On a bit of a post-punk binge lately. Damn, if the Cocteau Twins weren't at their best with their first bassist, Will Heggie:
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Will Heggie
- Thread starter Sam Evans
- Start date
I have to admit, I never listened to them much, and I see why (just not my flavor), but now that the bass has come in, yeah, nice line, nice tone, improves the tune greatly...
Well, to be fair, that’s some of their earliest stuff, before they got out from under the influence of Siouxie and the Banshees and earlier Cure(a stark, dire kind of sound). By the time they arrived at Treasure(and new bassist Simon Raymonde), they had lightened up…guitarist Robin Guthrie had developed a lush, layered guitar sound, and vocalist Elizabeth Fraser’s style had gone from strident to angelic and ethereal. That was more of the influential 80’s sound that they’re remembered for.
My favorite band. Simon Raymonde is fantastic too, I don't prefer one era over the other but there was something special about Wil Heggie that is quite unique. Ric 4001, Ibanez UE400 and Carlsboro Stingray amp is what I've heard gearwise. As to his influences I have no idea, he seems sui generis to me.
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The bassline in Wax and Wane is so heavy and ethereal at the same time. It sounds like it comes out of nowhere and the verse is just sublime. How did Heggie come up with it? Sui generis. Technically not complicated but challenging to play with the right feel. Here's a good tutorial.
Awesome thread here!!
I’m right there with you with “wax and wane”. So sick and deep, I love the way the bass drives through that song.
I just listened to ‘the pink opaque’ this week after not hearing it for over 20 yrs if I were to guess. It was like meeting up with an old friend. Hearing some of those songs for the first time was so influential. I remembered every song, and the bass just drove em all home. Funny to find this thread.
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At the time I wasn't into post punk / goth but rather into punk and then, by means of a The Clash - Big Audio Dynamite - PiL sequence, I got into EDM (house, electronica), funk, and dub-reggae. So for me this is like discovering a new genre: Cocteau Twins, The Cure, Siouxse & the Banshees, Bauhaus, Joy Division (the last two I listened to back then, especially New Order, that also had to do with my transition into EDM).
Yeah, I like the dark energy of Wax and Wane, and I'm trying to play it fingerstyle!
All the aforementioned bands feature cool and moody basslines by very talented bass players: Steven Severin, David J, Hookie, Simon Gallup. Totally into it at the moment.
PS.Coming from funk and dub-reggae, which I played for the last many years, I had to reprogram my understanding of what a bassline is about and how it achieves its objectives in order to grasp what is going on in this genre. It's been quite an enlightenment.
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For me it's almost the reverse. I came up on punk and goth/ post-punk players and worked my way back to the dub and funk masters that inspired many of them. To me what they have in common is chucking out the "follow the predetermined chord progression" approach and starting with the bass (or even drum) part and building from there. Plenty of jazz and funk bands were already doing that already but punk leveled the playing field in a rock context.
Interesting, how you put it historically, that punk produced a tabula rasa for new music to be created without having to adhere to established and by then creatively exhausted recipes. This is most probably true given how much new music was produced post punk, in the immediate vicinity of punk.
