Hidden treasure - 'Touch upon touch'

Hidden treasures take a closer look at hard to obtain music from bands we like. Music that for some reason never got a wide release, and is not easily available (if we don't take p2p into consideration, which we dont! Shame on you!).

I'm a big fan of the band Cocteau Twins. They had a quite unique sound which I've never found dublicated anywhere else, and once I was introduced to their music I was hooked. Cocteau twins specialized in etheral pop songs with incomprehensible lyrics. Elizabeth Fraser has a very special voice that she used to great effect on Cocteau Twins material, and later for Massive Attack as well. One could be forgiven for thinking that what she does is not so much singing as it is 'mouth music' (the Scottish/Irish tradition of puirt a beul), but since the songs do have lyrics and you can sometimes decipher a few words, I conclude that it is actually singing.
Coupled with Robin Guthrie's specially processed guitar sound, this voice made some of the most unearthly music of the 80s and early 90s.

So there I am, a fan of the band, and being a collector I start snapping up their records. I soon learn that for every album they made, they also released 2 ep's. Some of the ep's are increasingly rare and hard to find, but thankfully they see fit to release all their ep and single tracks on 2 double cds, 'Lullabies to Violaine' 1 & 2 (also available compiled in a lavish box set). Excellent! So having bought those, I figured I had the most of their output. And I do. But a band doesn't exist from 1979 to 1997 without there being some leftover or hard to obtain material. And sure enough, there are songs which have only appeared on out of print best-ofs and soundtracks. But the very hardest one to obtain exists on a Dewdrops Records compilation called 'Splashed with many a speck'. I first heard the song from a friend who had *gasp* borrowed it on a p2p thing, and I was immediately sold.

The song in question is called 'Touch upon touch', lasts 04:05 and is also available on a limited 'give-away' cd from a magazine called Volume. It's a slow lament, with the trademark obscure lyrics. The melody is enchanting, and along the way Fraser provides some excellent background vocals for her own main vocal track. The song has sort of an eery atmosphere, which much of the earlier 'Twins material did as well, and is a great addition to any 'Twins collection.
But but but... where to find it. After searching far and wide for the '...many a speck' cd, I had to give up. I didn't see it once on either ebay or any variation of amazon. I tried specialty stores, none of which had ever even heard of it (many of them never even heard of Cocteau Twins... *sigh*). I tried to find the 'Volume' cd too, no such luck. Fortunately, on the official Cocteau Twins website, there is a media section where they've put the majority of their hard to obtain material, free for everyone to download. So in the end, I've had to settle for owning the song as an mp3. Hardly fitting for someone who collects, but better than not having it at all. Best of all I didn't have to steal it anywhere since it's readily available.
If you like Cocteau Twins, I highly recommend you find this song on their website http://www.cocteautwins.com/ . It is the best of their hard to find songs, and fits in well in their overall style and output.