During the great internet download free for all of the mid to late noughties, I occasionally obtained rogue MP3s that I would review at my leisure then try to locate the artist. Often they would have been uploaded by some fan who hadn’t tagged the file correctly or they were really obscure acts that nobody seemed to know. Frequently I forgot to make a note of where I got the file from or find it again.
Two such files were ones which appeared to have had the artist tagged as Flowing Tears and Withered Flowers. They were dark. Euro Goth with poorly pronounced English and a wistfully moribund tone. Sounded great. Sadly, in those days, the internet was relatively still in its infancy which meant that a lot of the knowledge out there today was still in people’s heads and not accessible via the likes of Wikipedia or Stegzy’s Music Project.
Of course, the reason I couldn’t find anything was partially because the files turned out to be unreleased songs by the band who later became Flowing Tears (dropping the Withered Flowers suffix). A further hurdle was that for some reason many music channels in the UK looked unfavourably on continental European bands and often searches on Spotify, Google Play, Apple Music (or iTunes as it was then) and the like resulted in nothing. Which is partially why many people turned to piracy.
Recently though, it has got better. Apple Music is a lot better than it was way back when, and even Google/Youtube has improved. As a result, and partially why the Music Project was put on its second hiatus, I was able to add two Flowing Tears albums, and many other new artists and albums, to my Apple Music library.
Jade is the first release for the band under the Flowing Tears name and was released in 2000. At this point the band had changed its line up to feature Stefanie Duchêne as its lead singer replacing guitarist Manfred Bersin’s lead vocals, assumidly so he could go back to playing his guitar.
The familiar sounds created by the band in their release, Swansongs (released under their original name) are evident in Jade if not more evolved. Indeed, Jade seems like a natural shift towards what sound the band became. Its still never going to be a mainstream sound in the UK and its likely that few people in the UK or US have even heard of the band, but if you like the sounds of bands like Scream Silence or Nightwish, I suggest you give Flowing Tears a go, if you haven’t done so already. You might be similarly enamoured.
More information see: Amazon or Apple Music
When this album was released back in 2000, the internet as we know it today was still in its fledgeling state. Websites were mostly created and owned by actual people rather than by corporations and users actually had to seek out their news rather than have it shown to them if an algorithm deigned to do so. As a result, I was only aware it had been released because I saw it while I was browsing the CD racks in HMV.
Another case of “Why have I got this?”. Gold Collection is essentially one of the bands many greatest hits compilations available on the market
Quite often, as is frequently the case with this project, I listen to albums and become pleasantly surprised by how many of the tracks or songs I am already familiar with.
Compilations, it seems, are like buses. You wait for ages then two come along at once.
Scandinavian rock valkyries again, this time with a live set featuring Nightwish’s pre-breakup line-up and Tarja Turunen.
Chronometree – Glass Hammer
Stegzy's Music Project 
Later: Later Lounge & Serve Chilled 1 & 2[#660, 661, 662 & 663]
by stegzyIn the year 2000, the internet was fledgling and untrustworthy and magazines were still a thing. While wanting to attract the vast untapped market of the non-sex obsessed laid back single male twenty something professional demographic, some magazine publishers chucked buckets of cash at producing magazines aimed at them.
Yes, FHM was a thing but that was more laddish than most men felt comfortable with reading in public, with covers often boardering on the pornographic. Esquire was often too sophisticated – aimed at those confident in their presense and appearance. Empire was just about films and GQ had that metrosexual vibe that just didnt appeal to a lot of heteronormative types. Later bridged the gap – stylish, hip, with a cheeky undertone of implied sauce. It was the reading matter for gents who just wanted to stay in touch with what was cool in the world and how to portray that coolness without looking like a catalogue model or an overtly sculpted waxwork with clearly coded sexuality markers.
I loved Later. It appealed to me. I still have copies of every edition of the magazine mouldering in my loft along. It spoke to men like me and offered a guiding hand in the puzzling world of business, style and culture. It’s sad that the publication ended and more sad that nothing really replaced it. Sadly, it seems, people don’t read magazines the way they did preferring social media, websites, podcasts and Substacks instead
Perhaps the most prized possession from this time of my life along with the magazines themselves, are the free CDs that came with the publications. Two Serve Chilled volumes were released over the lifetime of the magazine, with two Later Lounge volumes.
The CDs were compilations of cool, hip music from across the ages, that would delight and provide the owner with that sense of “Hey I listen to cool hip quality music”. It was the kind of music you could pop on at a dinner party or perhaps after the night out at the club to impress that young lady you had brought back to the pad – stylishly decorated of course thanks to the guidance from the magazine .
Later: The Later Lounge Volume 1 [#660]
Later Lounge Volume 1 latched onto that late nineties/early noughties 60’s revival vibe heralded by the likes of Oceans Eleven, Austin Powers and the remastering of old Michael Caine films. Not a great hit with me, I was far too dirty old goth by this time, but there was some Herbie Hancock, who’s music had already passed my ears on yet another Compilation cassete/CD conversion, the erroneously named Seventies Shit.
If ever I wanted to out hipster Hipster Nick, I’d whack this on, put on a cravat and moan about “bloody beatniks” and now you too can pretend to be a lounge lizard by playing the entire playlist via the magic of Youtube below 🙂
Later: The Later Lounge Volume 2 [#661]
Later Lounge Volume 2 came some months later. I think possibly after Serve Chilled but definately after Later Lounge 1 and Serve Chilled 2. I think by this point Later, as a magazine, had become a little flaky. Not as stylish as it once was, perhaps the chaps in the office had been told there and then that the magazine’s days were numbered. Either way, I felt then that there wasn’t as much thought put into this particular compilation. However, with more mature ears, I can now appreciate fully what sort of vibe they were trying to create.
If you fancied pretending to be some 1970’s caberet club owner with your over priced cigars, chest hair and ladykiller white shoes – you know the kind of way you wouldn’t have dressed to impress in the year 2000 – driving through the rain soaked streets of a cosmopolitan and exotic city like say….Bradford (Detroit being too far away)…in your vinyl roof Ford Cortina Mk1 (1973 Oldsmobiles are too big for UK roads)….then this is the compilation for you.
Later: Serve Chilled Volume 1 [#662]
Serve Chilled Volume 1 became the soundtrack to the early noughties for me. I had multiple copies made to play on my car stereo to accompany long car journeys to and from Yorkshire and I also had it ripped to MP3 when I got my Creative Jukebox 2. I cannot politely express how much I loved this compilation and still do.
A soundtrack to every summer trip to Wales, Brighton, Yorkshire and beyond with Mrs Gnomepants v1.0 who, I hope, reads this and remembers the music as well as I do.
Later: Serve Chilled Volume 2 [#663]
Finally the December 2000 edition carried Volume 2 of the Serve Chilled compilations. Blissful audio earwashes to carry away the winter chills and return memories of warm summers in Ibiza. However I wasn’t an Ibiza kind of youth prefering more sedate trips to Wales over roudy lads weeks away getting STDs, drunk and regrettable tattoos so this just makes me think of driving through Snowdonia.
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1999 2000 Chill out compilations Memories Sleazecore Various Artists