Central Control
2006
Stranger On The Sofa
About This Album
In the last eight years, producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Barry Adamson (formerly of Magazine and the Bad Seeds) has issued only three albums, and, counting this one, only seven since 1989. Never an artist who looked at trends or genres, Adamson has always been content to follow the inner workings of his mind. With 1998's As Above, So Below, he moved away from the soundscape-soundtrack-without-a-movie oriented conceptual work he'd been doing since the beginning of his solo career to engage in a more song-based approach. This followed on The King of Nothing Hill in 2002, and on 2006's Stranger on the Sofa, he moves back a step in order to take two forward. For starters, there are very few guests on the set. Adamson handled most instrumental chores and sampled and swiveled the other bits himself; he knows how to get the right loop when he needs it to be sure. There is certainly soundscape work on this recording, check the opening "Here in the Hole," an effects-laden tome narrated by Anna Chancellor, or Pscalle Fuiulee-Kendall's narration of "Deja Morte," or the noir-ish jazzscape as drenched in effects and dubby echo on the album's closer "Free Love" for three examples of his former way of working.
Track List (try tracks 2,5,7,8 and 9)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.