am familiar with them and have listened to that album. I have just plain Penguin Café Orchestra somewhere in the recesses, and they also appear on an lp I have with selections on, but havenât heard them in ages. I suspect one of the reasons they might have gained a certain popularity in South Africa at one time, is because they were exploring ethnic sounds that were quite akin to what we are so well acquainted with here (with smatterings of distinctly Celtic influences too, happily combined) and yet they still had that very firm grounding from which they could venture out and play, all of which loaned substance and authority to what they were doing. Interesting outfit!
"Air à Danser" is the track that says PCO to me, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFlKxfhMYls, but gotta love âThe Ecstasy of Dancing Fleasâ even if for nothing other than the title!! Lol!
[video=youtube;yV4Vn_5L5uo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV4Vn_5L5uo[/video]
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - bob_32_116 - 14-12-2016
Haven't heard that Fleas track, it does sort of sound like fleas jumping around.
This track is the one I heard played a few times on radio at the time of release of the first album.... possibly the program presenters were as intrigued as I was by the title, one of the longest titles I have come across:
"The sound of someone you love who's going away and it doesn't matter"
[video=youtube;s7W_hiBK8Os]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7W_hiBK8Os[/video]
I love the way this piece keeps on presenting the main motif, which gradually morphs into something else, going all distorted and off-key, then gets back on track again. It's as though they drifted off absent-mindedly, then suddeny thought "Where were we? What were we doing? Oh yes..." and tried again with the theme.
A couple of PCO tracks are used in the soundtrack to the 1986 Australian comedy film Malcolm, which by the way is excellent and worth seeking out if you haven't seen it.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Jerome - 16-12-2016
A strange track indeed - and as for long song titles, here's my favourite - and from a brilliant album as well. Shawn Phillips - Second Contribution - 'She was waiting for her mother at the station in Torino and you know I love you baby but it's getting too heavy to laugh' - sounds like a crazy title - and it is - but what a piece of music. The best male voice of the 60's and 70's.
https://youtu.be/Dpi8jh8E8Z4
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Jerome - 16-12-2016
Another one - magnificent work - https://youtu.be/MDWb5u1hehI
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Jerome - 16-12-2016
A track that was first played to me by a girl in school after we hijacked her brother's vinyl copy. Thx for introducing me to this man's music Karen F. I will never forget the first time we heard this - You, me, Freaky (RIP) and Delene. This track is a description of a journey Shawn Phillips took from Naples to his (then) home in Positano, Italy. I made up my mind that I would visit this place one day. Forty years old I finally got to experience the Amalfi Coast. Been back many times since. It remains the most beautiful place I have ever been to. Always will be. I never tire of it. https://youtu.be/HT7cYrjYmxQ
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Jerome - 16-12-2016
And my favourite by Mr Phillips - https://youtu.be/-sbmXQ796PY
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Ruby - 16-12-2016
bob_32_116 Wrote:A couple of PCO tracks are used in the soundtrack to the 1986 Australian comedy film Malcolm, which by the way is excellent and worth seeking out if you haven't seen it.
I haven't. Thanks ... I will look out for the movie.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Ruby - 16-12-2016
^^PCO to Shawn Phillips, who'da thought! But oh well ⦠heâs such a lovely human being, aside from anything else, and his music is engraved deep in my psyche - so much relished listening to him. Not sure he did anything I donât like, now that I think of it. Canât see how that could be possible. Oh wait, there was possibly a Love Beach equivalent ⦠canât remember what itâs called â¦
In truth, there are so many wonderful songs, but one of my favourites, from Furthermore ⦠âBreakthroughâ â¦. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH18SmqpSME
And this. Who else sings about the effluvium of excess????!
[video=youtube;wy0WdvlVU8E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy0WdvlVU8E[/video]