[kj] Few things here and there...

wscheip1 at aol.com wscheip1 at aol.com
Sat May 13 11:20:31 EDT 2006


"Chasing the hit" and being commercial are two different things. KJ at some point indeed were looking forward to even bigger popularity after "Night Time", but entirely in their own terms. As it was written, BTATS was (for most of the songs) far more powerful, dark and relentless than NT - it was NOT "Night Time II". The understanding of the band at the time was that time (and the crowd) had caught with them, and so they could - literally - have "the masses" dance to their own tune. It has always been my opinion that, had BTATS been produced released as initially intended (exp. by Geordie), thing would have turned out quite differently on the long term - and, believe, BTATS successor wouldn't definitely had been "BTATS II"! . Alas, it was not meant to be - but the way of the Joke are rather mysterious, so maybe it has been better this way. At least we got ""Extremities" (who in a way suffered the opposite problem, a production / mixing way too traditional). 
 
Well ultimately I'm not sure how Geordie would have produced them so that's a bit of knowledge I don't have. What was his plan vs. how things turned out? That being said I can only deal with what is not what should have been. BTATS, however it was planned, doesn't come off to me as being darker or more relentless. And perhaps you are right if things had been different and the core of the band (Geordie/Jaz/Raven/BPF) had stayed together than maybe things would have turned out different for OTG and beyond. 
 
I think I see you point a little clearer along the lines of chasing the hit vs being more commercial. I think you're correct that night time and BTATS weren't attempts to cash in. My point is that they tried to tailor their music toward a commercial interest between the end of the revelations era and the end of the fire dances era (although I love every bit of fire dances). Then they went back to evolving their sound and came out with a brilliant album in nighttime and a good one in BTATS. Then things went south until extremities. 

You should always remember that KJ were never too far away from "popular music", from basic, instinctive level groove. Their first appeal has always been to the heart, not the intellect. 
 
True. Although I do believe that WTF and Revelations would have never hit the "popular music" scene. They were just too odd to fit the mainstream. Something like Nighttime and BTATS though does fit the mold better, although not entirely. 
 
From,
Will 

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