Bish Bosch

Last updated

Bish Bosch
Scott Walker Cover Bish Bosch.jpg
Studio album by
Released3 December 2012
Genre Experimental [1]
Length73:00
Label 4AD
Producer Scott Walker, Peter Walsh
Scott Walker chronology
And Who Shall Go to the Ball? And What Shall Go to the Ball?
(2007)
Bish Bosch
(2012)
Soused
(2014)

Bish Bosch is the fifteenth and final solo studio album by American singer Scott Walker. It was released on 3 December 2012 on 4AD. [2] Walker described it as the final installment in "kind of a trilogy" that also includes Tilt (1995) and The Drift (2006). [3] [4] At seventy-three minutes, Bish Bosch is Walker's longest studio album, and contains his longest song, the twenty-one minute, forty-one second "SDSS1416+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)".

Contents

Background and recording

Unlike Tilt and The Drift, which both took several years to compose, Bish Bosch was written in just over a year. Walker had set aside a year to focus exclusively on writing, to speed up his process, and described it as "lightning speed". Even so, he still "had to wait and wait and wait almost every single day for the words to come". [5] The music was recorded over a period of two years, with lengthy gaps between sessions due to various problems: trouble booking studios, the death of producer Peter Walsh's father, and the limited availability of musicians (including Walker himself, who scored a dance for the Royal Opera). [6]

Walker got the idea for "SDSS14+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)" while browsing a friend's library and learning of Zerco (or Zercon), the court jester of Attila; he considered Zercon a "fantastic character" and was surprised no one had used him. The song describes Zercon performing for Attila, trying to escape and reach a "spiritual sovereignty", failing, and ultimately becoming a brown dwarf and burning out. [7]

The lyrics of "Epizootics!" merge early jazz slang with an "idea about waking up from a Hawaiian nightmare". "The Day the 'Conducator' Died (An Xmas Song)" was inspired by the trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu, which took place on Christmas Day in 1989. [8]

Walker explained the title thus: [5]

I knew I'd be playing with language more than I had on any of the previous albums. I wanted the title to introduce you to this kind of idea and reflect the feeling of the album, which was [claps hands briskly] bish bosh. And we know what bish bosh means here in this country – it means job done or sorted. In urban slang bish also [phonetically] means bitch, like "Dis is ma bitch". And then I wrote Bosch like the artist [ Hieronymus Bosch]. I was then thinking in the terms of this giant universal female artist. And this idea continued to play through the record in certain spots.

Release campaign

The first music to appear from the album was heard in a promotional video released on October 11, 2012, which featured extracts from the songs "'See You Don't Bump His Head'", "Tar", "Dimple", "Corps De Blah", "Phrasing" and "Epizootics!" set to video clips of Walker and his team working on both the music and artwork. [9] This was followed on November 7 by the release of two full tracks, "Epizootics!" and "'See You Don't Bump His Head'", [10] which were made available on Spotify as a two track "Spotify Exclusive Preview" streaming single. [11] A video for "Epizootics!", directed by Olivier Groulx, followed a day later. [12] Clash Music called the song "a lengthy, often surreal rumination" [13] while NPR said that it was "weirdly funky" and recalled the Nite Flights track "Fat Mama Kick". [14]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 78/100 [15]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [16]
Beats Per Minute (89%) [17]
Consequence of Sound Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [18]
The Guardian Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [19]
The Independent Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [20]
NME 3/10 [21]
Pitchfork (8.0/10) [22]
Slant Magazine Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [23]
Sputnikmusic(3.5/5) [24]
Tiny Mix Tapes Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [25]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 78, based on 33 professional reviews. [15] The recording was selected as 'Album of the Week' in The Independent, The Guardian and The Sunday Times, 'Album of the Month' in Mojo magazine, [26] and 'Album of the Year' by Tiny Mix Tapes. [27] The album placed 11th in The Wire 's annual critics' poll. [28]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Scott Walker. [29]

No.TitleLength
1."'See You Don’t Bump His Head'"4:06
2."Corps De Blah"10:11
3."Phrasing"4:45
4."SDSS1416+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)"21:41
5."Epizootics!"9:40
6."Dimple"6:47
7."Tar"5:39
8."Pilgrim"2:26
9."The Day The 'Conducator' Died (An Xmas Song)"7:45

Personnel

Musicians

Orchestra

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References

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  2. Young, Rob (24 September 2012). "Scott Walker – Bish Bosch". 4AD . Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  3. Simon Hattenstone (23 November 2012). "Scott Walker: Brother beyond". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
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  11. Walker, Scott. ""Single: Bisch Bosh (Spotify Exclusive Preview)", Nov 7 2012". Spotify.com. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
  12. ""Scott Walker: Watch the Video for 'Epizootics!' by Scott Walker", Nov 8 2012". 4ad.com. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
  13. Murray, Robin (8 November 2012). ""Scott Walker - Epizootics!", November 8 2012". clashmusic.com. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
  14. Gotrich, Lars. ""A Monochrome Dance: Scott Walker Gets Weirdly Funky In 'Epizootics!'", November 8 2012". npr.com. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
  15. 1 2 "Bish Bosch Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More". Metacritic. 4 December 2012. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  16. "AllMusic review". AllMusic .
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