ALBUM NOTES:

Confessions of a Hyperdreamer is the fourth and final album for Resurgence and was a double album of archive material recorded over the period 1992-95, issued on the Populuxe imprint. The set forms the second volume of the My Secret Studio series of releases and comprises two albums, Weird Critters and Magnificent Dream People.

The albums were presented in separate jewel cases inside an outer slip case with no extra paraphernalia, and very little information beyond a simple sleeve note. Three quarters of the material was recorded at Tape Recorder Cottage, with the rest coming from Fairview.    

Although publicised on the artwork, the fan club Nelsonian Navigator would soon be no more, having lasted for just 6 magazines (considerably fewer than Acquitted by Mirrors). Nelson's career from here on would rely almost exclusively on websites as a publicity platform.

PAST RELEASES:

Just over a year after its release as a double album, the component parts of Confessions of a Hyperdreamer would be reissued as two separate albums, again on Populuxe.


CURRENT AVAILABILITY:

Both Weird Critters and Magnificent Dream People are available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store.

IF YOU LIKED THIS ALBUM, YOU'LL PROBABLY ENJOY:
After the Satellite Sings, Atom Shop, Noise Candy, Whistling While the World Turns, Whimsy,
Practically Wired, Return to Tomorrow, Astral Motel, Six String Super Apparatus
 

SAMPLES:

The samples in "Rain and Neon", "Radiated Robot Men", "Bird Ornaments" and "Circle the World" are lifted from Charles Bukowski reading his poetry.

"Brutal Tinkerbell" (from Magnificent Dream People): "There are several thousand questions…I'd like to ask you" - Sam Jaffe (as Professor Jacob Barnhardt) from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).

BILL'S THOUGHTS:

"[The small black-and-white drawing seen at the upper-right-hand corner of the covers of Magnificent Dream People and Weird Critters is] a very quickly executed rough sketch I made to send to the package layout designer to represent the collage I'd made for the front cover of the set. (I often sketched out my design ideas in rudimentary form to show how I wanted the finished thing to look). In this instance the package layout artist, (who, if I recall correctly, was Mike Innes), said that he really liked my rough sketch and that he'd like to incorporate it into the package design in some way. So it was used as a little motif throughout the package. If you have the original complete set, you will see that this drawing represents the front cover with the dreaming man in his armchair, the jukebox and the flying car."
_____

"Of course, the guitar is the focus of my instrumental energies and seems to be what people generally associate me with, but I do take care over the other instrumentation on my recordings. When it comes to synths, pianos, marimba, bass guitar, mandolin, harmonica, drums or drum-programming, I do try to find something that works within the song. But I'm no virtuoso so it can sometimes take me awhile to get it right!
I've no formal education in music so can't deal with it in academic terms...it's simply trial and error and instinct...like a potter putting his hands on wet clay and pushing it around until a shape emerges. You might say that it involves a great deal of trust, the belief that something worthwhile will be the result of the initial uncertainty. Anyway, it works for me..."
_____

"Only yesterday Emiko was remembering her spoken performance on "Astro-Coaster", which really brings some charm to that track."

FAN THOUGHTS:

jetboy:

"gorgeous, sexy, MAGNIFICENT indeed..."


Paul Andrews:

Weird Critters: "I love that album, there's a lot of humour and playfulness involved in it."


Johnny Jazz:

Magnificent Dream People: "I just never tire of listening to this one. Such an all encompassing snapshot of instrumental style."


eddie:

Magnificent Dream People: "This is an overlooked masterpiece."


Returningman:

Weird Critters: "Just listened to this album in detail on the headphones and wanted to state again that it's a thing of beauty. From the Charles Bukowski snippets, the sublime backwards (and forwards!) guitars lines, the nod back to Quit Dreaming, this is one perfect album. The other half of this set (Magnificent Dream People) is as magnificent as the title would indicate as well."


Holer:

"I've been stuck in a Weird Critters mode again too. Another great 'sleeper' record from Bill's back catalog. I love it when Bill gets the Weirdness bug up his ass from time to time, and that album is a prime example of sheer weird goofy fun."


stormboy:

"My favourite track by a long way is "Aura Hole" - the breakbeat/piano mix is inspired - one of the best bits of keyboard work in the whole of Bill's catalogue in my humble opinion...I love the flow of this piece - it feels like you just let yourself go and hit everything just right...The production is fantastic, too - from the stereo panning of the beat to the absolutely-right reverb on the piano - fantastic!"


Dar:

"Secret Agent at Science Park": "Now THAT'S some wankin', crankin', spankin' GUITAR work."

"Candyland": Some of Bill's nastiest playing, and lyrically, right up there with "He and Sleep Were Brothers", for Mondo-A-Go-Go imagery."


aquiresville:

"Astro-Coaster" and "Secret Agent at Science Park": "...both super-tasty, jet-packin' superior Bill instrumentals (wildly wonderful guitar muscle-flexing on "Secret Agent!")

"Angels in Arcadia": "is also one of my morning "must play" tracks -- such a wonderful power, tinged with sad-smile melancholia, a golden "walk into the sunset/end credits" ballad! Lovely!"


Parsongs:

"Bird Ornaments": "The e-bow tone sends shivers up my spine every time..."


alec:

"Far Too Flip": "always feels like...a sense of something to do with a Jazz Woodbine-like chuckle with an I'm-Super-Baad swagger, a sense of bemusement and optimism, and built-in coolness, especially as personified by the bass. I'd have to say that "Far Too Flip" is also a 'Surreal' 'n 'Sensual', maybe even 'Lusty' as well."

"Golden Satellites": "is kind of slinky and sexy, weird and quirky, finger-snapping, chug-along, like finding a stack of unmarked cash."


Phil:

"I had to smile whilst reading Volume 1 of Bill's autobiography and discovered that his first two-wheeler bicycle was a 'Dawes Realm Rider'. I just had to dig out my copy of Confessions of a Hyperdreamer: My Secret Studio Volume II and play the "Realm Rider" track from the Weird Critters album. Now, the track does conjure up all sorts of images for me, but I wouldn't list a bicycle amongst them. Maybe the inspiration for the track also lies within the pages of the autobiography, when Bill mentions that in the imagination the bike was transformed into a trusty steed."


Merikan1:

"Try Confessions of a Hyperdreamer. This is sort of a "bridge" between the older and newer styles."


Comsat Angel:

"Weird Critters/Magnificent Dream People were the albums that I re-discovered Bill with, and caused me to buy sixty albums or so over the following 8 months..."

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