welcome to my shrine for THE CARETAKER (1999-2019)
The Memory of a Song
If you're new to the Caretaker, where should you start? An Empty Bliss Beyond this World was the first album to be widely acclaimed, and it's one of his most accessible works (i.e. minimal echoey drone clanging) if you just feel like you want to be in the spooky tearoom for a bit. Haunted Ballroom, Stairway to the Stars and Persistent Repetition are also good introductions to his early sound, blending ballroom and dark moods.
A lot of people got into Everywhere at the end of time as part of a meme challenge, and I found it a little disrespectful tbh - both the lurid idea that the music might make you "go crazy" and to the music itself (TOP TIP: if you don't like dark ambient don't listen to six solid hours of dark ambient. if i had to listen to 6 solid hours of acoustic ballads i'd be traumatised too.) So I'm not certain it's a good startpoint. Stage 1 is purposefully generic, setting the stage for a long slow decline; and later albums are purposefully alienating. EATEOT is the encapsulation of his work, in other words - it's a bit of everything, at its perfection - but at the same time, it's the flourish, the finale, and perhaps that means its one for those who have followed for a while, who are ready for it. It's 390 minutes long, you know? However, I think Stage 2 has a really special sound, however, as a one-off recommendation.
I feel like I should give you a Top 10 tracks or albums, but i'm not really sure i have one. i am ghost trash, so yeah i like the spooky ballroom stuff better than the things that are clever. i think my favourite song is von restorff effect.
Midnight, the Stars and You
if you want to link to this shrine, use one of these!
50x50
75x50
100x35
100x50
Lacunar amnesia
Are you a collector? Downloadble for keeping track of your collection, because i get confused and forget otherwise.
| ALBUM | LISTEN'D | OWNED |
| Selected Memories From The Haunted Ballroom (1999) | ||
| A stairway to the stars (2001) | ||
| We’ll all go riding on a rainbow (2003) | ||
| Theoretically pure anterograde amnesia (2005) | ||
| Additional amnesiac memories (2006) | ||
| Deleted scenes / forgotten dreams (2007) | ||
| Persistent repetition of phrases (2008) | ||
| Recollected memories from the Museum of Garden History (2008) | ||
| Recollections from old London Town (2009) | ||
| FACT Mix 45 / The Caretaker (2009) | ||
| The complete digital collection (1996-2008) | ||
| An empty bliss beyond this World (2011) | ||
| Patience (After Sebald) (2012) | ||
| Extra Patience (After Sebald) (2012) | ||
| Everywhere at the end of time - Stage 1 (2016) | ||
| Everywhere at the end of time - Stage 2 (2017) | ||
| Everywhere at the end of time - Stage 3 (2017) | ||
| Take care. It’s a desert out there… (2017) | ||
| Everywhere at the end of time - Stage 4 (2018) | ||
| Everywhere at the end of time - Stage 5 (2018) | ||
| Everywhere at the end of time - Stage 6 (2019) | ||
| Everywhere, an empty bliss (2019) - album | ||
| Everywhere, an empty bliss (2019) - book |
It's all Forgotten Now
