Tilt

Tilt reached number 27 in the UK. Walker composed most of it in 1991 and 1992. Manhattan dates from 1987 and the closing Rosary from 1993. The record was expected as early as 1992 but was not finished until 1995, and it came out in Europe first, in a limited edition on LP and CD, with a US release through Drag City in 1997. Walker later called it the first of what he described as a kind of trilogy with The Drift and Bish Bosch.

Brian Gascoigne arranged and conducted the strings of the Sinfonia of London and played the pipe organ of the Methodist Central Hall. The core band was Ian Thomas on drums, John Giblin on bass, Gascoigne on keyboards and David Rhodes on guitars. Cockfighter and Bouncer See Bouncer are linked to the Holocaust, and Bolivia '95 is about South American refugees.

A reviewer's phrase for the sound, Samuel Beckett at La Scala, has stuck to it. Pitchfork's Jazz Monroe reports that at a London playback party Mojo noted bewildered faces and called it a record to be greatly admired, if not enjoyed, and that Marc Almond said he hated it. Two promotional CDs carried edits, including a 4:37 edit of Farmer in the City.