Subway (Singles) by Thick Pigeon

'Subway' is a collection of singles by cult NYC electronica duo Thick Pigeon, originally released on Crépuscule, Factory and Factory Benelux between 1981 and 1991.

Comprised of vocalist Stanton Miranda and instrumentalist Carter Burwell, Thick Pigeon emerged from the downtown New York artrock scene which also spawned Glenn Branca, Bush Tetras, DNA, Arthur Russell and Sonic Youth. Like their chosen name, the duo were typically atypical: Miranda was previously a dancer with the Martha Graham ballet company, and Carter a film animator and Harvard fine arts/architecture graduate. Very much a studio project, the 'group' hardly ever performed live.

Poised debut single Subway appeared on Crépuscule in January 1982, a connection forged by Miranda's partner Michael Shamberg. Dog followed a year later, along with wry Christmas single Jingle Bell Rock, before the duo switched to Factory Records, recording debut album 'Too Crazy Cowboys' in Manchester with Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert of New Order producing. Released simultaneously on Factory and Factory US in 1984, the album was billed as "a walk through the civilisation of you soul".

Having now embarked on a career scoring movies (becoming the Coen brothers' composer of choice), Carter was absent from the next TP project, 1986 dance single Wheels Over Indian Trails, although Morris and Gilbert remained on board as guest musicians. However Miranda and Carter would reunite for a second (and final) leftfield pop album, 'Miranda Dali', issued by Crépuscule in 1991.

As well as singles Subway, Dog, Jingle Bell Rock, Jess + Bart and Wheels Over Indian Trails, TWI 351 also includes b-sides (Sudan, Tracy + Pansy), album highlights (Crime, Riding) and a second festive track, Blue Christmas, previously issued only on cassette as part of a Factory Christmas card in 1986.

Alongside Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, the stellar cast of guests include Fred Szymanski (of Ike Yard), Ikue Mori (DNA), remixer John Robie, and even artist and event designer Jean-Paul Goude on backing vocals.

TWI 351

"Subway is a stand-out track released this year and caught the mood precisely. Lulling, hypnotic, gentle repetitive overlays of electric keyboard notes, a near-electronic fizz on the mid-tones, murmuring like a sunlit stream yet as serially urban as any metro system. A woman's voice, Euro-American, more or less speaking, softly and impersonally, list-like, staccato "lyrics" - obscure imagism, but as though reported rather than felt; something about boys liking to urinate in corners; then snagging on a memorable phrase, which is repeated to the track's close, changing with each repetition from English to phonetic German, then just spoken sounds that might be phonetic German..." (Souvenir by Michael Bracewell, 2022)

"Edgy, and nearly impossible to date - neither the sparse electronics nor Miranda's deliberately flattened vocals giving anything away. In mood it prefigures the experimentation of early techno" (The Wire, 2004)

"The use of studio-generated effects, concussed vocals and techno rhythm are like ghostly suggestions of today's electronica scene, whispered down the decades from a more spartan age" (Uncut, 2004)

"Tony asked 'the other two' if we, as friends of Miranda and with time on our hands, would like to produce Thick Pigeon's album. With the borrowed New Order Emulator, we ended up making Too Crazy Cowboys - a bit of a mammoth task as a first production job. But we got it done, had some fun, and I don't think it turned out that badly. I learned one or two things in the process, not least that Carter Burwell is some kind of genius. Musically (he's now a world-class, double Oscar-nominated film score composer) and otherwise." (Stephen Morris, 2020)

Independent record label founded in Brussels in 1980.

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