The Tycho Brahe - This Is Tycho Brahe (2002) (1 Viewer)

[pete]

5.00 star(s) Rating: 5.00/5 1 Vote

Title: This Is Tycho Brahe
Artist: The Tycho Brahe
Released: 2002

Tracks:
1 - Half Mast - 5:34
2 - Internal Life of Animals - 5:54
3 - Scissors - 1:35
4 - Hooga Chakka - 2:49
5 - Cardle and Machinery - 0:13
6 - Emily is Going - 2:11
7 - Your House from Mine - 5:52
8 - Listless - 3:32
9 - Unplanned - 4:16
10 - Ink in the Moon's Milk - 0:47
11 - Performing Seal - 0:28
12 - Pop Rocks - 0:49
13 - Tycho Brahe - 4:06
14 - Now Here - 2:03

Overview:

The trio of Carol Keogh, Diarmuid MacDiarmada and Donal O’Mahony started out as Low Babies in Dublin in 1994. Donal and Carol carried on as “The Plague Monkeys” and are known now as “Tychonaut”.

As the Plague Monkeys the band revolved around Carol Keogh (vocals) and Donal O’Mahony (Guitars, Mandolins, Keyboards etc), and released two albums “Surface Tension” and “The Sunburn Index”.

Musically inhabiting the same soundscapes as bands such as Mazzy Star, The Sundays, Cocteau Twins and even to a lesser extent The Velvet Underground the band won many awards on the Irish Alternative music scene.

The Plague Monkeys split in 2000, and then reformed with Diarmuid in 2001 under the new name “The Tycho Brahe” before changing their name again to “Tychonaut”.

During this incarnation the band released two albums - “This is…” in 2002 and the double album “Love Life” in 2003. The band were working on a third album due for release in late 2005 before splitting.

 

[pete]

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[dudley]

15 years old? Jesus....

 

[Unknown Convict]

about 15 years ago, my girlfriend and i, along with 2 other couples, went to a small village in the languedoc for a week-long summer holiday. to get there we had to take two flights and a ridiculously expensive (>€100) taxi ride at midnight. the house was at the heart of the 'circulade', one of a number of hilltop hamlets dotting the region, up a hill so steep the taxi driver said "attack, attack" before attempting to scale it in his high-end merc. we got inside the house, ravenous, and threw open the pantry searching for food, finding a bag of pasta, a tin of tuna and another of green beans. while we waited for the pasta to cook, we blew the dust off an old boombox and rummaged through a box of musty tapes - mostly unmarked, dubbed, comp c90s and a few twofer albums from the 80s. gleaming like an amulet among them was a pro-pressed tape by the low babies which i still have to this day.

at the end of the week, as if to come full circle, our final dinner was a kilo of fresh tuna (6 fillets) and 2 kilos of local green beans - picked that morning and bought from the farmer at the weekly friday market - with lardons and a fistful of parsley.

this is the tycho brahe is that latter meal - fragrant, mercurial, vibrant, nourishing - but there's a lot to be said for stale pasta and tinned veg on an empty stomach at the end of a long day.

 

[nooleen]

not sure about this hooga chaka business

 

[Lili Marlene]

Who, what? I'm going in blind to this one. At most I vaguely recognize the name of the band.

Oh they're Irish. So probably a lot of "soundscapes" and no actual tunes yeah?

I will rise to the occasion so

 

[nooleen]

first listen: i don't hate it but it's very twee

wes anderson would definitely like it

 

[Lili Marlene]

Similar reaction; it's decent enough although not really my kind of music.

I will say that I like it how it reminds me of the time period, there were a lot of instrumental interludes with this kind of vibe on albums back then, doesn't happen so much now. Possibly a result of less bands jamming something out and more people writing/playing everything themselves on their laptops.

 

[rettucs]

Very interesting. The Tycho Brahe are a band I've always known existed, but never got around to listening to. I knew some of the Autamata stuff that Carol Keogh did, and some of the more recent solo stuff. But not these.

Pearl used to play these and Autamata a lot on her Phantom show (and played Carol Keogh on a recent 8FM show I heard), so I wouldn't be surprised if some of this sounds familiar.

Very glad to finally get around to listening to them. They've been on my 'list' forever. I even remember being in Copenhagen a few years back (the same weekend those riots were on - that was fun!). I was walking around with a lady friend, chatting away, when I stopped mid-sentence. Yer wan asked me was I ok. 'Look', said I. 'What?', retorted she. 'A statue of Tycho Brahe', said I. 'What's fucking wrong with you?', said she. Needless to say we don't talk much anymore.

Anyway, here goes.....

 

[nooleen]

'What's fucking wrong with you?', said she.

seems a bit of a hostile reaction to interest in a statue

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

I've never been very tuned into what's going on musically around me but I thought these guys were the best band knocking about at the time they were knocking about and then I forgot about them til now. So, looking forward to this one

 

[rettucs]

seems a bit of a hostile reaction to interest in a statue

yeah, it also didn't happen. I embellished my very boring story to make it sound more interesting. It was really a bemused stare than an actual utterance of those words.

 

[nooleen]

internal life of animals and your house from mine are standouts on second listen

i like the irishy quality of the singing

that hooga chakka track seriously gets on my tits

the hilarious snippets of chat also, as always, are annoying after the first time...i don't need to hear how it does be great craic in the studio with the lads

i like the low ?accordion/harmonica? drone on the last track

 

[David Kronenbourg]

I prefer this to the last one

 

[rettucs]

Howaryalads

 

[nooleen]

what the fuck is wrong with you?

 

[chris d]

Some Southern internet pals bigged this album up back then. I bought it on their recommendation, but it has never done a whole lot for me. Not enough chords.

Maybe another one of those bands you needed to see live to appreciate fully, like the Rednecks? I never knew anything else about them or their previous incarnations. This album has always sat lonely on my ipod. A symbol of a time I wasn't around in. A club I wasn't a member of.

I do like House from Mine a lot.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

I never bought the album at the time but won tickets to see them at one of those Midnight at the Olympia shows. It was just before whatever iteration of Witnness/Oxegen that Bowie was meant to play at but he had that heart attack and cancelled. They played a great cover of "Heroes" and their own stuff was fucking deadly. I got the album a few years later and it's a favourite, "Your House from Mine" is definitely one of the best songs from that time. I never picked up the second album (or indeed anything by the Plague Monkeys/Low Babies) and feel I should as I tend to enjoy anything that @Diumraid is involved in.

 

[hermie]

Don't really need to go back to this as I still listen to it pretty frequently. Was a big fan of the Plague Monkeys when I was in school but this was a big leap beyond anything they did.

It's funny you should say that @chris d I always thought they were more of an album band.

There was a lovely alternate version of 'Your House From Mine' on a Foggy Notions comp but 'Half Mast' is a way better song for me. Sweet bassline on 'Unplanned' would be another highlight.

 

[kavanelli]

Wow this takes me back, was introduced to these by @old

My wife (then gf) used to live in Newbridge and would work an evening shift, I used to listen to this album a lot while driving from Dublin down to her on a dark N7.

Listening back now for the first time is probably 10 years or so.

On the second track still really enjoying it

Seen them live a few times really good live.