Welcome to Breakdown, an unofficial resource and discussion list about the innovative guitarist/producer Michael Brook. This site is infrequently updated, but contains a great deal of background info which will remain online. For up-to-date news and information, visit Michael Brook's official site and MySpace page.

An unofficial resource and discussion list about the innovative guitarist producer Michael Brook

A guide to events, happenings, and other goings on in the Breakdown pages. Please note, this page will not be updated, so please see the homepage for current news.

• 17 December 2000: Updated with images and track listing: Angels in the Architecture and Gravity.
• 28 September 2000: Updated Instrumentation with info on Maniac Music's Stealth Plus.
• August 2000: New images of a Russian bootleg of Live at the Aquarium, courtesy of Gerrit Hillebrand. Updated with images and track info: Phoenix.
• 12 June 2000: New & updated: Lanzarote Music Festival & Sindarella Suite.
• 7 June 2000: New in the Discographies: Teresa De Sio's Sindarella Suite.
• 12 March 2000: Numerous enhancements to the Discographies, including larger cover images and a new "Related Albums" section on each page. New: Roger Eno's Voices, Clustered and Clipped, and Voices of the Real World.
• 12 February 2000: Updated in the Discographies: Cobalt Blue, Live at the Aquarium, Night Song, Rain Tree Crow, Real World Notes 2, A Window on the Real World. New in Babbling Brook: David Toop on Night Song.
• 15 January 2000: New in the Discographies: Go.
• 25 October 1999: The exclusive Breakdown interview with Michael Brook.
• 20 October 1999: New tracks in Slipstream: Lakbossa and Shona Bridge.
• 23 September 1999: New in the discographies: Pearl & Umbra.
• 17 August 1999: Concert reviews from Hoby, Charly Rhoades, Marcel Dion, Peter Shindler, and The Chicago Tribune.
• 22 June 1999: Updated with images and track info: Cascade.
• 4 May 1999: New in the Discographies: Alain Bashung's Chatterton.
• 25 April 1999 Pruned Collaboration of broken links.
• 12 April 1999 Completed revisions of the entire Discographies. New: East West (single).
• 31 March 1999 Newsletter 7.0 goes out to the Discussion List.
• 27 March 1999 Breakdown becomes a CDnow sales affiliate to help cover hosting and maintainance costs.
• 22 March 1999 The rare tracks "Err" and "Diffusing" in Slipstream.
• 14 March 1999 Greatly expanded resources in Collaboration.
• 3 March 1999 Breakdown correspondent Richard Peat contributes a review of Affliction.
• 22 Feburary 1999 Journalist Carmelo Ruiz contributes a review of Black Rock he wrote for a Puerto Rican weekly newspaper.
• 19 Feburary 1999 An entirely new redesign, including the debut of the multimedia Slipstream. New photos of Brook's live set-up in Instrumentation. Combed Babbling Brook for broken links. New entries in the discographies for Affliction and On Land.
• 28 January 1999 Breakdown moves to a new server: the-fringe.com!

19 January 1999:

13 December 1998:

  • Hey hey it's a newly redesigned homepage.
  • New in the Discographies: Maldita Vecindad Y los Hijos del Quinto Patio's Mostros and Julia Fordham's Collection.

23 November 1998:

  • Breakdown correspondent Steven Davey reviews Neil Finn's recent performances with Michael Brook.

11 November 1998:

  • Images, credits, and liner notes from Black Rock, in the Discographies.
  • Two vintage posters (one and two) advertising live appearances of The Everglades, in Babbling Brook. Courtesy of Everglades member Steven Davey.

22 October 1998:

17 October 1998:

12 October 1998:

16 September 1998:

10 September 1998:

1 September 1998:

29 August 1998:

23 August 1998:

30 July 1998:

23 July 1998:

  • Steven Davey has come through yet again, with still more fascinating new scoops for the Biography page.

12 July 1998:

  • Poured over the discographies, updating and adding info, fixing errors, and formatting. Note the addition of at least 5 new albums, release dates, and numerous new track listings.

8 July 1998:

27 June 1998:

20 June 1998:

  • The damn search page finally works, after weeks of trying! Hooray!
  • Uncovered at least half a dozen more sites that link to Breakdown. Check out Where You Came From for more details.

16 June 1998:

  • I wasn't paying attention, and I missed my own damn birthday! Breakdown turned a year old on 12 June 1998. For it's a jolly good website ... (if I do say so myself)
  • One birthday present, at least: a significant revision of Instrumentation.

26 May 1998:

  • While recently redesigning Partners in Crime, I came to realize I had built up a lot of text and images largely off-topic to Breakdown. So, I adapted this material to a new wing in my personal homepage, called noise. Featuring commentary on select artists, albums, and concerts, noise will gradually become something of a one-man music e-zine. I've crunched all of Breakdown with BBEdit Lite to remove all links to artist's names, but beware what is nevertheless still a minefield of broken links. (Why do I bring this much work on myself? I really ought to get a relationship or whatever it is that everybody else does with their free time...)

11 May 1998:

  • We've enacted some major structural changes. Breakdown now resides in a new directory of its own. That's the professional way to manage a site, a method which I just learned. What are the consequences? A new URL, for one: http://www.the-fringe.com/brook/. Also, it enables us to add a dedicated search engine to cover the entire directory, courtesy of HotBot. Invisible advantages include shorter file names, better organization on the server. It was hard work, changing every file name and every link. I'd never have been able to do it without BBEdit Lite!
  • I've entirely rebuilt the lower frame, fixing the complex tables and flawed JavaScript rollovers. It now contains every utility needed to navigate the site.
  • All site graphics are now itty-bitty GIFs, a luxury courtesy of Macromedia's jim-dandy Fireworks beta release. Everything should load pretty quickly, now.

18 April 1998:

  • We've taken another stab at including a site counter, this time from LinkExchange. Yeah, it's a dorky fan-page kinda thing, but why not?
  • Those trainspotters among you might notice some new articles archived in Babbling Brook.

18 April 1998:

15 April 1998:

16 March 1998:

16 March 1998:

  • Maintenance! The process of correcting fonts, colors, and layout continues across the site. Also, the images on the splash page are now optimized as zippy little GIFs (but you'll still need more than 256 colors to view them properly). We've also rescanned the images on Captive, Ambient 1, Ambient 2, Ambient 3, and Damage for smaller file sizes and better resolution (which are, strange as it may sound, not mutually exclusive).

28 February 1998:

18 February 1998:

  • Brian M. Sokel from CDnow has responded to my comments regarding their Cosmic Credit program. "Thanks for yr reply. I completely understand yr decision but i feel like i should explain one thing. We're interested in working with yr site not because of advertising or sales specifically but because the Cosmic Credit department is interested in developing a music grassroots community on-line where someone looking for music can easily find information and facts about any artist. All this to make buying a record the esaiest most informed decision one can make. This is our goal, not to use you for "advertisement". However, if you are not interested we understand." I don't know. What do you think?

12 February 1998:

  • I've been "personally" contacted (it was a chain letter) by a certain Brian M. Sokel, of CDnow. "Your site was hand picked, and we would like to work with you," he says (meaning: Breakdown links to CDnow at every opportunity, and each purchase to result from said links leading to store credit for me). For now, I'm standing by my pledge to not do this site as free marketing for Michael Brook or for my own personal profit.
  • Updates to Instrumentation, Babbling Brook, and Damage.

1 February 1998:

19 January 1998:

2 January 1998:

19 December 1997:

  • The Infinite Guitar & Buzz Bass page has been slightly repurposed and will now be known as Instrumentation. It will feature information on the sounds, and technologies, and instruments that make up these records. The pages are still under construction, but look for new information coming soon.
  • An in-house gig review of the Robert Fripp show at the Bottom Line on 13 December 1997. What? This is a Michael Brook site? I'm the webmaster and I can do anything.
  • A slightly redesigned index page.
  • And, finally, the bottom frame is finished. It now features a neat-o Java form which allows quick access to any part of the site. This feature has been in the works for months, but it took me until now to figure out how to script one.

8 December 1997:

  • The Breakdown Brian Eno page is now a member of the Brian Eno Web Ring. Bookmark the special Eno doorway here.
  • My grand promise to Flashify Breakdown has proven to be overambitious. Alas, the free time is just not there. I have removed the sole, pathetic little button I have created so far.

30 November 1997:

  • Lam Wong has provided a brief review of a 1992 concert in Edmonton, with a link to the beautiful poster he specially designed for the event.
  • Well, I asked people to be honest ... an anonymous source has offered up what seems to be a pretty scathing expose on the singularity of the infinite guitar. Read it and judge for yourself. (and how about the spiffy new design on that page, eh?)
  • A special slimmed-down index page, for Breakdowners lacking frilly browsers.

11 November 1997:

  • Beginning with only the little button at the bottom right, Breakdown will slowly begin to take advantage of Macromedia's Shockwave Flash 2. The splash page has been adjusted accordingly, to help everyone see Breakdown the same way that I see on it my own computer screen.
  • Images and details on Music for Films III.
  • New images in the Albino Alligator and Heat film pages.
  • A new graphic and some updates in Babbling Brook.

29 October 1997:

27 October 1997:

  • A massive rearrangement of the Breakdown infrastructure. No longer are there four divisions: Welcome, Information, Discographies, and Links. In their place is a single index page that houses to everything under one roof. Beware severed links, now as there are sure to be more than ever.
  • Look for two new areas spawned in the tumult: Babbling Brook and All Business. The march of the anal continues.
  • Updated: Jane Siberry and When I Was a Boy.

25 October 1997:

22 October 1997:

  • Updated: Youssou N'Dour and his album Set.
  • An enthusiastic concert review from Paul A. Toth.

October 1997:

10 October 1997:

  • Shedding some more girth: the side bar is no more.
  • Starting to go through and fix a glitch causing Breakdown to align to the left of some browsers. C'mon, people, you have to tell me these things!

23 September 1997:

  • Uh-oh, he's into Java now ... Solved the animated GIF problem. Now, when you roll the mouse over the still image, it starts to move, and when you roll off, it stops (while remaining clickable throughout). Neat!
  • It has become apparent that a whole new area is required: Film Scores.
  • New graphics in Real World Records, Live, and Partners in Crime.
  • Completed the last phase in the rethinking of the use of images in Breakdown. Now every scanned image present in the site has been embedded in a related page somewhere. No more standalone images. The point being: there should be a reason for including these images in context, something more than as just a catalogue of scans.

14 September 1997:

  • Excerpts from "World Leaders: Remembering Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn and Fela Kuti" by Milo Miles, The Village Voice, 26 August 1997. Excerpted without permission.
  • Updated / expanded pages: Hybrid, Cobalt Blue, Brian Eno, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
  • Two new icons and a Photoshopped green line thingie.
  • You'd Never Notice It If I Didn't Tell You Dept. Part II: I've further trimmed the number of copyrighted images used in the discographies. I guess I'm breaking the law a little less than I was before (note: intentional joke).

7 September 1997:

  • Got tired of looking at it. Like the new designs?
  • A new page: Slated, listings and updates on upcoming Michael Brook releases and projects.
  • New layouts in the Real World and Live areas.
  • Things keep turning up: skeletal information about Russell Mills' album Undark.

1 September 1997:

  • Some critical notes on Albino Alligator, the film.
  • Full details and images on two significant releases in the discographies: The Edge's Captive and Julia Fordham's East West.
  • Also in the discographies, an expanded Rain Tree Crow page. Information graciously supplied by David Sylvian fan David Carver, bless him.
  • A quiet announcement of a major structural change: the images area is now history. It seemed more and more redundant as time went on. Besides, the notion of the images being tucked away, waiting to be found in the places where they belong is much more appealing.

30 August 1997:

  • More information on the All Virgos Are Mad (cd and video) in the discography.
  • Another Jon Hassell record for the discography: 1983's Magic Realism.
  • Adjusted the splash page to the proper size - now you may resize your browser window to that page and be done with it. Breakdown ought to fit nicely from there on out (this tip, as I understand it, is not necessarily true for Windows machines).
  • New images in: Box 1: Instrumental, Kings - Second Chapter, The Edge, David Sylvian, and Daniel Lanois.

26 August 1997:

  • Finally, some changes around here! Information and images from the curiously titled 1993 Jane Siberry album, When I Was a Boy are now safely nestled in the discography.
  • Thanks to the help of a reader, All Virgos Are Mad (cd and video) has been added to the discography.
  • Got rid of that damn counter that never worked or looked right anyway.
  • The Partners in Crime section has been moved from the links page to its very own corner in the information section.
  • In the discography, all the compilations (Heat, Ambient 1, Ambient 2, Ambient 3, A Door in the Air, and Spiritual High) now get their own pages. The Heat page now features an adjoining essay on the film.
  • Decided to start a news page even though I don't have any.
  • Removed the rather useless "coming soon" page. Was that a joke or something? I don't get it.
  • Updated the formatting of all the discography entries (you probably won't notice - but that's the whole idea).

1 August 1997:

  • An open invitation to contribute. How many sites can offer you that?
  • Solved the problem of a useful counter (I think): there's a new itty bitty lower frame that should keep the couter in one place as long as one stays in Breakdown. So, rack 'em up, boys and girls!

30 July 1997:

  • We have a new counter, although I'm a bit pissed off at it at the moment. It insists on counting hits to the index page, while I have set it to count hits to the splash page, but only display the number on the index. This way, the counter keeps hiking up, giving little/no indiation of how many people have seen this place. Most of the damn hits are mine, anyway. Grrrrrr.

27 July 1997:

  • Done some major shopping around New York and some significant updates around the site. New purchases means new information, comments, and images: Sleeps With the Fishes, Shona, and Dream.
  • Also new to the site is an increasing amount of verbiage. Check out the Mustt Mustt, Shona, and Dream pages for the beginnings of something wonderful for the discographies.
  • Still more text is making its way into the newly expanded Michael Brook section: articles and select discographies for Michael's work at Real World Studios and his live performances.

16 July 1997:

  • Some of the promised text is starting to appear. Finally, something to read around here! For starters, check out the expanded Mustt Mustt entry in the discography. More blatherings to come.

14 July 1997:

10 July 1997:

8 July 1997:

  • New records in the discography: Shona, Sleeps with the Fishes, Going South, Remixes Number Two, Dream, and Original Versions.
  • An updated and expanded links section.
  • New pages: Who to blame and an embyonic Michael Brook page.
  • A radically revamped splash page. I almost scorched my brain trying to wrangle the tables. Maybe I just do this to give myself headaches.
  • Most of these changes have to do with format. While this aspect is certainly important in such a visual-based medium, the actual content is only slowing growing. We have gone through the site with a fine-toothed comb and made all sorts of content changes. Things are coming along, and there's more to come.

7 July 1997:

  • A new page asking, where did you come from?

6 July 1997:

  • Welcome to Breakdown version 3.0: you are now squinting at our third color/design scheme. The general idea was to use earthy colors to give everything a more organic feel, as opposed to the usual geeky "techno" look of most web pages. It also had to be light and airy, in contrast to my home page. It also incorporates a pretty splash page (with a painstakingly rendered animated gif) before you get to the meat and potatoes.

30 June 1997:

12 June 1997:

  • The whole thing's new!