The Pink Opaque
   HOME





The Pink Opaque
''The Pink Opaque'' is a 1986 compilation album by Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins, composed of tracks recorded between 1982 and 1985. A joint release by the UK-based 4AD and the American Relativity Records, it was their first official U.S. release. History After signing to 4AD in 1982, Cocteau Twins released three albums and five Extended play, EPs between the autumn of 1982 and January 1985. Despite not having American distribution, the band gained popularity there through college radio, particularly with the 1984 single "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops, Pearly Dewdrops' Drops". The American label Relativity Records distributed their albums on license from 4AD. Rather than reissuing all of the band's releases to that point, it was decided that the compilation ''The Pink Opaque'' would be issued instead, as a sampler of the Twins' output up through early 1985. ''The Pink Opaque'' is also significant in 4AD's history, as it was the label's first Compact disc, CD release. ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Compilation Album
A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for release together as a single work, but may be collected together as a greatest hits album or box set. If the recordings are from several artists, there may be a theme, topic, time period, or genre which links the tracks, or they may have been intended for release as a single work—such as a tribute album. When the tracks are by the same recording artist, the album may be referred to as a retrospective album or an anthology. Content and scope Songs included on a compilation album may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several performers. If by one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intend ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Compact Disc
The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of holding of uncompressed stereo audio. First released in Japan in October 1982, the CD was the second optical disc format to reach the market, following the larger LaserDisc (LD). In later years, the technology was adapted for computer data storage as CD-ROM and subsequently expanded into various writable and multimedia formats. , over 200 billion CDs (including audio CDs, CD-ROMs, and CD-Rs) had been sold worldwide. Standard CDs have a diameter of and typically hold up to 74 minutes of audio or approximately of data. This was later regularly extended to 80 minutes or by reducing the spacing between data tracks, with some discs unofficially reaching up to 99 minutes or which falls outside established specifications. Smaller variants, such ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Cocteau Twins Albums
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-century and hugely influential on the surrealist and Dadaist movements, among others. The ''National Observer'' suggested that "of the artistic generation whose daring gave birth to Twentieth Century Art, Cocteau came closest to being a Renaissance man". He is best known for his novels (1923), (1928), and (1929); the stage plays (1930), (1934), (1938), (1941), and (1946); and the films ''The Blood of a Poet'' (1930), (1948), ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1946), ''Orpheus'' (1950), and ''Testament of Orpheus'' (1960), which alongside ''Blood of a Poet'' and ''Orpheus'' constitute the so-called Orphic Trilogy. He was described as "one of heavant-garde's most successful and influential filmmakers" by AllMovie. Cocteau, according to Anne ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Percussion Instrument
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Excluding Zoomusicology, zoomusicological instruments and the human voice, the percussion family is believed to include the oldest musical instruments.''The Oxford Companion to Music'', 10th edition, p.775, In spite of being a very common term to designate instruments, and to relate them to their players, the percussionists, percussion is not a systematic classificatory category of instruments, as described by the scientific field of organology. It is shown below that percussion instruments may belong to the organological classes of idiophone, membranophone, aerophone and String instrument, chordophone. The percussion section of an orchestra most commonly contains instruments such as the timpani, ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Drum Machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A drum machine often has pre-programmed beats and patterns for popular genres and styles, such as pop music, rock music, and dance music. Most modern drum machines made in the 2010s and 2020s also allow users to program their own rhythms and beats. Drum machines may create sounds using Analog synthesizer, analog synthesis or play prerecorded Sampling (music), samples. While a distinction is generally made between drum machines (which can play back pre-programmed or user-programmed beats or patterns) and electronic drums (which have pads that can be struck and played like an acoustic drum kit), there are some drum machines that have buttons or pads that allow the performer to play drum sounds "live", either on top of a programmed drum beat or ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Simon Raymonde
Simon Philip Raymonde (born 3 April 1962) is an English musician and record producer. He is the son of the late arranger and composer Ivor Raymonde. He is best known as the bass guitarist and keyboard player with the Scottish band Cocteau Twins from 1983 to 1997. He now runs the Bella Union record label and management company Bella Union Artist Management. Raymonde has acted as producer and mixer on many records, including Clearlake (band), Clearlake's ''Cedars'', James Yorkston's ''Moving Up Country'', the first two albums by John Grant's first band the Czars, three albums by the Duke Spirit including the hit album ''Cuts Across the Land'', Archie Bronson Outfit's "Kangaroo Heart", Anthony Reynolds' "Just So You Know" and The Open (band), the Open's ''Silent Hours''. He co-produced the posthumous album from Billy Mackenzie. He also mixed the Fionn Regan album ''The End of History (album), The End of History'', which was nominated for the 2007 Mercury Music Prize, and the album ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Bass Guitar
The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer neck (music), neck and scale length (string instruments), scale length. The electric bass guitar most commonly has four strings, though five- and six-stringed models are also built. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has replaced the double bass in popular music due to its lighter weight, smaller size, most models' inclusion of Fret, frets for easier Intonation_(music), intonation, and electromagnetic pickups for amplification. Another reason the bass guitar replaced the double bass is because the double bass is "acoustically imperfect" like the viola. For a double bass to be acoustically perfect, its body size would have to be twice as that of a cello rendering it unplayable, so the double bass is made smaller to make it playable. The elect ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Robin Guthrie
Robin Andrew Guthrie (born 4 January 1962) is a Scottish musician, songwriter, composer, record producer and audio engineer, best known as the co-founder of the post punk alternative rock band Cocteau Twins. During his career Guthrie has performed guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums and other musical instruments, in addition to programming, sampling and sound processing. Early life Guthrie grew up in Grangemouth, Scotland. There were musical instruments in his family's home, but he never had any proper musical training. With an interest in electronics and trained as an electrician, Guthrie started to experiment with fuzz boxes and guitar pedals to find an alternative sound for his guitar. Guthrie and his friend Will Heggie were members of a four-piece band called The Heat, who later released a single under the name The Liberators in 1980. The same year, Guthrie co-founded Cocteau Twins with Heggie and vocalist Elizabeth Fraser. Career Following the break-up of Coct ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Elizabeth Fraser
Elizabeth Davidson Fraser (born 29 August 1963) is a Scottish singer. She was the vocalist for the band Cocteau Twins, who achieved success in the UK from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. Their studio albums '' Victorialand'' (1986) and '' Heaven or Las Vegas'' (1990) both reached the top ten of the UK Album Charts, while other albums, including '' Blue Bell Knoll'' (1988), '' Four-Calendar Café'' (1993), and '' Milk & Kisses'' (1996), charted on the ''Billboard'' 200 album charts in the United States as well as reaching the top 20 in the UK. She also performed as part of the 4AD group This Mortal Coil, including the successful 1983 single " Song to the Siren", and as a guest with Massive Attack on their 1998 hit single " Teardrop". When the Cocteau Twins disbanded, Fraser embarked on a moderately low-key solo career and provided guest vocals for other artists. She released some solo material, including the singles "Underwater" (2000) and "Moses" (2009). Fraser has repo ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Head Over Heels (Cocteau Twins Album)
''Head over Heels'' is the second studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins. The album was released on 24 October 1983 through the label 4AD. It featured the band's signature sound of "Guthrie's lush guitars under Fraser's mostly wordless vocals" and is considered an archetype of early ethereal wave music. MTV News Staff: ''"In 1983, Heggie left the band, and the group recorded Head Over Heels as a duo. The album was highly improvised and is the first recording to feature the Twins' signature sound — Guthrie's lush guitars under Fraser's mostly wordless vocals. The group became a trio again when bassist Simon Raymonde joined in 1984. Later that year, they released Treasure, an album that hit No. 29 on the UK charts and cemented the band's ethereal sound."''Cocteau Twins short biography January 4, 1998 Background Following their 1982 debut album '' Garlands'', two EP's and a European tour supporting Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Cocteau Twins parted ways ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Treasure (Cocteau Twins Album)
''Treasure'' is the third studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins, released on 12 November 1984 by 4AD. With this album, the band settled on what would, from then on, be their primary lineup: vocalist Elizabeth Fraser, guitarist Robin Guthrie and bass guitarist Simon Raymonde. The album also reflected the group's embrace of the distinctive ethereal sound with which they became associated. The album reached number 29 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the band's first UK Top 40 album, and charted for eight weeks. It also became one of the band's most critically successful releases, although the band considered it underdeveloped. The track "Lorelei" became a minor dance hit during the mid-1980s. Background and music The album was recorded from August to September 1984 at Palladium Studios in Edinburgh and at Rooster in West London. Record label executive Ivo Watts-Russell originally tried to hire Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois to produce the album. However, Eno ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Aikea-Guinea
''Aikea-Guinea'' is a March 1985 7" single and 12" EP by Scottish dream pop band Cocteau Twins, released on 4AD. The 7" featured two non-album tracks, while the EP added two more. Release ''Aikea-Guinea'' was included as a bonus with some Canadian pressings of ''Treasure''. The title track also appears on the compilation ''The Pink Opaque'' (1985), and a remastered version appears on ''Stars and Topsoil'' (2000). On the 7", the song "Kookaburra" has a short percussive introduction that is not present on the EP. The EP was reissued in 1991 as part of '' The Box Set'' and again in 2005 as part of the '' Lullabies to Violaine'' compilation, this time with a remixed "alternate" version of the title track. Meaning of the title According to Robin Guthrie, the word "aikea-guinea" is a Scottish colloquialism for a seashell. Track listing All songs written and produced by Cocteau Twins. # "Aikea-Guinea" – 3:57 # "Kookaburra" – 3:19 # "Quisquose" – 4:10 (EP only) # ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]