User Reviews of Rick Wright's Broken China (Various sources, around 1997)

Date: Sat, 21 Dec 1996 00:28:42 +0100
From: "Balint Szlanko"

Hi all!

After reading that "strange" interview with Roger, I decided to "go on a holiday" and I bought Broken China. A few thoughts on the album:

- - it is definetely very good electronic music. I've always been thinking about those old "rock dinosaurs" who started to play an acoustic guitar and a Hammond and by now they are using great electronic equipments. In the early seventies, PF was titled as a "progressive" band because they were very innovative: new sounds, new instruments, they learnt how to use the studio effectively, how to go beyond the borders of pop music. And people tend to forget that they *remain* - or at least try to remain - innovatives. I mean Roger or Rick are still trying to find new ways of music by using new, modern equipments, and people come and say: "This is ugly. Techno. This sux. Where is the old, well-known sound? Where is the organ? Where is the saxophone?"

But being progressive doesn't mean any specific musical style. It means finding new ways, new musical styles, new instruments, etc.. That's one thing I like in Broken China: sure it doesn't sound like Remember a day (one of my favourites) - but who cares? As long as it DOES sound good, I don't give a shit what instrument Rick plays: a piano or a MIDI sampler.

- - i think his vocals are great. Different but great. It reminds me a bit of Peter Gabriel. I dunno why, it's just a feeling.

- - the instrumentals are very-very good. They generate a certain mood which goes very well to the whole point of the album: clinical depression
- - i think the lyrics are quite weak. As a concept album, compared to those written by Roger, it is weak. Simply because Roger is a better lyricist than musician IMHO and that's why his albums are better organized and more accurate. It's easier to tell a story or an opinion with words. Think of his solo works - no instrumentals. His works are based on the lyrics. But back to Broken China - while its lyrics I find weak I think it is stronger as a musical album. While Roger tells his story with his excellent lyrics, Rick does it with the music - the instrumentals sound good and very good
organized. (see above)


Of course, everything is IMHO....
any comments?

Balint "Zaphy" Szlanko
szlanko.janos@ind.eunet.hu

PS. Sorry for any grammar mistakes

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Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 11:23:02 +1000
From: Dan Miles
Subject: Broken China

I changed my mind and decided to post now what I thought of Broken China. I was listening to it as I wrote this down, and by the time I was at the end, I had already decided that I need to listen to it again to get more out of it. Anyway, here goes.

I would be interested to see what of Echoesians thought of "Broken China", as I haven't seen a song by song review, yet (or missed it if there was one).

This review is by no means comprehensive, or even interesting, rather just my thoughts as I listened and occasionally glanced at the lyric sheet. I will listen to this a few more times in the next week, methinks, and update these opinions, I am sure.

PART I

Breaking Water

Atmospheric. Moody. The first time I listened to this one I hated this dreary, dull introduction to the album. I have just had another listen, and for some reason I now think that it makes an okay intro to the album (and the next song). Maybe there is something to be said for listening to a concept album about clinical depression when you are hungover.


Night of a Thousand Furry Toys

If BW is the musical intro to the album, NoaTFT is the conceptual intro. This song is a haunting intro to the depression. It is Broken China's equivalent of "In the Flesh?". Very moving, telling line: "...a sound you've never heard before: you screaming." Nice guitar, too.


Hidden Fear

If NoaTFT is the "In the Flesh?", this song is "The Thin Ice". After being introduced to the pain the person in question is in, Hidden Fear starts to take us to the source of the pain, and coupled with the ultrasound picture of a baby in the booklet, the starting place seems to be at a young age. The lyrics imply to me a story of sexual abuse.
Any takers on that theory? Musically, I find this song a bit weak. Airy-fairy keyboard chords swirling aimlessly around.


Runaway

Moore's instrumental "Runaway" starts where Hidden Fear left off and meanders around for a while. The building percussion in this song suggests to me that someone abused in Hidden Fear might be running away from what happened. In Rog parlance, it is Wall time, my fine fellow. I don't mind this one, but probably not in company.


PART II

Unfair Ground

UG starts out with whale song guitar like the morbid brother of "Marooned". It is a lot more subdued, however, and other than a couple of samples of children playing, it doesn't really go anywhere.


Satellite

This instrumental isn't too bad. In fact, I quite like it. Rick gets all atmospheric on us again, and Tim Renwick decides to lay some nice guitar over it. Play with that the rather contemporary rhythm section and you get Satellite.


Woman of Custom

Dominic Miller's guitar constantly threatens to overflow and make this song something quite special, but he manages to hold himself back that little bit. Still a rather nice song (musically). Lyrically, the Woman of the song/album is fully bricked up Wall-wise, the theme seeming to be that if you can't feel anything (positive or otherwise) then you can't feel pain. At the end of the song, she is "coming back to life" a bit, however: "Suddenly she's opened eyes that / Fill with tears and come alive". She realises that she has to purge the bad feelings that she has been burying, and that means she has feel the pain.


Interlude

"Rick sits down and plays the piano." One of my favourite sentences, and he does just that. Pity that this is only 1m16s long.


PART III

Black Cloud

"Rick sits down and makes some meandering noises that, whilst they are fun to do in the privacy of your own bedroom, are terribly unlistenable on a CD: 'dull' might even be another word for it." One of my least favourite sentences, and he does just that. Pity this song is 3m19s long. It surges up and down, but doesn't do much for me. Put some crashing waves and bird song in there and this could go on one of those dreary new age ambient rainforest compilations.


Far From the Harbour Wall

Haven't spent too long pondering the lyrics for this one, yet. "She" is still in a bad way however. "...drowning away" even. At the start of the song she is still "locked in a wall of ice", but at the end she is really starting to lose it, "drowning at night". I prefer to think that she is losing it as she copes with the pain from the past.
IMHO, from 1 1/2 listens, Part I describes the start of it all, Part 2 describes the complete lack of feeling for however many years, and Part 3 describes dealing with the pain on the road back. Musically this song is okay, but I wish that Tim Renwick finished it off with a searing guitar solo.


Drowning

This instrumental picks up where FFTHW left off. I suppose that "She" is drowning now. Even deeper in. Listening to this song off the cuff would be very "Ho hum...", but listening to it after the last song is a little bit moving, actually.


Reaching for the Rail

I think that "Drowning" is as low as it gets. RftR is the first sign that "She" is pulling back out of the depths of "Drowning" and that "She" might actually make it back to recovery: "I'm ill with fever, I feel like a child / ...And I feel it worse at night / *I know it's not terminal*" (my emphasis). Musically, this isn't a bad song.


PART IV

Blue Room in Venice

"She" is back out the other side now. "How I've missed you / How I've missed love / My hand is here."


Sweet July

Rick hopes back on the piano for me. Gotta thank him for that. Dominic throws out some very "Marooned" guitar in this number, too. Quite a good song, and no dissimilar in places to the aforementioned track 4 from TDB.


Along the Shoreline

The lyrics say it better than I would describe it here.

You feel her warmth like a summer day
Shining down, the cloudless sky, it lights her way
With darkness gone, like a distant road
We traveled all night until the morning rose

It gets a little Rog-esque in on place: "We were cut off from our lives by a wall of pain". Matching the lyrics, this song gets a bit more upbeat. This is a standout track on the album. I wouldn't mind seeing PF work on it and do something live. (I can dream.)


Breakthrough

I tasty song of closure. If Rog wrote this album this song would hurl "Her" back into the throes of depression. Instead, this is a beautiful number, made even more impressive by Sinead's resence (sorry, Rog).




Cheers,
Dan
- --
Dan Miles (dan.miles@parliament.qld.gov.au) O-

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Date: Mon, 20 Jan 97 09:56:24 GMT
From: bib@mi.uib.no
Subject: Broken China

Hi.

Someone asked for other’s thoughts on Broken China, so while its a while since I bought it (it came out here in Norway in October), I’ve just recently resubbed to Echoes and would be glad to write some words about this record.

First of all, it’s a really good record. The conceptual basis seems to be a person’s awakening or release of a trauma, or rather, a person getting out of depression in a constructive way. (Symbolism etc, from darkness into light...and more specifically, living as a human on the «planet of hot and cold».) I first thought it was based on Rick’s personal experiences, but according to some interviews with him it seems to be a female friend of his. Not that that is any important.

I won't do a track-by-track review, but I want to comment on the songs I liked most.

Night of a Thousand Furry Toys:

You are *born*. (Or «she» is born...but I like to relate it to myself.) And the world is cold, and you’re screaming... I really love the lyrics, it describes so well how it is to come into this world when a part of you doesn’t *want* to.

Musically, it has a little unusual chord progression (Cm F G F Cm...), and it sounds strange at first, but grows on you. Manu Katche is fabulous on drums, I don’t like Tim Renwick’s guitar playing that much, Dave would have done better.

Hidden Fear / Blue Room In Venice:

Mm-hmm...well aha, interesting. Very special. Very fitting to Rick’s voice. The oboe is just wonderful. Creeping down your spine. I think, these songs are really good, I mean *good*. (The word «good» doesn’t say much about a song, but it’s the best I can find. Oh, those words, they’re so plain. ) A kind of classical, yet innovative, sound.

Unfair Ground:

Interesting sound collage, with many nice sounds, especially the «something» (what is it?) at 1:17 - 1:20.

Far From The Harbour Wall:

My favorite. *This* is good music! It has such a beautiful mood, Rick’s voice fits perfect, Manu Katche plays fantastic (as I’m gonna tell you quite a lot of times). In a way it reminds me of early Floyd, especially the middle chaotic instrumental part, sort of STCFTHOTS-like...

And the last part, *that* is wonderful. I quote:

«And deep from the other side
we live our lives so plain
We have no night, we have no day,
we have no falling rain»

Listen to Rick’s voice when he sings «rain», his pronounciation of that one word, the deep resonance, the vibrato, like a bitter sorrow, is worth the price for the whole CD. And the rest of the song, with the cello in the background, could go on forever - I wouldn’t mind.

Reaching for the Rail:

I like Sinead O'Connor's singing here. Very intense.

Sweet July:

Seriously, if I were to define «heavenly sound», I would simply refer to this song. The tons of reverb just make it wonderful, don’t drown it. And the guitar sounds...Dominic Miller really plays fantastic, quite different from Dave, but very to my liking (not that Dave doesn’t). Listening to it in QSound is pure joy.

This is indeed Sweet July, a summer day with blue skies, white clouds, green fields and rivers, when all your pain is over and you just lie in the grass staring into the hazy distance...floating with the wind up in the clouds, to the great gig in the sky.

I hope for the next Pink Floyd album that Rick sits down by the piano and Dave plays guitar and that they make thousand songs like this!

Along the Shoreline:

Run like hell into heaven...or something. You take a deep breath and feel you’re alive...and everything is green and summery.

Two things remind me of RLH, the background synth (or is it a guitar?) delay rhythm, and the distorted-wah-wah (actually more of a beau-beau) synth solo (which is very good!).

Breakthrough:

A nice little song. A little too happy ending to my liking, but I’ll have to admit, it does make me happy!

Question: Who are «never gonna make it easy»?

- --

Generally, the album is particularly good as a whole. The individual songs may not be outstanding, and some of them are quite anonymous, especially in the first half, but when placed in context they make up a musical story, a kind of movie without pictures. That is the strength of the album I think, together with the emotional feel and the thick sound.

Thick sound - well maybe in some places a little too thick. Too much sound. Anyway, I note a tendency to layer a programmed or sampled percussion track in the background on several of the songs. Not sureif I like that.

Btw, who is this Dominic Miller? I like his guitar playing a lot. I also love Manu Katche’s drum playing, I heard him first on Jan Garbarek’s «Visible World» (a very recommendable record too), and got enourmously impressed by his very special drumming style.

Anyhow, all in all its a high-quality release. In my humble opinion.


Knut Arne Vedaa

__________________
Shine on,
Paulo

"What is more important: Satisfying one thousand desires or conquering just one?" - Samsara