THE MICK 50 master - Mick Mercer
THE MICK 50 master - Mick Mercer
THE MICK 50 master - Mick Mercer
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<strong>THE</strong> <strong>MICK</strong> <strong>50</strong><br />
December<br />
2009<br />
COLLIDE<br />
(((S))) ~ DEATHCAMP PROJECT ~<br />
LA PESTE NEGRA ~ ACTION DIRECTE<br />
Appeal for<br />
PHOENIX MARIE<br />
PHILIP<br />
BUTLER<br />
SCARLET<br />
LEAVES
There was a time when music writing had a purpose as if you were<br />
known for understanding a certain style, you were one of the few<br />
people followers of that music took seriously. That made you useful,<br />
which was interesting, in retrospect, as you didn’t think that back in<br />
the 80’s. Nowadays everything is different, with opinion available<br />
everywhere and usually genre-specific. I’m more of a noir scattergun,<br />
set in my ways according to some, but it depends what those ways are.<br />
My way is to look to the future, discover what’s exciting and share<br />
that information. Not simply new music, or something trendy, but<br />
quality. Self-indulgent won’t do, it has to have real character.<br />
It’s been a crap year. Extended family illnesses of great severity have<br />
caused extended stresses in their wake, Shelly Cat getting very poorly<br />
and then dying, with one spell of two months where I barely slept,<br />
which is not a state I would wish to recreate. All that was missing was<br />
some water-boarding to make me feel wretched.<br />
At least I know what I am doing for the next few months as <strong>THE</strong><br />
<strong>MICK</strong> is something I can now control in a flexible manner, as well as<br />
bringing out the Author’s Version of 21st Century Goth, which will be<br />
dvided into two volumes, Music and Lifestyle. There will be<br />
compendium style books of <strong>THE</strong> <strong>MICK</strong> itself released every month<br />
until we get right up to date. There’s two more Specimen photo books<br />
coming, followed by Alien Sex Fiend, Ausgang and Flesh For Lulu,<br />
and the enormous Bull & Gate project gets underway shortly, which is<br />
a bit scary, given that it should run to forty books!<br />
A shame, as I’d started the year well with issues 47-49 keeping on<br />
schedule, and what great music there has been. We’ve already had<br />
reviews this year of Adam Ant, Adoration, Anders Manga, Ataraxia,<br />
Atomizer, Black Ice, Brotherhood Of Pagans, Camp Z, Chanson Noir,<br />
Dead Sea Surfers, Demented Are Go, Doktor Finistra, Dyonisis, Elika,<br />
Europeans, Feeding Fingers, Giant Paw, Goth Town, Guana Batz,<br />
Ikon, Inca Babies, Judder And The Jackrabbits, Katzenjammer<br />
Kabarett, Long Bone Trio, Lucid Dementia, Lux Interna, Mark<br />
Steiner, Medium Medium, Midnight Syndicate, Pale Heather, Para<br />
Bellvm, Piker Ryan’s Folly, Quidam, Reactive Black, Rome Burns,<br />
Scarlet Leaves, Spinefish, The Drowning Season, The Eden House,<br />
The Eternal Fall, The Ghost Effect, The Scourge Of River City, The<br />
Spiritual Bat, Unextraordinary Gentlemen, VV Morgue, Whispers In<br />
The Shadow and some great compilations. That was just up to March.
The rest of the reviews will be packing out this issue and <strong>THE</strong> <strong>MICK</strong><br />
52, which will also be up before the end of the year and looks to have<br />
a great line-up already, which is something you will find continues in<br />
January as I also intend doing two that month because there have just<br />
been so many great records this year that I wished to base interviews<br />
on but simply didn’t have the time because of outside influences. Now<br />
that everything seems calm, I will finally be able to settle on doing the<br />
magazine properly, as I see it.<br />
Having a burst of activity this month has shown me what I have<br />
missed. I don’t intend doing the magazine on a monthly basis all my<br />
life. I’m 52 for God’s sake, and I am aware it will be getting in the<br />
way later when I want to get onto novels seriously, but I don’t want to<br />
reach issue 100 by this route, then switch to a quarterly basis. This<br />
still means years lay ahead covering music consistently, which is key<br />
to it all.<br />
So, this issue – some wonderful interviews with great bands, all of<br />
which I hope you enjoy, but something much more serious too.<br />
The article on Phoenix Marie. We have seen fundraising occur within<br />
Goth for people before, driven by caring and optimism. What makes<br />
this one different is it’s all quite clear. A year of medical treatments<br />
need to be paid for, to stop her being doomed to a dire early death.<br />
One year’s treatment, and sensible monitoring for some time<br />
afterwards, where donations play a vital part, and there also auctions<br />
of items, and photos, which spreads the impact and ways people can<br />
help.<br />
Phoenix Marie has led an amazing life, so I am sure you will enjoy<br />
reading about her life, and I also hope you want to help afterwards, by<br />
spreading the word, making a donation online via her myspace page or<br />
the fundraising page itself, or buying some photos. Knowing you<br />
actually can help, because of her specific situation, makes helping so<br />
much easier.<br />
Please do read it, please do help.<br />
Thank you.<br />
I go now.
(((S)))<br />
He likes his anonymity does (((S))) but I know his real name! Well, I think I do, but<br />
I cannot reveal it lest he have ELO reform and play in the back garden nightly. His<br />
‘Ghost’ album with its silven pop is one of the top ten releases of this year, so I prod<br />
him until he explains why. Sort of. SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY: Steen Madsen<br />
The enigmatic nature of what you do will probably hinder<br />
you in some ways as people like to see as well as hear.<br />
Are you just a very private person and don’t relish<br />
publicity, or will you find a way to be less<br />
“... or it’s a way to be different! But actually most of all it’s just about<br />
playing with roles and names and identity. In my case it’s a way of<br />
making the audience a little bit more curious and to focus more on the<br />
songs and not the person. But at the same time I see that the image<br />
will always be written about so it’s a two edged sword I’m playing<br />
with....<br />
“Besides that I’m not that goodlooking, so my shadow is my biggest<br />
visual asset.<br />
“Funny thing: Actually I’m Mr Ungoogable cause the search machines<br />
can’t seem to deal with the brackets in (((S))). And that is quite an<br />
accomplishment in this digital echalonic times of ours.”<br />
‘In The Shadow Of a Shadow’ – a very easy way to usher<br />
us in, with some ambivalent lyrical thoughts. You say<br />
you’re influenced by a lot of post-punk stuff but the roots<br />
of that song seem a lot older to me.<br />
“First of all it’s a tribute to a girl I once knew, who committed suicide.<br />
A very tragic story. And I do like different kind of genres , so maybe<br />
you’re right that the postpunk sound gets ‘infected’ in some ways.”
‘Mesmeriszed’ - this is just gorgeously tuneful and so<br />
catchy. I’m assuming you’ve been in a band before, are<br />
you going to admit to any past endeavours? Normally solo<br />
creators lack this sort of flow. To what they create, things<br />
seem stiffer.<br />
“I have a past, but no I ‘m not gonna admit to anything, thank you :) I<br />
just wanna be floating into your picture from one side and<br />
disappearing out the other...”<br />
It’s also an odd sound to equate with someone maintaining<br />
a sense of distance. Most people looking at your record<br />
sleeve probably expect some curious ambient work, but<br />
this is like some blessed out pop.<br />
“Haha, yeah you’re probably right about that one. It’s quite poppy this<br />
album. I plan to do at least two more records as (((S))), so maybe time<br />
will reveal the artistic táke on the aesthetics. We’ll have to see about<br />
that!”<br />
‘Mamachild’ - a deeper pull to this, pretty Gothy too, as in<br />
a pretty form of Goth, the languid elegance especially.<br />
How much Goth is in your blood? Previous bands? Please<br />
tell me more about the pelican.<br />
“If there’s any psycedelic traces on GHOST, then it’s in the lyrics of<br />
this song. It’s just free flow form kinda picture upon picture lyrics.<br />
“It was written the night before my daughter was born, while the<br />
mother was in labour and none of us could sleep, so it’s a lovesong to<br />
an unborn. So the pelican should probably have been a stork :)<br />
“By telling you this I’m kinda betraying my own project of<br />
anonymity. Doesn’t this knowledge about the pelican just make the<br />
song smaller or less poetic??”<br />
‘Deathrip’ – that cheeky little sound nudging away behind<br />
the vocals, it’s brilliant. It could be guitar or synth – which<br />
is it? I wasn’t sure what the deathtrip aspect was? I get the<br />
brightest photo/darkest neg part, but not the easiest hello/<br />
hardest goodbye. Are you a life half full or half empty<br />
kinda guy?<br />
“Half full! But in a half empty way!!! The background thing is<br />
actually a bass loaded with a whole lotta effects. It’s just a song about<br />
a love that will never be. Nothing new there.....”<br />
‘Naked’ – this is very cute. I’m thinking you don’t spend<br />
much time in church? Unless it’s taking a picnic to<br />
funerals?<br />
“Hihi, you’re right about that. ‘Naked’ is a cover of a 60’s danish<br />
bubblegum boyband. called “Lollipops” (Can’t get more stickier than<br />
that) And they managed to write and record this one, which is quite a<br />
good song. I don’t think church when I listen to it. It’s more like:<br />
“behave yourself in this life. Remember to do the right thing – you’ve<br />
only got one chance” I had a certain person in mind when I chose it....
“I have a past, but no I ‘m not gonna admit to anything, thank<br />
you :) I just wanna be floating into your picture from one side<br />
and disappearing out the other...”<br />
“I have this crush on not so obvious covers. Instead of choosing a 80’s<br />
standard postpunk classic, it’s more challenging to do “Naked” or<br />
“Help”, which originally were written in another context.”<br />
‘Fall With Me’ – what’s the story in the song, I didn’t catch<br />
it all, or are you admitting you use a claim to be a fallen<br />
angel as a chat-up line? Or are you one of those weird<br />
people who believe in angels?<br />
“An angelbeliever I am not, but sometimes people put their own<br />
stories into me, when I talk to them. ‘He’s so mysterious’ etc, so I<br />
guess I’m just playing along for fun of it. All I want is to be invisible<br />
– sigh...............”<br />
‘Hungover’ – this is very 80’s pop isn’t, very Sting-like.<br />
You’re a strange one.<br />
“Sting!! Wow I didn’t see that coming.... Maybe it’s just another<br />
popsong on a very popsongy record? And I guess it’s more about a<br />
lovehangover more than anything else...”<br />
I’ve never had a hangover once in my life. What’s it feel<br />
like?<br />
“Well come around to see me some night and I’ll show you the next<br />
morning....”<br />
‘Help’ – actually you’re evil. The Beatles??!!!<br />
“‘Evil’ is my middle name :)”<br />
Now you made that song painfree for me, which indicates<br />
you went about things strangely. What did you do?<br />
“Maybe I should take you into my Beatles therapy class. Where we<br />
listen to 217 Beatles songs recorded and interpreted the (((S))) way.<br />
Just to ease your pain :)<br />
“Well the point is that Lennon on the peak of his career wrote this<br />
song. Instead of calling it “Yeah” or “I’m rich” or “COOL”, he wrote<br />
“HELP” as a kind of cry out. That’s fascinating I think and a paradox<br />
as well. And I love paradoxes – when things clash.<br />
“And of course I counted on some reactions from the dark community<br />
covering a Beatles song. It’s been mentioned in nearly all interviews<br />
and reviews :)<br />
“Not all songs can be made into (((S))) songs though. This one<br />
succeeded by slowing the tempo down and minimizing some of the<br />
chord changes....”<br />
‘Who Loves The Lover?’ – nice and noisy. How come you<br />
do all the music but not drums? What’s wrong with<br />
drums? Also, how and why did you learn everything?<br />
“I don’t know how to play the drums, and besides my good friend<br />
Tomas O is a well respected and brilliant drummer, so I am a lucky<br />
guy at that point.....<br />
“I’m self-taught through an endless row of lost battles....”<br />
‘When The Well Runs Dry’ – this is where things sound<br />
fine but went a bit weird for me, like this was a psycheflavoured<br />
indie band at work. Does it sound any different<br />
to you?<br />
“No, I noticed that in you review. To me it’s just another one of the<br />
songs on the album. Not the best but not the worst.”<br />
‘Dying’ – this is a drowsy yet lush way to finish but it does<br />
seem quite at odds with how the album all started off. Was<br />
the album the result of virtually everything you’ve<br />
recorded, and you have a few different styles, or did you<br />
go for a mixture?<br />
“Why? The record started with somebody dying and it ends in the<br />
same way, but with another message. This is a song for the future....<br />
“Uh I’ve got load of songs. The only thing that’s stopping me from<br />
releasing two albums a year is money. Nothing wrong with the good<br />
old creativity.<br />
“I think I just happen to like all sorts of music, so why let yourself be<br />
limited too much by a particular genre. That’s boring. Again I believe<br />
that it’s when things clashes a little bit, sounds may appear that you<br />
never heard before...”<br />
If you write everything do you go by instinct or are there<br />
people close to you that you test song ideas out on?<br />
“I’m the instinct type. Feelings nothing but feelings. Later comes the<br />
doubts and questions. And in the end I use my friend James B as a<br />
consultant. He has an exquisite taste, when it comes to the(((S)))<br />
universe.”<br />
‘<br />
What is fusty about Denmark?<br />
“Have you ever been here?? (I have, and it seemed lovely, although it<br />
never got dark, so I didn’t sleep for four days - <strong>Mick</strong>.) ’This is a city<br />
where even the air is painted grey and slowly the fog is penetrating<br />
peoples minds.’ (Coincidentally I was able to quote myself from a<br />
song from the next (((S))) album called ‘Phantom.’ I hope it’s even<br />
more catchy than GHOST :) We’re heading for a release in March<br />
2010.)<br />
“First of all the last month or so has been one big grey river of<br />
nonlight, which brings out depression and negativity in your average<br />
Danish citizen. (that’s me!)<br />
“And secondly there’s a general consensus of materialistic<br />
conformative way of dealing with the important things in life. (that’s<br />
not me!!)<br />
“But please don’t let that bring you down....”<br />
www.myspace.com/fustydk
3 COLD MEN<br />
PHOTOGRAMM<br />
Wave Records<br />
While reviewing other albums on the excellent Wave label recently it<br />
made me recall in the dusty segments of what I laughingly call my<br />
mind that this record was knocking about somewhere and, as per<br />
usual, it recently surfaced in a box of quite unrelated items and I have<br />
been enjoying listening to this electronic brew throughout the day<br />
which regular readers will know is quite a rarity for me. I am not<br />
averse to pop but generally ignore it, and electronic fare, whether<br />
intensely introspective or outright bleepy, usually does nothing for me<br />
whatsoever, due to generic blandness of technical sterility. 3 Cold Men<br />
have crossed my path before, and I enjoyed their precocious touch, as<br />
much as I laughed at their image. This time round they are dressed<br />
soberly, and the ideas have grown in their songs. So whoop a little,<br />
and consider them.<br />
‘Red Brain’ trundles slowly and spaced out behind the drowsy vocals<br />
until a basic electro trot develops and rises gently into a pop crouch,<br />
the vocals referring to Joan Of Arc begging to be burned, as well<br />
developing a shifty, terse character. ‘Babies (Are Not My Friends)’ is<br />
truly weird, ‘and now it’s time for me to leave, I know I’m not your<br />
son, but I’m so in love with myself I couldn’t stand to share’ and<br />
general commitment-phobia dawdles with noble disdain through the<br />
softly rustling song. ‘Written Upon The Portrait Of My Dead Father’<br />
isn’t exactly normal as the singer sings about an unhappy childhood<br />
trying to please his dead father, the vocals dominating the music. ‘I<br />
Need To Know’ lists many things, in a fizzy pop charade, that he<br />
wants to know about, but he also expresses confusion about someone<br />
watching him practising yoga. It’s that sort of oddness, which appeals.<br />
I don’t quite get the title of ‘C’ Was’, or indeed at all, but it’s a<br />
plaintive bouncy experience with some moody patterns overlapping.<br />
He’s always asking questions and in ‘Crossing Waters’ appears to ask,<br />
‘please tell me where my love is dead, or in my heart, or in my head,<br />
or in the land of ancient kings?’ I think we can rule the last one out,<br />
surely? In the stiffly rotating ‘My Greatest Greta’ he sings through a<br />
list of years and yearns to have experienced classic eras, like a<br />
lovelorn fool. It’s a cute idea I have not heard done before, so that’s<br />
another big tick. Not like a gigantic bloodsucking parasite, as that is<br />
hardly a sign of recognising quality. Not in this world, not ever.<br />
In ‘The Rain On Seattle’ it appears his sense of humour makes her<br />
suffer, the bastard, and the rain tends to get him down. Get over it,<br />
you big ponce! Embrace the weather, that’s what I always do, and then<br />
you don’t notice it any more. A milky song, just a simple steady beat<br />
and vocals up and down in tandem. ‘Perfect Clone’ is craftier and<br />
seeps delightfully, strangely brackish, pleasant on the surface and the<br />
melody, but crunchy underfoot. ‘Crossed’ begins gloomy, like an<br />
austere ambient experience awaits, whereupon it does, which is a<br />
seriously well disguised closer. After that you get two remixes, with<br />
‘Crossing Waters’ sounding arthritic, and a ‘Scifi Mortix mix’ allows<br />
‘The Rain On Seattle’ to start like the Village People out recruiting,<br />
but descends into soft twittering, which actually takes the gloss of an<br />
very interesting album, but that’s remixes for you.<br />
Forget the last two, love the rest.<br />
www.myspace.com/the3coldmen<br />
80 TH DISORDER<br />
SIMPLE PLEASURES<br />
Melotrik<br />
The ‘Transform’ EP was great, so this debut album from the New<br />
Wave Finnish foursome was something I was looking forward to (they<br />
sing in perfect English, so don’t back away) and it never disappoints.<br />
‘103’ is a cute opener, as our singer informs us he doesn’t wish to<br />
share the details of a daydream he’s just returned from, and this is a<br />
perfect example of how easily they can involve you in a little spot of<br />
lateral explanation. You’re drawn in as the drums casually corral you,<br />
the keyboards inflate quietly and glow, the guitar and bass creep<br />
around, all gradually building up behind the passionately genuflecting<br />
vocals.<br />
‘The Chapter’ is very cool, its easy drum and tickly guitar opener,<br />
under which keyboards wriggle, quite brilliant. The vocals simmer<br />
then explode, and as the guitar lights the way the mood darkens,<br />
sustained with a vibrant tension. Things calm down a smidgeon during<br />
the balmier finesse of ‘Justine’ but even though the keyboards and<br />
guitar swish around elegantly these are velvets fists pattering against<br />
your dopey face as you try and understand what they’re doing. Fizzing<br />
and seething to the close, it’s the way it never seems outright in<br />
unruliness which impresses me, because it’s an internal energy.<br />
‘This Still’ dovetails a lilting rhythm and vocal with cunning guitar<br />
nipping in and around, recreating the early 80’s post-punk guile<br />
anyone serious would hope to emulate as they take us up, then down.<br />
‘Swine And The Taste Of Liberty’ gets the saucy bass plunking, the<br />
vocals waltzing through the perfumed rumpus and ending so sweetly, a<br />
continual knack they have. ‘No Place Like Home’ charges along, a<br />
ridiculously catchy soiree with sunny guitar outburst and although<br />
totally different in feel to Mega City 4’s song of the same name it’s
just as good. ‘The End Of Time’ gets down and dirty, feedback and<br />
trenchant bass, ebbing and flowing moodiness, with a steely decline.<br />
Following on from that power the bass and drums introduce the<br />
supreme control of ‘Vapour’ which reminds me of early Spear Of<br />
Destiny, if Kirk Brandon had a gentle tone instead of ferocious, if you<br />
can picture that; the extended vocals notes somehow providing an<br />
actual mood inside the rhythmic atmosphere. ‘For That Advice’ is<br />
comparatively flat as an experience, terse and one-dimensional,<br />
although it manages to glower darkly and have brighter vocal flecks,<br />
so there’s added grit on the album. There’s also subtler drama at work<br />
in ‘Plastic Dance’ with a ridiculously attractive vocal demeanour,<br />
having the sort of allure that Keane manufacture, except that this is<br />
the real thing, not soppy indie slop.<br />
Magnificent.<br />
www.myspace.com/80thdisorder<br />
ABIGAIL’S MERCY<br />
AFTER <strong>THE</strong> FALL<br />
Pure Darkness<br />
While this appears to be an<br />
album for those people<br />
unable to leave the house<br />
until they’ve strapped a<br />
sword with an unfeasibly<br />
ornate handle to their backs,<br />
or for those who can’t hear a<br />
clumpy drum without flailing<br />
their hands in the air, they<br />
also bring a resolute dignity<br />
to the blurry landscape of Gothic Metal, because they’re really a<br />
direct, fantasy rock outfit, blathering happily on about salvation and<br />
destiny. (Excuse the sleeve, it’s a promo one, so it doesn’t contain the<br />
actual imagery they’ve selected.) Now minus Terry they still fluctuate<br />
between male and female vocals, and have a meaty guitar sound<br />
dripping melodic blood over the steaming carcass of sound.<br />
‘After The Fall’ rolls sleekly into place after mass vocals, and they do<br />
the nagging riff thing well, as well as a staggered lurching<br />
development, from which some guitar leaks giant globules of leisurely<br />
slime. ‘Destiny’ is more chrome than cast iron, with more taut guitar<br />
bullying the song as shouty vocal leaps around like a scalded imp.<br />
More filthy guitar keeps the wrath-strewn drama of ‘Blackest Of<br />
Days’ lively, and ‘If Only I’ bobs and scurries, turning upwards and<br />
spewing with character.<br />
‘Sugarfiend’ isn’t just insufferable but unstoppable shite, like a<br />
central sewer bursting overground. A request is made of someone that<br />
they give them all their loving, and I’ll bet there’s no g, but a limp<br />
apostrophe. They also rage and rave about drugs. Then it’s off to the<br />
café for fish fingers, no doubt. Like an unholy union between Bad<br />
Company and Lynyrd Skynyrd it’s just as awful as that sounds.<br />
Apparently they want some sugar in their veins. That way leads<br />
diabetes.<br />
‘The Hand That Rocks The Candle’ goes all sentimental with some<br />
pan pipes thing, and folky female contemplation and the rumbly<br />
‘Summerland’ agonises melodramatically but with an emotional basis.<br />
‘Until My Dying Day’ falls back onto its hoarier rock haunches as the<br />
guitar glows like Thin Lizzy being conveyed around by sedan chair,<br />
then it speeds up and whisks around friskily, which is fine. ‘Dante’s<br />
Fire’ also crawls grimly as lighter vocals gyrate through the hot ashes.<br />
‘RIP’ brings out a giant gong and some piquant piano, then off it<br />
waddles, twisted and resentful, with the demure rain-accompanied<br />
‘Precious Child’ a very strange and brief closer, of vocals and piano.<br />
A weird band, but that’s always good. One for the rock crowd rather<br />
than anything Goth, although even someone like myself would rather<br />
they stuck to the noisy stuff, as they do it very well. The soppier side<br />
tends, ironically, to give me a headache.<br />
www.myspace.com/abigailsmercy<br />
ACTION DIRECTE<br />
SLAV TO <strong>THE</strong> RHYTHM<br />
Own Label<br />
When I heard they’d split up I thought, ‘you silly bastards!’ because<br />
we don’t have enough noisy bastards in this country who have attitude<br />
as opposed to mental angst overload. Action Directe had the old<br />
school punk defiance in their lyrics, instead of the modern inward<br />
looking depressive delving. The mixture of throbbing contemporary<br />
melody but with a lyrical target made their rapacious romping highly<br />
desirable.<br />
Also, what does splitting up achieve after having existed a while? Just<br />
means you start something new up which has a statistically smaller<br />
chance of satisfying creator or audience. That’s the Law. Stick<br />
together and you can go tsar.
‘Slavs To The Rhythm’ limbers up dynamically behind some vocal<br />
samples I can’t quite understand, but I daresay it’s all jolly important.<br />
Seems to be news reports about war.<br />
Then the roaring, direct beat and vocals stamp around a lot, as<br />
colourful synth scores full Karl Marx for wrapping some cool shading<br />
around them, and there’ll be more puns to come, although I haven’t<br />
worked out how to include Lodzamoney.<br />
Is Bolshevik there? No, that’s rubbish. ‘Line In The Sand’ has some<br />
great creaky guitar and with a flattened rhythm and grave vocals it<br />
readies itself, then Pushkin comes to shove and the song shakes off the<br />
dust and gyrates, albeit it slowly, creating an active but more<br />
restrained approach than you might expect, which is interesting.<br />
‘Smoke & Mirrors’ is a pockmarked, brittle dance thing, vocals<br />
hesitant or streaming, the music spry and dry, and I’m not sure it quite<br />
works as a whole but the lunging aspect is effective.<br />
‘Total Kazakhstan’ rips off a wailing spaghetti western motif but has<br />
a brash, grating assault in store, ‘Exit Plan’ is pretty and nagging<br />
melodic compliance makes it a cool merging of energy and decoration.<br />
Then ‘Unholy Lands’ staggers around woozily, before a flaming guitar<br />
forces its way through and they start to gurn and burn.<br />
It’s over too quickly for me and you could argue that with the<br />
enhanced melodic attractions that their potential for rickety riots is<br />
diminished somehow, but I’m sure they’ll find a way to have some<br />
extremes, because it would also be interesting to see an even softer<br />
side just as it would be to have the bellicose blasting still lurking<br />
around the corner.<br />
I have a strange faith in these idiots.<br />
They’re playing The Fenton in Leeds tomorrow.<br />
www.actiondirecte.co.uk<br />
www.amalgamation.org.uk – good upcoming festival line-up<br />
ACTION DIRECTE<br />
UNDER <strong>THE</strong> PAVEMENT, <strong>THE</strong> BEACH<br />
Oktober<br />
Any of you tickled by the recent EP might like to delve further into<br />
their fractious brew of a sound, found here on a compilation that<br />
tackles everything from 2000 onwards and begins with ‘The<br />
Internationale’ which is obviously a cover version.<br />
Unfortunately the CD-R promo they sent doesn’t play so let me<br />
simply say (gulps impressive deep breath) ‘Hymn Of The Soviet<br />
Union’, ‘Relentless’, ‘Kicking Love’, ‘Bullet’, ‘Gattaca’, ‘Anthem Of<br />
Youth’, ‘Left March’, ‘Home’, ‘Oktober’, ‘Compatriot Games’,
‘Zealots’, ‘Dissidenti’, ‘Playing With Monsters (Part One)’, ‘Better<br />
Dead Than Red’, ‘Spirit Of ‘89’, ‘England’, ‘State Violence State<br />
Control’, ‘60 Million Guns’, ‘Sufferation’ and ‘Strike First Strike<br />
Hard.’<br />
ACTION DIRECTE<br />
VANGUARD<br />
Oktober<br />
The sound of a jackdaw, stamping on a human face, forever.<br />
And yet the press release is worrying as it hints at a softer side of<br />
Action Directe, which would be a bit like selling styling mousse to<br />
guillotine victims, so it’s just as well it isn’t true. Action Directe’s<br />
sound has spread outwards without actually signalling implosion,<br />
which is good. They’d be rigid bores otherwise. There’ll also be plenty<br />
of time for ‘Lady In Red’ covers when they’re in their eighties. (Fuck,<br />
can you imagine?!!) For now they have a fight on their hands, even if<br />
it’s only territorial fleas.<br />
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you one of Britain’s least pretentious and<br />
most consistently high quality bands, with a seemingly subdued but<br />
hectoring ghostly style, and you’ll be able to download this entire<br />
album from their website. It seems sad, I think you’ll agree, that when<br />
the time capsule I have buried is found by peace-loving aliens, come<br />
to understand our sad demise three millennia hence, the small bundle<br />
of Action Directe records they will discover will probably have them<br />
at each others’ throats in no time. Apparently they’re singing here of,<br />
‘failed rebellion, defeated political radicalism and fragile isolation<br />
only redeemed by outbreaks of random and ritualised violence.’ Me, I<br />
blame the students.<br />
‘Storming Heaven’ is a good start. The steady synth line allied with a<br />
rhythm stirring is invigorating, all with an ambient wash and grave<br />
vocals showering down. A bellicose chorus spins on its head and the<br />
song spits, held in place. ‘Frontline States Of Mind’ shows another e<br />
quixotic blend where simple beats and stark synth meet. They could<br />
do with brining the vocals forward, grumpily aghast though they are.<br />
‘The longer I exist, the less I live’, or something. Without hope then,<br />
without ever being hopeless.<br />
‘Break You!’ flails around, the brighter notes penetrating like spikes<br />
through a thigh, as polished as any trusty weapon. ‘Epiphany’ is<br />
beautiful, a soothing motif over a soli,d morose tread, and that’s one<br />
of their things: they never pretty things up, but they have some<br />
essentially cute ideas. ‘Natty Droid’ is fun, as you’d expect, like a<br />
closeted dub. ‘A Storm In Heaven’ flickers, a candlelit prisoner, with<br />
another gorgeous side to their sound, entrancing and, dare we say it,<br />
mature? But a touch mental too, as if The Goons formed an orchestra.<br />
‘Red Dawn’ is old style AD, fiercely resolved, with samples sliding<br />
off the brisk, tubercular frame. Then ‘We Can Rebuild Us’ has such a<br />
wistful tone, but still upright, and unbowed, yet wide open<br />
stylistically. They don’t do pointless ranting, and there’s real charm to<br />
the simplest of touches in the gradually dissolving, revolving and<br />
moving experience.<br />
Now I’m on my high horse occasionally (I don’t know if you’ve seen<br />
me? It’s all rather impressive) and when bands split I always take the<br />
long view and think you bastards! So I’m pleased AD only halted<br />
temporarily. I denounce bands for their selfish ways, in what I know to<br />
be a purely selfless manner, because of what we lose when bands<br />
don’t continue. It’s not what they feel that matters, I explain to<br />
somewhat disinterested cats (who are actually masking their genuine<br />
sense of intrigue and, let’s be honest, awe), it’s what they can create<br />
and provide which matters – the lifeblood of the human soul, the<br />
fools!<br />
I’ve been making copies of certain records I have been selling recently,<br />
and while I decided to have a massive clearout there were some items<br />
which are sacred. Armed guards patrol the Ataraxia collection and the<br />
Dancing Did bootlegs. Of the current UK bands I’d have to say that I<br />
regard the individual work of AD, HOG, Zombina and SBA as<br />
something which needs to be kept together, the audio equivalent of a<br />
wine cellar. Together it grows in importance. Characters, making<br />
music of character. Isn’t that what it’s all about?<br />
It is. It’s why I love writing for you about what I often believe really<br />
counts, no matter how dense I may seem, especially with bands whose<br />
music will maintain its distinct, separate quality for decades yet. The<br />
best bands sound good whatever the situation, whatever the era, bands<br />
always matter more than they ever realise, with Action Directe being<br />
one of the ones who matter most because they make records like this,<br />
with what comes through in the sentiments as well as in the music,<br />
which pisses over the endless synthy nonsense which exists the world<br />
over. So there you go…..<br />
Now the dust around them has dissipated it also seems they’re<br />
gigging.<br />
www.actiondirecte.co.uk<br />
“Does my<br />
tum<br />
look big<br />
in this?”
En Garde!<br />
You can’t keep a good band down, and ACTION DIRECTE are about as good and defiant<br />
as they get. It’s been as noisy a year for them as it has been busy so of course we<br />
have to investigate. Joel sits up in the gutter just long enough to make sense.<br />
An EP, weird compilation and album - a very busy year. How has<br />
it seemed? Methodical, inspirational, chaotic?<br />
“Chaotic – it wasn’t our intention to churn out product all year, but<br />
once the joys of free online releases became evident then it becomes<br />
addictive! One pint too many and you wake up in the morning to find<br />
yourself having released free spoken word mp3 downloads of Soviet<br />
politburo minutes overnight. Still, having not done anything in 2007<br />
or 2008 we kind of thought a severe bout of creativity was about due.<br />
At the end of the year it seems like we’re finally back, although along<br />
the way it’s been tepid, frustrating, tortuous and bizarre. A bit like<br />
Leeds United’s back four.”<br />
There is a different musical tone evident, but what did you<br />
consciously set out to, hopefully, achieve, when approaching<br />
‘Vanguard’? What did you want to come through differently?<br />
“The issue was that we’d reformed without any particular musical or<br />
stylistic brief – our industrial punk period had pretty much run its<br />
course with Intervention in 2006 and since then we’d been kicking our<br />
heels, waiting for another vision thing (the idea, not the Sisters<br />
album). The Slavs EP was daringly patchy, even for a free six-track<br />
EP. The final idea was almost retro-futurist, soviet space-age<br />
cyberpunk – like Sigue Sigue Sputnik crossed with Discharge, on the<br />
set of Mad Max 3. Musically, the plan with Vanguard was to<br />
overcome our marked commercial and critical decline by making the<br />
most bog-standard EBM album we could make. Fortunately we got<br />
that totally wrong, and we came up with something much better than<br />
that.”<br />
Who joined and where from?<br />
“The current group of cadres includes Dan (also of Digicore),<br />
Charlotte (also of Mourning for Autumn) and Andy (of no fixed<br />
previous musical abode). Our long-term strum-merchant John has<br />
recently left to pursue his interest in international relations.”<br />
‘Storming Heaven’ – why are the drums more upfront than the<br />
vocals? It’s not always easy to follow what you’re seething<br />
about, so what’s this? There’s something about timing, and lots of<br />
grimness, but isn’t there always? Kindly identify your target.<br />
“I like the sound of a Thunderous Drum ( more than my own gruff<br />
bark – plus I hate the way that goth records have the vocals WAY UP<br />
FRONT for no particular reason. I like the vocals to be ceremoniously<br />
buried under a mound of guitars and synths, only to emerge victorious<br />
from the wreckage – like, say, Leeds United will. ‘Storming Heaven’<br />
is about that particularly fatalistic moment in everyone’s lives when<br />
you just think – ‘fuck it, let’s do it’. I think the theme of the album is<br />
that once you lose hope, you’re liberated.”<br />
‘Frontline States Of Mind’ – speak up! Do the vocals get<br />
recorded next door or something? What are these ‘good old<br />
days?’ Propaganda and paranoia? Where is this war of which<br />
you speak? Is it endless, or do you have a happy ending in mind?<br />
“The war is…in the mind! In the heart! That track is basically like<br />
biting on the dull rag of resignation, regret and anger – we used to<br />
think we could fly rockets to the moon or win the commanding heights<br />
of the economy by hand or brain, but now we now we can’t even<br />
manage our own lives or relationships without fucking them up<br />
completely. So our conflict becomes more internalised the older you<br />
get, as we realise that we’ve never made a right decision in our<br />
increasingly grey little lives. Plus it’s a pun on words – frontline<br />
states, geddit?”<br />
According to wikipedia Action Directe is a famously difficult<br />
sport climb in the Frankenjura, Germany. Have you tried it?<br />
“Alas, no – I have a limited track record of anything involving the<br />
words ‘difficult’, ‘sport’ and ‘climb’. It’s a bit humbling to be<br />
outshone by a mountain, but at least that keeps things in perspective!”<br />
According to googleism Action Directe is a remarkable<br />
organization begun nearly 10 years ago with the “adoption” of<br />
two children in a Sokod neighbourhood. How are the kids getting<br />
on?
“No, I’m not one of<br />
Action Directe.<br />
They just didn’t<br />
have enough<br />
photos. The<br />
bastards.”<br />
“If we keep things nice and civil, the kids will be fine…”<br />
‘Break You!’ – frisky dance pincer movement! Who’s the woman<br />
wittering on at the start? You are a determined demander of<br />
change, but have you considered that people believe everyone<br />
becomes reactionary as they grow older? Picture yourselves in<br />
ten years time – a season ticket at McDonalds, voting Tory…<br />
“The sample at the beginning is from ‘Escape From New York’, as<br />
cyber-terrorists hijack Air Force One. How very cosmic nothingness,<br />
2009-style! I think random and unstructured items of dour and dated<br />
‘substance’ are our perceived stock-in-trade these days, so if we<br />
ditched the hammer and sickels we’d soon be wearing pool goggles on<br />
our heads and putting all our money into making a computer game of<br />
ourselves as pirates fighting giant parrots. I intend to get more<br />
militant the older I get – I was a Communist ten years ago, a Maoist<br />
last week and am now a full-blown hardline Hoxhaist. The easier we’d<br />
be to market, the more apparent it would be that we have no talent.”<br />
‘Epiphany’ – this is very sweet, like ’60 Million Guns’ on antidepressants.<br />
Are you softening? A cover version of ‘Happy Talk’<br />
next?<br />
“We are softening, indeed – like rotting fruit! I was very pleased with<br />
the result; although it is never the intention to write a lovely, lilting<br />
melody, it is very environmentally unfriendly to waste a tune. Action<br />
Directe – we never put a healthy riff down!”<br />
Actually what is the weirdest song that people would regard as<br />
being totally out of character, that you’ve ever played live?<br />
“‘Russians’, as originally by Sting, which we played a few times a<br />
few years ago. It was shit.”<br />
‘Natty Droid’ – lovely again, isn’t it odd how little reggae you<br />
hear crossing into people’s work these days compared to the<br />
past? Still lots of ska out there, and actually too much TripHop,<br />
the easy way out, but very little reggae, especially anything dub.<br />
“I fucking love reggae and dub, and like to shoe-horn it into things we<br />
do especially after getting away with it on ‘Sufferation’ a few years<br />
back. Industrial dub seemed like a very simple idea which worked very<br />
well, although I think it’s not technically accurate to try to ‘create’ a<br />
dub from scratch as a dub is caused by an absence of sound from the<br />
original mix, so especially working on a computer it’s only a facsimile<br />
and if any goth bands want a producer for some goth-dub antics then<br />
look no further!”<br />
‘A Storm In Heaven’ – now I’m not totally senile yet. Storming<br />
Heaven and A Storm In Heaven? Discuss.<br />
“That is what we call in the trade a shit pun. It does fit into the<br />
general sci-fi vibe that the album has, but it also has a different<br />
meaning. The samples you can hear on the track were taken on<br />
someone’s ham radio in southern Italy, and are signals they picked up<br />
from the atmosphere of people speaking in Russian who appear to be<br />
cosmonauts trapped in their crafts and trying to escape. No records<br />
exist of those launches or what happened to the craft – so in a way,<br />
this is a sort of a silent tribute to them.”<br />
Musically you can have a wonderful effect. Of course you’re also<br />
usually hammering away ranting and railing. Have you<br />
considered doing different types of records at all? Like lovely<br />
ones, angry ones? Moving ones, moody ones? Or are you just<br />
happy with the a largely cantankerous mixture?<br />
“We did have an idea between the new album and the last one – I<br />
worked on some moodier, more atmospheric material in late 2006 and<br />
didn’t work on them again until early 2008, by which point John and I<br />
had about a dozen tracks at various levels of completion. That was<br />
going to be an album based on a ‘pan-Slavic’ theme called ‘Troika’,<br />
with elements of Russian folk music and folklore, but when the band<br />
broke up in 2008 we didn’t work on them again until we got back the<br />
following year, by which point it was too late and too old an idea to<br />
resurrect.<br />
“Three tracks from ‘Slavs to the Rhythm’ – ‘Line In The Sand’,<br />
‘Total Kazakhstan’ and the title track – were earmarked for that lost<br />
album, and we still have a few odds and sods knocking around. It may<br />
see the light of day at some point, you never know!”<br />
‘Red Dawn’ – you can barely hear what’s going on. Are there<br />
lyrics or just mutterings alongside the samples?<br />
“No lyrics – just a tour of every awful U.S cold war 80s blockbuster<br />
ever made. I think once you’ve got samples from ‘Red Scorpion’ and<br />
‘Die Hard’ on the same track, you’ve reached some sort of cheesetastic<br />
nirvana.”<br />
‘We Can Rebuild Us’ – what did you want to do with this,<br />
because it has a curiously uplifting effect?<br />
“Ah – this is where the hope, conspicuously lacking from the rest of<br />
the album, comes storming back. Although the tone of the song is<br />
quite final and bleak, the message is actually quite reassuring and<br />
warm – that even if you’ve lost something, or everything, you can get<br />
it back or try to get it back. Nothing is lost forever. There is also the<br />
note that as a species, we’re all in this together, and we can work it out<br />
and move forward. Musically it has a revolving and evolving sound<br />
and quite possibly a very commercial, melody approach – even though<br />
the overall sound is very dark and bleak. VNV Nation remixes<br />
Hawkwind, with an added touch of eco-fail!”<br />
Well, what’s next?<br />
“The plan is to approach 2010 in a positive light – it’s our tenth<br />
anniversary, and I intend to spend the whole year firmly ensconced in a<br />
Russian sub, chain-smoking cigars and downing shots of Russian<br />
Standard. But first of all, we’ll be doing some more gigs as the last<br />
bunch have been awesome, as well as working on a couple of new<br />
tracks. This is the best live line-up we’ve ever had, and I’d like to get<br />
it on tape for posterity. Plus, maybe relaxing and enjoying the ride for<br />
once would be good. So watch this space!”<br />
of the real thing. I am tempted to dub some of our older tracks though, www.actiondirecte.co.uk
AD OMBRA<br />
MAGNA CHARTA ILLUSORUM<br />
Rage In Eden<br />
This is weird. Romanian classical Goth with a vigorous ambient<br />
overlay. The work of George D. Stanciulescu, aided by three vocalists,<br />
Alexandra Damian, Ilinca Olteanu and Andrei Apostol, it swims<br />
around alarmingly, conjuring up a scary atmospheric world. I guess<br />
that’s what a lot of us want, so that works.<br />
‘Templum Stugialis’ seems doomily ambivalent, vocals occasionally<br />
peeking out from behind opulent enticing shapes and shards of<br />
imposing noise, simultaneously jarring and soothing! Crazy. ‘Disquiet<br />
Opera’ has a spooky shrieking female behind a softly spoken male,<br />
the sound skittering and flaring, ‘M’illumino do Sangue’ is like a<br />
cinematic shootout, an old silent horror movie come to life, with a<br />
weird, slowly tilting balance, but ‘A Coeur Posthume’ is quite<br />
beautiful, close in spirit to Ataraxia, haunting and gloomy, exquisitely<br />
dramatic.<br />
The air thins a little during the quietly daunting ‘Uranogeca’ and you<br />
need to take my word for it that this is the real classical deal at times,<br />
interspersed with quasi-Industrial power surges, dancing hither and<br />
thumping thither.<br />
‘Mimes Of The Occult’ seems<br />
muddier and jumbled, like<br />
interference cutting through a<br />
rare concert broadcast,<br />
‘Desdichado Tango’ sounds<br />
supremely confident, cheekily<br />
funereal, soaring sultry and free,<br />
then circling like a drunken<br />
magpie of a piece.<br />
‘Epiphany’ is a demure and lovely vocal display over sensitive<br />
backing, the chiming ‘Heritages de l’Angoisse’ twinkling on a more<br />
furtive level, but still designed to charm and the delicate ‘Ferlyse’ is<br />
equally divine, before ‘To End’ grandly swoops and terrifies, with<br />
‘Worldiscence’ left to tidy up, organ puffing, everything escalating<br />
and spinning, clumping and squeaking, the spoken male vocal an utter<br />
mystery to me.<br />
I leave their mad world none the wiser, but each time you find yourself<br />
increasingly more comfortable between the tumult and the teasing. As<br />
wonderful as it is weird.<br />
www.myspace.com/adombra<br />
ANDREAS GROSS<br />
HAIL TO <strong>THE</strong> EMPLOYEE<br />
Echozone<br />
Although they choose the generic<br />
tags of Trip Hop / Electronic / Gothic<br />
on their myspace page this foursome,<br />
based primarily around maestro<br />
Andreas and vocalist Tabitha Anders<br />
(cellist Isabel Walter and guitarist<br />
Thomas Stumpf being the other vital<br />
ingredients) begins with ‘Revealing’ as a doe-eyed Ethereal ball of<br />
soft fluffiness. They slide into ‘My Fears’ like an amiable alt-folk<br />
lament without malice and ‘To Die For’, which is a nice title, is like a<br />
supreme supine slice of academic pop.<br />
‘Hopeful Despair’ evokes precisely that feeling, in muted colours,<br />
with a beguiling melody and modest stature, ‘Lazarus Effect 1’ a<br />
gauzy stream of musical thought, ‘Bloodkiss’ softly sensitive musing<br />
in a lightly luscious manner. ‘Everything’ introduces a mild historical<br />
air on the acoustic but it is actually a genteel modern bout of<br />
resignation, and superbly deft, also managing to be sadly catchy.<br />
‘Malfunction’ does the slurpy drum thing, which implies a bit of Trip<br />
Hop, but it’s a fairly passive experience. Increased bass burbling in a<br />
salty, soured ‘Hail To The Employee’ again implies something deeper,<br />
but I didn’t work out what. ‘Under The Line’ is another gradual<br />
sweetheart of a song, blossoming slow as you like, with the lumpen<br />
‘Lazarus Effect 2’ waddling happily into a fuzzy distance.<br />
Frequently too bland for me, it has a nice mixture of modern artistic<br />
slumbers to fall into and some subtle moods, perfect for anyone of a<br />
nervous disposition.<br />
www.myspace.com/andreasgross<br />
ANDY FAIRLEY<br />
FISHFOOD vs BIRTH OF SHARON<br />
Bristol Archive Records<br />
This is a weird one. The first three tracks come from the Fishfood<br />
entity, formed by Howard Purse and Doug White, with former<br />
Cortinas drummer Dan Swan, and a local poet, <strong>master</strong> Fairley, and<br />
these songs came out through the local magazine The Bristol<br />
Recorder, which I’d forgotten all about! That had quite a reputation.<br />
The final songs come from a secondary line-up of locals, and it’s from<br />
these, according to the press release/info sheet, which I have every<br />
reason to believe, that have achieved something approaching<br />
legendary proportions, having coalesced over time, although you need<br />
to wait right to the end to see why.<br />
‘Dry Ice Hot’ sounds like Talking Heads gone in a wonky post-punk<br />
direction, ‘Seventeen Eels’ could be a certified edition of Play School<br />
hosted by a cheap Captain Beefheart impersonator. With a soothing,<br />
swaying bass ‘Modern Dance Craze’ at least carries you along, with<br />
some cute guitar scratchiness, but the repetitive host annoys me<br />
intensely, but that’s poets for you.
So they split up, but this<br />
Purse character, who’d gone<br />
on to be in the posh indie<br />
crossover stink of Animal<br />
Magic found Fairley again,<br />
gathering up former Animal<br />
Magic drummer Rob<br />
Bozwell and an artist called<br />
Jim Galvin on guitar. They<br />
created the final six tracks<br />
which is where the claim for<br />
amazement lies, as it<br />
reckons they predated<br />
Portishead recent work by<br />
25 years. I dispute this. Firstly Portishead’s latest work is crap<br />
compared to their first recordings, being a pale retread, which is why<br />
it took so long to come out, and so this would make Birth Of Sharon<br />
fifteen years ahead, at best.<br />
In a local music scene already familiar with The Pop Group the<br />
blaring, linear angst of ‘Now’ wouldn’t have sounded unexpected,<br />
surely? I can accept that people using tape samples early on, and synth<br />
which wasn’t stodgy but incorporated naturally into a heady funked<br />
indie stew was unusual but that’s as far as it goes, because this is also<br />
like an artier form of Stump during ‘Film Titles’, with fabulous<br />
drumming. ‘The Art Of Wanking’ has a brooding bass pattern, jittery<br />
guitar splashes, and some more sheltered, ruminating vocals which<br />
suit him better than the outright mental delivery elsewhere, and there’s<br />
more stylish drumming along with a groaning base on which they tilt.<br />
The one thing I always associate arty scenes with is bleating<br />
saxophone, and that makes an unwelcome appearance in ‘Sex Is A<br />
Language.’ This stumbles on its shuffling beat, and sounds pretty<br />
crappy, like Gang Of 4 trying to have fun. Dismal. ‘Man Made It So’<br />
is swirlier art-jazz rumbling and mumbling with more of the same<br />
tightly corkscrewed funk guitar, lightly knitted across a scrolling bass<br />
motif and gargling, anguished vocals. On the grand slurry that is<br />
‘Volition’ they do appear to be entering new territory, with a fierce<br />
ambient undertow and some fascinating rhythmical pulses that nobody<br />
else would have been doing back then. This one track highlights<br />
something very special. It’s just a shame the others don’t come even<br />
close. It’s also an instrumental, really, which implies Fairley wasn’t a<br />
particularly vital part?<br />
www.bristolarchiverecords.com/bands/Andy_Fairley.html<br />
ANIMALS AND MEN<br />
NEW EP<br />
Convulsive<br />
A record like this really does blur reality, having a band from way<br />
back then still doing it now with an infectious simplicity. There’s an<br />
updated perspective, as they know and think more, and understand<br />
how to get and do what they want, but there’s a delicious link to their<br />
past with a brash confidence and rudimentary shapes. So they wobble<br />
happily through the lumpy, bumpy chanty ‘John Of The Sword’ and<br />
many of you might be shocked by the brevity of the arrangement, but<br />
it’s quite brilliant. No idea what it’s about, mind. ‘Driving Stupid’<br />
also meanders hungrily, the drum bomping, a bass in big boots, guitar<br />
sonically slanderous, vocals dripping down the mike and the question,<br />
“is how the world ends, not with a big bang but the driving stupid?”<br />
Er….<br />
A coy harmonica flutters during the rigid but roving, bitter joy of<br />
‘Sugar Town’ and while there’s an offhand casual vocal again that’s a<br />
ruse. It’s all economical, all stripped down, because they know<br />
precisely what they’re doing, and it keeps it raw and fun. ‘I’ has a<br />
chunkier, furred-up exhaust, belching a diseased post-Velvets<br />
distemper and carrying the biggest feel with it as it carries you along.<br />
Their own classic ‘It’s<br />
Hip’ gets dusted down,<br />
and then some newer<br />
dust rubbed into it, as<br />
they come over all<br />
truculent nonchalant, the<br />
song as linear as you<br />
could hope for, the<br />
drums dour and<br />
determined the guitar<br />
brusque but intentionally<br />
honed. The<br />
comparatively demure<br />
‘Dreaming Of Babylon’<br />
will remind some of you<br />
of The Raincoats, The Slits, maybe even a grouchy Delta 5, because it<br />
has that timeslip going on, and a duff drum ending, but that doesn’t<br />
matter because you can’t fake this charm and I doubt there’s many<br />
bands in their late teens who can now carry off what band did back in<br />
punk days as there’s a different attitude in the air. Things are easier<br />
now, things are calmer, and that breeds complacency if not contempt.<br />
I’d like to be prove wrong, but tonight I’m quite happy being<br />
impressed by this.<br />
Bands like Animals And Men are weird, very British in a nicely<br />
strange way, and a musical sorbet after the immaculately prepared<br />
meals you’ll usually be served.<br />
www.myspace.com/animalsandmenterraplanes<br />
ANIMALS AND MEN<br />
SOME SONGS<br />
WFMU<br />
It’s not actually called ‘Some Songs’ I don’t think it has a title. Ralph<br />
sent me these and they’re ridiculous charming songs which have been<br />
placed online free with the ‘Convulsive’ EP from earlier this year. So<br />
head off to the Free Music<br />
Archive and you can have<br />
them, gratis. ‘Just A Dot’<br />
is pure string-thin punk,<br />
with flyaway bass and<br />
some cheekily brilliant<br />
clipped vocals. ‘I Never<br />
Worry 09’ is wonderful,<br />
gently vibrant but also<br />
steady as a truculent rock.<br />
Susan sounds about eight<br />
but can’t distract me from<br />
that harmonica being<br />
Beatlesish! (‘Love Me<br />
Do’, or whatever it’s<br />
called?)<br />
‘(I’ve Been Bitten By The) Bug’ is hilarious. I think the spoken intro<br />
has that deadpan effect of Peter Cook as a judge reading Beatles<br />
lyrics, although it may be unintentional. The band were doing a gig in<br />
Lyon and had a chance to try a few things, which is why these six<br />
songs got recorded. ‘Oh Death!’ is something traditional, or was until<br />
they do their par-boiled, somewhat detached version which at times<br />
makes the grim experiences within the lyrics sound curiously cheerful.<br />
It’s weird. ‘Dragon Fly’ is rangey and well mannered, chirpy punk,<br />
like they’re tight-ropewalking simultaneously. ‘Easy Riding’ keeps the<br />
vocals bright, the guitar sedate but busy and the rhythm a bit<br />
grumblier.You need to get the punk simplicity of their work, but surely<br />
only some muso covered in moss wouldn’t? Then away you go.<br />
http://freemusicarchive.org then search for Animals & Men (not<br />
Animals And Men).
ANNIVERSARY CIRCLE<br />
ANNIVERSARY CIRCLE<br />
AC<br />
Strange, mysterious and<br />
interesting, that’s this band,<br />
whose Yorkshire-based origins go<br />
back to the 80’s, when they<br />
rejoiced in the name of Edo La<br />
Tree Le Plastic Elephants, but<br />
then they spilt off into Skeleton<br />
Crew and Malak Brood. Martin<br />
Johnson (guitar/vocals/keys) and<br />
Keith Young (bass/guitar/vocals) reformed in 1989 with the illadvised<br />
name of Fruit Eating Bears (which was also once a dire punk<br />
band). That came to a very hasty finish, but still the pull exists, and<br />
they’ve been back a few years now tinkering away towards a greater<br />
purpose, for which they have recently been joined by Ed Morgan<br />
(keys/prog) and Estelline Kermagoret (vocals), so things are getting as<br />
serious as they are engaging.<br />
Both tracks are very cool and actually end up frustrating because they<br />
sound like to openings tracks of what would be a great album, and<br />
where is the album? It isn’t here. That disgraceful omission aside,<br />
‘Anniversary Circle’ starts ominously, with rasping synth noise over a<br />
steady, solemn bass, with gaseous vocals flowing through. The mood<br />
is tense, the sounds juicy, like something ambient on fire, with vocals<br />
caught in the embers. It’s a powerful sound, with a steady vocal<br />
guiding presence, which gradually subsides and slips away, much like<br />
a suicidal vicar. ‘Take’ ups the Gothy ante, the female vocals creeping<br />
around the smouldering bass, with some rapacious guitar thrusting<br />
across, and gradually the vocals assert their genteel qualities, leaving<br />
the track to again ebb away carrying less threat and more charm.<br />
Curious.<br />
Where’s that album?<br />
www.anniversarycircle.com<br />
www.myspace.com/anniversarycircle<br />
ANO<strong>THE</strong>R SPECIES<br />
LOADING…<br />
ASA<br />
There is much to admire when duo’s get stuck into a project and Erika<br />
and Nic Species are one such couple, who invest great dignity into<br />
their ostensibly sullen world, where you pick your way through the<br />
disgust and alienation, but pick up much satisfaction from the simple,<br />
sometimes compulsive slices of rhythmic life. They also manage to<br />
ease a bulging colour booklet into the CD case, which signifies how<br />
much they care about it. Full colour, full lyrics. Because they care I<br />
have found myself shrugging off the mind-boggling heat of the past<br />
two days to grapple with their drk beast of a record.<br />
The instrumental ‘The Beginning Of’ starts casually grim but<br />
admirably artistic, then ‘Hunger For…’ assaults your senses with<br />
harsh atonal female vocals that you have to get used to, but there’s<br />
weird lyrics to follow as the guitars keep their distance sensibly and<br />
the percussive touches are delicate dry-brushing. ‘Vector-bourne’ is a<br />
quiet horror, intentionally claustrophobic, ‘Forgetting Or Never<br />
Regretting’ pulls at the leash with some pushy bass, whirring backing<br />
and tighter, pinched vocals, full of aggression, the guitar whining and<br />
aiding the song’s trajectory, as though they were a striped-down<br />
modern Xmal.<br />
‘Invisible’ lumbers along, and the basic nature of the recording brings<br />
the clumping chaos closer. It might seem messy and angstypunkalunkum<br />
but it’s got a shapely idea stuck right in the middle.<br />
‘Don’t Stop Just Go’ wheezes and coughs up an early Banshees lung,<br />
then stamps on it, although I think you need to appreciate bleak postpunk<br />
to stick with it. The persistently pained and sedentary ‘Dead<br />
Man’s Recognition’ is very odd<br />
and as minimal as it gets.<br />
Dancing like a wizened seer<br />
with rickets ‘The Time Will<br />
Come’ sternly sets about being<br />
oddly enjoyable, comparably<br />
frisky, and it’s the comparable<br />
shifts which bring out the<br />
character in a compressed<br />
world of sound like this. It isn’t<br />
just a landscape of shale and<br />
shadows. Gloom is the natural<br />
language, but conversation<br />
isn’t depressing. ‘Sinister’ is<br />
lumpier, and bumpier, and again blessed with disturbing imagery, ‘No<br />
More Of Me’ is doomy and a touch messy, as it labours along, which<br />
is a shame because with a stiffer backbone this would have greater<br />
impact, the bassy tone almost singsong.<br />
With ‘Dark Room’ the mood develops in a more complicated<br />
direction, the vocals refined into a cosmopolitan spell, the music<br />
oozing out eerily and fans of La Peste Negre or Quidam will be into<br />
this. ‘Diseased Mind’ floats on a bass tic, slumping rhythm splashes<br />
and nervy synth behind the haughty vocal presence. It rolls on<br />
musically, gathering more dust and resonance. ‘(I Don’t Want To Be)’<br />
ups the punky lunacy scale a touch, rustling and shuffling all puffed<br />
up, declaiming hotly, with ‘Existence’ in even greater turmoil.<br />
‘Dragged Under’ gets a slinky rhythm mooching through its peaky<br />
asphyxiation. ‘Phobia’ is open and purring, and they should throw<br />
more of this fluid simplicity into their work because it brings it<br />
naturally into life instead of the listener slowly submerging into a<br />
world of pain. In repose ‘Unreflected Love’ is their most interesting<br />
piece, stretched out and agonised but filled with attractive fleeting<br />
touches, before we drift off with ‘In a Trance’, a sombre delicacy.<br />
Now unremitting misery either appeals ore it doesn’t, but for those<br />
who get it as a contemplative backdrop this takes some beating at the<br />
moment due to the basic nature of everything, and the fact there are<br />
different, noticeable stages it goes through ,indicating that<br />
compositional strength exerts a healthy effect. Inject some more<br />
potent urgency next time and they’ll be onto a winning streak.<br />
www.anotherspecies.co.uk<br />
ATTRITION<br />
KILL <strong>THE</strong> BUDDHA! The 25 th Anniversary Tour<br />
Projekt<br />
An impressive live record of the tour across the Europe, America and<br />
Mexico through 2006 and 2007 by Martin Bowes and Laurie Reade,<br />
who are natural ever presents, but with various synth players. Step<br />
forward Edward Davidson, Ned Kirby, Simon Stansfield and Leonardo<br />
Martinzez-Vega. Now step back, and we shall begin.<br />
‘Invitation’ doesn’t actually count, a mere fraction of a piece, then<br />
we’re into the anondyne tone of ‘Favourite Things’ which is offset by<br />
the rather creepy list that is reeled off. ‘The Head Of Gabriel’ slides<br />
freely, mutated sirenic vocals and a despotic male maniac like smow<br />
motion pinball between musical sparks. ‘Dante’s Kitchen’ maingfains<br />
the curvature with amusing Reade vocal wiggles, while but for any<br />
thumbed bass ‘Dreamcatcher’ is like a serial killer in The Mighty<br />
Boosh landscape.<br />
‘I Am Eternity’ is a quivering merrygoround, gone off the rails<br />
through a murderous waltz and ends all floaty. ‘Two Gods’ is mild and<br />
drowsy, with some claim there’s a saying that if you see the Buddha on<br />
the road you should kill the Buddha? I’ve never heard this said, but<br />
maybe I don’t know anyone psycho enough, and anyway you want to<br />
watch no Buddhist Fundamentalists get on your tail or you might<br />
come back as a Chelsea fan.
A lovely, modest record.<br />
www.attrition.co.uk<br />
AUTUMN ANGELS<br />
ENDLOS RADIO<br />
Shadowplay<br />
More electro Gothic sounds<br />
from a duo courtesy of<br />
Shadowplay, like Purple Fog<br />
Side, but here we have the<br />
sepulchral sensibilities of<br />
Bianca on vocals and Sven on<br />
everything else, the album sung<br />
entirely in German, thereby<br />
highly mysterious, but<br />
musically revealing common<br />
ground aplenty, for everyone. If anything it’s a touch too easy on the<br />
ear. Goth Lite.<br />
‘Endlos’ starts ominously, the synth gathering like mist and doing it<br />
delightfully, when suddenly the tune opens up, on a nimble melody<br />
with a vigorous static beat, the vocals waking up and rolling gently<br />
away. ‘Einmal Noch’ is a fairly relaxed affair, mildly troubled beats<br />
roving beneath the vocal sweetness, quite blissfully catchy and with<br />
subtly resilient bass tones for company. I don’t know if it’s a real cello<br />
or synth strings but there’s a brooding air about ‘Nachtliche Fahrt’<br />
which is lightly stormy with the doomy percussion and gloomy male<br />
vocals.<br />
‘Lied Der Traume’ introduces some stylish dark gliding, the various<br />
vocal spirals coming off a robustly swish mood, then ‘Die Zeit<br />
Zwichendrin’ scampers away from its bright start and then melts into<br />
the initially weirder but ultimately bland ‘Nacht Am Ufer.’ ‘Endlos<br />
Rdaio’ bounces back to form, albeit in brief supine and glossy<br />
surroundings, before the more forthright ‘Radio’ wanders along,<br />
although this is all a bit too A-ha for me. ‘1984’ purrs away like an<br />
extended splinter before ‘Nicht Bei Mir (The Freak Song)’ lopes<br />
along, engaging but without the connection of words I can’t tell if its<br />
meaningful or amiable fluff. ‘Engel’ is more of this lean cuisine but<br />
with some calm and committed singing over a pottering percussive<br />
direction, with a weirdly dovetailed ending with more bass and if you<br />
wait a while you get a secret steadfast ambient track which is very<br />
simple and gloopily attractive.<br />
It’s a strange mix, I guess. More conventional than you would expect<br />
from its look, yet also disarmingly engaging overall.<br />
www.myspace.com/autumnangelsband<br />
BLACK TAPE FOR A BLUE GIRL<br />
QUADRANOTICS<br />
Projekt<br />
‘The Mercy Machine’ does the<br />
hypnotic swirly thing with angst<br />
trapped within, ‘The Long Hall’<br />
skitters and bleats and weeps and<br />
soothes, then they end gloriously<br />
on ‘November 18 th , 2006’ with a<br />
big singalong! Then they find out<br />
Martin’s a vegan after they’ve got<br />
the cake. ‘So he may not like all of<br />
it.’? He can have the flames. Oh<br />
no, he’s blown the candles out!<br />
Well! This is a promo EP of sorts to promote the album ’10<br />
Neurotics’ due later this year, in which Sam Rosenthal descends into a<br />
world of seedy hedonism at will, with topics so diverse and lubricious<br />
that the previous singers refused<br />
to sing them, resulting in a much<br />
changed lineup!<br />
How bizarre is that?<br />
Elysabeth Grant, Athan<br />
Maroulis, Nicki Jaine and<br />
Michael Laird have stayed true<br />
to the cause, and also hauled<br />
willingly on board, once they<br />
have queued to slap Sam’s face,<br />
are Brian Viglione of The<br />
Dresden Dolls riding shotgun and Attrition’s Laurie Reade who has<br />
been very busy lately.<br />
It’s not all mid-life musical crisis of course. I have never been the only<br />
asking what might happen if there was a more conventional musical<br />
setting for their work, and here we have some of the answers.<br />
‘Tell Me You’ve Taken Another’ is fabulous indie crossover which<br />
makes exactly the kind of direct connection I’d expect, the melody<br />
stronger the more the atmosphere is opened up, and the furtive or<br />
salacious lyrical content made weirder because of the refined<br />
surroundings, with a haunting flute wending through the filth as the<br />
singer proclaims, ‘I never separate the shame from the pleasure it<br />
arouses,’ sounding a bit mental. All in all it’s like a less melodramatic<br />
Marc Almond soiree.<br />
‘Inch Worm’ contains the hallmarks of early BTFABG, and a twirly<br />
thing it is, with a chorus which would have been much better without<br />
the words ‘inch worm’ involved, as that’s a bit prissy (despite being<br />
inspired by a Courtney Cox blog), leading to something like a<br />
corrupted nursery rhyme.<br />
Great lyrics litter the jauntily sauntering journey including, ‘at least I<br />
won’t be embarrassed when I meet you in Hell.’<br />
There’s a similar flow to ‘Sailor Boy’ and while there’s an intentional<br />
cabaret feel to both of these tunes, it’s also got a historical, bellicose<br />
quality amidst the naughty nautical allusions.<br />
I’m not sure what ‘Caught By A Stranger’ is, other than another lurid<br />
tale, as the music moans and slithers along, before we get the<br />
‘expurgated’ version of ‘Sailor Boy’ and that’s that.<br />
It promises to be an unusual album, clearly. The fetish themes and<br />
cabaret stylings are all old hat of course, as these have been done to<br />
death since the mid-90’s, but in this group the sound dynamics are<br />
different, as are the contrasts between word and music, so weird<br />
things will emerge. Reading the press release it seems more than<br />
likely.<br />
I am a complete innocent about such matters, but apparently the songs<br />
concern dom/sub, furries (a cover of ‘Memory’ from ultra-pervathon<br />
Cats perhaps?), police state fetishists (eh?), pro-anna (no idea there<br />
either), exhibitionists, humiliation, pain, self-destruction, cuckholding<br />
fantasies (what!) and anonymous sex.<br />
The bit that amused me is where Sam talks of being a father and how<br />
children represent the clean slate and people can screw them up<br />
because of their own issues.<br />
Flash forward a few years.<br />
“Dad, can we listen to some of your records?”<br />
“Of course you can! Er, not that one….”<br />
www.blacktapeforabluegirl.com
BLACK TAPE FOR A BLUE GIRL<br />
10 NEUROTICS<br />
Projekt<br />
The advance press release for this made clear that the subject matter<br />
Sam Rosenthal had thrown himself into, immersing himself in a world<br />
of observational lyrical sin, had resulted in former singers associated<br />
with Black Tape For a Blue Girl declining the opportunity to be<br />
involved. It is certainly an unusual and refreshing album for its more<br />
forthright musical tone, kissing goodbye to the ethereal atmosphere<br />
and carrying on through the Revue Noir experiment into more<br />
traditional sounds. He has a band who include some stalwarts of old<br />
such as Nicki Jaine, Michael Laird and Athan Maroulis, with Dresden<br />
Doll’s Brian Viglione and Laurie Reade from Attrition leaping abroad,<br />
and Lucas Lanthier found among the luggage on this creepy voyage.<br />
Sam says, “I set out to create an album that looks at our sexuality,<br />
obsessions and fetishes with a mature (rather than sensationalized)<br />
eye. Our life is a constant churning of desires, sometimes overtaking<br />
us - more often subverted, submerged and repressed. I wanted to<br />
directly confront reality: who are we when the disguise is stripped<br />
away? I wrote from real life as a way to plug directly into the core of<br />
pure experience without filtering it, I developed something genuinely<br />
fresh and vital.” That, or he wants to rock out with his cock out. (I<br />
hope they work a cover of ‘The Internet Is For Porn’ into their live set,<br />
because this isn’t some po-faced encounter.)<br />
There is disturbing material to consider but just how controversial the<br />
subject matter here actually is I’m not sure. Having always been<br />
supportive of people’s fetish-related confessions and interests when<br />
doing my books, knowing it did represent a growing trend during<br />
certain times, whether that was the fetish dress of the 90’s, the ‘furry’<br />
developments earlier this decade, or whatever might be poking<br />
through these days, none of it has ever been of any interest to me. I<br />
actually find it hard to stop regarding such things as strangely<br />
ludicrous, so I can’t imagine the passing listener would hear a song<br />
and either find topics alluring or repulsive. (Mostly.)<br />
True, some might having decided in advance that whenever they<br />
approach any album they require the full blueprints, of lyrics, personal<br />
testimonies, weather conditions when recordings took place, several<br />
sharp HB pencils, graph paper, set square and an attractive hat, but<br />
these people are very rare. When dealing with themes of body image,<br />
body abuse, body worship, is it really that challenging? A truly<br />
controversial album would probably be where someone admitted to a<br />
delirious interest in rape, incest, bestiality and necrophilia, sometimes<br />
all during the same family Christmas party, with Miss Marple in<br />
attendance to give it that much-needed frisson, and I can only hope<br />
nothing like that ever crosses my path.<br />
Oh, what’s the album like? Read on diligent one, read on….<br />
Actually packaging first. The booklet is so luscious it smells. It’s<br />
gloss. The cover shot of a crouching girl with the bad spots touching a<br />
radiator? I don’t know what’s she represents, but there’s a nude cover<br />
as well, in certain territories, as well as a luxury booklet with<br />
beguiling imagery.<br />
‘Sailor Boy’ is a rollicking, lolloping rasping, gnarled encounter with<br />
someone caught in the old <strong>master</strong>/slave relationship and barking<br />
dementedly, as Athan swaggers, and you can sing along. ‘Inch Worm’<br />
is also absurdly slippery, slinky and catchy, Laurie purring proudly<br />
and this one is apparently ‘pro-ana’ which is an anorexia thing?<br />
Would I have known if someone hadn’t told me? I doubt it. The song<br />
has almost an old school fantasy feel rather than anything seedy,<br />
slipping into the surreal, and delivered with scrupulously sublime<br />
melodic sensibilities.<br />
‘Tell Me You’ve Taken Another’ which concerns a man who likes<br />
being cuckolded clearly won’t outrage anyone, although the fact the<br />
term cuckholded is still around might, but the smooth throwback to<br />
80’s crooning which wouldn’t have been out of place in Glenn<br />
Glegory’s mouth, is bound to impress.<br />
It’s quite beautiful, and the addition of Brian Viglione comes into its<br />
own with his relaxed drumming strength and succulent bass, Lisa<br />
Feuer also reappearing with some chaste flute.<br />
‘The Perfect Pervert’ sees the mood darken while actually becoming<br />
lighter, as people ‘play non-consensual’ Laurie and Athan tripping<br />
over somewhat clumsy lyrics and really it’s all rather embarrassing. It<br />
sounds sweet musically, but the words are sixth former wank. ‘My<br />
hand makes contact with your skin, I push you down, I plunge<br />
within’? Oh, God, they’ve gone and woken Hugh Hefner. Here he<br />
comes, dressing gown flapping with excitement.<br />
‘Marmalade Cat’ covers furries, although someone singing about<br />
being a cat needn’t necessarily go so far as someone believing they’re<br />
a cat when dressing up, and I never considered all furries have a<br />
fetishistic attitude, more a tribute of sorts, but I could be wrong. It’s<br />
not like I ever look too deeply. There’s a cool gloomy post-punk aura<br />
about this one. Ponderous but uncoiling with a tremulous ache.<br />
The plainer acoustic ‘Love Song’ doesn’t paint a particularly happy<br />
picture of a relationship but beyond that I don’t know where we’ve<br />
gone with Laurie’s depiction of a dismal character.<br />
‘Rotten Zurich Café’ finds Nikki back in swaying, haughty cabaret<br />
tones, and again someone’s created a bad violent, dismissive example,<br />
but it’s vague and decayed.<br />
‘Militärhymne’ is a mesmerising little slice of sound, with some<br />
warmly rising vocal noise, and deceptively inspiring, while the dark,<br />
doomed ‘In Dystopia’ is only marred by the spoken end effectively<br />
repeating the same words when lines could have gradually lessened in<br />
length. It’s a tale of intentional suffering, I guess.<br />
‘The Pleasure In The Pain’ covers the same territory, with people<br />
accepting abuse, and Athan juggling clunky words skilfully. A fullblooded<br />
post-punk majesty unfurls and it’s a surprise it all seems so<br />
short. The delicate ‘I Strike You Down’ just confused me, as I had no<br />
idea who was doing what to whom, or whether it was intentional, as<br />
Elsyabeth’ Grant’s vocals swirled around the sparse setting. ‘Caught<br />
By A Stranger’ is another exquisitely ghostly blend of the exotic and<br />
the moody, but not the erotic for this boy. It concerns exhibitionism<br />
but I’m lulled by the knobbly percussion and weird remote sounds<br />
weaving their way through and behind Laurie’s smoky vocals.<br />
‘Curious, Yet Ashamed’ is slightly mental, Lucas trembling with<br />
excitement and dementia, over panoply of pervy possibilities.<br />
We end with something awful in ‘Love Of The Father’ but not in any<br />
ineffectual way. Anything involving child abuse will always be
upsetting, and here we have something strikingly painful, through the<br />
eyes of a child, denying God through the obvious wrongs of his<br />
situation, with a controlled, plaintive vocal delivery and a tensile<br />
backing, creating an image of desolation and despair which is<br />
seriously powerful.<br />
It also has an open-ended aspect in that you don’t know if you’re also<br />
hearing of further debasement or simply the knock-on effect of abuse<br />
then creating unstable relationships further down the line. Either way<br />
it’s a bit of sledgehammer to the senses after the disguised and<br />
dimpled debauchery of previous tracks.<br />
With the exception of ‘The Perfect Pervert’ this is a compelling album<br />
and one which marks a totally modern Black Tape which can reach out<br />
to a new audience almost, as well as carrying existing followers along<br />
into new areas, just the way Ataraxia do with the unpredictability of<br />
their output. The question I guess we have to ask is will Sam ever now<br />
go back into the shadows, or is he fully out there in the light, ready to<br />
rawk? Well, not that far perhaps, no Sigue Sigue Sputnik outfits being<br />
prepared, but you know what I mean.<br />
There may be some odd themes here, for some, but really it’s a stylish<br />
collection of songs every bit as evocative as they may be provocative,<br />
and I think that’s what interests us most, isn’t it?<br />
www.blacktapeforabluegirl.com<br />
www.myspace.com/blacktapeforabluegirl<br />
http://10neurotics.blogspot.com – this is brilliant.<br />
BLACKLIST<br />
MIDNIGHT OF <strong>THE</strong> CENTURY<br />
Weird Records<br />
Everything about this is BIG. From big<br />
sounds being forced out of already<br />
tigrish melodies, to big traditions being<br />
respectfully upheld, this is like a direct<br />
transfusion for anyone whose senses<br />
are buoyed by the spirits of 80’s indie<br />
greats, which is no surprise given the<br />
band hold the names of The Sound, Chameleons and The Sound as<br />
sacred.<br />
Coming on like The Comsat Angels with their pockets stuffed full of<br />
early Cure bootlegs ‘Still Changes’ cuts a scalded figure dancing like<br />
a bastard in the gloom. ‘Your faith ran out and see us free, from the<br />
stranglehold of destiny, we’re letting go of hollow laughter and<br />
stupid charms and apocalyptic fantasies, we’re in command.’ Oh, I<br />
was going to say that! The vocals are coyly paraded by loaded with<br />
meaning as though someone’s pushing the deadliest ammunition into<br />
an old musket regardless of the consequences, the guitar leers out of<br />
the mix with filthy happiness and the drums shake anything not nailed<br />
down, as a carefree bass operates like a musical glue canister.<br />
‘Flight Of The Demoiselles’ cavorts gloriously on the grave of early<br />
Simple Minds, ducks down low, whips around and flashes its arse with<br />
a rising chorus which the guitar constantly buffs up. It makes you feel<br />
ready for anything, without actually knowing what’s going on. ‘Shock<br />
In The Hotel Falcon’ sets out it’s enormous rhythmical traps for<br />
people to be gripped by, as the vocals pick their way through the<br />
spaces, and then mischievously it becomes quite poppy, with a spring<br />
in its seedy step, and guitar gargling to create some woozy variety.<br />
‘Language Of The Living Dead’ is a brief succulent hotspot, with dark<br />
yearning, a softly morbid chorus and the lushest guitar caresses, but<br />
‘Odessa’ isn’t as strong, having a strong acoustic heart which is never<br />
going to carry the same weight, being spirited fluff. ‘Julie Speaks’ is<br />
wired and bulging with power from the off, the guitar spinning out<br />
extended wiggly notes and capricious peaks as the sullen bass<br />
marches alongside terse drums, the mood frostily indignant but once<br />
again the words lob subtle lassoes and the chorus becomes a<br />
surprising singalong success!<br />
‘Poison For Tomorrow’ is brisk, polished and a bit melodrama-bynumbers,<br />
but the descaled Bowiesque frills of ‘Frontiers’, with a<br />
neatly dovetailed ‘The Cunning Of History’ more interesting for its<br />
subdued hues and smart repetition. ‘When Worlds Collide’ opens the<br />
windows, lets cooler air dispel the dust and spins us back into the<br />
creamy world of early 80’s post-punk melodic giddiness, although it<br />
seems empty-headed slop. ‘Running wild on a world in motion,<br />
building bridges over every ocean’? Step away from the Tears For<br />
Fears albums! ‘The Believer’ is a relaxing if blustery closer, moving<br />
like a primped Psy Furs, and dead catchy and that’s the album done. A<br />
fine album it is too, although I have a reservation about how pristine<br />
everything is. Despite the energy clearly being present, and the feeling,<br />
it’s somehow too produced for me, which robs certain songs of<br />
genuine atmosphere and gives them a recognisable stance instead, as<br />
though a great band has been trapped inside the hermetically<br />
ventilated studio of a maniacal collector of bands. A Dr Who type<br />
situation, with anguished musicians continually forced to wear smart<br />
clothes. (You know what I mean.)<br />
However, they are a great band because while they have all manner of<br />
identifiable influences waving sneakily from the shadows, or<br />
sometimes right out front, they sound like the band in charge<br />
throughout, and as we lost Bell Hollow, it’s up to Blacklist to carry the<br />
mutant hybrid torch representing old-meeting-new, but next time a<br />
little less restraint chaps, okay?<br />
www.listofblack.com<br />
BUZZ<br />
1984-1989<br />
VAUDOU ELECTRONIQUE<br />
Own Label<br />
This electro bunch are weird, with<br />
their strictly perfect and pertinent New<br />
Wave sensibilities and Post-Punk<br />
outlook, making them more slinky and<br />
fun than the Cold Weave scene which<br />
also fits them loosely. If you look at<br />
their myspace page you see the great Ski Patrol among their top<br />
friends, just as you’ll also see Adrian Borland and Red Lorry Yellow<br />
Lorry alongside The Young Gods and Suicide. You may even have<br />
heard their early work as many releases were on Danceteria and<br />
seemed cutely dimpled at the time. Looking at their bio you also find<br />
mention of them playing with Anne Clark and Minimal Compact so<br />
yes, they have a history (even a remix by David Harrow!), but they<br />
went into hibernation ages ago, reforming in 2006. Since then, a<br />
veritable flurry of releases, two of which we have here.<br />
So the main album here is a retrospective release of their eighties<br />
adventures and, interestingly remixes precede originals, which<br />
presumably tells us something about the new replacing the old? Being<br />
old it’s also quite lightweight, and pumping up the volume has little<br />
effect. ‘Berlin’ burbles and whistles into action, guitar picking at the<br />
synth bones with their bright optimism, creating a wriggling contusion<br />
from which cheeky vocals burst through.<br />
The ‘Kennedy’ remix goes a bit syndrum-happy, but the cool synth<br />
keeps things moody, a bit like slo-mo Cassandra Complex, with the<br />
original ‘Kennedy’ a touch more dour. The ‘Marinneti’ remix<br />
highlights how it’s the nifty beat and skimpy guitar which propels the<br />
song forward, the vocals eager, the ‘Picasso’ remix swoons with<br />
playful female vocals, a light pungent synth simplicity, with ‘Picasso’<br />
a bit duller. ‘Marinetti’ is a chunky pop song than the remix creates.<br />
It’s got a bounce and a deadpan commercial shape. ‘Lo Sai’ continues<br />
in that way with a sublime vocal catchiness and a bittersweet musical<br />
motif. ‘Sexe’ puffs and pants, steamily, then ‘El American Dream’
sashays cockily like a very early Salt n Pepa shuffle. ‘Contract’ is like<br />
anti-wine bar, graciously dark, with ‘1984’ a very French affair,<br />
wheezily grim but still furtively fluid.<br />
It ends with a series of live songs. ‘Prega Per Noi’ doesn’t do much,<br />
‘Berlin’ is as from the vinyl but with beltier vocals, ‘L’ocange<br />
Mécanique’ damn lively and fruity, ‘Kennedy’ brittle but gnashing,<br />
and ‘Petite Poupée Japonaise’ a winsome drifter “Vaudou<br />
Electronique” translates apparently as Cyber-carnage, and comes from<br />
a February 2009 live recording at Radio Aligre, Paris. It’s a limited<br />
edition in a single case, signed on the inside, with a hand drawn label,<br />
which is very cute. There’s only eight songs, and no titles, but it’s<br />
friskier in tone, with greater weight, mooching below ground, darting<br />
softly across glacial spaces and glittery humps. Initially they allude to<br />
punk rock, like Metal Urbain in waistcoats, then off they go, swishing<br />
alarmingly into disco mode for ‘Berlin’, rotating like modern day<br />
witches on heat. They also creating some thicker moods, leaving a<br />
solid trail of pulsating music, which the earlier recordings couldn’t<br />
create. Home-based technology has move on somewhat and become<br />
their trusted friend, helping give ‘Kennedy’ a deeper, less fractious<br />
allure. There are moments of blandness, but these are brief compared<br />
to the glowing consistency, and either record should be intriguing<br />
finds for electro historians.<br />
www.myspace.com/buzzbiz<br />
www.nordwaves.fr – magnificent site, indispensable for tracking<br />
down info on classic French bands.<br />
CHILDREN OF <strong>THE</strong> GUN<br />
FROM <strong>THE</strong> SEA TO <strong>THE</strong> OCEAN<br />
Shadowplay<br />
There’s a very smart start to this Goth album with an orchestral ‘Let<br />
The Ride Begin’ that is brief as anything before ‘Ride The USA’ takes<br />
up the metaphorical baton and lopes away with it, classic spindly Goth<br />
guitar behind the aching vocals. Chilled piano and eager drums sees<br />
‘No Reason’ bustling along behind cheery vocals which has such a<br />
gregarious atmosphere, celebratory until the gentle slope into silence.<br />
Delicate, dowdy organ blinks through a tiny piece called ‘Warped<br />
Spaces’ then ‘Dreary Halls’ mopes but<br />
keeps its grim chin up with an<br />
attractive flair, as the gentle melodic<br />
incline of ‘Insanity’ with its thin,<br />
massaging guitar is lovely too.<br />
‘Forever’ goes all flossy and gushing<br />
in a pop sense, which is a bit weird,<br />
yet with its hopelessly optimistic<br />
feeling it’s deeply becoming. It’s one<br />
degree removed from normality, then<br />
‘1000 Miles Deep’ goes for its own<br />
insane drama, with vocals hung out to<br />
dry in anguish over pulsing synth misery: talk about contrast!<br />
‘From The Sea To The Ocean’ jingles and jangles back in full Goth<br />
effect, down in the mouth but with shining teeth, the lyrics grey as the<br />
guitar is fluorescent. ‘Burning Butterflies’ does a strange acoustic<br />
thing with a sense of confusion then they’re off again in ‘Shining<br />
Waterfalls’, darting forth with busy guitar and sticky bass, and emptyheaded<br />
vocal jollity. ‘Lost In Summer’ is equally mild but absurdly<br />
appealing with regret couched in such lithe surroundings and the<br />
stately ‘Everything Goes Away’ sits there in its acoustic splendour<br />
wittering on about the weather.<br />
How Goth it is, I’m not sure, how far it fits in with thoughtful indie I<br />
don’t know either. It’s a bit like a cosy version of The House Of<br />
Usher.<br />
www.myspace.com/childrenofthegun<br />
COLLIDE<br />
TWO HEADED MONSTER<br />
Noise Plus<br />
I like the warmth of Collide. For all the complexity of the layers, and<br />
for two people they sure erect a stern musical firewall, yet inside, and<br />
outside, of all the quivering power they remain resolutely human when<br />
some pairings find themselves sterilised by the whole balancing act.<br />
‘Tongue Tied & Twisted’ starts of all musically taut and vocal<br />
intentionally dithery, then shrinking and crouching when brutal guitar<br />
slashes intersect the supple undulations, all of which is good, as you<br />
learn to listen out for different aspects of sections while retaining a<br />
sense of a definable course.<br />
They also mask the melody which then walks straight across in front<br />
of you, like a shire horse at a traffic light. ‘Chaotic’ is far noisier yet<br />
still enjoys exploring the basement of sounds, wriggling and dusty,<br />
spaces allowing the feverish electronic sparks some light, while the<br />
vocals stick to the shadows, the battling percussion and swerving<br />
guitar distracting us.<br />
‘A Little Too Much’ has no such modesty, the vocals exuding purpose<br />
as the music courteously falls back, and a sumptuous feel bathes in<br />
melodic sunlight, with a beautiful slowly blooming chorus, and there’s<br />
some tweaked, sour guitar to frisk the air up a little. A subdued<br />
opening to ‘Pure Bliss’ doesn’t disguise the wayward dreaminess, the<br />
cutely absorbing lyrical flourishes, or the coiled tension.
‘Spaces In Between’ swipes the best china off the table and slaps<br />
down tectonic plates instead, the rhythmical fizz scampering as the<br />
vocals remain imperiously controlled, the song like a giant figurehead<br />
of a ship transplanted onto a lethal skateboard. Looming, zooming.<br />
It’s a crazed little caper, and we all like those.<br />
The bleached bones of ‘Silently Creeping’ wobble like a hall of<br />
mirrors, hot with that fake mirage effect. ‘Head Spin’ is vocally<br />
saucier, the sound still a deceitful hammock, restful but jabbing you<br />
with playful little shocks, lulling you cheekily. I’m not sure what the<br />
mildewed intensity of ‘Two Headed Monster’ represents, seeming<br />
shorter and pretty open-ended, and there’s more tortured drowsiness<br />
about ‘Shifting’, a downcast post-Portishead opulence evident. Closer<br />
‘Utopia’ moves from hazily choked to timidly vanishing, which makes<br />
for an odd end.<br />
You can’t go by one listen or you might think it’s got a delicate gloss<br />
and doesn’t demand as much as previous releases, or provide as much<br />
variety, but the weirdness aspect is actually quite high, and at other<br />
times they’re at their most accessible. I’d have preferred some more<br />
noise at times myself, but the resounding impression is that here is a<br />
gorgeous record.<br />
COLLIDE<br />
<strong>THE</strong>SE EYES BEFORE<br />
Noise Plus<br />
It’s surely worth mentioning that on the way to see ‘2012’ Lynda and I<br />
were debating the term Knights Of The Road. We’d already discarded<br />
the highwayman derivation and I was supporting the notion that this is<br />
how people regarded AA or RAC men when they first on motorcycle<br />
patrols, as they would be seen coming to a damsel’s distress back in<br />
the 30’s, or whenever. And, I pitched, they were obliged to wear white<br />
satin.<br />
That seemed to be the clincher. Now, after the superb ‘Two Head<br />
Monster’ album, Collide offer us their interpretation on ten perceived<br />
classics, and it’s a conservative choice in most ways, being all-<br />
embracing ‘classics’ with David Essex thrown into the mix, which<br />
appeals to me.<br />
‘Breathe’ is a new one on me, but it’s by Pink Floyd which explains<br />
my ignorance, as they’ve never appealed. It’s attractive slow-drip<br />
electronica, then up pops none other than ‘Nights In White Satin’<br />
devoted to all mechanics turned footpads, with a soft, luxurious<br />
atmosphere and ache, although the original did too, so the supportive<br />
press release blather of devastating new arrangements isn’t necessarily<br />
the full or honest picture. They’re sharing the same wavelength,<br />
making it blossom as it fills the air.<br />
‘Come Together’ is by those Beatles bastards, even I know that. This<br />
broods at the bottom and acts sneaky at the top, retreating into its<br />
shell like a ninja tortoise.<br />
‘Creep’ is very coy, not like a pram-recording of the infant Katie<br />
Garside about to throw her rattle through a bank window, but graceful<br />
instead of wrecked and wracked with vocals dominating, all but<br />
ignoring the guitar clutch shift. ‘Rock On’ is inflated rather than the<br />
even sparser approach I was expecting. It actually makes it less<br />
exciting to my ears, as though decorating. ‘I Feel You’ is cool though,<br />
like an arthritic robot finding freedom ice skating.<br />
‘Space Oddity’ sounds like a concerned Kate Bush, and a chunky<br />
guitar serenade. ‘Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing’ is wonderful, with an<br />
early touch of glam T Rexiness, a ‘Sign O The Times’ wilting vocal<br />
and some general jerky potency. ‘Tusk’ opts for some inverted tribal<br />
darting frothiness, a bit like The Bangles hits pulped in a blender.<br />
‘Comfortably Numb’ is another Punk Floyd song, closing as they<br />
opened from which I deduce, brilliantly, that they mean something to<br />
Collide who are dramatic, rolling around in the tune, and swaying like<br />
a resentful ark.<br />
Strange and fun.<br />
www.collide.net
EYE CONTACT<br />
Another band known for consistently<br />
high quality releases COL-<br />
LIDE have excelled themselves<br />
recently and we dwell here upon<br />
their unusual choice of material<br />
for a covers album, from the<br />
conventional to the mind-boggling,<br />
in a world where Depeche<br />
Mode meets David Essex!<br />
PHOTOS: Dave Keffer<br />
COLLIDE<br />
We’ll do an interview when the next Collide album proper<br />
comes out if that’s alright, but for now I think this idea of a<br />
covers album is quite odd. How long has this been burning<br />
in your brain?<br />
kaRIN: “Hmmmm burning brains. Actually, we have had the idea for<br />
awhile. In the last two years we released a full length called Two<br />
Headed Monster and a side project called The Secret Meeting With<br />
Dean Garcia (Curve). We were not quite ready to head back to the<br />
studio...yet we can’t stay away either...so it felt like the right time to<br />
tackle the cover CD.”<br />
Statik: “It had been in our brains for at least 4 years. I think it was<br />
booked in kaRIN’s brain while we were working on the DVD. We<br />
actually did a rough cover of Breathe while we were doing the acoustic<br />
songs for it, and ending up using some of the guitars that we recorded<br />
then on the final version.”<br />
Without flummoxing me with facts is there anything<br />
stopping bands covering any song they like, or do you<br />
have to seek permission in every case? (Might seem like a<br />
dumb question but I never asked anybody this.)<br />
kaRIN: “You can cover any song you want, but you have to pay for it<br />
prior to releasing it. The amount is based on how many CDs you press<br />
and the length of the song. It costs the same amount to cover a well<br />
known artist as an unknown artist. An agency called Harry Fox<br />
handles a lot of these transactions, otherwise you need to contact the<br />
individual publishers directly to pay them.”<br />
Statik: “It makes it way easier to do it through the Harry Fox agency<br />
because it’s pretty much an automated system. There were some songs<br />
where we had to contact the publishers. There were a few songs we<br />
were interested in with multiple publishers, that we opted to not do<br />
because it would be more complicated.”<br />
Do you get any feedback on what the original artists<br />
thought?
kaRIN: “Not yet, I hope one day we will.”<br />
Statik: “I’m sure kaRIN wouldn’t mind lunch with David Bowie.”<br />
kaRIN: “That’s true =).”<br />
Let us slip through the album if we may. First off, Pink<br />
Floyd twice. I’m assuming this band mean a great deal to<br />
you?<br />
kaRIN: “Yes, I spent my growing up years listening to a lot of Pink<br />
Floyd. To this day they remain one of my favorite bands.”<br />
Statik: “As an artist, they were more influential to kaRIN than myself,<br />
although I have always loved Comfortably Numb, and can remember<br />
listening to it over and over as a kid. The Wall was a huge album, and<br />
when I saw the movie, I don’t think I had every experienced anything<br />
like it.”<br />
So why ‘Breathe’ and ‘Comfortably Numb’, what speaks<br />
you in those two?<br />
kaRIN: “I find their words touch me to the core and are so timeless.<br />
Words are important to me. I can’t sing words that I don’t feel<br />
connected to.”<br />
Statik: “I wasn’t that familiar with Breathe before I met kaRIN, and<br />
she introduced me to that song. To tell you the truth, I just really liked<br />
kaRIN’s vocal performance so much that that was one of the reasons<br />
we decided to do two Pink Floyd Songs.”<br />
I know nothing of the band, so can you give an example of<br />
how you have done things differently?<br />
Statik: “It was harder to get away from the original on Comfortably<br />
Numb, but I know that kaRIN’s vocal phrasing was quite a bit<br />
different. She had her own laid back way of doing it. Most of the time<br />
when I do a cover, I try not to go back on listen to the original very<br />
much. I find that what I remember in my head is sometime quite<br />
different than the original, and sometime very different. It really just<br />
depends on the song.”<br />
‘Nights In White Satin’ – this is a real old chestnut isn’t it?<br />
I remember as a child being plagued by this forever on the<br />
radio, what appealed to you about this and can you<br />
remember why it first made an impact? You seem to have<br />
spiced it up but stuck very faithfully to the spirit – I<br />
daresay it’s hard not to?<br />
kaRIN: “Another one of those songs when I heard it as a child, it just<br />
stopped me in my tracks and crept inside.”<br />
Statik: “This was actually suggested by one of my best friends a few<br />
years ago. I never really gave it much thought until we started on the<br />
album. I had the album on vinyl, and gave it a re-listen. I really loved<br />
the chord changes on this song, and the string parts. The only thing<br />
that seemed really necessary to change was the bridge, as the original<br />
was a bit too dated sounding...if kaRIN started singing about unicorns<br />
there, we knew we were on the wrong path.”<br />
‘Come Together’ – it’s a bit weirder, obviously, but what<br />
did you want to do with this? Why this from their entire<br />
catalogue?<br />
kaRIN: “Good question...there was a lot of Beatles songs to pick<br />
from. I really liked the Beatles sort of drug era music the best, which<br />
is probably because that was the time when I started to appreciate<br />
them the most. I was also wanting to do Lucy in the Sky with<br />
Diamonds, but we decided Come Together would be a better choice<br />
for us. Again, I love the words...they are so whimsical and visual. I<br />
love the chorus because it is very uniting without being corny, or<br />
sappy.”<br />
Statik: “It was a one of my favorite songs of theirs because of the bass<br />
part. I just always remembered that. It had such an infectious groove.<br />
It’s a simple song, in arrangement, but perhaps that’s one of the<br />
reasons it’s so good.”<br />
‘Creep’ – I was waiting for that massive guitar moment, but<br />
you avoid it and it seems more floaty, less tense? You<br />
obviously had your plans, so what were they?<br />
Statik: “I’m not a huge Radiohead fan, but we both thought that that<br />
song was great. I know that at this point Radiohead pretty much hate<br />
the song, but it’s simple chord structure and melody and arrangement<br />
is brilliant. I wanted to make it more electronic, but keep the build that
the original had. kaRIN is a floaty singer, and sometimes the superguitar-loud-singing<br />
thing just doesn’t work for us.”<br />
kaRIN: “I can’t say that I have listened to a ton of Radiohead, or was<br />
very familiar with any of their other songs. Creep was just one was<br />
one of those knock you over the head songs. For me it’s the<br />
chorus...everyone feels like they are odd, or weird, or isolated in some<br />
ways. In my thoughts that’s a good thing though.”<br />
‘Rock On’ – David Essex?!! Why on Earth would you have<br />
David Essex in your sights? Don’t get me wrong, he has<br />
great taste in football teams and I’ve always liked the<br />
bloke, including ‘Gonna Make You A Star’, but why this<br />
one? Why not ‘Lamplight’?<br />
Statik: “I don’t know any other songs by David Essex, so as an artist,<br />
he wasn’t someone who influenced us, but we both really liked this<br />
song. I had it on an old compilation (cassette) tape that I used to listen<br />
to over and over again. Again, for me, it was all about the bass, and<br />
groove, and the vocal delay sound. Simple, but a groove that was<br />
great. Also, I don’t think that a lot of younger people even know of the<br />
song, so it would be kind of a cool way to have people re-introduced<br />
to it.”<br />
kaRIN: “I don’t know if I have ever really heard too many other songs<br />
by him either. It was another one of those songs you heard on the radio<br />
when you were a kid and it struck you. It is hard to say why some<br />
songs penetrate your core and some do not. I feel like the melody<br />
hooked me on this one.”<br />
‘I Feel You’ – it’s very pretty, but what moves you here?<br />
What inspires you? It’s like Portishead sharing a ride with<br />
ZZ Top then it gets weirdly moody.<br />
kaRIN: “We looked at a lot of Depeche Mode songs and picked this<br />
one. Ultimately, I think we were drawn to the guitar line.”<br />
Statik: “Ok, ZZ Top...I think I feel slightly insulted, but I’ll take the<br />
Portishead reference. We both liked a lot of Depeche Mode songs, a<br />
lot of people do covers of them, so we were a bit hesitant for that<br />
reason, but this one was fun for me to play on guitar. I’m not really a<br />
guitar player, I just pick and poke, but this one was one I could do.<br />
Groove again is most important to me, as vocals are important for<br />
kaRIN.”<br />
‘Space Oddity’ – a spacious song, so there must have<br />
been loads of ways this could be approached. Why your<br />
way? It seems quite happy, like drifting away in space isn’t<br />
such a bad thing.<br />
kaRIN: “David Bowie is another of my all time favorites...I just tried<br />
not to screw it up too much. Space Oddity touched me because it is a<br />
meaningful song with amazing lyrics. Vocally, I may have suggested a<br />
little more abstractness in the feel of the song, which is pretty<br />
common for me in my own writing...so that you may draw your own<br />
conclusions.”<br />
Statik: “On this song, I found it much easier to get away from the<br />
original on the first 1/3 of the song than the last part, but it just kind<br />
of morphed into what it did. Like so many of these songs that are<br />
classics (in my book anyway) one of the main goals, first and<br />
foremost, was just try not to screw it up...then do your own thing.”<br />
‘Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing’ – a new one on me, I’ll admit.<br />
Why didn’t he become a huge name? What grabs you<br />
about this song in particular?<br />
kaRIN: “It’s a sexy song. The one that I really wanted to do by Chris<br />
Issac was Wicked Game, but Statik was more attracted to Baby Did a<br />
Bad Bad Thing. Ultimately, we had to pick songs that we could both<br />
feel like we could interpret.”<br />
Statik: “When I thought about Wicked Game, I couldn’t really hear<br />
where I’d go with it. This one just seemed a bit more open to us doing<br />
our own thing. I think we both though that it was a very sexy song.”<br />
‘Tusk’ – I never really got the whole Fleetwood Mac thing,<br />
or during this period of theirs was it more a Stevie Nicks<br />
thing? Can you explain it, and what you’ve done here?<br />
kaRIN: “This was Statik’s pick. He has this thing when he loves a<br />
song... he plays it over and over until it’s deeply embedded into his<br />
brain... so this was one of those songs for him. I think it was the band<br />
thing rhythmically because Statik was a band leader in his school<br />
days. I enjoyed the CD Rumors, but probably would not have picked<br />
any of the songs because they were a little too commercial for my<br />
taste. I was not familiar with Tusk at all before we did it, which was
www.collide.net<br />
surprising to me as it was supposedly a big hit of theirs. I think the<br />
final decision to do this song was that Statik wanted to be able to<br />
include a live marching band on the song. In the end, I really like the<br />
song.”<br />
Statik: “I don’t think that there is another Fleetwood Mac song that I<br />
really like, but this was one of their more odd songs, and it just stuck<br />
with me. I was in a marching band, and I loved the idea of having a<br />
marching song in a pop song. This was actually a Lindsey<br />
Buckingham song, and I think the label wasn’t too impressed with it at<br />
the time, as it was a little “too out there” for their taste. The biggest<br />
hurdle when we did it is working an actual marching band into our<br />
recording, which we were luckily able to do, because it was the thing<br />
which I really didn’t want to try to synthesize.”<br />
Incidentally, I’m assuming you like all the people behind<br />
these songs but that may not be true, you may just like the<br />
specific song. Is that true in any cases?<br />
kaRIN: “Yes, as covered above... some were picked for love of the<br />
artist in general and we had to decide what song to pick and some<br />
were chosen just for the song.”<br />
Statik: “Most definitely. There are a ton of songs on my ipod that I<br />
have just one of by a certain artist.”<br />
I couldn’t even begin to wittle my favourites down to a top<br />
ten, how long did it take you to reach the final selection?<br />
kaRIN: “It really came down to songs we loved and songs we thought<br />
we could Collidize (new word).”<br />
Statik: “Well, it wasn’t a top ten list of songs, but it was 10 songs that<br />
we both liked, and had vocal parts or words and melody that kaRIN<br />
could work with, and some aspect that I could hear us doing<br />
something with. There were some songs, say some by Queen (who I<br />
love) for example, and I just love too much, and are so ingrained in my<br />
head, that I just couldn’t do anything different with.”<br />
What decided whether a song could be used? Did you<br />
have to just know you definitely wanted the song done in a<br />
certain way, were some rejected because you knew you<br />
might muck one up, were some up for experimentation?<br />
www.saintsandsinners.tv<br />
Was there a definite set of principles established before<br />
you began selecting?<br />
kaRIN: “Quite a bit...we spent hours going through every song we<br />
could think of to narrow it down. Some songs got knocked out because<br />
of the words and some songs were too sacred and untouchable. Some<br />
songs got knocked out because we both were not hearing it...like<br />
Queen...Statik loves Queen...we never found a Queen song to do.<br />
Lately, I always hear him playing Queen...I think he may be feeling<br />
Queen repressed.”<br />
Did they all work, or did you try some one way, have to<br />
stop, and then go back?<br />
kaRIN: “Hopefully they all worked. Originally we planned to do a few<br />
extras and drop some out...but we loved all the babies.”<br />
Statik: “We were able to get rough version of all of them going pretty<br />
quick. The thing for us that takes the longest is all of the little details<br />
that go into it, but ultimately that’s my favorite part.”<br />
Did respect for the originals actually get in the way at all?<br />
Most were pretty recognisable to me pretty early on. It<br />
doesn’t seem like you’ve gutted an entity and virtually<br />
rebuilt?<br />
kaRIN: “Yes, definitely respect for the originals intentionally got in<br />
the way. If you ever listen to our version of Son of a Preacher Man,<br />
which was one of the early covers we did...we completely re-wrote the<br />
song...EVERYTHING about it is different. In this case, we wanted to<br />
pay respect to the original integrity of the songs. Sometimes I would<br />
mess around changing things, but we were were not there to totally<br />
alter them just because. Some songs we did not even want to touch for<br />
this reason.”<br />
Statik: “I think if you are going to gut a song entirely, there should be<br />
a good reason for it. I think we both felt that on these songs, there just<br />
wasn’t that reason. It is a fine line between respecting the original and<br />
making it your own, so we just did our best.”<br />
Which songs didn’t make the final cut? Were there any<br />
you began work on and couldn’t finish?
kaRIN: “All the ones we started were finished.”<br />
Were any disasters, no matter how hard you tried?<br />
kaRIN: “You tell us...any disasters.”<br />
Statik: “Yes, we had a major hard drive crash that set us back a<br />
month. We do pretty frequent back ups, but at one point my backup<br />
drive died a quick death. It was still under warrantee, and as I was<br />
waiting for the replacement to arrive, our main recording drive died<br />
too. I should have been better and quicker about getting another<br />
backup drive, but I guess it just taught us a lesson. Nights in White<br />
Satin suffered the most there, but I was able to get back to where we<br />
were though a few bits of good luck.”<br />
I never count remixes, so your albums normally weigh in<br />
at 10 or 11. Is there a mystical reason behind this or are<br />
more practical/aesthetic considerations at play?<br />
Statik: “For us, I think the biggest reason is just the time that it takes<br />
to finish a song.Sometimes we try to do more, and maybe a few fall by<br />
the wayside, but mostly, it’s about how many we can get done in a<br />
certain amount of time.”<br />
kaRIN: “Making music is very consuming for us. Ultimately, we<br />
would rather spend more time on fewer songs to make sure that they<br />
are as good as we can make them.”<br />
I see from your blog you’re considering, ‘A brand new<br />
category called Special Packages where you can do fun<br />
things like go out to dinner with us, come to the studio,<br />
create with us, or go biking with Statik.’ Which is<br />
something I have heard of others doing. Is this is a new<br />
way bands have to expand what they do to bring in<br />
finances?<br />
kaRIN: “I think musicians now are considering all things for<br />
continued survival. In the articles I read regarding the subject... the<br />
headlines are things like “Adapt or Die.” We are obsessed with<br />
making music, so we must figure out how to afford to continue.<br />
Making music for a living is very satisfying and very challenging. It<br />
takes a lot of energy.”<br />
Statik: “There are a few bands I can think of that I would love to do<br />
some of those things with. I try to put myself in the position of fan and<br />
see if it’s something that I would be interested in. It’s a premium type<br />
thing, but a lot of people liked the idea of us doing it....we sort of put<br />
it out there on Facebook a while before to test the waters of doing it.<br />
The personalized Birthday song has been our biggest “hit” of the<br />
packages so far.”<br />
What if someone goes biking with Statik and ends up<br />
falling into a ravine, hmmm? The insurance premiums!<br />
kaRIN: “Yes, they will have to sign a liability waiver.”<br />
Statik: “But on the bright side, they won’t beat me to the top.”<br />
kaRIN: “I think that is a challenge...Statik can be very competitive.”<br />
What do you envisage people ‘creating’ with you?<br />
Something elementary like potato prints, or did you have<br />
music in mind?<br />
kaRIN: “That would really be up to them.”<br />
Statik: “I don’t want potato prints from people, no. I can honestly say<br />
it has never crossed my mind.”<br />
Do you do the new ticket thing as well, where people do<br />
the meet the band thing and backstage?<br />
kaRIN: “Our focus has never been live so not really...they can come<br />
have dinner with us, or drink with us.”<br />
Statik: “If we did more live shows, it would probably be an option.”<br />
Is this all because of the net impact on music, have things<br />
worked out well or badly for you? You now what I mean,<br />
the whole CD sales falling, downloads weighing in as<br />
heavily as anticipated. How is the situation for Collide<br />
compared to, say, ten years ago?<br />
kaRIN: “We have been around for quite awhile now and have<br />
definitely seen a lot of changes. When we started making music, the<br />
whole internet thing was new and exposing your music that way was<br />
revolutionary. It meant that a band like ourselves could release music<br />
on our own terms, and gather a following without touring.We did not<br />
even play our first show until tens years into it. Back then it was<br />
exciting to have access to so much exposure and information...now it<br />
feels that they are immersed in too much, so it is no longer as special.<br />
That’s just my take on it though.”<br />
Statik: “It’s just really about an artist finding a way to keep making it<br />
work. I read where Trent Reznor said he thought that people thought<br />
of albums more like magazines than novels, so he was going to make<br />
music keeping that in mind. For me, I’m not really that way. There are<br />
still lots of things to try...subscribing to an artist, and hearing songs as<br />
they come along, or one offs instead of whole albums. I’m not closed<br />
to anything.”<br />
Is your firm Saints & Sinners kept entirely separate? I<br />
wondered where all the know-how for this actually<br />
manifested itself.<br />
kaRIN: “They are two totally different entities that help feed each<br />
other. I was a designer long before a musician. I am lucky to have two<br />
creative fields that I am completely passionate about. I have always<br />
felt obsessed by creating...early on it was my way to control my world<br />
around me. I was a sensitive child that needed outlets.”<br />
Scents?!! Specially blended? Doesn’t this cost or do you<br />
link up people in different areas and combine talents?<br />
kaRIN: “The perfumes on the site were custom blended for us by Neil<br />
@ Planetary Vapors. He wrote to me to ask me if he could send me a<br />
perfume inspired by our music. I was flattered...I felt like J-Lo and of<br />
course I liked the scents, so I added them on to the site. When I was<br />
young I used to try to make perfumes myself. I would take all my<br />
Moms perfumes and blend them together to put on my stuffed dog<br />
Pinky...but that is as far as I got making perfumes.”<br />
Do you find yourself seeking out new skills to acquire like<br />
artesans of old, or do people ask for things and you then<br />
work out how to create them?<br />
kaRIN: “I always just do my own thing...usually inspired by what I<br />
want next. I began with jewelry, then as a painter moved on to other<br />
items that I could use imagery on. I am fascinated by anything<br />
handmade, or creative and always want to know how to make it. When<br />
I first began jewelry, I was a starving artist and had to figure out how<br />
to survive with nothing... so I learned to design in my head and make<br />
things out of anything I could find. I have used everything from<br />
eggshells, nuts & bolts, street glass, guitar strings, paper & paint.<br />
Now years later, my designs are a little more evolved.”<br />
Statik: “I think those who don’t try to acquire new skills are foolish<br />
and usually get stagnate in whatever they are doing.”<br />
What comes next on the Collide agenda, a new album next<br />
year presumably?<br />
kaRIN: “Well...we are barely recovering from the last one but yes<br />
always anxious to get back to the next one. We have some plans...too<br />
soon to tell yet.”<br />
Statik: “A year seems to be about the minimum that we can do an<br />
album in, but we will do our best. It still blows me away how groups<br />
like Queen could write and record these really intricate albums, and go<br />
on worldwide tours, and do an album a year. We aren’t even touring<br />
and it still takes us that long.”
CUDDLY TOYS<br />
TRIALS AND CROSSES<br />
Jungle<br />
We’ve had them here before, when the last compilation came out with<br />
some cool dvd footage, and here they are again, part post-punk, part<br />
pop, with a sour glam sauce always stuck in any wrinkles. For a band<br />
with split musical personalities and once managed by wrestler Kendo<br />
Nagasaki life was always bound to be a bit odd, but having previously<br />
been in the twisted Punk experience of Raped, Sean Purcell (R.I.P.)<br />
was prepared for anything. There may be nothing that great going on<br />
musically, with they’re being such a mish-mash, but for these sort of<br />
releases, with exhumed rarities added, it’s whether diehards fans will<br />
find it appealing, and I think it works just as well as the other did,<br />
with a high quality, detailed booklet, and two CDs providing decent<br />
quantity.<br />
‘It’s A Shame’ staggers happily along, maintaining the their<br />
unavoidable punky Bowie theme, then the busy, burbling ‘Trials And<br />
Crosses’ flares and disports like a primitive Duran Duran, and that’s<br />
not that surprising given their musical interests and development.<br />
They were always a bit camp, a bit futurist in their pop. ‘Action’ is<br />
arch and quivering, a little bit weird and dramatically naff, with the<br />
modestly pretty instrumental (the vocals not really counting)<br />
‘Columbine’s Song’ makes for a weird little diversion.<br />
‘Fall Down’ is scampering pop, strangely mature but still fun. ‘One<br />
Close Step’ hops about like it’s got some ska blueprint it’s hoping to<br />
absorb and the dark twinkles of ‘Normandy Nightfall’ are interesting,<br />
if jumbled, with some atmosphere mixed in along murky lyrics, but<br />
the way they try to make things accessible by being perpetually perky<br />
rather undermines the more artistic side of things. ‘Lo And Behold’<br />
sounds like Aha trapped in a garden shed and getting high on some<br />
old Martini they found. ‘Malice, Thru The Looking Glass….Pierrot<br />
Lunaire’ is pretty gross, trying to be arty and challenging it’s a bit like<br />
early Spandau Ballet suffering from stress. ‘Angel Stations’ capers<br />
hotly and efficiently, pushing a little more power into the spruce pop<br />
shapes and that feel is maintained through ‘Rooms And Pictures’ so<br />
that some character get to settle, as far everything’s been slipping one<br />
way, then sliding another, indicative of a band who had no ideas where<br />
they were going, or how to get there. ‘One Close Step’ bumbles back<br />
into view, this time frillier and garbled.<br />
On the second disc we have what are referred to as bonuses, including<br />
some demos, which is always a good sign. ‘Someone’s Crying’<br />
slithers infectiously, ‘Dancing’ is similar although an instrumental,<br />
‘Broken Mirrors’ skilfully brisk. ‘Slide’ wobbles about and clatters,<br />
while ‘Bring On The Ravers’ is a well known bit of Bowie-flavoured<br />
gristle, but be afraid when there’s anything called ‘Frodo’s Song’ on a<br />
record. Apparently this was intended for something entitled ‘The<br />
Lords Of The Rings’ although I have no idea if this was an intended<br />
stage musical, a concept album, or what, but the way it prances about<br />
with little steps suggest this was for the stage? (‘The Boxer’ a few<br />
tracks later also came from the same sessions/project.)<br />
‘Rooms And Pictures’, the nicely cranky ‘C.O.3’ and ‘Angel Stations’<br />
appear in demo form all with a touch more upfront life than the more<br />
orderly studio versions. ‘Razor Games’ is a mad stab at pop with<br />
occasional nonsensical outbursts. ‘Every Time’ is a bit longwinded,<br />
but then there’s ‘The Boxer’ which suggests their take on LOTR<br />
maybe got things wrong, or did so intentionally, especially as this is<br />
the Simon & Garfunkel thing. What’s going on? ‘Big Ship’ is<br />
refreshingly unpretentious and ambitious, creating a post-punk pop<br />
style that’s a little more open, and old-fashioned, than someone like<br />
Psychedelic Furs, but in that same shady area. ‘The Big Until’ seeps<br />
moodily and ‘It’s A Shame #2’ flickers and twirls proudly.<br />
It’s a worthwhile release and old fans will be happy, although I’m not<br />
sure what it adds in any depth. There are truly wonderful sleeve notes,<br />
both intimate and detailed info on songs and character, as well as<br />
some great photos. Hopefully that’s enough for people.<br />
www.myspace.com/guillotinetheatre<br />
CYCLOTIMIA<br />
DÉJÀ VU<br />
Shadowplay<br />
I greatly enjoyed watching Jonathan Meades on a show about Scotland<br />
sneering wisely at the need for people not born in the country to<br />
discover their ‘roots’, in that actively seeking the past demeans us an<br />
individuals, reducing any notion of the self, lambasting the dire<br />
ancestry industry, and in turn rubbishing the recent invention of<br />
‘Celtic’ music as a genre, for its implicit victimhood, romanticising<br />
with a rosy glow periods of intense privation and torment, and quite at<br />
odds with the Gaelic language he admires. He also sniggered soundly<br />
over Wiccan practices as being at best a few hundred years old, but<br />
mainly derived from studies conducted at 1970’s polytechnics. I<br />
wonder what he would make of modern ambient artists who select<br />
historical atmospheres at will? He’d probably yawn.<br />
‘Misere MMI’ soothes even when sounding like monks and sirenic<br />
sisters mooching mischievously through a sunlit, dusty factory, the
voices and noises off coalescing harmlessly, evocative of anything you<br />
care to make it and before you know it this bleeds anaemically into the<br />
gently simmering electronic nuances of ‘Gross Market’ which fritters<br />
its time away happily.<br />
‘Empty Fields’ is an ambient daydream, wilting as wispy as it entered,<br />
‘Same Time’ eerie but reliably recurring female vocals amid the muted<br />
muttering. Same Place’ then introduces a clankier beat, but still keeps<br />
everything in suspended animation. ‘At Office’ is pretty vacant, with<br />
‘At Home’ prettier, but vaguer, winsome ambient breezes both.<br />
‘Paradise X Dub’ is pleasing, sinuous electronica, ‘Lifestyle’ wayward<br />
spacey entreaties, ‘Metamorphosis’ a droopy tonal thing, a shimmery<br />
‘Lament’ is warmer, ‘Bugs’ slightly unsettling but watery, ‘Distance’<br />
sparkling dimly, with ‘Nomansland’ airily creeping around from<br />
behind you, then trailing off and vanishing in front. It’s that kind of<br />
record, where ideas gradually inflate or swiftly dissipate, offering you<br />
a series of subtle washes for when you’re feeling a bit grubby.<br />
www.myspace.com/cyclotimia<br />
DARK BLUE WORLD<br />
PERILOUS BEAUTY OF MADNESS<br />
Big Blue Records<br />
The press release mentions cabaret by way of King Crimson, and it<br />
really is nearly that bad.<br />
‘Demimonde’ allows you to imagine the results of Marlene Dietrich<br />
floundering around in the company of a prog rock outfit, busy drums<br />
filling every space possible as some horrible guitar pisses on its own<br />
shoes. ‘I Looked For You’ is the opposite, empty with lazy guitar<br />
strands of idle speculation and wistful vocals turning their back on the<br />
listener, then haling itself up and threatening to rock, but falling back,<br />
restful once more, like Curved Air on their tea break, after someone<br />
threw away the violin.<br />
‘Tracking The Detectives’ brings a more modern, claustrophobic feel,<br />
the vocals sliding off as the sounds skitter and scrunch up, like<br />
Garbage in a well, which may be where they are for all we know. ‘On<br />
A Wire’ is less fussy and fussy, the melody allowed to rove as the<br />
vocals ride the tune properly, although there’s some pretty horrible<br />
teeming guitar outbreak, but doleful touches throughout are<br />
imaginative.<br />
The album features Tony Wilson on guitar and Peggy Lee on cello, but<br />
I suspect they’re namesakes. Better still ‘The Luck Of The Draw’ has<br />
a western storytelling style and includes the lyric, ‘mother hangs her<br />
sorrows up, kisses the toilet goodnight.’ Creepy!<br />
‘Drift Away’ is pleasantly aimless, with ‘Nothing’s Ever’ fleet of<br />
rhythmic foot and agile of flicky guitar, with the vocals slipping into a<br />
more disparate indie style, which proves far more amenable than their<br />
hoary rock style. ‘Falling Man’ started to irritate me again wither<br />
jazzy rock flow, because this really does represent pre-punk rock to<br />
me. ‘Give Me A Reason’ is floaty and partly overblown, as passion<br />
and gusto mingle. ‘This War’ has strings, which suit the vocals well,<br />
and this melancholy very much appeals, because it has a natural<br />
beauty which the jerkier efforts lack.<br />
‘Somebody’ is dramatic, advising the secret to life is to watch your<br />
back. Drums patter, vocals stride eagerly, guitar frets but purposefully<br />
and after a rest they carry on bending weirdly into their own wind, so<br />
the second half of the record redeems the earlier dreariness, but<br />
they’re a bit too off over there somewhere for me. A bit too art-hippyrock<br />
in a way, but with a sense of unseemly decorum.<br />
www.darkblueworld.ca<br />
DARK DISSOLVE<br />
SORROW LEND ME WORDS<br />
Own Label<br />
So here we are with another impressive debut, all Gothy with a folky/<br />
orchestral crossover atmosphere going on in suitably empathic<br />
shadowy intrigue, and a bit of punk grit thrown in .<br />
‘Solstice Song’ sounds sweetness and, well, blight really, as apparent<br />
calm coalesces with lyrical loathing, ensuring an abrupt slap of reality<br />
slots into place while musically the harp falls like gentle rain across<br />
the balmy rhythm. ‘Go Away’ has more mournful strings, with the<br />
vocals revealing, ‘I hope you never learn, how much I really loved<br />
you’ which works if the person never hears the record I guess. The<br />
tune marks time to allow the message its full weight of self-inflicted<br />
woe. The boot’s on the other foot in ‘This Misery’ with our<br />
protagonist hoping for freedom, but the tune sounds a bit weird,<br />
because the vocals are a bit droney/moany, and instead of providing a<br />
sharp contrast the guitar seems almost wilting in the mix.<br />
I enjoyed ‘Normal’ best, beginning with more luminous harp and soft<br />
strings stirring then it has a dual life, a place of jaunty relief but also<br />
nimble dark twists, the song pouring, then trickling. ‘Zombie Nation’<br />
betrays their punkier roots, implying that in the modern world we’re<br />
already dead and scampering around in an effective way but here, if<br />
anywhere, they could have explored the percussive possibilities of a<br />
harp I reckon. It doesn’t have to be a sweeping, shivering instrument
of beauty and if you’ve got one, use it, that’s always been my harprelated<br />
motto.<br />
www.myspace.com/darkdissolve<br />
DEAD CURTIS<br />
AN ALTERNATIVE PLACE<br />
Plastic Frog Records<br />
So basically Udo and Klaus were once in a punk band back in the mid-<br />
80’s whose existence was terminated early when all their gear got<br />
nicked, after which they dabbled musically apart, then reunited three<br />
years ago and this is their first album, moving easily over onto some<br />
post-punk solemnity, aided by B. Rotte and Jean Paul (drum machine).<br />
‘The Will’ starts with some monastic pleasantries, then cuts into some<br />
plain but attractive gloom, the vocals bare and tremulous, the rhythm<br />
almost expiring, the guitar a shadow, yet with a charming chorus.<br />
‘Party Girl’ is a punky lament over lost love, and although it’s a bit<br />
tatty, the music rescues the vocals because the song itself has been set<br />
out well, no matter how basic it actually is. Even the drippy guitar is<br />
quite sweet.<br />
‘Never Forget’ is moody indie with a fledgling synth wash. It has a<br />
dignified air, and swirls around gently. ‘Just You And Me’ potters<br />
along quite bravely given they’re not totally there in some aspects, and<br />
sounds like a rough punky nephew of early Cure. ‘Lies’ then buzzes<br />
around guided by the simple guitar impact, along with some quite<br />
alarmingly poor bass but ends up emulating New Order’s delivery.<br />
Odd.<br />
‘Dark Night Of June’ stumbles on with the guitar lithe around a<br />
moping synth and the vocals are all but flat out with dreaminess.<br />
‘Tonight’ opens up a little, with a lusher atmosphere and more<br />
assured, stretching vocals, although the mood retains a dour simplicity<br />
which accentuates a pretty, downcast tune. ‘Deep In Frost’ has a wirier<br />
punk snaking along low to the ground and grows in stature as it<br />
builds, with keyboards adding a piquant twist to ‘Yesterday’s Over’,<br />
with acoustic and violin graciously inflating the relaxing ‘You Kill<br />
Me.’<br />
‘Face The Truth’ is a bleak outing but its melodic sunny side, showing<br />
them at their spryest, ‘Lost Words’ is a cross between a lo-fi Chris<br />
Isaak and Joy Division, believe it nor, with a sleepily sultry air, before<br />
ending with the delicate instrumental ‘Sunset At The Sea’ an unusual<br />
but fitting ending for an album (although a droney punk number<br />
finishes it off as a secret bonus) which will never appeal to people<br />
who require everything nicely polished but those with a hankering for<br />
the honest emotional punky indie it will do just fine. There are some<br />
shaky elements but overall the songs themselves are well thought out<br />
and sensitively handled. With bells on.<br />
www.myspace.com/deadcurtis<br />
www.myspace.com/plasticfrogrecords<br />
DEAD GUITARS<br />
FLAGS<br />
Echozone<br />
There’s something quite classic about the songwriting Dead Guitars<br />
create and maintain which means I need to mention individuals,<br />
because these may well mean something to you, although I confess I<br />
wasn’t aware of many of them. The band is large enough, but invite<br />
others to be part of the grand occasion. Having previously a link with<br />
Adrian Borland, and in many ways reminding me of The Waterboys in<br />
their output Dead Guitars are as follows: Carlo Van Putten – vocals,<br />
Pete Brough – acoustic, Ralf Aussem – guitars and bits, Patrick<br />
Schmitz – drums and Sven-Olaf Dirks – bass.<br />
‘Pristine’ finds Mark Gemini Thwaite joining in on guitar as a doomy<br />
underswell nuzzles into sweet vocals and sleek drumming, with a<br />
creamily uplifting<br />
chorus and no way<br />
to cut through the<br />
ambivalent lyrics.<br />
‘Watercolours’<br />
swelled by a chorus<br />
and Markus Türk on<br />
trumpet is pretty<br />
drifty indie. I can’t<br />
quite relate to the<br />
Quasi-Oasis feel<br />
(i.e. Beatles Lite) as<br />
that sluggish 60’s<br />
retread never<br />
breaches my<br />
resolute mental<br />
barrier. ‘Isolation’ is<br />
a maudlin delicacy,<br />
with Wayne Hussey<br />
on vocals, and sleepily catchy and the intriguing, shadowy ‘Blue’ has<br />
Rich Vernon on bass and soft curves around the central, ticking bomb<br />
of despondency. ‘Goodbye Wildlife’ is an organic mid-paced jangler,<br />
‘Raise Your Flags’ starts audaciously quiet with slumbering vocals<br />
and gradually fades out, as befits a brave curio. ‘Slowdown’ is their<br />
Stonesy stomper, all brown and sugary.<br />
‘Sacre Coeur’ is a diminutive, dripping instrumental, then the<br />
bleached western bones of ‘Miss America’ wail discordantly, then<br />
smoothes out its wrinkles and builds towards some emotional wailing<br />
like Bono in a nightmare, eventually dwindling away as it came in.<br />
‘On A Trip To Elsewhere’ includes Georg Sehrbrock on all manner of<br />
keyboards and Michael Von Hehl on what I assume are guitar<br />
contributions, and it’s another deceptively leisurely piece which is<br />
actually packed full of tiny details which keep you hooked in, lulled by<br />
its genuine hypnotic beauty. ‘Silver Cross River’ manages to exhale<br />
some blissful vocal drama, about something I can’t quite fathom, then<br />
some old fashioned guitar bleeds into the mix, but the return to<br />
normality is heartfelt and strangely touching.<br />
They finish with echoes of something Pink Floydish in a semi-ambient<br />
‘Lazy Moon’ which is a fitting close to a record so modest in tone but<br />
deeply rewarding, and just a little mysterious.<br />
www.myspace.com/deadguitars<br />
www.deadguitars.com
PHOTO: Bartosz Sarama - yesternight.pl<br />
WELCOME TO <strong>THE</strong><br />
PLEASUREDOOM<br />
DEATHCAMP PROJECT made an impressive album in WELL KNOWN PLEASURES,<br />
which I believe you need to track down, because the moods can be expressive and<br />
encircling, the excitement wildly contagious, and that makes for a great band; noise<br />
and atmosphere, and a lot of thought, as you will find from this interesting interview.<br />
Translation: Pawel Chatizow<br />
DEATHCAMP
You always sound very confident, so how have things been<br />
going leading up to the album? Brilliant? Or more than that?<br />
Void: “Not quite. As you may know we were mixing and producing<br />
‘Well-Known Pleasures’ ourselves. The process of giving birth to the<br />
album was definitely too long and painful. We recorded first sounds in<br />
2004, the album was ready in 2007, but in the end it was released in<br />
2008. Hopefully this is behind us now and currently we are<br />
concentrating on the ‘Well-Known Pleasures’’ successor. We hope that<br />
this time things would be far more brilliant.”<br />
Are you Poland’s most exciting band then?<br />
Betrayal: “Probably yes (laugh), though there is a couple of really<br />
good bands. For sure, we are one of the more recognizable and<br />
characteristic Polish bands. But then, we can of course talk only of<br />
rather underground popularity.”<br />
What other bands there we should be looking out for?<br />
B: “If we assume that in Poland there were 3 waves in which bands<br />
were born, with which we identify and which created the alternative/<br />
gothic scene in Poland, then the first wave, which represented the<br />
sound of a border between post punk/cold wave, hit in the beginning<br />
of the 80's and left us bands like Siekera (“Hatchet”), Madame,<br />
Joanna Macabrescu, 1984, Made in Poland, Variete. The last three<br />
still exist and to this day create music and for sure it is worth while to<br />
take a closer look at their work - though for example Variete evolved<br />
to such a degree, that today their music is something more of an avant<br />
jazz.<br />
”During the second half of the 90' a bit harsher form of gothic rock<br />
became more popular, sometimes even turning towards gothic metal,<br />
the forerunner of which was and still is Closterkeller. On the other<br />
hand other bands formed which were bolder with inclusion of<br />
electronics in their compositions, for example Fading Colours, which<br />
turned during the end of the 90's from playing cold rock to genuine<br />
dark wave. Currently they’ve returned after 10 years of silence, with<br />
their new great album ‘Come’ in which dark inspirations meet psy<br />
trance or even trip-hop.<br />
“The new decade of ’00 was definitely more varied, first of all the<br />
return of Polish cold wave - some really valuable bands were formed,<br />
honouring the old school, like Wie|e Fabryk (“Factory Towers”), Eva<br />
(now Hatestory), Psychoformalina - all of which had some regressive<br />
sound, but at the same time refreshing. Also Miguel and the Living<br />
Dead formed, one of the first Polish bands playing music of something<br />
between psychobilly and deathrock, and Agonised By Love offering<br />
more romantic sound, to finish with bands playing harsh electro - like<br />
Red Emprez or Controlled Collapse.”<br />
What pets have you got?<br />
B: “I once had a pig but hopefully it moved out... Here I mean an ex<br />
room-mate (laugh). But seriously - I like animals a lot, but my way of<br />
life and often business trips etc. would not allow me to take care of my<br />
pet the way I should.”<br />
V: “I am an animal love and in my house there is all the time an<br />
ongoing debate about having a cat, dog or even a rabbit. Currently<br />
though I don’t own any - similarly to Betrayal’s case my way of live<br />
doesn’t allow it.”<br />
PROJECT<br />
PHOTO: Krzysztof Marianski
PHOTO: Piotr Kempa<br />
“The anxiety and something<br />
unidentifiable, dreadful. A moment of total<br />
resignation, anger close to madness.”<br />
You’re all weepy in ‘Another’ – that’s not confidence, that’s<br />
misery which seems to be half the songs I hear these<br />
days.<br />
V: “The Dualism of human nature. We can be confident but still in<br />
some situations do not handle things the way we would like to.<br />
‘Another’ is a song both about passing away and the repeatability,<br />
cyclicity of certain things. The subject which is perpetual and trivial as<br />
life and death, but still affecting us every day. First euphoria, then<br />
routine, doubt, indifference, end...and all over again. New beginning,<br />
new love, new, conscious life, and in it we - richer and smarter through<br />
experience. Ready to face everything again, not making the same<br />
mistakes. New path, on which despite our efforts, we will probably<br />
again repeat the same scenario - make the mistakes made by us in the<br />
past or those of our parents, those we swore not to repeat in our<br />
lives.”<br />
B: “When it comes to music layer of ‘Another’, I agree with you<br />
100% - one can hear something like that in about half of all gothic<br />
songs... but that is exactly what we wanted to attain. When it comes to<br />
“classic gothic song” it is very hard to come up with something new<br />
and original. Deep vocals, leading bass, backing vocals during<br />
refrains, guitar styled at early The Sisters of Mercy. It is our tribute to<br />
good old British school of gothic rock - without even trying to be<br />
original. Besides nobody in Poland plays like that, so certainly it is<br />
one of the factors which distinguish us at our home scene.”<br />
Why is there some daft woman at the start of ‘Rule And<br />
Control’ and this is the complete opposite from the first<br />
song lyrically. Are you fantasizing?<br />
V: “Of course! We are just some sad old Goths. The world took<br />
everything from us already, life is slowly taking away the rest - can’t<br />
we afford a bit of fantasizing ourselves?” (laugh)<br />
‘Mirrors Of Pain’ is another song which pushes us around,<br />
but in the lyrics there’s more loneliness?<br />
V: “‘Mirrors of Pain’ is a song inspired by a nightmare, a vision<br />
similar to that in which you hold a mirror in hand and direct it towards<br />
another one, ending up with infinite number of copies of your own<br />
image, while in a way holding your own portrait in your hand. Dream,<br />
from which you can’t get out, and when you open your eyes you see<br />
yourself sleeping... a bit like in The White Stripes’ video – ‘Seven<br />
Nation Army’.”<br />
‘Away From You’ is an interesting mixture with a strange<br />
mood. I will trust you to explain why that is.<br />
V: “It’s a heavy and gloomy song - a bit continuing the thoughts and<br />
atmosphere of ‘Another’ - but in comparison to it, there is a spark of<br />
light slowly emerging out of the heavy dose of pessimism. It’s like a<br />
landscape after a catastrophe - after the dust felt down, turmoil faded<br />
away, the sun slowly starts to look through the clouds.”
‘Behind’ – who’s that about? I don’t expect a name, just<br />
give us an idea, as you sound quite vengeful here.<br />
V: “Indeed we do. The song tells about a situation, in which we are a<br />
neutral witness and which does not affect us directly. But still in our<br />
hearts we do not agree with the situation - almost feeling disdain<br />
towards that stance. The feeling that soon everything will come to<br />
light overwhelms us. This kind of message, that “you can think that<br />
you fooled them all”, but there is always someone near who knows<br />
and is looking at you from behind.”<br />
‘Fuckin’ Deathrock’ – well, someone’s got you angry. I<br />
assume troublesome nuns have been lining your street<br />
sweetly imploring you to sing some more Deathrock for<br />
them? Why so angry?<br />
V: “Hahaha I wouldn’t put it in words better - exactly like that. There<br />
is a couple of ‘nuns’ like that in the neighbourhood. The song has this<br />
ironic taste - dirty punk/deathrock sound and a dose of cynical sense<br />
of humour. A kind of a manifest and protest against (according to us)<br />
an artificial division of scene and music. A never-ending tale of<br />
labelling us, trying to tell us what we are or should be according to<br />
someone.”<br />
‘Divine Words’ is a great rush of a song, but are you sure<br />
you heard God, you were drunk after all. Any idea what he<br />
was saying?<br />
V: “Yes of course - he ordered us to cease any flirting with the<br />
deathrock genre (laugh).”<br />
What does God drink?<br />
V: “I’ll inform you as soon as I get to know it.”<br />
B: “I think it depends on which country he currently is... being on a<br />
trip to Poland - God would drink vodka for sure (laugh)”<br />
‘Circle Of Silence’ – it’s got another interesting rustling,<br />
creepy atmosphere. Give us an idea of how something like<br />
this develops and comes into being. It’s also obviously<br />
something very personal?<br />
V: “It is one of our oldest songs. I was inspired to write it by a real<br />
event. The death of someone close to me. The anxiety and something<br />
unidentifiable, dreadful. A moment of total resignation, anger close to<br />
madness.”<br />
B: “The first, definitely poorer version of ‘Circle of Silence’ appeared<br />
on our first demo ‘End’ in 2001. Practically all the music there was<br />
fashioned in a similar way, in that gloomy atmosphere. That was<br />
strongly connected to from where exactly did Deathcamp Project come<br />
BOTH PHOTOS: Bartosz Sarama - check out the fantastic www.yesternight.pl site.
PHOTO: Piotr Kempa<br />
www.myspace.com/deathcampproject<br />
from - it was suppose to be a home studio project, and the main<br />
inspiration of the ‘End’ was an impact made on us by the Christian<br />
Death’s album ‘Prophecies.’ I recorded a couple of songs to which<br />
Void created vocal lines and lyrics. Quite soon after doing the first<br />
demo we stopped to treat Deathcamp Project as a side project (we<br />
have to mention that during the time DP was starting to get it’s shape<br />
- we both played in another band). I think it’s that ‘fresh attitude’, but<br />
with a big dose of ‘youthful inspiration’ which gives birth to songs<br />
like that.”<br />
‘Dead Hours’ - a sacrifice? You ‘see everything’? What is it<br />
that you’re seeing?<br />
V: “It is not important what do I see, it is important what do you see<br />
when you close your eyes. This few simple words give a lot of space<br />
for interpretation, while projecting the state of mind I was in while<br />
writing this text. It is a song about waiting. Waiting for what is<br />
inevitable, inescapable. We wait hoping for a positive solution while<br />
the subconsciousness gives us the most logical and worse possible<br />
scenario. A fight between common sense, consciousness and faith,<br />
hope.”<br />
‘New Dawn Fades’ – well moody, and strangely beautiful,<br />
so how did you approach doing this cover?<br />
V: “Thank you for these words. ‘Unknown Pleasures’ is one of the<br />
first records I consciously listened to, an immense impression it made<br />
on me lasts to this day. I don’t like doing covers - far more better I like<br />
creating own new material. But ‘New Dawn Fades’ is a very special<br />
song for me - one of those I always wanted to sing. We wanted our<br />
interpretation to bring in something new while not loosing the tragic<br />
and the spirit of the original version. We cared much about an intimate<br />
and full of respect performance. We wanted to underline as much as<br />
possible the emotional load this song has. We gave it all we could and<br />
I’m very happy because of your opinion.”<br />
B: “‘New Dawn Fades’ is one of the most important songs for us -<br />
simultaneously one of the most beautiful of Joy Division. Each time<br />
we play it during concerts we always try to put as much attention and<br />
respect to it as we can. It was similar during the recording of the<br />
material for ‘Well-Known Pleasures’. We are happy that the majority<br />
of the reviews of our performance of this song are positive. It means<br />
that we were able to attain out goal - we gave a well deserved tribute<br />
to Joy Division - while not desecrating their <strong>master</strong>piece.”<br />
2009 – is it going to be epic for you?<br />
V: “Let’s hope so! We are going again to perform at the Castle Party -<br />
the biggest Goth festival in East-Central Europe, and also we are<br />
going to be a headliner at Night Side festival in Prague, Czech<br />
Republic. We plan to release an EP and to record a couple of new<br />
songs for our second album - at this time we already recorded 4 of<br />
them. And also I need to say that we hope to be more active when it<br />
comes to concerts this autumn. We hope that we will be able to play in<br />
a couple of new places and to visit those in which we already had a<br />
chance to play, let’s hope UK too. We will see...”<br />
PHOTO: Bartosz Sarama - www.yesternight.pl
<strong>THE</strong> DELEGATES<br />
SHELTER FROM <strong>THE</strong> HARD RAIN<br />
Bristol Archive Records<br />
This is an unusual band in the Bristol Archives series as they’re late<br />
eighties, and seemingly ran aground at the very end of that decade, so<br />
it’s a whole different ball game, more rocky than Post-Punk. I’d stop<br />
reading now if I were you.<br />
Some fluttering brass keeps ‘Mr God’ from sounding too much like<br />
Jesus Jones, and it is a rocky chokehold on the vocals, so Claytown<br />
fans might go for this, but ‘Original Sin’ sounds like some truly<br />
hamfisted Waterboys so I’m not<br />
looking forward to this. ‘Never<br />
Going Home’ starts getting a<br />
little more believable, feeling<br />
crackling among the MOR rock<br />
folds, but ‘I Need You’ has<br />
lyrics as vacuous as Bon Jovi at<br />
their worst and my patience has<br />
rapidly worn so thin that….well,<br />
the rest of the songs are called<br />
‘My Love’, ‘Highlander’,<br />
‘Shelter’, ‘Living In A Different<br />
World’, ‘Take Me’, ‘Leaving It<br />
All Behind’, ‘The Way It Goes’<br />
and ‘Look At You Now.’ I’m wasting no more words on this.<br />
If you were into them you’ll enjoy knowing this exists. The rest of you<br />
can move swiftly on. Nothing to see, nothing to hear, as it’s all very<br />
forgettable. Hopefully.<br />
http://bristolarchiverecords.com/bands/<br />
The_Delegates_biog.html<br />
DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE (+CD) #21 £3.00<br />
The information may not always be useful but you can learn things<br />
from magazines, such as Children Of Bodom being ‘Finland’s finest<br />
Metal titans.’ It sounds almost a hippyish name to me, but if they have<br />
titans down in their passport, which I trust they do, who am I to<br />
judge? On the other end of the social spectrum you’ll find a cute news<br />
mention of the Swindon Goth Meet (www.swingoth.co.uk for<br />
anyone localish), so all life is here, in glorious colour, and the issue<br />
manages to feel even glossier.<br />
Loads of reviews, in which you can hear that Cannibal Corpse blew<br />
Finland’s mightiest titans offstage and think yourself lucky you were<br />
nowhere near the<br />
Hellfire Festival, a well<br />
intentioned article<br />
traipsing through Gothrelevant<br />
genres, an illnamed<br />
The Dirty<br />
Youth, <strong>Mick</strong> Priestley<br />
of The Green River<br />
Project does the Saint<br />
Or Sinner? page, a<br />
deadly serious<br />
Godhead, and a look at<br />
Katatonia.<br />
Poison The Well are,<br />
well, stoked, frankly,<br />
36Crazyfists are a bit<br />
different but I think<br />
One-Eyed Doll waltz<br />
away with the biggest<br />
impact quite easily,<br />
even though we also<br />
get Therapy? who I figured were dead and buried ages ago. Still we<br />
learn….<br />
Lifestyle-wise, there’s the Brighton Tattoo Convention, models<br />
Nitrogene and Giselle Bourignon, an enchantingly weird spread of<br />
bouquets, cake presentations and ice things, for odd nuptial<br />
celebrations, photographer Dean Wilkinson, Club Antichrist spotlight/<br />
spotlit, and artist Aunia Kahn (a nicely strange thing indeed), as well<br />
as part 5 of Plucking Hellfire which I still don’t get!<br />
There’s also a CD, which is recommended ‘Summer listening.’ I’ll bet.<br />
Loads of half-arsed metal kids who spent half their time playing that<br />
Guitar Hero thing while weeing on their Nintendo?<br />
Let us see.<br />
<strong>THE</strong> DIRTY YOUTH wee all over ‘Requiem Of The Drunk’,<br />
TRIAXIS idle through the painful metal bombast of ‘Aurora’,<br />
dreaming of concept albums to come, DROWNED IN FLAMES rustle<br />
creepily through ‘Another Day In Hell’ while their drummer builds a<br />
shed and their singer seems to be eating his arm. BLIND AMBITION<br />
are actually quite sweet in the well thought out ‘Judgement Day’,<br />
although that’s probably not their intention, but far better than the<br />
hideous noise ATTICA RAGE manage in the first half of ‘First Life’,<br />
which crawls back to interest late on.<br />
DRAGKING’s ‘Cocksucker’ is a waste of space, BREED are pretty<br />
predictable in the shaking, raking ‘Hate Culture’ but the bass is cool<br />
and it’s brief. GODSIZED are ghastly in ‘Fight & Survive’, but in a<br />
raw, good way, making you marvel at their measured tenacity.<br />
IRUKANDJI are noisy but too bland in ‘Turning The Blood’ as I<br />
suspect many prog metal bands from Norwich are.<br />
EVESTUS are interestingly demented throughout the ever-changing,<br />
twisted ‘Nothing’, LYCAN opt for a wee waterfall in ‘Clouds Of<br />
Deceit’, QUARTERBLIND have rasping nonsense called ‘Bleeding<br />
The Guilty’ but RESIST save your brain with the catchily tutored<br />
‘Tattooed.’ DEVILUTION twirl and bicker stylishly in ‘Devil In Me’,<br />
HEADKASE slink the carnivalesque ‘Cocaine And Caffeine’ away<br />
and <strong>THE</strong> SHANKLIN FREAK SHOW’s exclusive ‘This Ain’t A<br />
Love Song’ makes for a wickedly winsome closer, so you see it’s<br />
usually worth sticking through the pain for the good stuff as the record<br />
builds to a decent finish.<br />
www.devolutionmagazine.co.uk<br />
www.myspace.com/devolutionmagazine
DEVOLUTION Issue<br />
22 £3.00<br />
Colourful, varied, with an<br />
odd CD, so that’s good,<br />
yes? Well, you’re half<br />
right.<br />
It starts with an<br />
interesting switch on the<br />
norm, with ‘alternative’<br />
male model Seef, tons of<br />
reviews, Part 3 of a What<br />
Is Goth? Examination,<br />
with a look at how shit the<br />
UK is. Laura Billing<br />
shows some historically<br />
inspired photo-surreality,<br />
and the Dolls ‘n’ Divas<br />
cards project is cute,<br />
although maybe too twee?<br />
<strong>Mick</strong>y Satiar of Dear Superstar cops the Saint Or Sinner? Page,<br />
before I nodded off during the Download Festival report. <strong>Mick</strong><br />
Priestly pops up in the middle and there’s a CD included of his band<br />
The Green River Project. You’ll get a sneak preview of the<br />
‘Doghouse’ movie (Dan Schaffer/Jake West). On other lifestyle<br />
matters, you have The Alt Collective which seemed a nice idea, albeit<br />
slightly baffling, a report on Heresy ‘n’ Heelz, model Wednesday,<br />
photographer Elliott Morgan and Purpur Fashion, before Acey Slade<br />
shows how optimism and effort works for bands. Then it’s the musical<br />
meat of the issue with The Birthday Massacre, Spinnerette, VNV<br />
Nation, Maleficent, a fairly unnecessary look back at Placebo, and<br />
possibly the geekiest looking band in the world, Cancer Bats.<br />
It’s bright and bubbly throughout. Great fun.<br />
The CD is a five track offering of The Green River Project and their<br />
retro-rock. ‘Dig Your Grave’, ‘No Return’ ‘Interlude: The Flight Of<br />
The Bumblebee’, ‘’Nowhere To Run’ and ‘Summer – Presto.’ It’s so<br />
horrendous I resent such shite being in the house, and it will be in the<br />
bin outside before you have read this!<br />
www.devolutionmagazine.co.uk<br />
www.myspace.com/deolvutionmagazine<br />
DOMINION Magazine<br />
This new slim Goth magazine comes free inside TERRORIZER<br />
magazine #189 (October), alongside a free CD (thankfully not sent<br />
my way), and a Paradise Lost/Arch Enemy Poster. A welcome aid to<br />
the Goth scene in general, appearing on a quarterly basis, it is written<br />
and edited by Joy Lasher, who<br />
you may know by other names.<br />
16 colour pages, it is pretty<br />
much stuffed full of content,<br />
mirroring the Terrorizer style<br />
generally, who don’t seem to<br />
waste an inch of their pages, and<br />
all highly professional. There<br />
isn’t massive UK content, so it’s<br />
good to see Maleficent get the<br />
cover, as it is to find an<br />
interesting news story, in<br />
Griffinvox’s Greenpeace-backed<br />
green campaign, Goth For<br />
Earth.<br />
www.myspace.com/<br />
goth_for_earth<br />
The large interviews are Metal-friendly, as you’d expect, so there’s<br />
The 69 Eyes in poll position, flanked by Theatre Of Tragedy, with<br />
decent pieces on Leaves’ Eyes and Epica. The smaller items mix the<br />
content up more, perusing 45 Grave, Lahannya, Maleficent, The Eden<br />
House, alongside tinier slivers on Pysdoll, TyLean, Omega Lithium<br />
and Diablo Swing Orchestra.<br />
There’s a stab at some lifestyle accoutrements, with jewellery and<br />
knick-knacks but in a magazine this small I think they should bin that<br />
for more music as it could have doubled the three brisk live reviews<br />
included (NIN, KMDFM, Specimen), and while I am honoured to be<br />
mentioned in the dvd/books section, if the mag remains at 16 pages I<br />
think that could be dropped for more mentions of unsigned bands<br />
(here represented by Fangs On Fur, Methodcell, Psydoll and<br />
Touchstone) as something like Dominion can really help bands reach a<br />
broader audience. The reviews are all lively with twelve records<br />
covered – Theatre Of Tragedy, Anni Hogan, VNV Nation, Diablo<br />
Swing Orchestra, Dope Stars Inc., Lahannya, Letz Instanz, Lunacy<br />
Box, Kirlian Camera, Screaming Banshee Aircrew, Tapping The Vein<br />
and Witchbreed.<br />
If this can continue it is A Very Good Thing Indeed, as it is refreshing<br />
to see a Metal mag giving up some space in this manner, and monthly<br />
status would be even better.<br />
I couldn’t find a Dominion-specific url, so for the first time in my life<br />
I type:<br />
www.myspace.com/dominionmagazine<br />
www.terrorizer.com<br />
EL CLAN<br />
NADIE ESTA MEJOR MUERTA<br />
Discos Intolerancia<br />
Here’s an interesting band from Mexico, formed in 1991, debut album<br />
in 1993, appeared at the first Goth festival in Mexico City with The<br />
Last Dance and Human Drama, and gone from strength to strength,<br />
offering some very noirish rock, as things follow fairly conventional<br />
routes, but delivered with a dignified passionate sensitivity.<br />
‘Nada Por Arder’ has punchy-drunken vocals woes, gliding<br />
dramatically into play across a gentle throb of a tune which instils a<br />
very cool atmosphere, then the drums agitate as the guitar oscillates<br />
into action. ‘Parallel Worlds (Beware Of The Tree Of Science)’ is one<br />
of the songs sung in English and I like their direct stance –<br />
‘Knowledge and ignorance, Humbleness and arrogance, Crop fields<br />
and land mines, Virginia Tech post-Columbine, Computers and bomb<br />
cars, Innocence and soul scars, We can go into space, We can blow up<br />
this place.’ They writhe in subtle fashion, reminding me much of<br />
anther cool dark rock entity, Secrecy, and then hit out like The Mission<br />
on heat. Serious themes obviously litter the album, although I miss it<br />
all due to the language, but there’s quotes throughout the booklet from<br />
Camus, Orwell, Philip K. Dick, Maximus, Jorge Luis Borges,<br />
Flaubert, Baudelaire, Dumas and a host of others who I have never<br />
heard of.<br />
‘Embals-ámame’ is some demure rock, with a sly catchy chorus and<br />
some rocky guitar outbursts but things are kept fairly low key.<br />
‘Arcadia’ has a similarly sedate start but then starts to spill over into<br />
flamboyant vocal decorative outpourings as the guitar mooches<br />
magnificently, creating a weird hybrid. There’s no denying some of the<br />
guitar touches are very rock, but the setting in which that exists is<br />
rather unusual, keeping you constantly on your toes and it’s brilliantly<br />
worked out.<br />
‘Vengo Del Interior’ is prettier, the keys picking away behind the<br />
vocals and the glinting guitar, and although I don’t know what it’s<br />
about it’s clear we have a serious story being played out in genteel<br />
surroundings, but heavy with meaning and there are grim twists
towards the end. ‘Crash On Ego’ is odd, with some weirdly wavering<br />
guitar set against the most placid and charming melodic vocal<br />
approach imaginable. It’s like the sunniest little pop ballad! ‘Carpe<br />
Diem (Vox Tanatos)’ returns to sounding concerned and anguished,<br />
eventually purring into some flame-grilled metal seething, and lusty<br />
vocal grimacing.<br />
‘Express The Inexpressible’ has more quivering rage at human<br />
stupidity, with splendid guitar poise, shadowy bass and a dry, filmic<br />
sense of portentous momentum and the vocals certainly get quite<br />
frantic just before the abrupt end. ‘Detrás Del Himalaya’ sounds a bit<br />
like The Police (!) and it actually does seem like a slow motion<br />
‘Message In A Bottle’ (without any gross, hyperventilating chorus)<br />
although I can’t imagine that was the intention. It reasserts its own<br />
individuality with some smart singing, elegant guitar and rhythmical<br />
buzziness, confidently climbing up steep, inhospitable terrain.<br />
I don’t know what ‘Sed De Fuego’ is about but Ricardo Lasalla really<br />
lets rip with the vocal pan over its stately deportment, then ‘Ajenjo’<br />
takes us back to the odder grandiloquent ballad stage, richly<br />
impressive and artistically teasing at the close. ‘Abduction (I & II)’<br />
comes on like mood music for a Dan Brown movie, down in the<br />
cloisters, only for some spindly but effervescent gawf guitar to burrow<br />
its way out as it takes off, returning to some introspective mystery<br />
then streaming off for a fizzy finish. And so an absorbing album<br />
actually ends with ‘Ahora’, some spicy rock showiness percolating<br />
through a intricate introduction, with doomier bass and guitar cutting<br />
into centre stage, the vocals light but driven by feeling flooding<br />
through, drums flashing coyly, guitar glittering, everyone clumping<br />
deliciously to a curious, evaporating denouement. Really weird,<br />
through mixing the wholly conventional and the emotionally stirring,<br />
and really unusual musically, creating either subdued sentimental<br />
studies, or ravishing rips in the noir fabric. That works for me.<br />
www.elclan.org.mx ~ www.myspace.com/elclanmx<br />
My favourite amber rings (in case you needed to know).
We attended a medieval day at Sissinghurst Castle<br />
Garden. The man on the left has good reason to<br />
fall because blunt-ended or not an arrow in the<br />
bollocks is no laughing matter (apart from to all<br />
women present!).<br />
ELECTRIC GUITARS<br />
JOLTS<br />
Bristol Archive<br />
‘Eternal Youth’ is an unusual opener for an unusual indie band who<br />
shimmer with intelligent energy, keeping the songs restrained but<br />
bulbous ideas-wise. The backing vocals irritate through being<br />
overplayed and merely repeating the title 4endlessly. It’s just got a<br />
nicely dark melodic flow. The jabbering vocal stance used early in<br />
‘Genghis Khan’ is very David Byrne, which must still have appeared<br />
new at the time, because there’s nothing copyist about the band<br />
elsewhere, and indeed the song develops to an enthralling close, with<br />
witty keyboards and winsome guitar. The gentle sing-song capering of<br />
‘Cloud 9’ is equally interesting, fractured and oddly filmic.<br />
This band ran ’79-’83 and, coincidentally, I saw the Dancing Did play<br />
with them, with Electric<br />
Guitars were also<br />
unfortunate enough to be<br />
on Stiff Records. It was<br />
that era, where people just<br />
started becoming wholly<br />
individual and wilfully<br />
perverse. Cheekily wispy<br />
keyboards lift ‘Voice of<br />
Sound’ well and then off it<br />
wiggles, incorporating a<br />
brief train and shivery<br />
vocals, the whole song<br />
appear to flicker.<br />
‘Scrap That Car’ happened to be recorded when the singer had his<br />
balls trapped in a vice, but he carries on regardless and they go loopily<br />
funk, which is a happy habit of theirs. Like Gang Of 4 without the<br />
academia. ‘Stamp Out The Termites’ has a ditsy, plinky pop thing<br />
going for it, but the keyboards add a queasier feel to it, and the<br />
individual instruments do tend to have a tweak and twinge here to<br />
always just shake up the jittery silliness, and threaten to take the song<br />
somewhere weirder.<br />
‘Start Up The New Life’ has some gorgeously Star Trek style<br />
keyboards going for it, as well as a snakey rhythm but ‘Food’ is pretty<br />
annoying, bordering on ‘quirky’ pop, and nobody needs that, yet once<br />
again the fantastic keyboards make it something memorable. Richard<br />
Truscott, take a bow!<br />
‘Ja Ja Lunar Commander’ has a bit of Star Wars no doubt, so we’ll<br />
pass over that on principle, into the squeaky madness of ‘Interference’<br />
that could even be a demented cuckoo clock. ‘Fat Man’ glides around<br />
like a headless XTC, and wit the watery guitar ‘Language Problems’<br />
faffs around a bit too pretend-dippy for its own good, trying hard to be<br />
interesting and negaging pop, but not quite getting there, like early<br />
Wham! With a toothache. Although there are voices off, ‘Don’t Wake<br />
The Baby’ is essentially a reggae instrumental and makes for another<br />
strange twist on this corkscrewed record.<br />
I gather they only released some singles apart from this and so, like<br />
the mighty Dids, they were snuffed out too early. Interesting band, if<br />
slightly maddening.<br />
www.bristolarchiverecords.com/bands/<br />
Electric_Guitars.html
ELLA JO<br />
ALTER EGO<br />
Diamond Seeds<br />
I wanted to wait until I’d reviewed the UK Decay album before<br />
covering this, as Spon is involved with it. Ella’s later album, the<br />
excellent ‘Limits Of Milk Weed’, was covered here a few weeks back,<br />
and now here we have a more demure affair.<br />
‘Anytime’ is light and airy jazzy pop, delicately and easily catchy,<br />
with more roominess and rhythmical boominess to the dusty but<br />
urgent ‘Shock To My Senses’ which boasts modest but strikingly<br />
pretty vocals. ‘Cut Me Down’ is equally charming but with some<br />
spirited truculence going on, then after a weird sample about<br />
flatlanders the gentle ‘Memories In Red’, perfumed by cool bass, is<br />
slick, sweet and surprisingly brief.<br />
In the summer we have to keep a recuperation bowl handy for the frogs we<br />
rescue from our cats. And this year a surprise, in the form of a cute toad.<br />
The rightly diminutive<br />
‘Little White Shell’ is<br />
succulent and for a while,<br />
I kid you not, like a<br />
grubby version of Wham!,<br />
then ‘Prayer Of Isis’ does<br />
a heartfelt folky thing<br />
which is very cute.<br />
Militaristic visions crackle<br />
through the noisy<br />
‘Dissolver’ which shapeshifts<br />
from smoky<br />
desolation to buzzy drum<br />
and bass patterns. ‘The<br />
Awakening’ slips away without really grabbing me, but it’s a blissful<br />
little number, ‘He Who Dares Wins’ is some scampering weirdness,<br />
and the moodier ‘Can’t Happen’ makes for a smooth ending but they<br />
could have reversed these final two for a stronger finish.<br />
The odd thing is how little she throws full focus on her voice, the<br />
strongest element involved, which shows how important she believes<br />
the effect of the songs must be. That’s the sign of a true artist.<br />
ELLA JO<br />
LIMITS OF MILK WEED<br />
Diamond Seeds<br />
Some people are strange, with an ability to move in and around<br />
various styles, either in cunning disguise, exploring to stretch<br />
themselves, or because they have so many interests they need to rove<br />
at will. One such person is Ella here, who abseils down credible styles,<br />
then swims leisurely through the occasional commercial caprice.<br />
Guiding and abiding is none other than Steve Spon who played on,<br />
then produced and engineered it, and Terry Bartlett is equally<br />
important having provided some of the songs. Put all that together and<br />
what you have is quite lovely.<br />
The notes on her myspace page indicate her travelling obsession,<br />
around the world in appreciation of the natural and mystical, although<br />
the album has a spicier feel. ‘Amarylis’ moves off a carnival start into<br />
unravelling pop freefall, with fresh and buzzy insertions making the<br />
creamily sinuous ‘Sub Plane High Way’ constantly appealing.<br />
Although Ella optimistically mentions Holiday and Bassey on her
page I hear a cool Morcheeba empathy in ‘Jacob’s Ladder’, both in<br />
the vocal silk and the warm guitar.<br />
‘Goodbye To The Monsoon’ is as fabulous as it is fascinating,<br />
conjuring up the ghost of Suzanne Vega as it is vocals only, which gets<br />
better the longer it goes along. This is something quite special.<br />
‘Dancing In The Shade’ will cheer up any All About Eve fans,<br />
graciously doomed, emotional travails shot through with glossy<br />
vocals. ‘Perception’ skitters around like a shamanic Bauhaus chillout,<br />
but the mood changes weirdly with the dozy pop of ‘Heartbreak Girls’<br />
which is part Soho when good, and part Irene Cara when ordinary.<br />
‘Himalaya’ offers us sincere and moody folky pop, ‘Must Be A<br />
Mystery’ gets by on the loping uplift because the jaunty charm makes<br />
up for the trite lyrics, and we slip out to ‘Diamonds Don’t Go’ with an<br />
interesting nagging beat and epiglottal fun, a deeply inviting tune and<br />
a great end.<br />
There’s a curious variety on this record, linked by her vocals,<br />
obviously, and with the exception of one track I found it all interesting<br />
and enjoyable. There are two more albums available and hopefully I’ll<br />
get the chance to review those shortly.<br />
www.myspace.com/ellajotaro<br />
EPHEMERAL MISTS<br />
MOON RITUAL<br />
Mythical<br />
This is Brett Branning, known elsewhere for his music with The<br />
Synthetic Dream Foundation and Abandoned Toys. He can do<br />
electronics to classical but here dallies with a New Age/World<br />
approach to Ambient, which means that by relying one existing<br />
musical traditions it has form and substance, and allows for<br />
exploration and cross-fertilisation. This means ‘Awakening Spirits’<br />
has surges of energy working within uplifting Eastern washes of sound<br />
and perky percussion, so you get Tibet mixing with India, Western<br />
bass synth patterns mixing with Arabian dreams. All very attractive.<br />
‘Eastern Channels’ is a fast, fluid spacey dance piece like chilloutplus.<br />
Very seductive. ‘Transcendental Visions’ is a light tangle of<br />
Eastern atmospheres. Very dreamy. ‘Gardens Of Reflection’ shimmers<br />
but echoes and sways, building its powerbase cautiously, and softly<br />
seething. Very hypnotic. ‘Rain Sculpted Dreams’ isn’t remotely wet,<br />
but churns on a healthy pulse. Very Incan. ‘Where The Wind Is Born’<br />
has more shuffling rhythm and plaintive pipes. Very mysterious.<br />
‘Moon Ritual’ itself then sees us out politely with quixotic bustling<br />
and subtle ululations. Very.<br />
I don’t hear a lot of music like this but I always judge its effectiveness<br />
on how much the music seems to transport me. In this case I’d say<br />
more than half the tracks had me losing concentration on what I was<br />
working on while it was playing, and it takes a lot to drag my focus<br />
sideways.<br />
www.ephemeralmists.com<br />
FADING COLOURS<br />
COME<br />
Big Blue Records<br />
A curious band, Fading Colours long ago left the flushed Goth sounds<br />
they did so well and, as the press release admits, have gone to<br />
investigate trip hop, trance, ambient and oriental styles, but who<br />
hasn’t, let’s face it? The cold edge is still there in their sound, no<br />
matter widely styles move, and it’s rarely still enough for trance/<br />
ambient, too electronica-rock for any triphop sensitivity. Instead it’s a<br />
bleary, gritty 2CD set divided into the two presumed states. The first<br />
is called ‘I Had To Come’, the second, shorter disc ‘Time Of<br />
Returning.’<br />
‘Thorn’ is peculiar, having set a roving and eerie mood it allows bright<br />
synth notes to accentuate a shift into a more curvaceous deportment,<br />
but with the rhythm remaining plain and moving straight on, the<br />
vocals clipped and stern when they appear as we all move down a dark
tunnel together. ‘(I Had To) Come’ quivers with some floating singing<br />
delicious strung between spiky guitar and oily, spreading bass and as<br />
the guitar assumes some phased dominance the vocals scatter and<br />
ascend. ‘Be An Angel Again’ is dancier, the vocals swirling and<br />
higher, in keeping with what they best known for, with ‘Fade Away’<br />
more brooding, but just as catchy in a steady-drip manner.<br />
‘Distingmiproba’ heads for the bazaar and slides as it glides, brief<br />
ululations mixing with a crunchy synth sediment.<br />
‘Seems Strange’ indicates we’re on a journey of sound as we’re now<br />
thicker and bolder with an internal energy and conspiratorial vocals, a<br />
space of optimism only appearing at the very finish, then into the<br />
oblique electronic buzz of ‘Salamantra’ with male vocals having fun.<br />
‘Teutonic Girl’ then takes the fun and churns it into further slithering,<br />
spacey dance shapes with a pounding density rather than anything<br />
fleet of foot. ‘Priestess Of The Unfulfilled’ stays busy but essentially<br />
sedate until vocals fracture at the finish and we find ourselves<br />
accompanied by an initially delicate ‘Rose’ which throws aside<br />
ethereal sackcloth to incorporate a vexatious spirit. ‘Be An<br />
Angel…Again’ has a more outright club dance skip to its jaunty killer<br />
steps, and then the minxier, cheekier ‘Feel’ burns and bustles us out<br />
Things take a turn for the luxuriant and deviantly exciting when we hit<br />
the Time Of Returning disc as ‘Eager House’ is a saucy dance outing<br />
with slippery cuts and purring vocal stretchiness. The music comes<br />
alive and goes into sinuous ecstasy. ‘My Lips Flourish With Fire’<br />
extended the same approach, then ‘Sirensong’ gets a wirier guitar<br />
infusion and rotating vocal rush. ‘Time Of Returning’ itself is a dub<br />
growler of a classic cut. ‘Drop That Mask’ returns to dankly dancey<br />
contusions, the vocals constantly buffeted between synth agitation,<br />
then ‘SaLIEva’ drifts contentedly out doing the same.<br />
It’s a weird record, the two sides distinctly separate in style, with the<br />
vocals seemingly ambiguous, when De Coy has one of the greatest<br />
voices out there, yet gets to have so little effect.<br />
www.myspace.com/fadingcolours<br />
FEMME FATALITY<br />
ONE’S NOT ENOUGH<br />
Stickfigure<br />
‘Introduction’ slaps you with a corny electro interpretation of rap style<br />
in a desperate 80’s style, and before you’ve had a chance to react they<br />
frisk through the spiky, loopy ‘Lucky Lover’ and this ruthlessly<br />
spanked behind of a song glows red in the mania of their mental<br />
approach. Raw vocals lean out over a glittery balcony and rant at the<br />
baying imagined populace blow. Stylish and a little freaky.<br />
The shouty chorus of ‘Bullet Train’ is the liveliest part of their more<br />
orthodox sound, in which the synth can add the bright lights through<br />
the grumpy steroidal pop but in a way that’s no blight, because their<br />
songs are quite basic for all the life, and all but supercharged when<br />
they get energetic which means it’s right in your face and quite<br />
unavoidable. ‘Come On, Come Out’ rolls along anguished in an<br />
interesting, gutted way with a chattering chorus still slipped in,<br />
although ‘Still Alive’ is more interesting in that it steps firmly aware<br />
from the dance groove and comes on like a post-punk country furore<br />
and with an other utterly beautiful chorus, which is a ludicrous turn of<br />
events. The vocals sound a bit weird exposed like this, but that’s<br />
obviously his voice.<br />
‘Connections’ purrs noisily on another dance excursion, like frothy<br />
club jousting, empty-headed and spinning. ‘One’s Not Enough’ is a<br />
gnashing jumble, complete with vocal hoarsemanship and keys<br />
treading darkly, and ‘Pretty Mess’ is an artier slab of noise, so they’re<br />
breaking up their own territory strangely. ‘Yaz & Alize’ dances off<br />
with itself, ‘Don’t Kill For Me’ weeps softly, and a little spookily,<br />
with delicate touches and memorable trickles. ‘Bar Fly’ is fun,<br />
reminds me of that Scandinavian hiphop lot who did the great vid<br />
where the kid on the train finds he can fast forward and rewind the<br />
people around him. No idea what they were called. ‘Win, Loose, Die’<br />
ends it in a way I wasn’t expecting, a winsome traipse over an<br />
acoustic with a wilting bar room vocal collapse. Very cute.<br />
It’s still strange that they oscillate wildly in fractious kitsch dance, yet<br />
also have other elements that smack plaintive qualities around, as this<br />
gives you almost as much frustration as it does fun, but having plenty<br />
of fun is no a crime.<br />
www.myspace.com/femmefatality<br />
FIXION<br />
EN LA OSCURIDAD<br />
Fonam/Sondor<br />
It makes you all warm and tingly to hear a real Goth band in full flow,<br />
the power surging, the vocals controlled and confident, the guitars<br />
bright and busy, the drums hard, the bass positive. That’s Fixion to a<br />
tee as they ease past the instrumental enigma of ‘Cenizas’ to purr and<br />
pound through ‘Tierra Abandonada’, occasionally dropping back to
stillness before rebuilding. Gothic glories from Uruguay, you know it<br />
makes sense.<br />
The vocals start contentedly slumped across some grazed guitar as<br />
‘En La Oscuridad’ crawls from a stoop to twirl infectiously, the guitar<br />
flying into abrupt silence, the bass creeping beneath its flamboyant<br />
darkness which is kept in its place by the atmosphere the vocals<br />
themselves create, where they don’t wish to push out, but stay<br />
enclosed. By contrast the pulsating ‘(No) Quierro Ser Dios’ has the<br />
polite vocals tossed by vitriolic guitar which has a beautiful<br />
understanding of audio keyhole surgery, notes twisted taut and lustful,<br />
keyboards fluttering in to stir the mixture as the bass rolls, the vocals<br />
whisper. It’s a dramatic sound, without excess, as everything works to<br />
accentuate the saucy skeleton of sound.<br />
‘No Me Puedo Perder’ is rockier, in its upright stance, but the vocals<br />
fall away in an even sweeter fashion, and the tone could almost be<br />
ambient-plus, with a reassuringly yearning chorus and palpitating<br />
guitar, and they’re doing Goth the way it was, and is, without allowing<br />
anything daft to get in the way. They have the melodic imagination<br />
keep it varied, they have the understanding of evocative noir, where a<br />
feeling can be conjured, without losing any of the energy.<br />
FOR ONE NIGHT ILLEGALLY – The History Of The Bootleg<br />
(Radio 4)<br />
Bootlegs then snooker, that’s the way it went. Originally it was just<br />
snooker, but I was a kid when I managed to con the idiots at the<br />
Lucania in Hounslow into giving me a membership, and from about<br />
12 or 13 I would go there every Saturday morning, or during holidays,<br />
to play snooker, because it seemed like a secret and unseemly world in<br />
there, which indeed it was in its own languorous way. Then I got the<br />
vaguest of vague interests in music and the fact I found the bootleg<br />
stall outside the manky Bell pub directly opposite the Lucania meant it<br />
was within easy reach and so became my first port of call, often<br />
shortly after the bloke had set his wares out.<br />
Will you look at all this rubbish, I thought? That’s how it was then,<br />
and would actually still be now, because you know the staple bootleg<br />
diet hasn’t changed much. Pink Floyd, Lez Zeppelin, Dylan, The<br />
‘El Amor Es Un Juego’ gyrates angrily, the singer crouched as the<br />
wiry guitar burns brightly, under your skin and wriggling there within<br />
seconds. ‘Contigo Hasta La Muerte’ is comparably relaxed, despite its<br />
statuesque qualities, then they wander through ‘Up’ with gruff<br />
twinges but with a dominant female vocal skipping across the<br />
wasteland.<br />
‘Sed Y Sangre’ also goes the more rock route, but circles back on<br />
itself well, avoiding bombast. ‘En Blanco’ is all scooped out and<br />
shadowy but still clamouring smartly, the rhythm nice and creepy.<br />
‘Abre Tus Labios’ keeps tense throughout, as light at times as it<br />
lethal, in with the sin crowd.<br />
They finish with a cunningly angular cover of ‘Severina’, bursting<br />
with life but also tucking itself out of sight between surges, showing<br />
they do things their own, which has to be applauded.<br />
A delightful album, highly recommended.<br />
www.fixionweb.com<br />
www.myspace.com/fixionweb<br />
FOR ONE NIGHT ILLEGALLY<br />
The History Of The Bootleg (Radio 4)<br />
Stones with possibly Springsteen elbowing his way in alongside, for<br />
some reason, Pearl Jam! Things change slowly in the world of the<br />
mass produced bootleg. Back then it was vinyl of course, and they<br />
always cost two to three times the price of a normal elpee. They also<br />
always came in a plain white sleeve with either a pinky mauve or<br />
green square paper design stuck to the front, thereby looking pretty<br />
much as crap as they sounded.<br />
I was first taken by the sight of an Alice Cooper bootleg and<br />
immediately shelled out for it, only to discover it was absolutely<br />
bloody atrocious when I got home, and I went straight back the next<br />
week demanding a refund, which he had the nerve to refuse, although<br />
he did eventually relent and let me swap. I think I got a Rick Derringer<br />
one, which was even worse. I went straight back and demanded a<br />
refund, which he refused, and so on. I got to hear a lot of rubbish this<br />
way. And it was rubbish, so I‘d been right all along, but the thrill of<br />
getting these illegal records was a palpable inducement and I kept<br />
returning.<br />
Eventually the tide of dross changed. I’d managed to get a cute Kiss<br />
bootleg single, which was quite hideous, but on the b-side included<br />
them doing that ‘Winchester Cathedral’ song at a soundcheck, which<br />
was mind-boggling, and a Patti Smith boot from the Roundhouse,<br />
which was the real deal, a genuinely exciting record, existing as a<br />
vivid snapshot of music in action, which is why bootlegs are<br />
so special. Then he got the ‘Spunk’ bootleg which is far better than<br />
the official Pistols album, and so on.<br />
After that I wasn’t just buying bootlegs there, but in Albatross in<br />
Kensington Market, run by DJ Ian Fleming, he of the Marquee, who<br />
happily sold Panache in his shop, and also kept back copies of<br />
bootlegs for me to have first go at, as well hanging around Soho<br />
market, down the very end of Portobello (outside what would become<br />
Betta Badges), and Camden generally. I also started recording gigs as<br />
and when I could, although as it had been decreed I was Panache’s<br />
photographer I couldn’t record as well as take photos, so I didn’t<br />
record nearly as many gigs as I wanted to. Also it was a fucking pain<br />
to be honest. Trying to get a tape recorder into most gigs when the
ecorder in question was<br />
about ten inches square<br />
wasn’t the easiest thing<br />
to do. That said, there<br />
are 1977 recordings out<br />
there of Generation X<br />
and Ultravox done by<br />
me, happily given out to<br />
people and somehow<br />
they went on to become<br />
pressed up. One of the<br />
Clash in Paris bootlegs<br />
came from a private tape<br />
someone did for me,<br />
which is one of the best<br />
recordings of them from<br />
that year, and there are others I’ve forgotten. The best one I did which<br />
has vanished is one I lent Des from Action Pact, the Damned during<br />
their summer Marquee residency when they gave out the ‘Stretcher<br />
Case’ free single. Admittedly I did ask Des for it back over twenty<br />
years after I’d lent it to him and he couldn’t find it, but he did still<br />
have my Ruts at the Pegasus tape, and Action Pact at the local Happy<br />
Landing pub gig.<br />
There is a Bauhaus recording of mine from the Rock Garden which is<br />
in regular circulation, an excellent Adam & The Ants at the Electric<br />
Ballroom boot, and somewhere a Slits in Bournemouth, but I’m not<br />
sure what happened to that. I did the Clash at the ANL rally, The<br />
Adverts at the Marquee and Roundhouse, Penetration at the<br />
Nashville, I gave Gaye Advert my Johnny Thunders at the Speakeasy<br />
tape, so I hope she cherishes that.<br />
After a while I stopped bothering, apart from Another Pretty Face,<br />
The Cravats, Carpettes and Dancing Did because it became a matter<br />
of course to see people selling up to a 100 different gig tapes outside<br />
major gigs in town, usually at a couple of quid a time so you didn’t<br />
really need to do it yourself as people were out there doing it as a<br />
business.<br />
I got to know quite a few of the bootleg stall holders in Camden really<br />
well and they would always look stuff out for me, and I’d even help on<br />
some stalls occasionally. I never personally witnessed a BPI swoop<br />
though, which must have been exciting. They always knew when one<br />
was due and started switching their stock. A man who had clearly just<br />
handed someone his jacket and tie would appear with a brand new<br />
baseball cap looking unconvincing on his head, and start asking,<br />
secretively, “have you got any BOOTLEGS?” I did get almost done<br />
by the BPI once though, in 1977, when it turned out someone I’d<br />
swapped tapes with had landed me in it, as he was obviously selling<br />
things. It’s not illegal to record any public event for yourself, in case<br />
you were wondering, or to buy a bootleg, it’s simply against the law to<br />
share these recordings or to sell them.<br />
I had to turn over my entire collection in return for paying their<br />
‘costs’, which at £75 seemed pretty steep for what seemed like<br />
sending me a threatening letter. It also meant I had to go to one of<br />
those dodgy auction places, buy a huge box of poor quality cassettes,<br />
and copy all my tapes over in a matter of days and take them the shit<br />
ones. Ah, happy days.<br />
I still look for bootlegs, and was only last night writing to somebody<br />
about getting a couple of Ants at the Marquee boots from them, and<br />
Bauhaus from the Moonlight, as I’m writing a series of books of<br />
bootleg reviews, which will probably fit into my schedule for next<br />
year. You have been warned.<br />
So, the programme.<br />
Our narrator David Hepworth is that avuncular chap who once hosted<br />
the Old Grey Whistle Test with an eager young curate named Mark<br />
Allen and he founded The Word. A good egg, then.<br />
www.wordmagazine.co.uk<br />
or<br />
www.davidhepworth.com<br />
– you choose.<br />
He starts with a 1966<br />
recording, of a Dylan<br />
show which was part<br />
folky, part electric, and<br />
this show, recorded by<br />
Dylan, found its way into<br />
the public domain as a<br />
bootleg, as most bootlegs<br />
do, because bands<br />
regularly hand tapes over<br />
to stalls knowing they’ll<br />
emerge.<br />
Bootlegs we learn, date back to classical days with a Edison recording<br />
machine, recorded at the Metropolitan in New York, and were<br />
appalling, which sounds right.<br />
Danny Kelly struggled through an account of an early archivist, Dean<br />
Benedetti, of Charlie Parker’s work, who invented recording<br />
equipment that recorded onto paper disc, and records the solos only,<br />
which is pretty weird. He collects hundreds, then vanishes. In the 80’s<br />
they turned up in a suitcase and come out on an eight record set!<br />
‘The Great White Wonder’ – a special Dylan album, which doesn’t<br />
use his name, and isn’t even called that, came out and skirted<br />
copyright issues by not using words. Then rock starts to grow, and<br />
means this could be financially huge but we slumped into boring<br />
reminiscences of a Jonh Ingham who worked for a bootlegger. It was<br />
interesting though that the bootlegger bought an entire row of seats at<br />
a gig, and people all had different bits of recording equipment – reel to<br />
reel – and they would assemble it all.<br />
Somewhere along the line when describing how other people got their<br />
gear smuggle din (wheelchairs, fake plaster casts) someone makes the<br />
most pertinent point of all. “Bootleggers are way, way smarter than<br />
security guys.” Very true.<br />
There’s a 90’s quote from some idiot from a major label waffling on,<br />
lying about bootlegs affecting sales, just as the BPI strain credulity by<br />
still insisting buying a bootleg funds terrorism, which was always<br />
laughable shite. It never does anything of the sort of course.<br />
Counterfeits affect sales, bootlegs are for serious fans and affect<br />
nothing. Also anyone, and I mean anyone, who argues that poor<br />
quality recordings should be ignored, for being a disgrace, are<br />
complete tossers. They know nothing about art to even contemplate<br />
making such a statement. Major label executives have never known<br />
anything about art, but we all know that. Managers aren’t much better.<br />
Things crunch up. Hepworth mentions a Little Feat boot, which I also<br />
chased down at the time. 1971, Yoko Ono liked them. ‘Power to the<br />
people!’ (Lennon wasn’t quotable, being inside a bag.) We move to<br />
how labels released official bootlegs, such as the famous Nils Lofgren<br />
record, and it all gets pretty dull then, although we learn Hepworth<br />
doesn’t know ‘Spunk’ was the genuine ‘Bollocks’ but thinks it’s a<br />
grotty compilation of early Pistols demos?<br />
Ryan Adams mumbles genially about fans all but having a right to the<br />
recording of a show while Hepworth mentions major labels now<br />
demand bands hand over every note recorded during a session, just in<br />
case they can work out how to release it at some point.<br />
I lost interest. There were some good ideas, but it wasn’t nearly good<br />
enough. Hepworth didn’t really point out how much good stuff there<br />
is, or how things work. It was like a pre-punk nostalgia fest, but it was<br />
nice.
Weirdoes!<br />
FREDRIK KLINGWALL<br />
WORKS OF WOE<br />
Last Entertainment<br />
Here’s an oddity curiosity, and coming from Klingwall a scrupulously<br />
artistic and beautifully realised one, even though it remains at arm’s<br />
length. It is a short collection of nine piano pierces, inspired by the<br />
works of Poe. Now I am pitifully short of knowledge about the great<br />
man and his works, so I wouldn’t pick up hints even from the titles of<br />
the pieces, while you may, which makes you a right smartarse!<br />
‘The Sleeper’ is pretty stark, a stern left hand plonking away as the<br />
right idles speculatively, rising to a stiff twirl. ‘Alone’, high and firm,<br />
is one step beyond meandering, and has a gracious melancholy.<br />
‘Spirits Of The Dead’ moves around a bit more, but not knowing what<br />
it may refer to I don’t picture anything ghastly, instead regarding this<br />
as a cutely reflective piece. ‘An Enigma’ is jumpier still, with the<br />
accompaniment of a jittery typewriter in a fully rounded number.<br />
‘The Conqueror Worm’ doesn’t sound particularly wormy, but then<br />
what would? It capers in an almost sing-song swaying rhythm, and<br />
then emptier passages and brisk drama inflate ‘The Valley Of Unrest.’<br />
‘The City In The Sea’ gets a circular motif rustling, tinkling and<br />
booming, but although involving it doesn’t make me wary, when I<br />
would have thought it should.<br />
‘For Annie’ is positively sweet, as though recorded in the smoking<br />
room annex of ‘Golden Brown’! ‘A Dream Within A Dream’ is also<br />
easy on the ear, and quite incisive with it’s pushy delivery.<br />
It’s all over fairly swiftly, and the thing it didn’t do was remind me of<br />
woes, specifically, or Poe generally, in that it doesn’t evoke any<br />
atmosphere of dread, but people perceive poems in many different<br />
ways, as they do stories. I avoid them almost on principle, so am no<br />
judge whatsoever, but I do like having a set of deeply felt, warmly<br />
austere works and do you know, I don’t own a single classical record?<br />
So having this makes me feel dead posh.<br />
www.klingwall.se<br />
www.myspace.com/klingwall<br />
FRIENDS OF ALICE IVY<br />
Hereafter Moth<br />
Galasono Records<br />
This is Kylie and Amps from Ostia, with Justin from Ostia also<br />
involved. So it’s Ostia, basically, but wearing a cunning false<br />
moustache and plastic beard set. All their friends walk past,<br />
completely taken in. Mark Tansley even joins in on one song, now he’s<br />
over in Australia. I bet he said, ‘as long as you’re not that Ostia<br />
band?’ and they laughed scornfully, and sneered. ‘As if!’ You can fool<br />
all of the guitarists, all of the time.<br />
It’s a little more delicate and sweet-tempered than Ostia, more<br />
conventionally ordered, as the tinkling ‘The Tower Of Flints’ proves,<br />
drifting by like the haziest enchanting ethereal poppet. ‘Echoes’
manages to be wistful and enigmatic as gaseous vocals inflate a bigboned<br />
form of ambient, with the Tansley-assisted ‘A Song Of<br />
Forgotten Places’ pitter-pattering along with pliable bass and a silky<br />
mystery. It would be funny if ‘The Lament Of Icarus’ started with<br />
some sizzling then one almighty, ‘Oh fuuuuucccckkk!’ drifting down<br />
and away through the mix, but that simply isn’t the case dear reader.<br />
Instead they have access to his pre-flight diary, but with vocals so<br />
light they’re almost invisible they are selfishly determined to keep his<br />
secrets to the grave, but they do it beautifully.<br />
‘Telling Lost Tales To The Last Rays Of The Sun’ might seem like a<br />
title which only makes sense if you’re on drugs but they’ve kept the<br />
best until last, as this exquisitely dreamy piece meanders lusciously as<br />
though we are listening to music made by ghosts.<br />
www.myspace.com/friendsofaliceivy<br />
FRIGHTDOLL<br />
ASSIMILATION ILLUSION<br />
Quantum Release<br />
I like Frightdoll’s polite optimism, because while I dismissed the first<br />
album as having good ideas laid low by bumptious beats and vocals<br />
that were held too far back, she sent this cheerily with a note saying<br />
she hopes I don’t find it as disappointing.<br />
It certainly starts well with the simple piano opening of ‘Lost’ slowly<br />
gaining weird, intentionally tiny vocals, and it’s beautifully strange.<br />
‘Alone In This’ clatters briskly into life, and it becomes clear this<br />
holding back the vocals is all quite intentional because while the dance<br />
rhythm pulses more acutely than before, with fuller curvature, the<br />
vocals are still trapped within, hissing and gyrating. The keyboard is<br />
also quite unconventional for the surroundings. ‘Caused’ informs us<br />
it’s a matter of structure, apparently, and off it twirls with another<br />
engagingly twisted shape gliding to an effectively swaying rhythm<br />
through which larges shape appear to fit through smaller holes<br />
nimbly; Industrial Dance with a fresh-faced severity, and danceable<br />
joy, although it ends in a dwindle. ‘Evolution’ is equally weird.<br />
Although truncated the ideas have their own sense of life and when<br />
you read the lyrics you realise this some sort of hi-tech dreamworld, so<br />
you can’t very well expect breezy urgency as it’s like a sci-fi plot<br />
unravelling. (‘Encoded program of our perception, exponentially<br />
accelerating, towards simplified complexity…’ etc.) After a few<br />
listens you start to hook into its wordiness and it becomes more<br />
catchy.<br />
‘Controverse’ actually mystifies me, as there’s plenty of twirly<br />
percussion and twinkling synthery but as the pulses starts nagging the<br />
vocals have vanished, having only been hissing enigmatically, making<br />
it seem a vague promise of something deep, but at least musically it’s<br />
bold enough to stay the course and work on that level, even if the<br />
intention seems unclear. ‘Indecision’ hungers and keeps on going but<br />
not in a hard way, and I lost interest here, because while its<br />
arrangement is there for the song to really spring around it seems to<br />
have so much compressed inside it that it becomes arthritic as a result<br />
and if it went out in public people would gather around and point at it.<br />
‘Don’t touch it!’ mothers would warn impetuous children, ‘it’s<br />
confused.”<br />
‘Distant’ is sensitively muted and while the lyrics are more normal<br />
they’re also open to interpretation, the sound encouraging the wistful<br />
mystery. ‘Leaving You’ comes over really lively, helped by the vocals<br />
crawling out from under the weight of the music and snapping at the<br />
air deliciously, although still electronically treated. The rhythm is<br />
touch and scrupulously clean, the atmosphere sober and clinical, but<br />
the vocals cute, the song ending like a trick. ‘Generate’ takes a dour<br />
dance beat and fleeting vocal incisions to create an obliquely hypnotic<br />
undertow, on into the slow motion classical fusion of ‘Endings’ with<br />
Kate Bush In Space style vocals and some interesting, graduated mood<br />
shifts, before the dignified ‘Sweet Serenity’ ends in the same style as<br />
the peculiar opener, which brings us full cycle, and keeps it circling.<br />
Four or five plays in things start making sense. It’s not a huge step up<br />
from the first album but shows how that lacked toning and natural<br />
impetus. There’s nothing rickety on the rhythm front here and while<br />
the vocal disguise stills semi-baffles me, the character comes through<br />
stronger, if diffused. Melodically there’s both punchy finesse and a<br />
cool shadowy grandeur, which is all highly impressive.<br />
www.frightdoll.com<br />
www.mypace.com/frightdoll<br />
GAË BOLG<br />
PETITE INTRODUCTION AUX PRATIQUES DES<br />
GYMNOSOPHES<br />
Le Cluricaun<br />
‘In Taberna’ is very punchy, with percussion right behind your head as<br />
the keyboards begin an orderly procession and some mental historical<br />
tableau gets played out in the minds of those that understand. I still<br />
don’t think I quite get what all this is about, but as the horns bleed<br />
copious drama into proceedings it’s all very inviting. The vocals are<br />
totally mental but as the music swarms around you and you are quite<br />
trapped in this, it’s curiously energising.<br />
‘La Fameuse Marche Mogole’ is being airdropped into a toyshop that<br />
comes alive at night, with the vocals omnipotent warbling par
excellence, whatever it all means. ‘Brevet de Réminiscence<br />
Perpétuelle’ is like squidgy operatic with a juggernaut of a beat<br />
wrestling to escape from the CD. Imagine being trapped in an alpine<br />
hotel with no way out due to weather problems and travelling<br />
businessmen high of advocate have taken control. It’s a bit like that.<br />
(Me scared.) ‘Scoriez’ could be Andi Sex Gang trapped in a<br />
monastery, crying to be released though, so I guess it all balances out.<br />
‘La Marche Ethylik Des Empereurs Manchots’ is a chunkier<br />
boozeathon, lurching wildly, and ‘Procession Diurne’ more gracious<br />
slumbers, although there’s a recorder being used you may wish to take<br />
precautions. It closes with two live numbers, ‘Brevet de Réminiscence<br />
Perpétuelle’ and ‘Danse Des Nains’, riotous cacophony aplenty in the<br />
former, saucy minimalism in the lusty latter!<br />
I also received a little CD, one of those three inch chappies which is<br />
available only to those who buy from the label itself. This includes<br />
‘La Marche Des Fous’ which is a lovely, stirring treat, the horns and<br />
vocal despair wonderfully cajoling, and ‘Bestiare’ which is darker, and<br />
mysterious.<br />
The GB world is a very strange, dangerous place.<br />
www.myspace.com/gaebolg<br />
www.myspace.com/lecluricaun<br />
GARDEZ DARKX<br />
GARDEZ DARKX<br />
Bristol Archive Records<br />
The wheezy brass and clip-clop percussion of ‘White Rain’ is enough<br />
to tell you we’re in left-field art-rock territory, and as there’s never any<br />
map I can’t really clear things up. Stream of unconsciousness lyrics<br />
never take hold, as attractive, windblown guitar sails away, and a sax<br />
alternates between being sometimes heroic, sometimes hated.<br />
‘Stranger’ wees itself happily, with some hideous guitar overspill from<br />
a cute enough tune which has some pushy little perky touches to go<br />
with the supreme crooning of Latif Gardez, who apparently also<br />
recorded as Mystery Slang. It’s like The Associates gone grubby and a<br />
touch muso. Is that a good thing?<br />
‘S. M. Tiger’ gets some post-jazz tinkling going, which you did find<br />
creeping through at the start of the 80s, with the indie scene brimming<br />
over with people trying to reinvent styles other than punky fare, some<br />
rough and scary, some surprisingly mellow but irritating like Gardez<br />
Darkx. ‘Random Alligator’ is an interesting mess, the idling<br />
keyboards suggesting someone like The Doors but it mainly feels<br />
likely a drowsy early Spandau Ballet visited by some odd bluesy<br />
guitar runs, as the young Latif was apparently influenced by the late,<br />
great Rory Gallagher, not that you can tell. Doorsian similarities flood<br />
the dumpy ‘Steel Wind’ but sadly this is not the end, my friend.<br />
‘Saints’ has a slinky feel going, but with annoying yowling vocals, but<br />
otherwise it’s less scattershot, more direct. ‘Go!’ sounds like ‘Hong<br />
Kong Garden’ meets ABC, with a kids tv audience in mind, twee but<br />
sweetly twisted while ‘Doctor Be Good’ is strangled Bowie.<br />
‘Bandage Mechanics’ is a gnarled funk David Byrne thing too, so the<br />
influences are all over the<br />
shop although it’s all there to<br />
serve the somewhat sore<br />
songs. ‘Whirlwind Friend’<br />
staggers boldly to a finish<br />
with all of the aforementioned<br />
sounds locked in its dusty<br />
grooves and really it’s gone<br />
before you’ve grasped what<br />
they’re after.<br />
There were tons of bands like<br />
this back then, and I can’t say<br />
I’m surprised the name hasn’t established itself. The best I can say is<br />
that if you’re into that arty noodling there’s a lot more gravitas here<br />
than some of the jerkier blaring bands offered, but it’s not my kind of<br />
thing in any way. I was glad when it finished.<br />
www.bristolarchiverecords.com/bands/Gardez_Darkx.html<br />
GODS GIFT<br />
Pathology 1979-1984 (Messthetics #218)<br />
Hyped to Death<br />
The press release proudly proclaims, “other bands on the Manchester<br />
scene played larger roles, but sooner or later almost everyone who was<br />
there mentions Gods Gift – in tones of awe and amazement.” Do they?<br />
Can’t say I have ever heard anyone mention them, but then I’m not in<br />
Manchester, ear to the ground. (They don’t even appear to have a<br />
myspace tribute page.) As with any of this series, the job done is<br />
superb, with the booklet itself a fascinating read. It seems that seven<br />
members of the band, through various line-ups all worked at one of<br />
their area’s main employers, Prestwich Hospital, which was a<br />
psychiatric unit lf enormous size, where the residents spilled out into a<br />
communal garden to loudly demonstrate their own characteristics, and<br />
local legend has it that it was witnessing such behaviour which gave<br />
Mark E. Smith the idea for his vocal delivery style.<br />
Musically this rum bunch can pack a lazily powerful punch, halfway<br />
between the bleak sonar of Joy Division, and the scruffy punk laments<br />
of early Section 25, although the reach polar opposites in terms of<br />
quality, this collection coming from a 7”, 12”, some demos and a<br />
couple of cassette releases.<br />
‘Anaesthetic’ just lollops along, with bony drums, stodgy bass,<br />
dismissive laconic vocal dribbling sweetly picturesque lyrics and a<br />
guitar strumming self-consciously, rising and falling with the winsome<br />
rhythm. ‘Clamour Club’ has an edgier punk-indie mix, the bass<br />
projecting, the guitar scrawny but agile, and a bit, bracing chorus, like<br />
The Monkees suffering from depression. A further string to their<br />
soggy bow comes in ‘Jacqueline’s Admission’ where atmosphere drips<br />
from the gloomy bass and spidery guitar, as the singer describes the<br />
lyrical subject’s schizophrenia and you really do hang on his every<br />
word.<br />
‘No God’ could be charitably be described as a spirited dirge, with<br />
‘Discipline’ going the other way and having a spartan edge, and terse<br />
spouted vocal, complete with minimalist chorus. ‘The Strong And The<br />
Weak’ actually sounds like a more informal Fall. ‘People’ is bloody
awful; basic plinky punky nonsense with hideous guitar and female<br />
vocals, like a precursor to Crass, minus the angst, or prag Vec<br />
sleepwalking badly. Luckily the simple guitar agitation in ‘Soldiers’<br />
grabs your attention swiftly.<br />
‘Good And Evil’ is a cantankerous wreck, and I think had I seen the<br />
band when they played they’d have been one of those I found<br />
interesting for a few songs but the tuneless aspect would invariably<br />
send me drifting barwards. Steven Edwards was obviously the man, as<br />
his words do stick out as the one exciting aspect, but here he’s<br />
banging on about religion, again. That’s another bugbear of mine.<br />
Bands always do it, and if the music swamps the articulated rage it’s<br />
fine, but when they’re exposed vocals like this I think, ‘Okay, so<br />
you’re not a choir boy, get over it.’ ‘People’ dwindles softly, but it’s<br />
far from memorable despite the wibbling sax coming in and out like a<br />
bad smell.<br />
When the rhythmical power isn’t central or solid the songs falter.<br />
‘Creeps In’ has some descaled guitar tripping over the drumming as<br />
the vocals blather, whereas ‘Man Of Two Men’ at least lurches like an<br />
inept version of ’96 Tears’, but it’s repetitive piece and bores after a<br />
while. ‘Then Calm Again’ is okay, with sporadic passages of a<br />
nagging charm, the sax and rowsy vocals interlocking, but it’s the<br />
mocking ‘Nico’ about the chanteuse when she was living in<br />
Manchester which really comes to life. ‘Deicide (heir Soul Is Hate)’ is<br />
frantically busy and keeps you awake, ‘Disturbed’ wrangles away in<br />
its own misery and then it’s ‘Working Class Man’, which is<br />
remarkably boring.<br />
They didn’t care what people thought of them and clearly the variable<br />
quality of the combatants seriously affects how good the songs were,<br />
so it’s no thrillfest, but for fans of the oblique punk-indie crossover<br />
they are a very interesting bunch.<br />
www.hyped2death.com<br />
GROOVING IN GREEN<br />
ASCENT EP<br />
Green On Black<br />
Look at them there, staring at the sea. ‘What are we doing this for?’<br />
We’re a Goth band dammit, it’s what we do. Noble silhouettes against<br />
the sky. It’s our thing. ‘A Goth band? Does that mean we have to say<br />
We Are Not A Goth Band?’ No, we can’t because we chose Gothic/<br />
Rock/Industrial for our Myspace page. Got a bit confused when we<br />
found the url we wanted belonged to a woman called Michelle who<br />
only has Tom as a friend and hasn’t logged in since 2007. That’s life<br />
in the real world. ‘Industrial? How are we Industrial?’ I don’t know.<br />
Concentrate on what’s important. Study the waves.<br />
That’s what it’s like for bands most of the time. Long periods of<br />
inactivity and yet close to nature. They’re used to it though and should<br />
muddle through. You have Simon and Pete from Stun and Spares, plus<br />
former Solemn Novena man Tron on vocals. I don’t think that’s his<br />
real name, mind.<br />
‘Premonition’ has the pushy guitar motif and overall frilly floweriness<br />
of standard Goth you’d expect, with a knowing vocal presence, with a<br />
stocky drum built in. It makes for a great clamour, with accusatory<br />
lyrics ladled over the top. Very pretty. ‘Scene Whore’ does the same<br />
but has a clattery sustained impact, with willowy guitar elegance as<br />
support. Not sure how in a small scene anyone can be a scene ‘whore’,<br />
but then it’s all personalised, presumably shrewd angsty effort here.<br />
It’s pretty basic in terms of production values, it must be said, but the<br />
song survives and lifts you up, so job done. ‘Descent’ takes us down,<br />
vocals more jagged and thrusting with doomy bass and a static<br />
balance, providing a gloomy defiance. ‘Choices (Mk II)’ creeps about<br />
confidently, the guitar leaning back as the vocals saunter sharply. It<br />
moves just fine, thank you and if they can brighten the sound next<br />
time, like the unannounced ‘Cats Or Devils Eyes’, it will help because<br />
they’re obviously quality, even if the sleeve isn’t.<br />
‘Is that someone drowning out there?’ No idea, I left my glasses in the<br />
car.<br />
www.myspace.com/groovingingreen08<br />
GUERRE FROIDE<br />
VENTE<br />
Brouillard Definitif<br />
I could do with some more of this. Just as English bands tend to seem<br />
like they’re full or artistically driven mental cases, and Italian bands<br />
are essentially dignified even when angsty, so the French bands seem<br />
so casually easy in their contemplation, which is all decidedly cool.<br />
Guerre Froide were a Cold Wave band to be reckoned with back in the<br />
80’s who didn’t stick around long, but reformed a few years back, and<br />
still have it, just as Metal Urbain do and Brotherhood Of Pagans.<br />
With ‘Nom’ it creeps up on you, a sense of dissonant wrangling<br />
offsetting the oblique mood and clear, simple melodic method.<br />
Rhythmically dogmatic but lightly handled there are also vocals that<br />
walk the walk, sounding jaded one minute, but heard beneath furrowed
ows. The guitar tingles, but there is a quiet menace, like a baby<br />
farting.<br />
Incidentally I don’t know if that’s the actual title of the EP, I have<br />
simply guess from the attractive but all-French folded card press<br />
release. I can however state with my usual authority that the second<br />
song is ‘Entre Nous’ and it’s another ticklish, jarring blighter, the<br />
vocals wafted through a shabby well ventilated tunnel of atmospheric,<br />
troubled sound. With ‘Planete Hurlante’ they up the ante with a<br />
moody pirouette, the bass seepage contrasting with some itchy synth<br />
and much gloominess to be had.<br />
The easy nature of their work is of course a disguise. To be this<br />
effortless you just have to be bloody cold. And so they are.<br />
www.myspace.com/guerrefroide<br />
HANGING DOLL<br />
REASON & MADNESS<br />
OBM<br />
Because I know how excited some readers get the inclusion of Metal<br />
bands I can sit back content that my work tonight will send some of<br />
you to bed happy when otherwise you might have been grief-stricken.<br />
Here we have an English band who create what I am reliably informed<br />
(press release rustling by my side) Orchestral Gothic Metal,<br />
humanised in my eyes by the fact their vocalist, a professional<br />
photographer who has been classically trained, admitted she’s fancy a<br />
crack at vocals if the opportunity ever came up, having met them<br />
originally to take their photos. It did, she does. It’s not all bad either.<br />
Plaintive keyboards keep ‘Reason And Madness’ afloat, then the same<br />
delicacy ushers in ‘Blood Ridden Skies’ with vocal whispers<br />
becoming pained banners, possible confused by the term ‘blood<br />
ridden’, as the guitar paints in the details over a stodgy rhythm and is<br />
all progressing in a dignified fashion, complete with calm chorus,<br />
when things move into the gargling male vocal assault over furious<br />
frothy riffing, the operatic nature of the female vocals reduced to<br />
weird plumes, and while it settles back into its sedate sediment, male<br />
and female clashing like siren and addled warlock, to a neat keyboard<br />
close you know it’s all going to be over the top. Welcome to my<br />
nightmare.<br />
‘Hope Springs Eternal’ maintains the considered approach overall,<br />
with fragrant vocals gradually becoming demented, and a flighty<br />
musical frisson emerging which is then savaged by mean-spirited<br />
guitar. They’re commendably catchy, and headstrong rather than<br />
bombastic and the prancing close here is very cute, for all the excess<br />
warbling and vocal gurning. ‘Sweet Retribution’ is nicely measured<br />
with simple emotional lyrical matter, quite graceful really with the<br />
ridiculous male vocals sounding like a certifiable butler in the<br />
background.<br />
‘Echoes Of Sorrow’ is sensitive and formulaic, so I switch off as it<br />
witters on, but there’s a sweet melody present in ‘A Formidable<br />
Mistake’ but there’s also a weird thing which always irritates me<br />
where there’s a pause then frantic riffing intrudes, presumably to<br />
establish they have rock on their mind in case the audience are<br />
thinking them a bit wimpy. When she sings, ‘you were my formidable<br />
mistake’ it actually sounds like ‘you were my formidable mustang’<br />
which prompt the drummer to try and disguise this by laying into his<br />
kit but it’s too late. My ears noticed.<br />
‘Forlorn’ goes all mawkish and gets closer to Goth than most of what<br />
is flouncey Metal, but a strong, heartfelt vocal performance and some<br />
gracious use of space makes the song work well. ‘Twist Of a Deity’ is<br />
a little weirder, the male vocals bubonic, the female stratospheric, and<br />
the drama is sustained throughout. ‘Iniquity’ brings back the charming<br />
historical elegance, which is contrasted with the gross excesses of<br />
their sound towards the end masking it a mish-mash in my mind. I’m<br />
surprised they feel the need to go about their business in such a<br />
constipated manner when their sound works so well in sparser<br />
conditions. The moment everyone floods in it reduces any impact.<br />
‘Silence In Solitude’ finishes it off in cautiously grand style, and while<br />
it is effective rock with sentiment it’s also horribly old-fashioned when<br />
it needn’t be. It also doesn’t have enough subtle changes for such a<br />
long song when they are quite capable of making things interesting.<br />
There you go then, some home-grown rock which has many charming<br />
facets but lacks the courage to take things up one mighty level. If they<br />
want to compete, really compete, with the big rock goth crossover<br />
bands they need to do something different, which means working on<br />
atmosphere, understanding brevity and dropping the clichés. If they<br />
don’t they’ll do okay in the UK but always remain second division,.<br />
Which is what they will deserve for squandering evident talent.<br />
www.hangingdoll.com<br />
HEXON<br />
In Slow Motion<br />
Shadowplay<br />
This enigmatic Russian/American release looks gorgeous, with<br />
modern fairytale drawings done in an illustrated medieval manuscript<br />
manner, and of course all of the song titles are swirly and unreadable,<br />
giving it quite the secretive allure. Reading the info available on the<br />
Shadowplay site makes things extra confusing still.<br />
“It is known that all creative activities concerning the album “In Slow<br />
Motion” were performed only during the night, and were supported by<br />
strong hallucinogenic and psychoactive drugs, through which the<br />
musicians sought to contact the dead stars of American pin-up and<br />
vintage erotica.” Well, we’ve all done it.<br />
‘Wings’ comes on like a wispier triphop channelling of Madonna<br />
during her trendy William Orbit phase. This is a Good Thing, and the<br />
music is kept nice and snugly, with the vocals but a vague ongoing<br />
memory. Into the tantalisingly kinetic ‘Lilith’ we go, the music sparse<br />
in density but thick in stability, clearly having a strong melodic<br />
purpose and yet still dreamy.<br />
‘Nibble’ is a little spacier, so maybe they were waylaid in their séance<br />
activities by Quentin Crisp on a magic carpet. (“Vintage erotica, my<br />
dears? Why, how considerate…”)<br />
‘Hurt’ is cool dance gloop and effortlessly hypnotic with supine bass<br />
fat and content, synth etching into it as the drum kicks sniffily.
‘Dance’, perversely, is filleted like a stop-motion experience,<br />
shuddering artistically over a slow crawling beat, ‘Erosion’ does the<br />
twilight Portishead zone thing, radar after midnight.<br />
‘Oddity’ seems to be slithering into the Earth, detached and gloomier,<br />
while the pretty ‘Game’ offers a stretching, jaunty contrast, with a<br />
subtle fresh synth optimism, like the bastard grandchildren of Santana<br />
(albeit briefly), and ‘Nightride’ does indeed move into noir nocturnal<br />
ether, a misty affair with a stolid beat running through.<br />
‘Succubus’ just drifts a little aimlessly with nothing distinctive, with<br />
‘Voyeurism’ equally lightweight through being light in tone.<br />
It’s a shame it all ended a bit fluffy because the darker strains are<br />
compelling, lulling you with their fashionable fumes.<br />
http://shadowplay-records.com – band don’t appear to have a<br />
site.<br />
HISTORY OF GUNS<br />
WHEN YOU DON’T MATTER<br />
Line Out Records - free download single<br />
We need a constant drip-feed of HOG material between albums so this<br />
is a blessing, as are the assurances of more albums as I can never tell<br />
from Max’s journal whether the band has split or still exists. It’s all<br />
quite alarming!<br />
‘When You Don’t<br />
Matter’ instantly<br />
reminds you of how<br />
they conjure up a<br />
fetid mood, through<br />
angry rumbling<br />
lyrics spouted by<br />
prematurely weary<br />
vocals, over a bed<br />
of rhythmical<br />
nettles that stirs,<br />
slurs and takes you<br />
down the drain with<br />
it when it’s<br />
finished. Inspired<br />
by Del’s preference<br />
for obscenely short<br />
Union Jack dresses (Entire Nation: “My eyes, my eyes!!!”) ‘Slice Up<br />
Your Wife’ is probably the best Spice Girls cover they could abuse,<br />
like a conga in Hell constantly dancing to Chic’s greatest hits.<br />
‘Forever’ is a glorious noir tincture of gloom and splendour, the<br />
sensitive synths and metallic percussive rustling combining behind the<br />
woe-bedecked vocals to create a post-Twin Peaksy wheeziness that<br />
highlights the other side of HOG from the mania, which is the tragic<br />
beauty of their dreamier music.<br />
It’s free. What are you waiting for?<br />
www.lineoutrecords.com/downloads/<br />
HistoryOfGuns_WhenYouDontMatter/<br />
IMMUNDUS<br />
HAUNTED MEMORIES<br />
HDR<br />
This purports to be Dark Ambient which I always assume means some<br />
claustrophobic and hellish noise, and yet in this case is actually light<br />
but consistently atmospheric work, with ‘Entering The Domain’ and<br />
‘The Hall’ remote and gloomy but still traditional tinkling and<br />
swooning synth work with vocals in the ether. (I don’t know if the<br />
house on the cover has any significance but I should point out it’s<br />
darker and sleeker than that as an image and my scanner went ballistic<br />
trying to make sense of it which is why we have the picture we do.)<br />
‘Whispering Walls’ goes for less of an insidious air and more of an<br />
outright chill factor, straight in your face, then the groaning, darker<br />
‘Dining Beside An Old Corpse’ lives up to its name, disquieting and<br />
dank, like a vengeful radio broadcast for the other side but mixed with<br />
mischievously pretty strings. ‘From The Depths’ goes softer but still<br />
pulling the nerves taut, setting you up for a scary ‘voice’ appearing at<br />
the end, then we are indeed ‘Lured Into An Abyss Maze’ where all is<br />
still, cool and ominously spooky.<br />
‘The Descent’ is also attractive as you feel you wander through<br />
labyrinthine weirdness, with the sweetness of the notes percolating<br />
through it evoke no menace, just a trancelike state, where it ends with<br />
a feeling of bleak unease. Strangely ‘Chains Of Hate’ is almost<br />
empty, drifting along, with ‘Dementia’ windswept but with a music<br />
box for company, some creepy vocal ghosts thrown in. ‘Escape’<br />
finishes it off by having a gentle touch and we do get a musical story<br />
arc of sorts, coming through the darkness and out the other side,<br />
although as it hasn’t been particularly strident or doomy I didn’t<br />
personally get a real insight into anything, my mind wasn’t suffused<br />
with dread or delight.
Pleasing, almost soothing company, it works as a semi-abstract piece,<br />
pulling you in but then letting you float out again, and closing the door<br />
firmly behind you.<br />
www.myspace.com/immundusofficial<br />
IMPRINT<br />
<strong>THE</strong> WISDOM OUT OF<br />
<strong>THE</strong> WOUND<br />
Feral Intuition<br />
It’s Sin of Attrition, who is<br />
obviously a bit of a mutter<br />
as it seems the album, short<br />
and delightful as it is, will<br />
be a limited edition of 100<br />
which come in tin, placed in<br />
a ribbon bedecked satin bag!<br />
It’s only £11 including<br />
postage and a third have<br />
already gone so contact her<br />
via myspace, where there’s a link to buy.<br />
‘Feedback’ is angry, the synth surly behind disdainful vocals, and the<br />
lighter form of imposing, because the story and sound doesn’t become<br />
oppressive and depressive despite surrounding suicide. ‘Sleep’ is<br />
sweeter, flowing easily and creamily then picking up of the squishy<br />
beast and sitting up and narrowing its eyes, swelling exotically and<br />
overheating.<br />
Vocals and synth occasionally veer sideways during ‘Divided’ but it<br />
adds more variety to the sound, seeming more open and inviting and<br />
yet creepier at heart. Every element’s got the fever in ‘Reptilian’, a<br />
little more basic and tremulous, resigned and bitter sounding. ‘Apathy<br />
And Demise’ is the most dramatic, empty and sinister with accusatory<br />
vocals hanging menacing in the scared air. ‘The Offering’ is touching,<br />
pensive vocals hovering in crushed air, like a modern Kate Bush at her<br />
moodiest. It really is very beautiful.<br />
Bizarrely my CD Sin sent claims to have 97 tracks! The last of these<br />
is ‘Let Me Go’ prelude’, a piece of holistic ambient, impressively<br />
weighty for all its slender means and a lengthy piece into which you<br />
can sink.<br />
A great record and madness to think it’s so limited in numbers, but<br />
maybe that’s the logistical modern world for you? At least those who<br />
get one will treasure it.<br />
www.myspace.com/imprintuk
IN AURORAM<br />
WHEN DAYLIGHT FADES<br />
Wave<br />
Unless you’re mad you come here to hear about fabulous artists and<br />
this Brazilian couple should appease your demands. Ricardo Santos<br />
handles sound, Astéria creates her own. Together they bridge that gap<br />
between astute orchestral emotional suggestion, and Ethereal magic.<br />
The press release says it’s something to do with William Blake but I<br />
wouldn’t know. Never met the guy.<br />
The exquisitely filmic instrumental ‘When Daylight Fades’ ushers you<br />
sensitively into place, synth and piano entwined, guitar following on,<br />
and it’s such a bright, bold example of simplicity. The vocals can be<br />
sung in English and during the airy ‘Time’ they float across the slowly<br />
strummed wrinkles and rise lazily into the ether, the piano nicely<br />
brittle. ‘Reconditum, Spiritum’ and the equally relaxing ‘Frost Storm’<br />
manage to establish a presence somewhere between the worlds of<br />
Ataraxia and Angelo Badalamenti. Strings make ‘Concentus’ a<br />
vibrant twilight serenade fraught with tension and ‘Turva Aurora’ is<br />
slowly demented under an angry sky. It’s all impressive but the only<br />
problem I have is that by ‘My Anguish’ the flow to the sound is fairly<br />
staid, as it is with most Ethereal artists, so things tend to concertina<br />
and you’ve really got one huge piece divided into smaller songs,<br />
they’re that close at times. It’s a shame they can’t strip the sound out<br />
more at times which would only emphasise how good they are<br />
individually, or how certain instruments can shine. Keeping tracks<br />
generally inflated tends to equalize impact and sensations.<br />
‘Untrue Bliss’ is peakier, sorrowful vocals piercing across<br />
contemplative piano, like Qntal with a toothache and the espionage<br />
furtiveness of the darker ‘Peace Or Sword’ is lovely. Nagging, spindly,<br />
refreshing. ‘A Lifetime Of Trials’ is am ambient sorbet, ‘Send Me A<br />
Confort’ ratchets up the creepometer with some whispering style, just<br />
as ‘Mortuus Virgo’ covers everything with an artistic sense of shade.<br />
‘Over The Ashes’ is semi-funereal, but with the reedy hint of drama<br />
and intrigue, then the holistic charm of ‘Holy Sin’ bathes its<br />
ecclesiastical slumbers with a sense of things ending, and it makes for<br />
a fitting close on a record which doesn’t quite stamp a sense of the<br />
majestic into its atmosphere enough for me, but it is comprehensively<br />
beautiful and transporitng. Ah, and for those who visit the wonderful<br />
shop at Wave’s site (I have my eye on a few items there) you can also<br />
snare the limited edition which includes a second CD of ten more<br />
songs.<br />
www.myspace.com/inauroram<br />
INDUSTRIAL MUSICS<br />
Volume 1<br />
ERIC DUBOYS<br />
Camion Blanc<br />
Admittedly I never found myself<br />
impressed by Industrial bands,<br />
or keen on the textual kerrumph<br />
of the sound generally, although<br />
I am aware it has a legion of<br />
fans. It was interesting initially,<br />
but as it became a hiding place<br />
for tape tinkering and profound<br />
bores with dreams of<br />
meisterwerks I simply ignored it.<br />
It’s either your thing or it’s<br />
irrelevant.<br />
For those who love it then this book may well appeal, if you read<br />
French, as it’s a French language work, but there may be English<br />
versions? (Check the website or ask them.) I got a copy as I gave them<br />
some Test Department photos, although visuals are purely secondary<br />
in this huge 652 page book. Text heavy, it will be heaven for<br />
aficionados. Where else will you get a sixty page chapter on Cabaret<br />
Voltaire, at the lighter end of any Industrial association, or 102 pages<br />
on Whitehouse/Come Org? Other chapters cover SPK, Clock DVA,<br />
Einsturzende Neubauten, Test Dept, Boyd Rice and Laibach.<br />
www.camionblanc.com – check out their other books: some very<br />
interesting titles.<br />
KASMs<br />
SPAYED<br />
Trouble<br />
There’s been a lot of<br />
discussion in scientific<br />
circles recently about<br />
what would happen if<br />
feral youngsters were<br />
raised in a cave on a<br />
diet of old X-Ray<br />
Spex bootlegs and<br />
then left to their own,<br />
entirely contemporary,<br />
creative devices, while<br />
sensibly made allergic<br />
to saxophones. This<br />
record appears to answer the question. Now, ferocious little buggers<br />
they may be but for all their reputation for manic live shows, and the<br />
press release observing they recorded this on a reel to reel to capture<br />
their vibrant nature, the thing which impresses me most is the<br />
surprising sweetness of their work and the bold contours.<br />
‘Male Bonding’ whirs and froths initially then gallops proudly with<br />
the agile spindly guitar punched between the drum’s buttocks, and<br />
while the bass stabs out methodically the vocals arch confidently<br />
above them all, a touch of vibrato offsetting the melodic power surges,<br />
and that’s one jolly rhythm. ‘Insects’ rustles and bumbles beneath the<br />
splayed singing, and so the feral punky overtones are supported by a<br />
real sense of, occasionally clumsy, ambition which has to be a good<br />
thing. As the guitar gamely carries ‘Taxidermy’ along with a steely<br />
sense of purpose, the drums clomp away and a slightly deranged<br />
vocalist burns like a human flare at the centre. It’s a raw power which<br />
isn’t harnessed by their own production, the way someone else may<br />
have created a sonic sculpture out of it, and I guess that goes with the<br />
territory. They have a few rough edges but the songs are very well<br />
conceived, and have a natural propensity for drama which is exciting.<br />
This one hasn’t been captured well, but then they probably tracked it<br />
for so long they were tired.
‘Spayed’ starts like both a call to prayer and a cat’s lament, prowling<br />
bass and interesting wispy sounds (guitar or synth?) eventually<br />
crushed beneath the heaving vocal blasts, then trails off into<br />
nothingness, a genuinely curious number. ‘KRIH’ is a burbling,<br />
spitting slice of nonsense, ‘Don’t Hit The Bottom’ opts for a<br />
controlled, almost leisurely luminescence. The singing’s a bit mouldy<br />
until it gets going but the more muted approach shows how cool a<br />
balance of sound they possess, and it’s got an ability to swish<br />
stylishly, which is a vital ingredient as bands who just possess<br />
cannons won’t win any battles. ‘Bone You’ hammers away is a bleak<br />
fit of fury, leaving no strong aftertaste, but the strident punky jitters of<br />
‘Trenchfoot’ like early Banshees walking on glass is impressively<br />
twisted. ‘Siren Sister’ is about the only song which struck me as<br />
possessing anything close to the Goth/Deathrock, like a flattened<br />
female-led Cramps patrol wielding colourful parasols.‘Mackerel Sky’<br />
is an ugly effort, which ruins its atmospheric elements, which is<br />
wasteful. ‘Toil + Trouble’ rights the ship with a fascinating slow boil<br />
and pustular explosion which again, in the hands of a skilled sound<br />
surgeon, could have sounded remarkable. As it is it’s nicely alarming.<br />
Then they rampage off with the delightfully devious ‘Murmer’ which<br />
also pulls some killer moves, with more involved vocals, tumbling<br />
drums and tousled, murky guitar.<br />
I get the point that they wanted the organic recording to capture them<br />
as their followers know them best, and it’s a success on many levels,<br />
in terms of memorable music and vocal character, but I bet in a few<br />
years they’re going to be really pissed off with this because it actually<br />
isn’t powerful enough.<br />
www.myspace.com/kasms<br />
KING KURT<br />
OOH WALLAH WALLAH<br />
Jungle<br />
I had no idea their third album was<br />
called ‘Last Will & Testicle’ (a<br />
compilation?) and who would have<br />
thought their cheeky guitarist<br />
would have become an attorney,<br />
but that’s life, full of confusion and<br />
disappointment. Who would have<br />
thought I’d end up reviewing this? Who can feel anything but pity for<br />
Mark Issue, introducing the dvd clips by stating, ‘it’s not every week I<br />
get the chance to tell you about the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the<br />
world.” Clearly it is not.<br />
“They were a bit shit,” may not seem like the fairest epitaph for the<br />
comedy psychobillies, but it is hard not to feel this way about a band<br />
deliberately slotted between Tenpole and Madness in the Stiff<br />
worldview, who were clearly perfectly happy to live up to that.<br />
Obviously there is a little more to them than that, and this collection is<br />
as fun as it is one-dimensional, but I was never a fan back then as it all<br />
seemed a little too gormless, and the one time I’d seen them in 1982<br />
I’d spent most of the gig trying to avoid the flying entrails people were<br />
throwing around. Very little here changes my original opinion, apart<br />
from one moment of true greatness. For that surprise, read on….<br />
‘Zulu Beat’ sounds like the Dids given a slack-jawed makeover, and<br />
the beefier ‘Destination Zulu Land’ is just Tenpole’s ‘Swords Of a<br />
Thousand Men’ turned upside down (TT’s Dick Crippen actually<br />
joining KK eventually), which isn’t necessarily the band’s fault as I’m<br />
sure their own ideas in there somewhere, just shredded and bent to<br />
accommodate the Stiff worldview. (If something sells make everything<br />
else available sound like that.) ‘Bo Diddley Goes East’ is a basic joke<br />
going nowhere. ‘Hound Dog’, closer to the rockabilly spirit, has a<br />
cutely darting fiddle, but highlights their main problem in the weak<br />
vocals, then ‘Wreck-A-Party Rock’ is a dowdy rumpus.<br />
‘Ghost Riders In The Sky’ is a truly feeble cover, like Steptoe & Son<br />
gate-crashing some karaoke. ‘Gather Your Limbs’ works better, with<br />
their yowling capering qualities based around ‘When The Saints Go<br />
Marching In’ with a reference to Zululand thrown in, so their own<br />
weird worldview inflates convincingly. ‘Rockin’ Kurt’ is<br />
ramalamasingsong but weary, and not produced with any vivacity<br />
whatsoever. The fact ‘Lonesome Train’ is also lacking any spirit tells<br />
a rather telling tale. They weren’t that deep musically, lacking the<br />
ability to handle the classics, forever prone to pissing about<br />
pointlessly. ‘Mack The Knife’ works in a strapping MOR setting.<br />
‘Oedipus Rex’ is chirpy nonsense, with horribly bleary sax, and ‘Do<br />
The Rat’ is swivel-hipped r’n’flash which sends the original album<br />
out on a high of sorts.<br />
Then we get ‘bonus singles’, with a souped-up ‘Zulu Beat’ and<br />
pigeon-chested ‘Rockin’ Kurt’ passing by before the rickety ‘She’s As<br />
Hairy’ comes to scary life. ‘Mack The Knife’ wafts about like some<br />
chipper air freshener, ‘Bo Diddley Goes East’ is instantly preferable<br />
to ‘Banana Banana ft. General Pirate’ which is not hot-hot-hot, and<br />
‘Wreck-A-Party Rock’ gets better when slightly bloodshot.<br />
I think fans will like this because it’s the first time the album’s been<br />
on CD, but the dvd is actually interesting. Not because we get to see<br />
the promo of ‘Destination Zululand’, which is woeful wackiness. Why<br />
the band are dressed as Australian soldiers isn’t made clear, or why<br />
the comedy red tandem has London Fire Brigade written on it, but<br />
there’s a great shot of a single limb sticking up out of the sand behind<br />
the gurning singer. Zulus carrying ghetto blasters, and unnatural<br />
quiffs. Without this lot would The Cartoons (remember their ‘Witch<br />
Doctor’ cover?) ever have happened? ‘Mack The Knife’ is the Benny<br />
Hill approach to sleaze, with a nice moment when pervs open their<br />
macs to show boxes of Flash strapped to their loins. Otherwise men in<br />
suits end up in a swimming pool, as befits modern grotesques.<br />
‘Banana Banana’ is seriously bad, all gorillas and beauty queens, and<br />
sounding like Tight Fit meets Village People, in a fittingly lacklustre<br />
fashion, then they show us ‘Road To Rack n Ruin’ where a crooner in<br />
the Conservative Women’s Institute is waylaid by a doctor and nurse<br />
and the dried up spinsters find themselves confronted instead by the<br />
band dressed as vicars, and all but give them their knickers such is the<br />
galvanising effect. This is fun, although really crap quality for some<br />
reason. “I have to say, I’m enjoying it so far,” Lynda trilled,<br />
momentarily distracted from her pasta. The singer looks a bit like<br />
Russ Abbott, which can’t be helped, and there’s a great head-shaking<br />
woman replicating Beatlemania. It’s also interesting how a more basic<br />
song made funny visually works so much better than an intentionally<br />
thigh-slapping all-encompassing approach, never illustrated better<br />
than the inclusion of ‘America’, which is brilliant. In true ‘West Side<br />
Story’ fashion they’re Fifties suited, and London gawky, roaring out<br />
their version, and there’s a wonderful shot in a derelict London yard<br />
where they run into the distance as an overground tube train zooms<br />
across the top of the skyline. It’s like a different band, although as<br />
they were on Polydor by that stage maybe it was. I’ll ignore the<br />
unbelievably limited, dull ‘Bonus Banana Banana’ if you don’t mind,<br />
because even the notion of a ‘Bonus Banana Banana’ is enough to put<br />
someone off life itself, and we’ll concentrate on the Austrian<br />
documentary, which is a bit Eurotrash to begin with, as our weird host<br />
rubs shaving foam and flour into his head while bellowing strangely.<br />
Cut to the band onstage dressed as angels, include some bizarre early<br />
footage of what looks like an outdoor squat gig in town, then peak<br />
with an interview which is truly bizarre. No-one has added subtitles,<br />
so you’re struggling with the band speaking in English, drowned out<br />
by the Austrian narration overlaid on that. There’s even some nice<br />
shots of muck-strewn fans outside the Marquee in Wardour Street, and<br />
the revelation that in 1982/1983 the band, “have been the talk of the<br />
underground culture in London”. Translation: “Whatever you do,<br />
don’t go and see King Kurt.”<br />
A blast from the past then, albeit from a flatulent ghost.<br />
www.myspace.com/kingkurtarchives
SHELLY R.I.P.<br />
(26.6.88 – 19.5.09)
La Peste Negra<br />
This interview is long overdue (not through any fault of the band), as that’s what<br />
happens when real life interrupts a magazine, but this has to be included. Their ‘Voices<br />
From Beyond’ album is a murky thrillfest, as you would expect from the band we know<br />
are just slightly mad. I needed to know more about what it all meant. Join me on a<br />
nervous journey as we encounter more of what passes for their minds.<br />
The new album, ‘Voices From Beyond’ – how excited are<br />
you by it? Does it fulfil everything you hoped it would, or<br />
do you have any lingering doubts? Compare it to before – I<br />
just listened to ‘Dreaming Demons’ which now sounds so<br />
tiny!<br />
”The recording was very accidental, but in the end we are quite proud<br />
of that we have. We guess that we need Bari Bari on our mixings<br />
cause we don’t finally get really our sound in live.”<br />
How would you say the band has developed during the<br />
past few years – in ways you can point to, and say, and<br />
that’s when we started to do things differently, or that’s<br />
when I felt much more confident?<br />
”When a member leave the band, its like we missing a limb and when<br />
a new member join us and he gets to learn all the songs , we feel more<br />
confident for create new tunes.”<br />
Was there an actual concept behind the new album, as the<br />
pictures in the booklet involve mediums and spirit<br />
photography?<br />
“This is our world, full of magic.”<br />
‘Es La Peste Negra’ – what are the squeaking noises, rats,<br />
bats? What does this song say about your sound overall,<br />
it strikes me as a very streamlined, but busy Goth sound?<br />
What’s it actually about?
“We want to die electrocuted and fried on<br />
stage with the Tesla coil that Caligula, our<br />
keyboardist, is making. If it’s possible we<br />
want to add part of the audience.”
“The noise is a sewer in a big city and the rats are conspirating. The<br />
song is the best way to begin a show cause it’s a presentation of the<br />
band. The song talks how the Black Plague arrives to a city.<br />
“At the end we sing, ‘It’s late to escape, cause we are here!’”<br />
It’s interesting to have a band singing in their own<br />
language and in English, but have you thought of offering<br />
translations of lyrics on your site (in both languages,<br />
obviously)?<br />
“Why not? It’s a good idea, we hope to have time for that soon.”<br />
‘Desenterrados’ and here we see an strangely relaxed<br />
approach but with some streaks and bursts of punky<br />
energy? Again, what’s it about?<br />
“The song talks about the feelings and words you used to say in a<br />
relationship or good friend/relation. Now the relation is over with<br />
resentment...but the words had so many feeling that they don’t want to<br />
die, they have their own life and they arise with every gesture and they<br />
torment the character of the song.”<br />
‘Blame’ – is this from a dream, or an imagined story?<br />
“It’s an obssessive Caligula’s dream with sleepwalking traces.”<br />
‘White Coffin’ – more death-related imagery, and people<br />
waiting to get there? Er…why? And also, it’s a very pretty<br />
little song.<br />
“The song talks about the dead children. They are buried in white<br />
coffins always. The essence of pure innocence is enclosed there.”<br />
‘Scarlet Woman Bleeding In My Mouth’ – reminds me of<br />
that Christian Death feel again, is that accidental? It is also<br />
positively bizarre, like some ritualistic adventure looming?<br />
What’s happening here?<br />
“The influence of Christian Death is inevitable. We wanted to give our<br />
personal tribute to Aleister Crowley, so we recreate a sex and magic<br />
ritual in Thelema.<br />
“The tempo changes in the song like the phases of a sexual act. We<br />
arrived to orgasm and finally we end the song more relaxed.”<br />
‘Miedo al Anochecer’ maintains that feel but is catchier<br />
still, but again the lyrics will evade me?<br />
“The song its like when you want to sleep but you feel you are not<br />
alone...”<br />
‘Tumbas’ is full of glee, and zips along, akthough it sounds<br />
like it couldfall apart half way through?<br />
“It’s a traditional Spanish song. The lyrics have more than 100 years.<br />
It’s one of these songs for sing in the mountain, boyscout way, for<br />
shivering between the trees.”<br />
‘Break The Mirror’ – ‘look at their hands’? Whose hands?<br />
“The song talks about manipulation...in the hands of the other you can<br />
see the truth.”<br />
Before we continue, what pets do you have?
“Lady Stardust has a female cat called Gitane. She is a carey tricolor<br />
cat, 8 years old. Raven, the bassist, has a male cat called Pi (the greek<br />
character....3,1415). He is 6 years old siamese cat. David soon will<br />
have a cat, he wants to called him, Freddy. He is waiting for the<br />
animal protector.”<br />
‘Espasmos de Agonia’ – is another song where as it goes<br />
along it feels like chaos might make it fall apart. Why is<br />
this? You have a very live sound here, and do you go for<br />
feel rather than trying to redo things to make them sound<br />
‘nice’ as it were? And again, what’s this about?<br />
“Sword men (espadachines) are sleeping, they are the “good” side, so<br />
the things go worse with the person we talk about in the song. The<br />
greed grows.”<br />
‘Traicion’ – ah, the mad vocals? Extended, sustained<br />
madness at that! Explanation please?<br />
“The song have 2 parts: In the beginning it’s really a passionated/<br />
decrepit love story. The second part speaks about betrayal and the<br />
reason of the mad vocals, cause character is chopped inside the<br />
freezer. How would you speak if you would find yourself inside the<br />
freezer in pieces?”<br />
‘28th June 1966’ – an old favourite, presumably? What’s<br />
the something you have that the person wants? Is this<br />
rude?<br />
“The song is about Rosemary’ s Baby film. Just when she is pregnant<br />
and all the building is very “fake” lovely with her and she suspects the<br />
neighbours are black magic witches. The “something” is the son of<br />
Satan, she didn’t know yet she has inside but she begins to notice it’s<br />
something strange with all.”<br />
‘Why You Say Dead?’ – well, you sound very worried here,<br />
but why?<br />
“Nobody can hear him, he is desperate.”<br />
‘El Mas Alla’ – this is spooky, but then if it’s from the book<br />
of the dead I’m not surprised. Why did you choose that?<br />
“It’s an invocation. We are open a door and in the end you can listen a<br />
psycophony in a abandoned church.”<br />
BIG QUESTION: What do you think happens when we die?<br />
Do you envisage any afterlife and if so which guest list will<br />
you be on?<br />
“We think the mystery can not be unveiled and for this is<br />
fascinating.”<br />
How would you prefer to die?<br />
“We want to die electrocuted and fried on stage with the Tesla coil that<br />
Caligula, our keyboardist, is making. If it’s possible we want to add<br />
part of the audience.”<br />
A nice touch! When you’re dead what kind of method of<br />
disposal do you plan to have?<br />
“A.Z.B (Aereal zoroastrical burial) !!!! We want to be left in the top<br />
of a hill and wait for the vultures!”<br />
If you’re being buried what epitaph will you have on your<br />
graves?<br />
“Lady Stardust “Está aquí mismo” (it’s really here, it’s a personal<br />
joke about she find all really near...and many times it’s not so near and<br />
always says, “let’s walk, it’s really here..”), David wants a bullseye<br />
that have this sentence “spite here”, Raven “the remain that left the<br />
vultures” or the partiture of Christian Death song “Ashes.” M and<br />
Caligula are on holidays so we don’t know their answers...”
www.myspace.com/lapestenegra<br />
“The song talks about the dead children.<br />
They are buried in white coffins always.<br />
The essence of pure innocence is<br />
enclosed there.”
Yes, it’s a load of<br />
old cobblers.<br />
LACKLUSTRE MIRROR<br />
<strong>THE</strong> FORGOTTEN SONGS<br />
Shadowplay<br />
It’s actually called ‘The Book Of The Shattered Bonds Ch. III: The<br />
Forgotten Songs’ so it’s not convivial fluff, or generically divisive. It’s<br />
a serious, well thought out collection of emotional songs, for a reason.<br />
Have no idea what that is, but it’s implicit in the subtle drama, giving<br />
the work a heady determination.<br />
The lyrics in the doomily bombastic ‘The Snows Pt 1’ are brilliant,<br />
suggesting that in the jaws of defeat can come a strident defiance, one<br />
man looking at utter despair all around can be stirred to action instead<br />
of ending it all. Weirdly though there’s a thin, never ending guitar<br />
outbreak running through ‘The Snows, Pt 2’ which is the sort of thing<br />
usually located in out of control concept albums of the early to mid<br />
70’s, or the finale to any Bonnie Tyler epic. But for the fact the guitar<br />
rules the roost, I wouldn’t have been surprised to glimpse the<br />
mishapen head of Rick Wakeman looming from the song’s turrets.<br />
Instead it’s closer in feel<br />
to a lot of Gothic Metal,<br />
but with greater artistic<br />
flourishes and occasional<br />
vocal similarities to<br />
Michael Ball! Either it’s<br />
all that weird, or I’m off<br />
my head.<br />
They’re an unusual band<br />
anyway, steeped in feeling,<br />
and always slightly to one<br />
side of whatever else I’ve<br />
heard coming out of<br />
Russia, and can be quite<br />
charming, as<br />
‘Deliverance’ shows with<br />
its hazy shapes gradually giving way to some grand strides across a<br />
shattered landscape, vocals pushing through the subtle noise. ‘Blacksided<br />
Sun’ is grittily resourceful, the vocal guile riding the grim<br />
riffing, and hope is juggled with horror: ‘The high-born whores dance<br />
upon the tortured relics as before, And mindless tyrants throw into<br />
the fire the children of their foes, And all the world’s lies feed on our<br />
grief blessed by Black-Side Sun….’<br />
‘Yesterday Child’ is weird, starting like mild ambient, with distant<br />
piano and the sound of an old gramophone spinning, but ending up as<br />
rollicking, joyous. ‘Danse Macabre’ is a squashed carnival<br />
dreamscape, ‘The Everburning’ shimmering mellow rock, ‘The Voices<br />
Of The Grey Spring’ restless beauty. With ‘Tempests Are Away’ a<br />
grey restlessness burns despite starting like a cosy ballad. ‘Is This Our<br />
Farewell?’ which revolves around a call that doesn’t get through is a<br />
mischievous little slice of elegant mystery.<br />
‘The Last Song’ bleeds into ‘But Still I Feel It Happens All Too Soon’<br />
and we’re seemingly stranded in a deeply moving place, drenched in<br />
regret but also lifted by the exquisite turns of musical phrase that<br />
develop out of the elongated sub-orchestral curvature, all rather like<br />
the thing you get from Projekt artists, only on a larger level. Projekt-<br />
Plus, if you will, given that ‘The Fathomless’ is a ravishingly pretty<br />
and utterly transporting instrumental that you’re hoping will never<br />
end.<br />
I’m sure I didn’t understand the overall themes, as the personal, the<br />
fantasy and the ostensibly overriding seem to widen then never<br />
regroup, but it is a spellbinding album. True, the outdated expression<br />
in certain segments hurl us back through the decades but these are<br />
curious moments, maybe momentous curios, and the overall feeling is<br />
one of real majesty.<br />
www.lacklustre-mirror.net<br />
LIFE IN SODOM<br />
ALONE<br />
Nutrix<br />
I wrote their last EP off as a bit of a shambles, but this is different.<br />
‘The Lonely March’ manages to have dark bubbles of imagery which<br />
are fun, as skeletons and musicians waltz casually in a furtively sleek<br />
piece that makes you sit up and want more. ‘Heartache’ is equally<br />
lively despite being slow and spacious, with an organic drum sound,<br />
mournfully discreet strings, dallying guitar and charming, bittersweet<br />
vocals. It’s a bit like a more conventional Unto Ashes. ‘Faction’ gets<br />
even more joyous juices flowing, sweetly inviting us to learn of the<br />
destruction of the protagonist’s young life as he fears the future as the<br />
guitar trips and skips, the melody sleepy but mobile, carrying us<br />
happily along, at odds with his mental state. It grows lovelier still with<br />
the magnificently stirring and dead catchy ‘Violenza’, shackled by an<br />
asthmatic beat, bright fuzzy guitar and delicious keyboards, while<br />
singing about a total bastard. It’s a warm meringue western theme,<br />
rather than some old spaghetti growing cold. A new genre for you!<br />
‘Young Waste’ flounces around even more confidently on this new
springy direction they have discovered and you will bob deliriously up<br />
and down with them.<br />
Someone draws the curtains again for a gloomy ‘The New Year’ with<br />
a neat sense of suspense and more deft female vocals oozing in. I<br />
don’t know what ‘Tied Tomowind’ means but it shuffles and vibrates<br />
enticingly, creating a gripping atmosphere. ‘Angel Alone’ is closer to<br />
some form of ethereal tinged goth rock, frisking again, ‘She Cried’<br />
keeps that sense of zest, with some darker trails emerging, and is<br />
almost idiotically simple. They finish with the strangely wilting ‘Dead<br />
Memories’ and the forthright, occasionally spooky ‘Alone’ which<br />
manages a chiming indie charm as well as the drowsier dark arts, and<br />
that’s what makes this album work so well. They have an innate noir<br />
dignity shot through with inventive and attractive invaders. It also<br />
unfolds more with each listen, to create an overall set of noble<br />
features.<br />
www.myspace.com/lifeinsodom<br />
LIGHT IN YOUR LIFE<br />
LIGHT IN YOUR LIFE<br />
Danse Macabre<br />
Sweden’s answer to Interpol, or just an orderly Ride upgrade?<br />
‘Emily Scott’ slops out slowly, with sallow vocals falling over<br />
indistinct percussion and tingling guitar, and the graduated mood, the<br />
push then the retreat are all very attractive, although this form of<br />
wishy-washy indie never gets the <strong>Mercer</strong> mind involved. Mix<br />
Radiohead with Morrissey and you can a whole heap of laidback<br />
troubabores with a repetitive reliance on guitar/vocal interplay where<br />
recording can’t even get underway until the armchairs have been<br />
moved into the studio.<br />
‘We Could be There’ is only the tiniest bit agitated with the singer<br />
apparently tired by his own voice, idly wondering about other people,<br />
and their hair, and funny clothes. Why on earth does a band think<br />
anyone wishes to identify with this? ‘Sleeping Bag’ finds some<br />
driving around in their car in ‘a sentimental way’? Admittedly I don’t<br />
drive, so I must check with Lynda shortly about the last time she drove<br />
sentimentally. There is also a reference to a sleeping bag as well, for<br />
those worried about lyrical accuracy. Apparently his friend/lover is<br />
like Jesus, because they get off the floor and cling to the window<br />
pane? Kindly point out the biblical reference that identifies Jesus<br />
doing that!<br />
‘Geldof’ jingles and jangles while gushing, ‘my African baby, oh I<br />
love you, oh my African baby, starving to death, I’ll love you till<br />
death’, or something similar. I don’t know if this is meant to be ironic<br />
cynicism, or maybe<br />
something gets lost in<br />
translation and they’re not<br />
actually totally cretinous.<br />
‘Do You Know I Tried To<br />
Comfort You When You<br />
Cried In Your Sleep’<br />
‘Song About Love’<br />
drifted by without making<br />
any impact at all, then the<br />
even lighter ‘It Would Be<br />
Fine’ and when the wilt<br />
and go quieter I can see<br />
this appeal to fringe-laden<br />
indie kids of the early 90’s<br />
hence the misguided<br />
shoegazing tag in the<br />
press release, but I don’t imagine many others will be attracted by a<br />
band with so little in the rhythmical department. It’s as if they spend<br />
half their time nailed to the floor but you do get some chunky guitar<br />
flung about, the singer sounds alive at last and the drums pattering<br />
around, although they do seem to suffering self-inflicted constipation.<br />
‘Smile That Smile’ just moans on endlessly, ‘Christian’ gets a bit<br />
firmer in its resolve but I’m having trouble remembering it’s on and<br />
‘Psych’ did nothing to change anything.<br />
The dreariest record I have heard all year.<br />
www.myspace.com/liylmusic<br />
LOS CARNICEROS DEL NORTE<br />
POE IS DEAD EP<br />
Zorch – free download<br />
Neither a hunter nor a gatherer be, my old gran never used to say to<br />
me, and yet I gather this free download is available as a limited edition<br />
CD too, details of which can be found nestling in the band’s myspace<br />
blog. For the rest of us freeloading bastards there’s the download.<br />
‘El Gato Negro’ is as sober as it is sombre Goth with some twilight<br />
twinkles. Very steady, very pretty and vocally mysterious, with a<br />
swilling rhythm and subtly thrilling guitar.<br />
Sensitively seared ‘El Cuervo’ scuttles around dementedly, a bit like<br />
Theatre Of Hate in an<br />
asylum (may contain<br />
nuts), and you have to<br />
love that heartbeat bass.<br />
‘La Mascara de la Muerte<br />
Roja’ is less interesting<br />
being too relaxed and<br />
strolling to little effect,<br />
but the lugubrious<br />
drowning carnivalesque<br />
‘El Pozo y el Pendulo’<br />
works well, the doomy<br />
piano and angry guitar<br />
anxious behind the<br />
straighter vocal and the<br />
end is very strange.<br />
No idea what they’re singing about, but it’s well worth nabbing.<br />
www.zorchfactoryrecords.com/loscarnicerosdelnorte<br />
www.myspace.com/loscarnicerosdelnorte
LOVE JUNGLE<br />
Welcome To The House Where The Extras Are Free<br />
Bristol Archive Records<br />
Love Jungle brought out this cheeky album and a decent 12” EP with<br />
a lot of other stuff unreleased, which was a shame as they had real<br />
potential during the late 80’s indie whirlpool of colliding opposites.<br />
Sadly the labels were all looking for dance crossover bands at the time<br />
and something like this curiously gritty pop quartet missed out.<br />
They’d come out of the excellent Fear Of Darkness where Neil Darby<br />
was the guitar lynchpin and Angela had been an interesting addition<br />
on backing vocals, and that sense of ebullient melodic control<br />
continued here.<br />
‘Wasn’t There Something’ gets whisked initially by frisky darting<br />
guitar, then the leisurely grand vocals ascend the sturdy stairs of a<br />
confident chorus. A lithe thing it’s all glittery and soft when some<br />
more dive-bombing bass and drums would have added real dynamics,<br />
but it’s very Popinjays! (This is always A Good Thing.) ‘Am I Good<br />
Enough’ is much snappier and with a decent production could have<br />
been a hit, but viewed retrospectively it’s a bit weird. Great ideas,<br />
sweet song, but the harder element is clearly negated by the winsome<br />
elements. ‘Cast Adrift’ bubbles with MTV-friendly guitar nibbles and<br />
a sliding gliding feel while creamy vocals smother the surface. Once<br />
again you realise this could have been even better because it lingers<br />
long, but seems almost too busy.<br />
‘Blue Skies’ has the starkness the earlier songs lack and it jars and<br />
jostles brilliantly. The vocals are meaner, with the same wafting<br />
backing, but the tougher, blunter approach suits them well. ‘That’s<br />
The Way’ is easy going and efficient indie pop with a gently glazed<br />
chorus again, which they seemed to churn out so easily. Ditto the<br />
brightly swaying ‘Between The Poles’ which would have benefited<br />
from more shadow, as they do drift by rather absent-mindedly. Being<br />
weirder, stiller and pained ‘I Really Don’t Care’ is immediately<br />
intriguing, although the aerated nature of Angela’s vocals are<br />
sometimes a little too grating. More sensibly grounded, she bustles<br />
through ‘This Covenant’ which seems almost hesitant about allowing<br />
the guitar to stamp its identity on the son g, which it’s crying out for.<br />
They were much tougher live, and while this polite selection remains<br />
charming it also shows how trying to appeal to major label tastes can<br />
leave a band in quasi-limbo.<br />
www.bristolarchiverecords.com/bands/Love_Jungle.html
<strong>THE</strong> BUTLER<br />
I think it’s pretty clear we’ll be hearing a lot more from PHILIP BUTLER. His ‘Trapped At<br />
Sea’ album, available in a dementedly limited edition of just 100 copies, is clearly one<br />
of the year’s best, scandalously combining eerie imagery with turbulent folk influences<br />
to create a very intriguing hybrid. Here’s your first good look at the chap I daresay, and<br />
he’s an interesting character. Rush to acquire the album if you have any sense.<br />
Yours is a strange tale, standing currently as an unusual<br />
folk artist with a past in Indie/Post-Punk bands, could you<br />
round it all up into a neat chronological story for the<br />
readers please? First musical strivings, gigging bands,<br />
right up to the move to Worcester. You seem to have done<br />
a lot.<br />
“Yeah I’ve been involved in a fair number of projects I guess. The<br />
school band, the college band, the uni band, the mid twenties post day<br />
job band and the, ‘I’m getting too old to scream into a mic over a wall<br />
of feedback’ solo acoustic project. They all followed the basic ethos<br />
of, attempt something new... move on.<br />
“After a shaky start as ‘lead guitarist’ in a laughable school based<br />
group called Warped I formed Toyskin. We grew quickly from<br />
predictable rock beginnings and delved into Barrett-era Floyd<br />
psychedelia before trying our hand at 80’s industrial pop, drum &<br />
bass, piano ballads and white noise before imploding in a reefer fueled<br />
self-indulgent mess. One 7” single was issued in ‘98 which John Peel<br />
& Jo Whiley picked up on for a short while, but a year later uni<br />
beckoned and I moved on.<br />
“Next up was A Series of Wheels, a much more straight down the line<br />
shoe gaze alt-rock four piece with reverb pedals, fluctuating time<br />
signatures and songs about satellites. The group passed the time for a<br />
couple of years, but gigs were few and far between with practices<br />
being even more rare. A short Dutch tour and radio session in ‘01 was<br />
probably our ‘career highlight’. When asked to describe the bands<br />
sound, drummer Jason quickly jumped in with ‘a bloody awful racket.’<br />
I think we got more respect from our side projects (Water Cooled<br />
Wheel (pure noise) & Nothing But Wheels (naff covers)) than the<br />
actual group!<br />
“‘Do You Like To Walk In The Snow’ followed the Wheels projects, a<br />
studio based instrumental duo influenced by the likes of Tortoise &<br />
Rothko. I still reckon that’s some of my best work, but only about 10<br />
people have ever heard our output.<br />
“Worcestershire beckoned by 2006 and I found myself playing bass in<br />
‘Gamble Gamble’, a ramshackle bunch of Pavement fans trying not to<br />
sound like the Fall, and failing most of the time. After a few years of<br />
this I was so sick of having to cancel practices, gigs and recording<br />
sessions due to the sheer ineptitude of its members’ time management<br />
that going solo seemed like the only sane decision to make (no offence<br />
meant, they are a lovely bunch of chaps).”<br />
Why’s you cat called Monkien?<br />
“Monkien was a character in Thundercats (a simian mutant,<br />
obviously), and it seemed like a good name at the time. It was either<br />
that or Mumra the Everliving.. but that was just tempting fate living<br />
near a main road ‘n all. I have attached a picture of Monkien who<br />
we’ve trained to walk on her hind legs.”
DID IT....<br />
When you were in your previous bands presumably you<br />
also had an interest in folk or styles different to what your<br />
bands were playing? Had this always been a secret urge<br />
or something you knew you would get onto eventually?<br />
“White Riot, I wanna riot...”<br />
“I started listening to Nick Drake and a few other acoustic artists<br />
while in ASOW, but never really considered that to be the path for my<br />
own music. We did try a few acoustic tracks on the first album (The<br />
Avalanche Region), but I had too many things to shout about to<br />
seriously consider unplugging until about 7 years later. John Martyn’s<br />
to blame, once I bought his ‘67-‘75 catalogue I knew I had to lay<br />
down my electric and learn to fingerpick.”<br />
Can we start off with the first track and give me an idea<br />
how something like ‘Painfully Slow’ comes to life? It<br />
almost meanders into being so you could easily imagine<br />
this slowly growing out of some gentle musing or messing<br />
around when you realise you’ve got a nice basis for a tune<br />
coming, but then it changes into a nervy, tense encounter,<br />
despite the hazy interludes, and there’s some gruesome<br />
lyrical visions and filmic tragedy, so I realise it’s a complex<br />
little song. Do you have the lyrics upfront, and want to<br />
bring the story to life? Or do you simply have a habit of<br />
coming up with creepy words?<br />
“It started life as an all out math rock track Gamble Gamble gigged a<br />
few times in their dying days. I had an inkling it would work as an<br />
“Very nice, but<br />
I’m trying to<br />
concentrate.”<br />
acoustic track and petitioned the group to try it out as such, but three<br />
stony faces stared back at me in bemusement. So I started recording a<br />
version at home myself, and thus began the solo album.<br />
Normally I’ll start out by developing a series of riffs that fit together,<br />
then build on it from there. The lyrics will tend to change regularly for<br />
about a month until I’m happy with the result.<br />
“There aren’t enough suicide narratives in pop music, you’re not<br />
gonna hear Sugarbabes singing about throwing themselves in front of<br />
a train, so I guess I’m gonna have to do it for them.”
Do you do that one live, because I saw on your site you<br />
play folk places. What do they make of that kind of<br />
approach?<br />
“I’m ashamed to say that we cater our live set depending on the venue.<br />
I learnt the hard way that if you want to be asked back to play again,<br />
don’t sing a song involving young girls being thrown over the roofs of<br />
cars! ‘Painfully Slow’ has only been gigged once as it’s a bit too<br />
complex to do justice to with just one guitar and a squeeze box.”<br />
‘Those Red Shoes’ – this is even creepier, a seemingly<br />
tranquil song turned into a horrific clash. You are<br />
Midsomer Murders made flesh! Feel free to try and explain<br />
away the lyrics without sounding like a psycho on the run.<br />
“Hehe, well. What can I say… it just came out with very little effort.<br />
The whole song took about 2 hours to write. If Nick Cave can get<br />
away with a whole album of murder ballads then I don’t see anything<br />
wrong with me composing a pretty tale of a ‘hit & run away with the<br />
not quite dead body in the boot’!”<br />
‘To Fly A Plane’ is weird, very gentle and I couldn’t work<br />
out what this character is up to, it’s anecdotal/<br />
conspiratorial to the point you feel he’s a bit simple, but it<br />
seems open-ended, as either dreamstate/aspiration or<br />
weird suicidal notions. What is going on?<br />
“Ok, here’s the plot. Two school age boys plan to steal a small<br />
aeroplane. The brains of the operation loses his nerve and leaves your<br />
humble narrator to attempt the theft on his lonesome. He succeeds, but<br />
mid flight the engine cuts… he closes his eyes as the craft starts to<br />
drop. Make up your own ending.”<br />
“I learnt the<br />
hard way that if<br />
you want to be<br />
asked back to<br />
play again, don’t<br />
sing a song<br />
involving young<br />
girls being<br />
thrown over the<br />
roofs of cars!”<br />
‘Rising River’ – that teeming tangle of guitar, is that out of<br />
a folk tradition? (Bear in mind, I know nothing of folk.) You<br />
use the word ‘morn’ so that’s trad, but while you’d think<br />
it’s easy to maybe use old styles to address modern<br />
happenings is it actually very tricky dovetailing the two?<br />
Oh, and where have you actually experienced a flood or<br />
are you one of those lifeboat-up-the-highstreet wannabes?<br />
“A couple of years back Worcestershire had well documented heavy<br />
floods. Malvern (where I reside) is a hillside town, so we sat pretty<br />
while all the low lying towns around the Severn were slowly<br />
submerged. The song is a pretty basic attempt at writing a straight<br />
down the line folk song to document this. It’s not big, it’s not clever,<br />
but it goes down well in the folk clubs!<br />
“The tangle of guitars could probably be put down to poor technique!”<br />
‘It’s Been Long Enough’ – true story? Who comes up with<br />
the prickly, tickling strings to freshen the mood on such a<br />
simple song? I see you have quite a little crew around you<br />
for someone whose moved to an area?<br />
“This one’s about Hastings, where I grew up. The whole album is<br />
peppered with contributions from friends. Some are local, some aren’t.<br />
The magic of the internet means that I can email a song to musical<br />
acquaintances afar and receive parts to be bolted onto the mix by<br />
return mail. It’s perhaps not the most organic approach, but it works. I<br />
assume the strings you’re referring to are those on my mandolin.. an<br />
acquisition I made early on in the sessions to add a bit of pastoral<br />
beauty to the often stark guitar parts.”<br />
Let’s break off then as you tell me how you ended up<br />
where you have. How easy is it to start up playing music,
...the unusual suspects...<br />
George Clarke<br />
Dom Huxley<br />
Andrew Kieth<br />
Lucas<br />
Tom Collison<br />
Holly Jeffery<br />
Stephanie Trussler.
solo or with others, when you move location, and how in a<br />
way is it either an adventure or rejuvenating, to make such<br />
a change?<br />
“A change of location is always rejuvenating. I’ve made three big<br />
moves in my musical life, and every new location opens up new<br />
challenges and opportunities. I never want to get stuck in a rut playing<br />
the same set in the same venues year after year. I see loads of groups<br />
do it and it’s just depressing. If I stay in Worcestershire in the long<br />
term I’ll always be looking to work with new people, develop and<br />
change my style to keep things interesting. If I move then there’ll<br />
always be a whole new live scene to explore.<br />
“There are so many musicians wanted websites out there that it’s easy<br />
to find likeminded strummers in a new town. Worked for me!”<br />
I like the scarecrow imagery/ghosts in the coaching inn<br />
idea. Have you ever heard The Dancing Did?<br />
“Nope, they’re new to me. But I’ll be sure to look them up. Many of<br />
the ideas on the forthcoming second record have been inspired by a<br />
book on British folk lore and myths I picked up in charity shop. I’ve<br />
never read so much nonsense before, but it makes for some great<br />
lyrical subject matter.”<br />
‘Light Blue Rendering’ is fairly mellow and uneventful, so<br />
what’s got you so melancholic?<br />
“It’s an old song (circa 2002) which I rerecorded for the album.<br />
Someone put forth the opinion that the record was too downbeat and<br />
dark…so this one was MEANT to be uplifting!”<br />
‘Trapped At Sea’ - go on then, when were you last trapped<br />
at sea you folky stereotype, you? When you play that live<br />
do people stand up and start complaining, ‘he’s lying,<br />
there isn’t an ounce of truth in it!’<br />
“Show me a red door painted black by <strong>Mick</strong> Jaggar and I’ll give you a<br />
personal tour of the ship I stowed away in for 12 months!<br />
“Back in the Toyskin days we’d set ourselves challenges to write and<br />
record a song in a certain genre. Perhaps country, or trip hop, or jungle<br />
etc… purely to see if we could. Trapped at Sea is my attempt at<br />
writing a traditional sea shanty. I think I managed it, I won’t do<br />
another one any time soon, but it served it’s purpose.”<br />
‘My Siren’ I don’t really get what’s behind this, can you<br />
illuminate?<br />
“It’s a pretty simple concept. While enjoying a romantic walk along<br />
Beachy Head the cliff gives way sending the writers loved one falling<br />
to her death. An image which haunts him in his sleep. I was pretty<br />
pleased with the string section on this, my first experience with violins<br />
and the like (I’m now hooked!).”<br />
‘Save Us’ – interesting to find a topic even eco warriors<br />
have to shrug over.<br />
“Yeah it’s not my strongest lyrical outing. The track was called 205, a<br />
tale of a lad drag racing his mighty 1ltr Peugeot, but the vocals were<br />
replaced at the last minute to make a trilogy of songs involving the<br />
sea.”<br />
That bit at the start, is it just a bit of a clumsy mess or is<br />
that a tricky style musos would applaud? I’m genuinely<br />
mystified.<br />
“The introduction has been referred to as techno on an acoustic guitar.<br />
Make of it what you will… but I doubt it will be applauded by many,<br />
let alone musos!”<br />
‘Candles’ - blimey, didn’t she (Natasha, Phil’s partner)<br />
blush when you first played this to her? I bet even the old<br />
guys in the folk clubs hold dainty hankies to their faces<br />
when you play this one. You sentimental fool!<br />
“Ha, yup. The love song. Once again, I’d never written one before and<br />
fancied having a bash. I got engaged last new years eve, and this came<br />
gushing out the following day. I never meant for it to go on the record,<br />
but was persuaded by co-producer & long time collaborator Tom<br />
Collison (who added the Piano & Harmonica). It’s never been played<br />
live and never will be.”<br />
Do you and Natasha write much music together? Couples<br />
often worry about such things in case it leads to slaughter<br />
and life sentences.
“Each will be hand<br />
made, bound in a hard<br />
cover & covered in the<br />
fabric of an old dress<br />
which Tash will model<br />
before it’s meets the<br />
scissors. The records<br />
called ‘8 Stories For<br />
Emily’ so it made<br />
sense to turn it into a<br />
lyric book with bonus<br />
CD. Needless to say,<br />
it’s going to be very<br />
limited.”<br />
“Nope, I’m the sole creative force presently. Tash does get a say in the<br />
live set though, and doesn’t mince her words if she doesn’t like a<br />
particular track or set of lyrics!”<br />
If Natasha has point to make about the album please<br />
encourage her to, which can be track by track too, or as a<br />
massive wodge of opinion.<br />
“I think she’s of the opinion that the new album is a vast improvement<br />
on Trapped at Sea, which may translate to it being more accessible.<br />
I’m not sure how pleased I should be about this.”<br />
Tash: “I’m really chuffed with all the music Phil writes, admittedly<br />
I’m going to have my favorites, I quite like the twisted tales told in the<br />
more recent songs, but Trapped at Sea and Rising River are excellent.<br />
Now that I’m slowly getting to grips with playing the accordion those<br />
songs ain’t half bad live either!”<br />
‘Raise A Flag’ – take me through this, it’s quite disturbing<br />
the way it whirls everything around.<br />
“I wanted to have a big track to close on. Pounding drums, layers and<br />
layers of vocals all drenched in reverb and a nasty grinding bassline.<br />
The aim was to create an angry layered track that would blend my post<br />
punk past with the new acoustic direction. I think we used about 40 or<br />
<strong>50</strong> channels of audio in the end.<br />
“Lyrically it’s a rant about a girl I once had the misfortune of dating<br />
for a couple of years.”<br />
How did you get started doing a label, you being the head<br />
of Sawmill/Steelmill. Was it a masochistic desire to turn<br />
yourself down over unacceptable demos, or are you being<br />
quite the sensitive torch bearer for talent?<br />
“Sawmill isn’t my first label, it’s my 4 th . I’ve always had a desire to<br />
run an ultra hip indie label, but I usually get cold feet after spending<br />
www.philipbutler.co.uk<br />
way too much cash on a non starter. Initially this one was created as a<br />
brand for my own music, but I soon found myself offering to ‘sign’ up<br />
acts left right and centre without any real plan or funding. “We’ve got<br />
some great stuff due for release in 2010 - watch out for Ragtime<br />
Ewan. He’s got the potential to do big things, and I’ll get the<br />
satisfaction of giving birth to his debut album. Makes you all warm<br />
and fuzzy inside don’t it?!”<br />
I see you have a new album planned in a hardback book<br />
format? How on Earth will you achieve that?<br />
“Each will be hand made, bound in a hard cover & covered in the<br />
fabric of an old dress which Tash will model before it’s meets the<br />
scissors. The records called ‘8 Stories For Emily’ so it made sense to<br />
turn it into a lyric book with bonus CD. Needless to say, it’s going to<br />
be very limited.<br />
“If I ever decide to reissue ‘Trapped at Sea’ it will come with in a<br />
model galleon.”<br />
Compare and contrast, how does what you’re doing now<br />
compare to the 90’s. Is it more subversive, the best of both<br />
worlds? Or something else?<br />
“I guess back then I would be far more impulsive and self indulgent.<br />
The music just found it’s way onto tape without any real care and<br />
attention. Most of the lyrics were pretty avant garde, and the<br />
musicianship on my part was at times quite ropey.<br />
“I’d like to think things have improved a great deal, although I’m still<br />
developing and changing all the time. “Trapped at Sea” jumps from<br />
genre to genre in a similar vein to the old Toyskin work (albeit in a<br />
more reserved fashion). But all the songs (and this is even more the<br />
case with the new record) are crafted over a long period of time with<br />
much more attention to detail. An obvious difference would also be<br />
the narrative fashion my lyrics have taken in recent years.”
GOTHIC CLASSICS<br />
Coming soon 21st CENTURY GOTH, will be developed into two distinct volumes, one<br />
for music, one for lifestyle, and HEX FILES with added imagery. These books are long<br />
out of print, and these are Author’s Editions. We start with the first two books ever<br />
written on Goth, GOTHIC ROCK BLACK BOOK and GOTHIC ROCK.<br />
GOTHIC ROCK BLACK BOOK - £12.99<br />
The appearance of this Author’s Edition celebrates the<br />
21 st anniversary of Gothic Rock Black Book, the first<br />
book ever published about Goth. This provides seven<br />
chapters: five on the main successes of the 80’s – All<br />
About Eve, The Cult, Fields Of The Nephilim, The<br />
Sisters Of Mercy and The Mission – and two historical,<br />
looking at the very start of Goth, and the smaller bands<br />
busy during that decade. Without altering the original<br />
text I have increased the original page count of just 96<br />
to 268, by including 311 photos from my archive, the<br />
majority of them previously unpublished.<br />
www.mickmercer.com<br />
DETAILS OF ALL MY BOOKS ARE ON MY WEBSITE<br />
GOTHIC ROCK - £14.99<br />
This was my second book on Goth, an A-Z guide of<br />
bands, individual Goths and relevant historical<br />
ingredients, originally printed in 1991, and now over<br />
twice its original length at 400 pages long, with 200<br />
images and 444 photos, the majority previously<br />
unpublished.
exclusive GOTHIC books<br />
These contain all the reviews and interviews I did onGoth bands pre-<br />
Internet, from the papers and magazines I worked for, along with my own<br />
fanzine. They are full of photos you have never seen before, and can be<br />
regarded as cosy companions to the better known Goth Classics.<br />
GOTHIC INTERVIEWS, Volume 1 - £12.99<br />
232 pages, with 167 photos, the majority previously<br />
unpublished. Large interviews with: Abbo of UK Decay,<br />
Alien Sex Fiend, All About Eve, Ausgang, Bauhaus,<br />
Bod, Christian Death (Valor), Creaming Jesus, Dali’s<br />
Car, The Danse Society, The Dancing Did, Finish The<br />
Story, Junior Manson Slags, KaS Product, Look Back In<br />
Anger, March Violets, Mothburner, New Model Army,<br />
Pink & Black,<br />
Say You (post-<br />
Skeletals), Sex<br />
Gang Children,<br />
Sunshot, The<br />
Cult, Toyah,<br />
Ultravox!<br />
(with John<br />
Foxx), Under 2<br />
Flags, The<br />
Virgin Prunes.<br />
Smaller<br />
interviews<br />
with: Anno<br />
Lucis, Chat<br />
Show, Discord<br />
Datkord, The<br />
Fifteenth<br />
(post-Look<br />
Back In<br />
Anger),<br />
Hysteria,<br />
Julianne<br />
Regan, Real<br />
Macabre, Rubicon (post-Nephilim), The Society (post-<br />
The Danse Society), Theatre of Hate, Venus Fly Trap,<br />
Venus In Furs, Zooey. Articles on: Adam And That Ants,<br />
The Dancing Did and Shend of The Cravats visiting<br />
Snowshill Manor, Kabuki (pre-Ausgang), the Give Me<br />
Passion piece from Melody Maker, as well as<br />
contributions for the Rough Trade in-house magazine<br />
‘Masterbag’ and Ausgang’s own fanzine ‘Stab The Sun.’<br />
GOTHIC INTERVIEWS, Volume 2 - £12.99<br />
228 pages, with 1<strong>50</strong> photos, the majority of them<br />
previously unpublished.<br />
Large interviews with: Aemotii Crii, Alien Sex Fiend,<br />
Bod, Christian Death (Valor), The Cravats, Creaming<br />
Jesus, The Dancing Did, The Danse Society, Gitane<br />
Demone, Gloria Mundi, Julianne Regan, Junior Manson<br />
Slags, March Violets, Midnight Configuration, Music For<br />
Pleasure,<br />
Ritual, Sex<br />
Gang Children,<br />
Spear Of<br />
Destiny, Tones<br />
On Tail, The<br />
Very Things,<br />
Xmal<br />
Deutschland.<br />
Smaller<br />
interviews<br />
with: All About<br />
Eve, Ausgang,<br />
BFG,<br />
Diamanda<br />
Galas, Dust<br />
Devils, Fear Of<br />
Darkness,<br />
Fields Of The<br />
Nephilim, God<br />
And The Crazy<br />
Lesbians,<br />
God’s<br />
Girlfriend, Ides<br />
Of March, Josi Without Colours. Articles on: The<br />
Dancing Did (their obituary written for Vague fanzine),<br />
Tim of The Dancing Did’s own story originally printed in<br />
Panache. further Stab The Sun contributions, a UK<br />
Decay tour diary written by Abbo, and a massive mid<br />
90’s State Of Goth article originally printed in Zillo in<br />
four parts, featuring contributions from about a dozen<br />
people in bands.<br />
www.mickmercer.com
GOTHIC INTERVIEWS, Volume 3 - £12.99<br />
224 pages, with 165 photos, the majority previously<br />
unpublished. Large interviews with: Alien Sex Fiend, All<br />
About Eve, Andi Sex Gang, Ausgang, Bauhaus, Blood &<br />
Roses, Creaming Jesus, Dancing Did, Dawn After Dark,<br />
Death Cult, Jazz Butcher, Junior Manson Slags, Martian<br />
Dance, New Model Army, Panic Button, Peter Murphy,<br />
Pocket Rockets, Rosetta Stone, Sex Gang Children,<br />
Spear Of Destiny, Specimen, Theatre Of Hate, Toyah,<br />
UK Decay, Zero Le Crèche. Smaller interviews with: The<br />
Bolshoi, Bomb Party, Cassandra Complex, The Danse<br />
Society, Four Came Home, Julianne Regan, Kommunity<br />
FK, Militia, Siiiii, Teahouse Camp, The Witches Of<br />
Nemesis, Venus Fly Trap, XC-NN. Articles on: Adam<br />
Ant (the Punk Lives ‘Xmas Carol’), a large look at the<br />
‘Grebo’ movement for Melody Maker, a more than<br />
sceptical look at Modern Magic from Panache, a small<br />
mid-90’s Overview Of The Current UK Goth Scene done<br />
for Dark Angel zine, a pisstake of the London Weekend<br />
(TV) documentary on Positive Punk, some Rose Of<br />
Avalanche sleevenotes, and more from Stab The Sun.<br />
GOTH GIGGERY - £9.99<br />
A 172 page book of live Goth-relevant reviews and 170<br />
photos, most of them previously unpublished: Alien Sex<br />
Fiend (2), All About Eve (2), Anno Lucis, Anonymes,<br />
Ausgang, Badlands, Batfish Boys, Bauhaus, Belfegore,<br />
Between Two Worlds, Blood & Roses, Bod, Brigandage,<br />
Christian Death (2), Creaming Jesus (2), The Dancing<br />
Did (6), Dawn After Dark, Dust Devils, Fear Of<br />
Darkness, Fields Of The Nephilim (3), Finish The Story<br />
(2), Furyo (2), Geshlekt Akt, Ghost Dance (2), Gun<br />
Club, Honeymoon Hunt, Ipso Facto, Junior Manson<br />
Slags (7), The Laughing Mothers, Lean Steel, Look Back<br />
In Anger, Lorelei Bizarre Festival 1987, ‘Lost In Beirut’<br />
Lyceum all-dayer, The March Violets, Melaroony<br />
Daddies, New Model Army, Nico, Play Dead, P.U.M.P.,<br />
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Ritual/Sex Gang, The Scream,<br />
Seventh Séance, Society, Splashpool, Sunshot (2),<br />
Theatre Of Hate, Toyah (4), Tragic Venus, UK Decay,<br />
Victims Of The Pestilence, Wasted Youth, We Are Going<br />
To Eat You, Whiskey & The Devil, Xmal Deutschland<br />
(3), ZigZag Club opening night.<br />
COMING in 2010 there will also be a huge book of<br />
the record reviews that I did from 1977 onwards<br />
through two decades of writing. I don’t yet know how<br />
many pages this will result in or whether, as a result, it<br />
may need to be broken down into Goth, Punk and<br />
Indie volumes. For the time being the provisional title<br />
is My Ghostly Companion but I am only about a<br />
tenth of the way into scanning all the old reviews.<br />
There is a worryingly large amount.
exclusive PUNK books<br />
Most PUNK books now just replicate what has already been seen, with a few notable exceptions<br />
(see Glasper, Ogg, Robb). My books feature a good cross section of all activity from 1977 to 1987,<br />
covering all styles, with some great personalities and plenty of previously unpublished images.<br />
You won’t be disappointed.<br />
PUNK Interviews, Volume 1 – £12.99<br />
A 256 page book, containing 215 photos, of Punk<br />
Interviews/Articles, concerning Action Pact, Adam And<br />
The Ants, The Adverts, Angelic Upstarts, Bad Dress<br />
Sense, Bernie Torme, Bow Wow Wow, The Carpettes,<br />
Charge, The Cravats, The Destructors, Dead Man’s<br />
Shadow, Elephant Talk, English Subtitles, The Fits,<br />
Genius Freak, The Iconoclasts, Invisible Girls, The<br />
Leopards, The Membranes, Naked Raygun, Paul Weller,<br />
Pauline Murray & The Storm, The Photos, Playground,<br />
Rat Scabies, Riot Clone, The Rods, Security Risk, The<br />
Shout, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Ski Patrol, Tenpole<br />
Tudor, TV Smith’s Explorers, The Vacants, Vice Squad<br />
and Andy Warren.<br />
PUNK Interviews, Volume 2 – £12.99<br />
A 252 page book, containing 214 photos, of Punk<br />
Interviews/Articles, concerning Action Pact, Adam And<br />
The Ants, The Adverts, Animals And Men, Another<br />
Pretty Face, Basic Punk Noise, Blyth Power, Cadaver<br />
Finesse, Chelsea, The Cravats, Destructors, Dead Man’s<br />
Shadow, The Fits, Heza Sheza, Johnny Bivouac, Lighting<br />
Strike, Marital Aids, Martin Atkins, Medium Medium,<br />
The Membranes, The Message, The Molesters, Neo, The<br />
Only Alternative, Pauline Murray & The Storm, The<br />
Photos, Playground, The Sect, Ski Patrol, Temporary<br />
Title, Tenpole Tudor, TV Explorers, UK Decay and<br />
Wendy Wu.
PUNK Interviews, Volume 3 – £12.99<br />
A 244 page book, containing 212 photos, of Punk<br />
Interviews/Articles, concerning Action Pact, Adam &<br />
The Ants, The Adverts, Another Pretty Face, Boowy,<br />
Captain Sensible, The Carpettes, Chron Gen, The<br />
Damned, Dan, The Dark, DCL, Dead Man’s Shadow,<br />
The Defects, The Diodes, The Enemy, Fugazi, The Kid,<br />
Kill Ugly Pop, Lightning Strike, Max Splodge, Medium<br />
Medium, The Membranes, Penetration, The Photos,<br />
Playground, Riff Raff, Riot Squad (UK), Snuff, The<br />
Stilletoes, Temporary Title, Tenpole Tudor, Terry Nash,<br />
Topper Headon, Toyah, TV Smith’s Explorers, The<br />
Uglies, The Vacants and Yr Anhrefn.<br />
PUNK GIGGERY – £14.99<br />
A mighty 400 page book, containing <strong>50</strong>5 photos, this<br />
features a mixture of live reviews from my old fanzine<br />
Panache, or from my time writing for papers and<br />
magazines, as well as live photographs from my<br />
collection, the majority previously unpublished:<br />
Action Pact, Adam & The Ants, Adicts,<br />
Advertising, The Adverts, Afghan Rebels, The<br />
Albertos, Alternative TV, ANL Carnival,<br />
Another Pretty Face, Auntie Pus, Balloons,<br />
Bernie Torme, Bette Bright, Black Arabs,<br />
Blondie, Bollock Brothers, The Boyfriends, The<br />
Boys, Brian’s Brain, The Carpettes, Chelsea,<br />
Cherry Vanilla, The Clash, The Cortinas, The<br />
Cravats, Cut Out Shapes, Dafne & The<br />
Tenderspots, The Damned, The Dark, Dead<br />
Man’s Shadow, The Defects, Delta 5, Dicks,<br />
The Doll, Dolly Mixtures, Eleventh<br />
Commandment, English Subtitles, Essential<br />
Logic, Fatal Microbes, Fruit Eating Bears, Gang<br />
Of 4, Generation X, Gloria Mundi, The<br />
Heartbreakers, Herman Asteroid, The<br />
Homosexuals, The Hormones, Housewives<br />
Choice, Iggy, Ignerents, The Inmates, The<br />
Innocents, The Jam, Jayne County, Johnny<br />
Curious, Johnny Moped, Johnny Thunders, The<br />
Leopards, Licensed To Kill, Lightning Strikes,<br />
Mad Dog, Mancubs, The Mekons, The Milk,<br />
The Mo-Dettes, The Molesters, Naked Raygun,<br />
Neo, New Hearts, Nicky And The Dots, The<br />
Only Ones, The Outsiders, Patrick Fitzgerald,<br />
Pauline Murray & The Storm, Penetration, Phil<br />
Rambow, The Piranhas, Plummet Airlines, The<br />
Pretenders, Punishment Of Luxury, The<br />
Rezillos, Rich Kids, The Rings, Riot Clone,<br />
Rubella Ballet,<br />
The Ruts,<br />
Sadista Sisters,<br />
The Saints, The<br />
Satellites, The<br />
Screen, The<br />
Sect, Security<br />
Risk, Sham 69,<br />
Shelley’s<br />
Children,<br />
Siouxsie And<br />
The Banshees,<br />
Ski Patrol, The<br />
Skids, Slaughter<br />
& The Dogs,<br />
The Slits,<br />
Snatch, Snuff,<br />
Some Chicken,<br />
The Specials,<br />
Spermatic Chords, Spizz, The Stupids, The<br />
Sustained, Temporary Title, Tenpole Tudor,<br />
Truth Club, TV Smith, TV Smith’s Explorers,<br />
UK Decay, Ultravox!, Undertones, The<br />
Vibrators, The Visitors, Volcanos, Wayne<br />
County and The Wimps.<br />
www.mickmercer.com
<strong>THE</strong> <strong>MICK</strong><br />
back issues compendiums<br />
When a new issue of <strong>THE</strong> <strong>MICK</strong> goes online the old one retires gracefully. I turn them into book<br />
form so that all the work is chronologically maintained. As you can see from any issue of <strong>THE</strong><br />
<strong>MICK</strong> my work tends to be more in-depth than you will find elsewhere, and so these books build<br />
into a cross-section look at the world of Noir music over the years and will continue doing so for<br />
the next decade also. You may as well start your collection now.<br />
<strong>THE</strong> <strong>MICK</strong>, Issues 1 – 7 -<br />
£12.99<br />
348 pages of musical content<br />
from the firsts even issues of<br />
my online magazine,<br />
containing interviews with:<br />
13TH Chime, A Spectre Is<br />
Haunting Europe, Astro<br />
Vamps, Ausgang, Bill<br />
Pritchard, The Dancing Did,<br />
Ego Likeness, Family Of<br />
Noise, Frank The Baptist,<br />
Junior Manson Slags, Justin<br />
Foulkes, Lisa Nash,<br />
Myssouri, Radio Berlin, The<br />
Arguments, The Brides, The<br />
Mirror Reveals, The Sixth Chamber, The Tunnel Of<br />
Love, Unto Ashes. ARTICLES on Russian Goth,<br />
Caroline Catz/Monoland, Screaming Sneakers, Ausgang<br />
in Germany, a tribute to STU P. Didiot (R.I.P.) as well as<br />
161 CD and 3 book reviews.<br />
<strong>THE</strong> <strong>MICK</strong>, Issues 8 –<br />
12 - £12.99<br />
400 pages from issues 8-<br />
12 containing interviews<br />
with All About Eve, And<br />
Also The Trees, Animals<br />
And Men, Attrition,<br />
Droom, History Of Guns,<br />
Killing Miranda,<br />
Manuskript, Razor Blade<br />
Kisses, Rome Burns,<br />
Screaming Banshee<br />
Aircrew, The Empire<br />
Hideous, The Multiverse,<br />
Undying Legacy and an<br />
article on AUSGANG in<br />
New York and 241 CD<br />
reviews.<br />
<strong>THE</strong> <strong>MICK</strong>, Issues<br />
13-16 - £12.99<br />
356 pages, containing 36<br />
Interviews: All Living<br />
Fear, Angelspit,<br />
Ausgang, Black Tape For<br />
A Blue Girl, Bohemien,<br />
Calabrese, Caustic<br />
Pleasures, Doppelganger,<br />
Dwelling, Hate In The<br />
Box, Hearts Fail, Human<br />
Disease, Ikon, Jordan<br />
Reyne, KaS Product,<br />
Katzenjammer Kabarett,<br />
La Peste Negra,<br />
Lupercalia, Mephisto<br />
Walz, Necro Stellar, No<br />
Tears, Psychophile,<br />
Psydoll, Satans Rats, Scarlet’s Remains, Secrecy, Spon,<br />
The Clauberg Opera, The Last Dance, Tor Lundvall,<br />
Ultranoir, Uninvited Guest, Venus Fly Trap, Vittorio<br />
Vandelli, Worm, Zeitgeist Zero, plus 116 reviews.<br />
<strong>THE</strong> <strong>MICK</strong>, Issues 17-21 -<br />
£14.99<br />
452 pages, containing 35<br />
Interviews: Abney Park (2), Acid<br />
Ice Flows, Arid Sea, Ataraxia,<br />
Black Ice, Blood Proxy, Carol<br />
Blaze, Choronzon, Deadchovsky,<br />
Finish The Story (2), Ikon,<br />
Invading Chapel, Miguel & The<br />
Living Dead, Monica’s Last<br />
Prayer, Mothburner, The October<br />
Country, Opera Macabre, Pins<br />
And Needles, Process Void,<br />
Quidam, Redemption, Shadowhouse, Tears Of The<br />
Dying, The Carpettes, The Dirge Carolers, The<br />
Groaning, The Last Dance, The Way Of All Flesh,<br />
Vernian Process, Veronique Diabolique, Villa Vortex,<br />
Wednesday’s Child, Zombina & The Skeletones, plus 156<br />
reviews.
<strong>Mercer</strong>ville<br />
where only fools dare to tread<br />
You need to enjoy the outpouring of insubstantial thought that drips from my mind, splattering<br />
my livejournal, to even contemplate getting one of these, which I confess I only started to get a<br />
copy for myself rather than having to sift through old word docs or the calendar archive on lj<br />
itself. You may notice attractive photographs taken at atmospheric pages regularly occur in <strong>THE</strong><br />
<strong>MICK</strong>? It’s only the musical content which goes into <strong>THE</strong> <strong>MICK</strong> compendiums, everything else<br />
ends up in <strong>Mercer</strong>ville, locked up securely for the night. So there is a lot in these books, but you<br />
can go to my website for details. I don’t think anyone will ever buy them, as they’re basically my<br />
diary gone slightly wrong, so I’ll just show you the covers for the issues currently completed.<br />
www.mickmercer.com
PHOTO BOOKS<br />
There are two series completed, for Goth and Punk images, the Indie yet to begin. There are<br />
individual series coming for bands where I have a lot of images. Due in 2010 will be several<br />
titles each for Specimen and Alien Sex Fiend, along with single books for Flesh For Lulu,<br />
Sexbeat, Sex Gang, Christian Death/Gitane and Daisy Chainsaw.<br />
PUNK IMAGES, Volume 1 - £19.99<br />
A 712 page photo book, containing 1,019 photos, of:<br />
Action Pact, Adam & The Ants, The Adverts, Afghan<br />
Rebels, ANL Carnival, Another Pretty Face, Bernie<br />
Torme, Blondie, Brian Brain, Chelsea, Dada Cravats<br />
Laboratory, The Defects, Dead Man’s Shadow, Elgin<br />
Marbles, Generation X, Genius Freak, Gloria Mundi,<br />
Hagar The Womb, The Innocents, Jayne County,<br />
Licensed To Kill, Mad Dog, Mancubs, The Mob, Riot<br />
Clone, The Ruts, The Sect, Security Risk, Shelleys<br />
Children, The Shout, Ski Patrol, The Slits, Snatch,<br />
Temporary Title, Tenpole Tudor, Johnny Thunders, TV<br />
Smith, UK Decay, Vice Squad, Wayne County.<br />
PUNK IMAGES, Volume 2 - £19.99<br />
A 708 page photo book, containing 1,017 photos, of:<br />
Action Pact, Adam & The Ants, The Adverts, Another<br />
Pretty Face, Bette Bright, Boowy, The Carpettes,<br />
Charge, The Clash, The Cravats, Delta 5, Dead Man’s<br />
Shadow, Heza Sheza, The Innocents, Johnny Thunders,<br />
Mark Perry, Max Splodge, Mondo Popless, Patrik<br />
Fitzgerald, Pauline Murray & The Storm, Rock Kids,<br />
Rubella Ballet, Sadistas, The Shout, Siouxsie & The<br />
Banshees, The Slits, Snuff, Spermatic Chords, Tenpole<br />
Tudor, Truth Club, Ultravox!, Vibrators, Weekend<br />
Swingers.<br />
PUNK IMAGES, Volume 3 - £19.99<br />
A 708 page book, containing 1,021 photos, of: Action<br />
Pact, The Adverts, Andy P, Adam & The Ants,<br />
Angletrax, Belladonna, Blondie, Boomtown Rats,<br />
Captain Sensible,<br />
The Cravats, The<br />
Damned, Dead<br />
Man’s Shadow,<br />
Elgin Marbles,<br />
Furore, Gloria<br />
Mundi, The<br />
Innocents,<br />
Leopards, Look<br />
Mummy Clowns,<br />
Mega City 4, The<br />
Mo-dettes, The<br />
Molesters, The<br />
Partisans,<br />
Penetration, The<br />
Pretenders,<br />
Punishment Of<br />
Luxury, The<br />
Rezillos, The Slits,<br />
Tenpole Tudor,<br />
Cyril Trotts, The<br />
Undertones, Alan Vega, Zerox Girls.<br />
GOTHIC IMAGES, Volume 1 - £12.99<br />
204 pages, containing 268 photos of All About Eve,<br />
Bauhaus, Blood Sanction, Brackenclock, Butterflies,<br />
Carcrash International, Christian Death, Cocteau Twins,<br />
Cosmic 666, The Cramps, The Cravats, Creaming Jesus,<br />
The Damned, The Dancing Did, The Danse Society,<br />
Death By Crimpers,<br />
Die Laughing,<br />
Diskord Datkord,<br />
Drunk On Cake,<br />
Electric Dog Sex,<br />
Empress Of Fur, 4<br />
Came Home, Gloria<br />
Mundi, Gitane<br />
Demone, God & The<br />
Crazy Lesbians From<br />
Hell, Infected,<br />
Intestines, David J,<br />
Junior Manson Slags,<br />
Lean Steel, Laughing<br />
Mother, Manuskript,<br />
Militia, The Mission,<br />
1919, Pink & Black,<br />
Prophecy,
Restoration II, Rosetta Stone, Siouxsie & The Banshees,<br />
Suck Henry, Sunshot, Toyah, Tragic Venus, UK Decay,<br />
Ultravox, Whiskey & The Devil, Witches, Xmal<br />
Deutschland, Zip Zip Undo Me.<br />
GOTHIC IMAGES, Volume 2 - £12.99<br />
204 pages, containing 280 photos of Beast, Bible For<br />
Dogs, Bomb Party, The Butterflies, Creaming Jesus, The<br />
Dancing Did, Das Tor, David J, Death By Crimpers,<br />
Destroy The Boy (in their darker phase), Diskord<br />
Datkord, Dreamcity Filmclub, Drunk On Cake, Dust<br />
Devils, Electric Dog Sex, Empyrean, 4 Came Home,<br />
Finish The Story, Gloria Mundi, Gun Club, Inkubus<br />
Sukkubus, Julianne Regan, Junior Manson Slags,<br />
Lovecraft, Melinda Miel, Nosferatu, Pork Helmets,<br />
Powder, P.U.M.P., Rosetta Stone, Sadodada, Skeletal<br />
Family, Suck Henry, Sunshot, Tabitha’s Nightmare,<br />
Tragic Venus, UK Decay, Under 2 Flags, Witches, XC-<br />
NN, Xmal Deutschland, Zip Zip Undo Me.<br />
GOTHIC IMAGES, Volume 3 - £12.99<br />
204 pages, containing 287 photos of Abbo (UK Decay),<br />
Bang Bang Machine, Beast, Bingo, Butterflies, Nick<br />
Cave & The Bonemen, Cherry 2000, Creaming Jesus,<br />
Cries Of Tamuuz, The Dancing Did, The Danse Society,<br />
David J, Dead Souls, Death Cult, Destroy The Boy,<br />
Diskord Datkord, Dreamcity Filmclub, Dunebuggy<br />
Attack, Enrapture, Nicola of Finish The Story, Furyo,<br />
Gloria Mundi, Infected, Inkubus Sukkubus, Junior<br />
Manson Slags, Josi Without Colours, Look Back In<br />
Anger, Lovecraft, The Mission, Pleasure And The Beast,<br />
P.U.M.P., Purple Rhinos, Rock Horror Show (Amateur<br />
Production), Rubella Ballet, Shoot The Joker, Siiiii,<br />
Skeletal Family, Ski Patrol, Soft Cell, Suck Henry,<br />
Sunshot, Tabitha Zu, Tragic Venus, Turbo & The<br />
Rockets, Turkey Bones & The Wild Dogs, Ultravox,<br />
Very Things, Vicious Kiss, Witches, Xmal Deutschland,<br />
Michelle Yee-Chong, Zor Gabor, Zu.<br />
<strong>THE</strong> BATCAVE, Volume 1 – £19.99<br />
A 620 page photo book containing 818 images of<br />
happenings there during 1983, featuring: Alien Sex Fiend<br />
(three gigs), Ausgang, Danielle Dax (posed session), F1<br />
Electric, Marc Almond, Pork Helmets, Sexbeat,<br />
Specimen (four gigs), along with the club itself, crowd<br />
and cabaret artistes/dancers. The majority of these photos<br />
are, as with all my books, previously unpublished.<br />
<strong>THE</strong> BATCAVE, Volume 2 – £19.99<br />
A 572 page photo book containing 789 images of<br />
happenings during 1984/1985, featuring: Alien Sex<br />
Fiend, Anorexic Dread, Ausgang, Bone Orchard,<br />
Christian Death, Let’s Wreck Mother, Pepperlip,<br />
Sexbeat, Specimen (two gigs), Tabatha’s Nightmare,<br />
Zero Le Creche and Zor Gabor, along with shots within<br />
the club and some regulars.<br />
DANIELLE DAX – £12.99<br />
A 328 page photo book about one of the most visually<br />
distinctive and dynamic live performers of all time,<br />
containing 425 images taken between 1983 and 1988,<br />
including three posed sessions, and six gigs.<br />
VIRGIN PRUNES - £14.99<br />
408 pages. 511 photos from Brixton Ace 6.4.83, Electric<br />
Ballroom 11.8.83, Lyceum 27.11.83, Electric Ballroom<br />
10.12.85, Croydon Underground (including a Gavin<br />
Friday posed session) 12.12.85.<br />
www.mickmercer.com
PHOENIX MARIE<br />
~ AN URGENT APPEAL ~<br />
Time for a spot of Goth solidarity? I hope you will think it<br />
the only possibility as you read Phoenix Marie’s story in<br />
what is not a typical request. Every now and then<br />
something comes along that reminds you some things are<br />
more important than music. This is one of those occasions.
You may not know Phoenix Marie but as you read of her life you<br />
will see yourselves in part, or parts, of it.<br />
That’s because this is one of our own facing a situation none of us<br />
would want to be in, but what makes it different is there really is<br />
a chance to beat this. It’s the fact the worst can be avoided that<br />
makes me ask you to help in the best way you can.<br />
I quote from the Fundraising page<br />
http://helpphoenix.teapoweredphoto.com<br />
“Phoenix’s doctor has warned her that the nerve damage in her brain<br />
is becoming permanent as she has not been able to afford to continue<br />
her treatment. She only has one year of treatment left.<br />
“The degeneration of the nerves in her brain is similar to patients her<br />
doctor treats who are in their 80s and 90s. Phoenix has just turned 40<br />
years old and had led an extremely active lifestyle before this<br />
occurred. If she receives one more year of consistent treatment her<br />
doctor believes that she will be able to lead a normal life with minimal<br />
pain with perhaps another year of follow up and monitoring. If not,<br />
she will have permanent hearing and brain damage, vertigo, become<br />
crippled, end up in a wheelchair and will assuredly die a very painful<br />
death at a young age.<br />
“She has been mostly bedridden for the last three years and has<br />
difficulty doing even minor tasks now. Things that so many of us take<br />
for granted—such as holding a baby, exercising, dancing, spending<br />
time with loved ones or just grocery shopping cause Phoenix extreme,<br />
debilitating pain.”<br />
Yes, Phoenix Marie needs money, but there are auctions coming, and<br />
limited edition prints available, as she needs to complete one final<br />
year of medical treatment, which she had to find the money for, and<br />
there are various ways for you to consider. The most immediate way to<br />
help, of course, is through a donation directly, via her fundraising<br />
page. I will continue to update you on my journal and through my<br />
magazine as best I can, but if you monitor the links at the end of the<br />
article you can keep totally up to date on the auctions coming, which<br />
will include art, clothing, graphic novels, and collectibles.<br />
In America there is no medical safety net, even though medicine there<br />
is something of a circus. Phoenix has sold everything she owns, but<br />
she has her own photos she will be making available, as Jody Elliott is<br />
offering hers, and me mine, as you’ll see over the next pages.<br />
Phoenix’s site will keep you up to date with the latest details, and<br />
maybe some Illinois bands, or bands who have known her could<br />
consider benefit gigs, or making things available for auction, in a<br />
different way to fundraise?<br />
Writing this article has rather been surprising for me, so if it seems<br />
jumbled that’s because it is, because there isn’t enough time to make it<br />
polished or well considered. Time being of the essence you are reading<br />
it within days of it being thought of. From the heart to your head and<br />
inwards. Hopefully you will find code on Phoenix’ myspace page and<br />
can copy that then pop it onto your own journals and myspace pages,<br />
and onto your own websites. Spread the word, let people know, let<br />
people help. If you don’t want to, or can’t, buy a photo, pass the news<br />
on to someone who might. Bands reading this please friend Phoenix<br />
Marie and pop her into your Top Friends, and display her banner<br />
prominently.<br />
Please be aware that even being subjected to my question and requests<br />
for information takes its toll but she has tried to provide the richest<br />
detail possible. She prefers talking to typing, so just furnishing me<br />
with this much information hasn’t been easy, but you can read now the<br />
main part of her life story, which has been wild, exciting, chaotic, but<br />
highlights a tempestuous and sensitive soul.<br />
As well as dance and photography , on both side of the lens,<br />
you’ve done music, put on gigs, proofread/edited books, been an<br />
artist….what kicked it all off? I see you got into Punk, then<br />
Goth…has it been a linear journey?<br />
“From the time I was old enough to speak and run amuck, which was<br />
unusually early, I was writing poetry, putting on plays, dancing, and<br />
singing/playing air instruments for anyone who would pay attention. I<br />
thought my life’s purpose was to be in a band, write spooky stories,<br />
and dance, sing, and act on Broadway, with the occasional puppet<br />
show thrown in for good measure. I was convinced that was my<br />
purpose in life. I used to force my mother to interview me. I did act in<br />
‘Whiteface came early’: “Scary? Me? White face and a<br />
blue-black wig, come on, <strong>Mick</strong>, it rocks! Clowns are scary, but<br />
this is the very first costume contest I competed in, and I won<br />
second place, as a clown, how telling! My mother hand-sewed<br />
the costume at the last minute. I was in what we call kindergarten,<br />
which is school before school, and I had just relocated from<br />
Massachusetts, so I am most likely four yrs old in this photo. I<br />
was ready for my close up. I still have this outfit. The shoes fit,<br />
they’re awesome!”
autoplaying musicroom – “This is from a large museum of antiques, oddities, statuary, and music<br />
machines from all over the world in Wisconsin. I will have a gallery available soon with hundreds of<br />
amazing photos from the museum, and some info about its unique history and creation.”<br />
school at a young age, played music and won awards as a musician<br />
and for creative writing all through school until I went to university.<br />
“I had an unconventional childhood, so I didn’t get to pursue some<br />
things that would have led to career, like dance, in school. I went to a<br />
Russian ballet school and was highly successful, but my family pulled<br />
me out, because they were told I should be a career ballerina and had<br />
real promise. My family didn’t believe in artistic careers as an option,<br />
though both my parents had families who all played musical<br />
instruments and sang, and my mother wrote plays, so somehow, I was<br />
allowed to study music and continue writing all through school.<br />
Everything else artistic I pursued in early life was prohibited by grade<br />
school age, including art, dance, and acting. I snuck around and broke<br />
some rules with a fake I.D. to do an annual haunted attraction, an<br />
acting and creature make-up gig, and musical theatre in high school,<br />
but without parental permission, I didn’t get the deep involvement or<br />
the roles I wanted until college.<br />
“Acting was actually one of my skills that followed me wherever I<br />
went, and though I couldn’t stay, I was asked to do summer stock at<br />
college and was sought after for lead roles and asked to act for many<br />
strange unconventional productions. My acting experiences were scant<br />
but fun. I always deviated in everything I did, veering away from what<br />
was prescribed at school, and seeking more independent and liberal<br />
expression, and I imagine that is why the underground music and<br />
performing art subcultures became a refuge for me, especially if you<br />
look at deathrock, art rock and new wave, which are theatre unto<br />
themselves! Music is the air I breathe, so I would rather be in a music<br />
subculture than one based on other things. I travelled a lot and had a<br />
lot of little irons in many small fires, and I did work in corporate<br />
management most of my adult life, so artistic pursuits remained as<br />
hobbies, though I hope to change that now.”<br />
This is where I slot in some of the info Phoenix Marie has given me<br />
of her life as a timeline, which I think you’ll find absorbing.<br />
“1980. Was exposed to Alice Cooper and Poison Ivy of The Cramps,<br />
was overwhelmed by them both and announced loudly to all who<br />
would listen that ‘That’s How I Want To Be When I Grow Up!’. Also<br />
was exposed to the film ‘Breaking Glass’ with Hazel O Connor, it<br />
changed my entire world. Saw the film ‘Times Square’ and heard The<br />
Cure, Gary Numan, Lou Reed, Pattie Smith, XTC, Ramones, Suzi<br />
Quatro, The Pretenders, and Roxy Music for the first time. My head<br />
exploded, and I didn’t know what the music was, but I knew it was a<br />
truth I wanted to seek out. Witnessed the beginning of MTV. Cyndi<br />
Lauper, The Cure, Missing Persons, 80’s New Wave, The Clash, all<br />
kinds of music that we would have never otherwise been exposed to<br />
in Louisiana (which was still in the 60s-70’s rock and hair metal<br />
phase) was available.<br />
“1982. A couple years later saw the film ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, the<br />
Fabulous Stains’ with Paul Cook and Steve Jones (Sex Pistols), was<br />
already heavily into punk, this just iced the commitment cake a bit,<br />
though the local scene in Shreveport, La, was too male-dominated and<br />
violent for my tastes. Discovered David Bowie, I was completely<br />
mesmerized, immediately gravitated away from the punk scene,<br />
though still did occasional shows, as well as hair metal shows as I had<br />
many older friends in bands.”<br />
You mention Alice Cooper, The Cramps, Cure and Cyndi among<br />
many inspiring artists, but I was curious as to why the movie<br />
Breaking Glass had such a strong impact on you?<br />
“Have you seen it, and have you ever been an 11 yr old girl lol? My<br />
impressionable pre-teen brain was blown wide open by that film. I<br />
don’t know if it was her role, as singer, artist, punk, woman in a man’s<br />
world, or what it was that struck so many chords with me. I think it
“I was better off living on the street than being at home. I can’t really<br />
explain it to people who’ve not been homeless, especially when young.”<br />
was my first exposure to that part of the music industry, and the<br />
yearning inside me to be in a band was so great, the new wave and<br />
punk aspects were new and really appealing to me, there was also a<br />
huge justice theme, which appealed to me.<br />
“I remember hovering close to the TV illicitly watching at 2 in the<br />
morning, and almost crying ecstatic about the revelation that had just<br />
occurred. I lived in the deep South of the U.S which is a twilight zone,<br />
it was still the 70’s in many ways, and I lived with sheltered,<br />
somewhat ignorant, uptight mainstream people, oh, and was a New<br />
England transplant to a conservative Baptist community. I was allergic<br />
to pine trees and heat. It was like Superman being trapped in a<br />
kryptonite cave. So having my pre-teen early hormones kicking in, my<br />
mind being expanded heavily by a love of science fiction and myth I’d<br />
just started getting into in school, and having suddenly been exposed<br />
to pasty Celts with foreign accents who were coping with the jaded<br />
underbelly of a fictional new wave punk scene I’d never heard of<br />
before….blew my mind, and I remember my insides screaming ‘THIS<br />
IS IT! WHATEVER THIS IS, THIS IS WHERE I BELONG!’ If that<br />
makes sense.<br />
“The same thing happened when I saw the film, ‘Times Square’ and<br />
‘Welcome To My Nightmare’. I had never had that kind of input<br />
before. Post input, I became a new kind of machine. I know to an<br />
adult, the film was probably very cheesy, tragic, and over-the-top and<br />
the music is somewhat manufactured for the film, which has its own<br />
looping irony there, but it still made a wonderful dent and I felt<br />
vindicated by it somehow. ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous<br />
Stains’ did the same thing, in a more comical way.<br />
“1980-84. Spent a lot of time hanging out with older friends at punk<br />
clubs, went to lots of art rock shows and gay art gallery shows with<br />
live art rock and art punk. Started getting into new wave heavily, very<br />
influenced by British bands, this is the time in which I became<br />
homeless, stayed with friends whose parents owned clubs/venues.”<br />
So around 1982 you’re into the local Punk scene, not something<br />
darker. Was that because the Punk scene actually was the local<br />
scene?<br />
“Yes. I wasn’t from there, but I lived in Shreveport, La, and<br />
apparently during that time period there was a huge historically<br />
significant punk movement in the region. There was no goth scene in<br />
Shreveport at any time that I lived there, nor in Baton Rouge where I<br />
went to college. That state seemed to be stuck in a time warp, a very<br />
ugly, intellectually-void time warp. I was very goth in my own right,<br />
I’d been force-feeding my little friends every haunted record and<br />
movie I could find, and we mentioned Alice Cooper.<br />
“I was sharpening my fingernails and painting them all kinds of<br />
dramatic spooky things when I was in the single digit age group. So, I<br />
was primed and ready, but where I was living at that age, punk, art<br />
rock, and new wave were the only deviant music subcultures present.<br />
Oh, and hair metal, which I was very into, and had many older friends<br />
in bands, but that was and remains just silly, doesn’t it? It wasn’t a<br />
bad scene altogether, but I had more friends in the punk scene than I<br />
did in the art rock/new wave glam scene, though I did manage to<br />
gravitate towards that before I moved away.”<br />
Sounds like a rough time though, ending up homeless before going<br />
to college?<br />
“I was better off living on the street than being at home. I can’t really<br />
explain it to people who’ve not been homeless, especially when<br />
young. My parents disowned me at age 12 for several reasons, mostly<br />
because I calmly announced that I refused to attend church, was an<br />
atheist until I could decide what I believed in, and I was very altruistic<br />
and alternative, and smart, and to them, extremely threatening on<br />
many levels. They were abusive addicts with reputations to protect.<br />
“I had been taking care of myself as far as cooking and laundry since I<br />
was 7 or 8 and emotionally since I was about 5, so it wasn’t a big<br />
shocker to be independent, just inconvenient and dangerous. I was<br />
extremely lucky to have a genius I.Q., a penchant for acting and<br />
calming beasts, and a very optimistic outlook on life. My fake I.D.<br />
said I was 24, and everyone thought I was older, I looked older than I<br />
do now, was attractive, classy, gregarious, comical, well-read, and was<br />
very serious overall, which lended a believable maturity and a long list<br />
of friends, and I’m sure that was how I survived. Until I was 14, it was<br />
brutal, and I did sleep under some bridges and in friends’ closets<br />
secretly so I could stay in school and pretend everything was normal. I<br />
just wanted to finish school, so I never told anyone in authority.<br />
“I would sometimes stay with friends who had very liberal parents,<br />
and I learned a lot, went to SCA events to do my homework whilst<br />
people jousted, made chainmail, exchanged mead recipes, and<br />
gathered Irish folk songs. Some of them owned clubs and I got to see a<br />
lot of gigs, helped throw Adam Ant a birthday party at 14 instead of<br />
doing my homework, got to play with the mixing boards, so it wasn’t<br />
all bad.<br />
HauntedResurrectionCem – “Resurrection Cemetery is one<br />
of the more legendary haunted places in Chicago. There is a tale<br />
of ‘Resurrection Mary’ involving sightings of the ghost of a<br />
woman in white who is hitchhiking. She is reported to have<br />
been seen everywhere from the ballroom where she danced, to<br />
pubs across the street from the cemetery, and even in downtown<br />
Chicago at a place significant to her life. I really just love this<br />
cemetery because of the unusual amount of wildlife that seems<br />
to fill it, coming from out of nowhere. All of my photos from<br />
here have deer and/or fowl in them.”
“Haha. This is the inside of an antique European musicbox of a travelling sideshow, with musicians and<br />
illusionist. You put the coin in, and watch and listen. It’s mesmerizing!”<br />
“It was the deep South in the 80’s, not the most progressive place.I<br />
did end up in a kind of whirlwind gangster movie of sorts because of it<br />
all, and maybe some day that will make a great and painful book that<br />
will make its way to film, like ‘Drugstore Cowboy’, ‘Trainspotting’,<br />
‘Go’, or any of those hideous anxiety films where there is one<br />
innocent young person trapped in a dangerous jaded world full of<br />
drugs, greed, and rock and roll. I know what a 38 looks like when it’s<br />
pointing at you. I know what real horror is. I grew up very fast, but I<br />
did manage to have lots of fun and spent enormous amounts of time in<br />
clubs and art galleries seeing live music before I could legally drive, so<br />
who can complain about that?”<br />
“1984-5. Stayed with a much older friend who was the lead singer of<br />
The Mice (US). Played for me for the first time Kate Bush, Nina<br />
Hagen, The Beatles White Album, and Lena Lovich. This completely<br />
warped my brain into something new.<br />
“1986. In college, had already been dressing ‘goth’ in a self-styled<br />
way with no influence from media for a year, there was no goth scene<br />
where I lived or in Baton Rouge where I moved to go to university.<br />
There were new wave clubs there, but they were venues for extasy<br />
abuse, which had just been invented and leaked from Dallas, Tx which<br />
was not too far away. Went to one (aptly called ‘Xanthas’ with a giant<br />
sized ‘X’ in neon on the outer wall) sober thanks, and saw The Cure<br />
on the big screen, very memorable moment. Bought The Church’s<br />
Remote Luxury album because of the woman in shroud on the cover,<br />
felt I’d found something that I was missing, but it was my inexplicable<br />
secret.<br />
“People were starting to ask me if I was depressed because of how I’d<br />
been dressing lol. This led some strangers on the street near a club one<br />
night to take me home with them, give me my first taste of (expensive<br />
thank goodness) European red wine, played me Bauhaus, Mask, and<br />
told me about a scene in London where they’d been living, showed me<br />
photos, etc. I felt like I had finally come home to something, but I<br />
never saw them again after that night.<br />
“It wasn’t until later that year when I moved to the mid-east coast, that<br />
I was played The Mission at a campfire party, went nuts, and everyone<br />
there started loaning me tapes: Sisters of Mercy, Christian Death,<br />
Siouxsie and the Banshees, Pere Ubu, The Smiths, Cocteau Twins,<br />
Alien Sex Fiend, This Mortal Coil. I was officially accepted into the<br />
hive mind community known as ‘goth’. As cheesy as it sounds, I felt<br />
like I was finally a whole person, that I’d come home to me at last. I<br />
discovered Dead Can Dance and The Chameleons later that year, and<br />
they were then and remain two of my all-time favourite and most<br />
influential bands in my lifetime.<br />
“Became a permanent fixture at the record store where these people<br />
worked for several years, they would turn me on to everything goth<br />
and alt, and I would turn them onto punk, classical, and classic rock<br />
rare gems they were unaware of, like Jello Biafra, The Fuzztones,<br />
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Muddy Waters, Johnny Cash, Jim Morrison’s<br />
American Prayer, Screamin’ Lord Sutch, Gong, Pink Floyd’s early<br />
work and bootlegs, that kind of thing. I traveled to a lot of record<br />
trading shows across the US, learning about music and Goldmine<br />
magazine, buying and selling albums, finding rare bootlegs, marbled<br />
and special vinyl, rare 12 inches. I built up quite a large record<br />
collection which brought me a bit of a reputation as a musical<br />
authority.<br />
“I grew up listening to folk from my parents, was trained in classical,<br />
and had been really into the punk and metal scene because of friends,<br />
and loved a lot of <strong>50</strong>’s and 60’s, I.R.S. bands no one knew of,
“I’m enthralled with autoplaying music machines, this museum is full of them, I have many of them<br />
photographed.”<br />
psychobilly, even opera, so I knew more than most, and that eventually<br />
led to record store management years later (which was terribly boring<br />
and nothing like the movies).”<br />
1986 – people take you to their place and introduce you to Goth.<br />
Pivotal, I assume, but also fairly lucky. They could have been into<br />
Big Hair metal or something? But that’s the year you enter the<br />
‘community’ as it were. How different did it feel to the Punk<br />
scene?<br />
“Well, it was calmer, for one thing, lol. More intelligent. Not that there<br />
aren’t very gifted minds in the punk subculture, but the focus was<br />
more intellectual and less about power and rage and reaction. A more<br />
disciplined approach to a social protest with much better fashion,<br />
more academic and historic lyrics, possible paganism, and much<br />
tastier alcohol from European countries. You didn’t get a lot of<br />
candlelight and velvet in the punk scene, certainly no pricey aged<br />
Merlot. You didn’t get to sit down and quietly, gracefully contemplate.<br />
Everything that night was beautiful and profound…people were<br />
admiring each other just for existing. Mind you, these were just a<br />
couple of rich college boys from up north whose parents saw fit to cart<br />
them around Europe and send them to decent schools in England.<br />
“They weren’t uber Goths, they were somewhat moderate, they just<br />
appreciated it deeply, and they had sophisticated minds and good<br />
taste. They also had a bit less machismo, and that was a nice change. I<br />
had left punk behind, or the scene, rather, years before. I’d been into<br />
more alternative music for a bit, Kate Bush, Nina Hagen, Bowie, The<br />
Church, The Cure, that sort of thing. It was just a chance meeting of<br />
some people who’d gone to private school in London, and were really<br />
into Bauhaus and the goth scene. The played me brilliant music, and<br />
explained that this was connected to a subculture, showed me gig<br />
flyers and photos of people, and one of them had spent time in France,<br />
I spoke French and studied French culture in depth (as did many in<br />
Louisiana, it was required), and everything clicked and I found some<br />
vital missing puzzle pieces.<br />
“I was done with hair metal for years as well at that point. I’d already<br />
been exposed to The Cure and other bands, but this was a deeper level<br />
of more precise goth, and being told that there were communities of<br />
welcoming people like me was enlightening. That was just one night<br />
of hanging out, listening to Bauhaus’ Mask. I never saw those people<br />
again, and there was no goth scene in Baton Rouge. I took it in, and<br />
saw finally that there was actually a much larger social sphere in<br />
which I could possibly be at home, but I didn’t have it yet and didn’t<br />
know what it really was, that came later when I moved to another<br />
state.”<br />
You worked in the record shops, and did the trade fairs. That is<br />
such a staple part of peoples’ development around music, which is<br />
now gone. So many ‘alternative’ people found work there. I bet<br />
there’s just a tattered framework left.<br />
“I have no idea what goes on in those realms anymore, it does seem to<br />
be a relic paradigm of the past. I have noticed that Chicago has a very<br />
avid vinyl-loving community, and record stores here are jam packed<br />
and thriving. Where do they buy their record players, I ask myself lol?<br />
I haven’t seen one in a store for a decade!<br />
“1988-1991. Still travelled a bit, but spent most of this time hanging<br />
out at a club in Charlotte, NC called The Pterodactyl club. I became<br />
chummy with one of the owners, convinced him to take the tiny<br />
upstairs loft-type attic space and turn it into a goth and goth-friendly
acid house-centric club of its own with a better DJ and a darker<br />
atmosphere than the mainstream theme of the main club.<br />
“It came to pass, and the first DJ, a friend, painted a Saturn on the<br />
whole of the dance floor in my honour, as Saturn is my ruling planet,<br />
and it seemed funny at the time. So it was like a christening, though I<br />
was not in a big ego parade back then, so I didn’t take much credit for<br />
any of it, I just enjoyed it like everyone else. The owners were very<br />
corrupt, however, I was one of few women/regulars who refused to<br />
sleep with them, so I eventually distanced myself from involvement<br />
with the club.<br />
“As the main club downstairs grew more and more ‘preppy’, we<br />
became darker and darker upstairs, and I finally convinced the owner<br />
to let us play the up and coming hardcore industrial bands like<br />
Ministry and Revolting Cocks, and there was much more violent<br />
moshing and breaking light fixtures ensuing, and they freaked and<br />
closed us down for a little while. I left town again, they reopened soon<br />
after and returned to a mild alternative mix with some goth pop and<br />
acid house thrown in for good measure. I distanced myself entirely at<br />
that point. They did have some great live shows, like Alien Sex Fiend<br />
and early Flaming Lips. The club no longer exists. I moved to Raleigh,<br />
NC, and was part of that scene, which is where I met White Zombie’s<br />
first manager, but didn’t enjoy the grittiness and smallness of Raleigh,<br />
and went back to La to live with friends in New Orleans for a while.<br />
“The scene in New Orleans was, well, everyone was wonderful and<br />
friendly and completely uninhibited by convention, but there are<br />
vampires, and gang shootings, stabbings, radioactive<br />
mosquitoes, constant drunk people, crooked cops, and 110 degree F<br />
summers with 200 percent humidity, and I wasn’t there for long before<br />
I craved waterfalls, wide open spaces, cool air, and clean mountain air,<br />
so I moved back to NC.”<br />
You sound rootless in terms of a place, always on the move. The<br />
1988-1991 phase you told me about sees you zipping here, there<br />
and everywhere. Do you think there was a reason for this?<br />
“Yes. I lived in North Carolina. Go there, you will see how the need to<br />
escape is predominant. I was a wickedly smart goth girl suddenly in a<br />
hostile and backwoods, mainstream environment. It’s part of a region<br />
of the U.S. called ‘The Bible Belt.’ I was living in small, rural towns,<br />
redneck southern towns with fascist structures in place, scary police,<br />
little culture, it was very stifling. I was harassed constantly there, no<br />
matter what town it was, with sexual threats, beer bottles thrown, I<br />
was chased at gunpoint twice, almost run off the road in my car, the<br />
state bureau of investigations actually had me on file as the leader of a<br />
Satanic Coven, (which is absurd if you know me, I was called ‘the<br />
industrial gothic Laura Ingalls’ among other allusive titles), just<br />
because I was uber goth, and tried to start a band in a very small<br />
mountain town. We call them rednecks, I think Chavs are their<br />
younger more urban cousins: shotguns, chewing tobacco, Ford trucks,<br />
fried chicken. That’s a bad cocktail when mixed with a very attractive,<br />
uber-goth girl walking home alone. I zipped around the state a lot,<br />
looking to form bands, had many friends attending this school here or<br />
that school there, all artists and musicians doing nifty things they<br />
wanted me to be a part of. I went to film, TV, and acting school and<br />
that was in yet another city, so I had to move.<br />
“There was romance pulling me one place, music pulling another, a<br />
scene in another city elsewhere that beckoned. I was young, strong,<br />
adventurous, and wanted to experience life. The nature of my<br />
childhood put me in a mental state of living each day like it could be<br />
my last. That is a double-edged sword if ever there was one.”<br />
New Orleans, and I quote: “everyone was wonderful and friendly<br />
and completely uninhibited by convention, but there are vampires,<br />
and gang shootings, stabbings, radioactive mosquitoes, constant<br />
drunk people, crooked cops, and 110 degree F summers with 200<br />
percent humidity.” Good job you never worked with their tourism<br />
department. I always assumed it was a stunning place and ultra-<br />
Goth, then I heard similar things from Hyacinthe L. Raven about<br />
it being effectively sodden, and stinking. Sort of tarnishes the<br />
image.<br />
“Because I’ve yet to leave this country, New Orleans is, to me, the<br />
finest city on earth. It does also smell funny, and you can get killed or<br />
fed on if you don’t watch your back. That’s life in a nutshell, I<br />
suppose, at least New Orleans is honest about it! Honestly, I’ve never<br />
felt at home anywhere else. I would live there now even post-Katrina if<br />
I could tolerate the environment and had money like Brad and<br />
Angelina so I could buy up some historic property and preserve it. I’d<br />
love to buy a period hotel there and have it be for goth-only clientele.<br />
(I dream of starting a nationwide goth realty company). I miss it<br />
“I was harassed constantly there, no matter what town it was,<br />
with sexual threats, beer bottles thrown, I was chased at<br />
gunpoint twice, almost run off the road in my car, the state<br />
bureau of investigations actually had me on file as the leader<br />
of a Satanic Coven, just because I was uber goth, and tried to<br />
start a band in a very small mountain town.”
sometimes so much it hurts. I just can’t really live there anymore.<br />
Maybe some day, or some other life.<br />
“In 90-91 I also went to film school in NC and studied acting,<br />
photography, TV production, scriptwriting, comic skit writing, and<br />
psychology. It was in this school where I met two very goth radio DJs,<br />
and they inspired me to move to a different town with a better goth<br />
scene after I left film school and realized that the mountains of NC<br />
were pretty much no where. In TV production school, I got to write<br />
and act and direct for local TV, but my skits were dark comedy that<br />
became really controversial, my goth writing partner and I directed<br />
and acted in everything, a black guy and a pale goth woman with long<br />
black hair in redneck country, and we were finally banned from local<br />
TV, and labelled as the leaders of a Satanic coven lol. Yeehah.”<br />
Had film been an ambition or were you consciously trying<br />
something new?<br />
“I think a response above answers this, but yes, these were passionate<br />
goals from the time I was about 4 years old, dance and music weren’t<br />
offered at film school so those were left out. I have a gift for all of the<br />
above, though TV production just happened to be a part of the school<br />
that friends were involved in, and it was a way for me to write, act,<br />
direct, and edit all of my own material, or my friends’ material, to do<br />
comedy, and they were all clever hyper deviants, so that was one of the<br />
most enjoyable times of my entire life. I was a top student, and I only<br />
left for financial reasons. I discovered that the world of TV news is<br />
wracked with cocaine and egomania, and that, at the time, each<br />
commercial aired during the Superbowl cost one million dollars to<br />
make, the cost of one individual Star Trek episode, lol, or something<br />
like that. J I should talk about my passion for Jean Cocteau, my<br />
script for film that was offered financial backing by a studio, and<br />
brainstorming with other writers to create deviant comedy skits, but<br />
it’s getting late and those factoids seemed much more interesting!<br />
“I travelled around NC trying to form bands with several friends for a<br />
while in three cities. Everyone I knew was on drugs, or drank and<br />
clubbed too much to keep their shit together, so none of the bands got<br />
very far. I played keyboards and sang backing vocals in three bands,<br />
all goth, two melodic goth rock bands, and one experimental industrial<br />
goth rock band, which actually got a lot of studio time with a guy who<br />
owned a record company (that I can’t remember the name of now) but<br />
he kept the tapes after arguing with one of the guys in the band over<br />
who knows what, probably drugs! I never played violin unfortunately<br />
with those groups, as I generally kept having to pawn it to get by, and<br />
no one wants a flute player in a goth band, even if you were an awardwinning<br />
flute player, because, you know, flute is so gay...:)<br />
“I wanted to form a goth folk band at that point, but I couldn’t find<br />
anyone into it who had any talent. If you hear Type O Negative cover<br />
Cinnamon Girl, or Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo covering Rank<br />
Stranger, that’s about as close to explaining what I had in mind as I<br />
can imagine, but there would have been better storytelling and more<br />
neoclassical influence, as seen in Johnny Hollow’s sound, a reason I<br />
admire those guys so much!”<br />
Playing with three Goth bands must have been fun. Were they<br />
heady times, or just dull copyist bands? (Are you prepared to<br />
name names?) You can’t be that crestfallen nobody wanted your<br />
flute playing as outside of Ethereal/Historical Goth flute does<br />
rather sound a bit weird, doesn’t it?<br />
“Haha, I have always said if I made it as a writer on Saturday Night<br />
Live, I would have the best time creating a deluded goth flute player<br />
character who was the biggest dweeb that ever walked. Yes, flute has<br />
its place in some genres, but I don’t think goth is one of them, which<br />
is why I took up erhu, duduk, and harp, so I could fit in! I have the<br />
musical saw and theremin in my sights next. Flute is what I<br />
unfortunately play best, but that is all about semantics and timing.<br />
Almost any instrument I pick up that isn’t a reed instrument, I <strong>master</strong><br />
very quickly, except guitar, I have really small hands.<br />
“I played keyboards and sang some backing vocals. Melodic goth rock<br />
is chords and not that difficult, no ripping jazz solos. The guys I<br />
played with were all a bit angst, and had addiction problems. Maybe<br />
not problems, just addictions, so things never got off the ground. I<br />
couldn’t find talented musicians who weren’t already busy with other<br />
projects who were into goth rock, so I settled for some friends who<br />
were talented, but liked to party a bit too much. I wanted to be serious,<br />
rehearse regularly, you know, actually get somewhere. Although music<br />
is my highest aptitude, remarkably so, it took a back seat to being<br />
overworked for many years after that. I think I got frustrated and<br />
disillusioned, not with playing music, but with being around other<br />
musicians who had a bad work ethic.”<br />
Actually if you were an award-winning flute player had you not<br />
gone the traditional route at all, dabbling in classical?<br />
“I was trained in classical first on violin in grade school. I dreamed of<br />
playing piano, and I mean, literally, I played piano and harpsichord in<br />
my dreams from an early age, so I managed to self-teach at friends’<br />
houses (who had actual real-life pianos) and was motivated by Bach<br />
and Beethoven in that regard. The funny thing about the flute, is that I<br />
didn’t really want to play it, and I have no use for it, except that now, I<br />
can pick up almost any kind of folk or traditional flute, like for<br />
example an American Indian flute, and start playing songs within a<br />
few days of <strong>master</strong>ing the fingering. I played flute because it was the<br />
“Orchestra was a first class ticket to celibacy in my region...”
Mtcarmelcemetery – “This is one of my fave haunted yards. A lot of notable figures in history buried here. Amazing statuary here.<br />
Lots of old Italian graves with eerie photos of the dead on the stones. I knew almost nothing of the tales and did some video EVP work<br />
here when I moved to Chicago and was still involved in paranormal investigation. The video has a well-audible whispering of a woman’s<br />
voice at a location where I felt drawn in and took this photo. Right next to the large statue that seems to be coming off its base, actually.<br />
The most prominent haunted tale from here involves a woman who, from beyond the grave, informed a family member to exhume her<br />
body. It was, and she was perfectly preserved, lending her a Saint’s status, and there is a shrine erected for her. I need to edit that video<br />
footage, some time in the coming year if anything is worthy, I’ll make it public.”<br />
only affordable instrument that wasn’t a reed that I could play in high<br />
school without becoming a social failure.<br />
“Orchestra was a first class ticket to celibacy in my region, so I was<br />
confused and put my violin down for an instrument I have almost no<br />
use for now. I played big band, march, a little jazz, Celtic jigs, studied<br />
classical pieces at home, that type of thing. I did that for most of my<br />
school career, and was really good, and won little awards, played<br />
solos, and travelled a few times because of it, but I never really cared<br />
about it much. I also had a serious detriment in that I had perfect pitch<br />
and played by ear so well that I forgot how to read music at some<br />
point, which sounds mental but it happened, and I refused to learn<br />
again because I was a freak who thought it was punk rock to not be<br />
able to read the sheet, just listen once or twice and be able to play my<br />
part and everyone else’s perfectly. I’m sure it would take one day of<br />
instruction to grasp how to read flute music again, but point is, I<br />
wasn’t committed to it so it didn’t translate to life after school. I<br />
would have rather played the guitar, trumpet, harp, or violin…or<br />
piano, or all of the above. At least I wasn’t a lowly band geek!<br />
“I do adore classical music. So, hmmm, did I answer a question there,<br />
not sure lol. I did not become a career flautist. I wanted to be a career<br />
violinist, in an orchestra, at Tanglewood, or NYC. It didn’t happen.<br />
“In ‘92 I moved to the mountains of NC and met a genius writer,<br />
artist, and musician who played many restaurants and clubs and<br />
wanted to do performance art. Since I was a dancer, and a goth<br />
musician and writer with experience writing skit comedy, we teamed<br />
up and did a short jaunt that ended us in Nashville, TN. It didn’t get<br />
far, but I created a goth faery character who had a specialized role in<br />
helping the audience comically deal with their pain. It was a dance role<br />
with interactive performance involved, a lot of fun, and I’m in the<br />
process of writing a book based on that character, and will use my<br />
illness as a sounding board for the material, which I hope will help<br />
people when confronted with serious illness and people in their lives<br />
who need support, especially when it is unconventional support they<br />
require.”<br />
That sounds quite mad! (The show part, I mean.) At this point<br />
I’m thinking your whole life could make for an intriguing book.<br />
“That was a good time! A poor time, but a good time. I loved being a<br />
performance artist, it was right up my alley! I hope it will. I hope I am<br />
physically able to write it (the book). I hope it helps millions of<br />
people get their heads of out their fear-driven arses and learn to offer<br />
genuine support to people who need it. I hope it aids the revolution in<br />
alternative methods of healing in the west. I hope it makes people<br />
laugh and brings them some relief when they can’t find any. I hope I<br />
make a ton of money off of it! I’m full of hope!<br />
“In Nashville I encountered a very open minded goth alt scene, and<br />
since I was partly living on the streets, I spent most of my time in<br />
clubs and with people I met in the scene. The most goth-friendly dance<br />
club was playing singles that were years out of date, and because I<br />
was such a colourful dancer and made my own DIY goth clothing and<br />
was new in town, the club resident DJ adopted me as such, and I
Phoenix Photos<br />
To purchase prints of any of the photos taken by Phoenix<br />
that are shown in this article, please contact her yourself<br />
at any of the links shown at the end of the article.
Stjameschurchyardsnow – “This is the church on the grounds of the historic, haunted, and legendary St. James Sag Cemetery that I<br />
mentioned above. It’s a very peaceful place, monks and period carriages are often seen and heard on these grounds. I just like the<br />
architecture and the vibe of this place. It seems to be lost in time!”<br />
GuardianStatuaryStJames – “This statuary is a common mould of a guardian angel for the dead, if I’m not mistaken, it was often<br />
used for burial plots with children involved. It was just lovely, so I photographed it. This is another very historic, small yard with haunted<br />
tales and sightings, though the church, the one pictured in the snow, and rectory are still in use. St. James Sag is a lovely, peaceful place<br />
with shrines and inspirational architecture, I have many breathtaking photos of this famous location.”
Neworleanscathedral – “This is the northern tip of the<br />
famous courtyard in front of the St. Louis Cathedral in one of<br />
my favourite places in the world, New Orleans, called Jackson<br />
Square. It was used as a place for military parades, and evolved<br />
into a marketplace, and is now where you’ll find all the street<br />
performers, artists, card readers, and various others offering<br />
some tourist bobble or bizarre service of some kind (not that<br />
kind!). It was taken with black and white film and scanned, with<br />
defects and all, into Photoshop to look a bit aged. I have a<br />
version where I’ve skillfully removed the skyline of the<br />
business district so all you see are historic buildings, which is<br />
how I love to imagine this city!”<br />
shared my music and helped him shop for current dance music at a<br />
place called Peaches Records. It really brought the club up to speed<br />
and the small scene in town gravitated there more and more, and it<br />
was a lovely time and a great place full of great people. I didn’t live<br />
there long, barely a year, but I made an impact. I really enjoyed the<br />
scene in Nashville more than most US cities I’ve lived in, apart from<br />
Cincinnati, Ohio. Nashville’s goth scene really took off from what I’ve<br />
seen on the net. This all happened pre-internet, so how people came<br />
together and bonded was all in real life and a world unto itself. I’m<br />
impressed how goth has persevered in Nashville, which actually has a<br />
thriving music scene of almost all genres of music, except country, lol.<br />
(that moved to Memphis).<br />
“In the mid 90’s, I moved to Ohio to be with a friend, and fell into the<br />
goth scene in Cincinnati. This was my favourite scene to be involved<br />
in. I’ve lived in numerous cities all across the US, and the Ohio goth<br />
scene was extremely potent and cohesive, and FRIENDLY! Everyone<br />
was embraced, total hive mind. The clubs weren’t fancy, but they were<br />
fantastic! The DJ’s were amazing. Everyone was wonderful,<br />
knowledgeable, up to speed, open.<br />
“I never spent time in Columbus, which was a little darker and more<br />
competitive and hostile as far as social scenes go, but I know it rocked<br />
as well.<br />
“There were always amazing gigs happening. We stumbled across a<br />
Christian Death gig whilst doing our laundry at the laundrymat<br />
(Sudsy’s on Vine, epic place), which served as a bar/venue space. A<br />
DJ friend I met through the scene had opened a goth alt house dance<br />
club right across the water near where I lived, called ‘Club Paragon’. I<br />
helped do a little of everything there, helped promote in town, did a<br />
little PR, helped book parties, played hostess, organized outings from<br />
the club’s clientele to happenings like the Dead Can Dance film debut,<br />
and so on. It was a fine bar and the best speciality goth club that the<br />
area had ever seen (it was in a haunting old building in a bizarre part<br />
of town that was also an authentic Mexican restaurant, and the owners<br />
cooked the best Mexican food you’d tasted in your life until 4<br />
AM. That was a rare treat!) The corrupt Irish police/mafia wanted<br />
extortion money for protection from the owners, and since they all<br />
refused, the place was shut down. The club creator and resident DJ,<br />
Rob Curcio, moved on to the local rave scene and electronic noise<br />
recording artists, and later formed Mush records. Rob was a swell guy,<br />
gave me my first taste of bruschetta lol.”<br />
You make an impact in the local scene in Nashville and it sounds<br />
fun but you add “I really enjoyed the scene in Nashville more<br />
than most US cities I’ve lived in, apart from Cincinnati, Ohio.”<br />
What’s special about Cincinnati, apart from it looking such an<br />
interesting word? Even spelling it is fun. Did you take photos of<br />
these places as you travelled?<br />
“Oh, are those my typos showing? (NO, it really is a lovely word –<br />
<strong>Mick</strong>.) Hey, I’m mentally challenged. I am a proficient grammar cop<br />
of sorts normally. Anyway, Cinci was just big enough to be bearable,<br />
and yes, what I’ve said about how great it was. Everyone was<br />
FRIENDLY and FUN! Everyone. The sense of kindness, openness,<br />
and sharing permeated everything in that scene. There was little divacentric<br />
behaviour or competitive gothier-than-thou behaviour, which<br />
always brings me down in a scene because it’s hideous and I’m an<br />
adult. We were all equals, comrades, if you will, lol. If there was<br />
drama, I was unawares. I always had work doing artistic things. Also,<br />
there is a large music conservatory there, and talented people came<br />
from all over the world to study music there.<br />
“One of my favourite friends there was a goth violinist from France.<br />
She had millions of black and white photos of the French goth scene,<br />
and raved about how great it was compared to Ohio, which was<br />
probably true at the time, but we did slowly change her mind. I didn’t<br />
photograph in Ohio, for some odd reason, I stopped taking picture for<br />
many years. Having to sell my cameras when really poor, I think made<br />
me bitter, and I just rebelled against the idea of not being able to<br />
afford the hobby by ignoring its existence and importance.<br />
“I don’t know why I didn’t use disposable ones back then, but I really<br />
didn’t have a lot of money to spare, so, I don’t know about that to this<br />
day. I was still taking photos in NC, but I don’t own all those<br />
anymore, as I mentioned. It’s almost as if we were so busy, we didn’t<br />
have time to stop and pose and analyse what we were doing. Yes,<br />
that’s a good reason.<br />
“I’ve not been able to keep a lot of my possessions over the years.<br />
Moving around didn’t help. I’ve been living here a long while now, so<br />
I do have a couple of nice cameras to work with, nothing fabulous, but<br />
workable. I wish I had more documented, that would have been<br />
amazing, and I have lamented not having photo evidence of my<br />
amazing life many times. C’est la vie!”<br />
“I later moved to Asheville, NC, was a part of the goth scene there for<br />
years, which didn’t really have the greatest goth clubs per say, it was<br />
always a goth night back then, which would get interrupted by rave<br />
music precisely at 2 am, but that scene managed to stay afloat thanks<br />
to the wonderful people and the tremendous volume of live music that
Yesbringthem – “This is one of my favourite things in the museum I mentioned. This is the bottom corner of a gigantic antique<br />
advertising poster that is literally 2 stories tall. There were a whole room full of them, advertising the most bizarre and surreal things that<br />
it was hard to fathom what was going on in them, and from what I gathered, they were a series meant to promote an illusionist who<br />
travelled in circus sideshows and did his own tours, doing magic and illusion and who knows what else. But I could be wrong?!”<br />
Asheville sees, and, back then, a little cafe gathering spot named<br />
‘Vincent’s Ear’ which has since been shut down. The music scenes in<br />
Ashville are always fresh and thriving, though it’s a very expensive<br />
small town in the mountains, so I eventually left for something a bit<br />
more socially diverse (and for work).<br />
“Whenever I was living in NC, Atlanta was always a place to go as a<br />
goth in search of the best touring goth bands, and some of the larger<br />
goth clubs there offered more progressive subculture than was to be<br />
found in tiny isolated religiously conservative mountain towns. One of<br />
the finest clubs in Atlanta back then for goth music and dancing was<br />
The Masquerade. Three floors: heaven, hell, and purgatory. I saw the<br />
greatest shows I’ve ever seen in the US at The Masquerade, Clan of<br />
Zymox stands out as one of the finest, and the night Nivek Ogre DJ’d<br />
after a gig. It was a 6-7 hour drive one way to get to Atlanta from NC.<br />
but if you wanted to see big names like Dead Can Dance, The Cocteau<br />
Twins, or The Creatures, Atlanta was usually the closest and most<br />
goth-friendly option. A lot of goths I knew who lived in smaller NC<br />
towns and even Charlotte moved to Atlanta in search of a better, more<br />
progressive scene. It was just too hot for my liking!<br />
“I moved from Asheville to a small town where my sick mother lived<br />
to help her out for a time, and was working in corporate management<br />
(for 15 yrs roughly) at that time, and then moved to the coast of NC to<br />
a town that had no scene at all to spend time with someone I cared<br />
about who was working in the film industry.<br />
“Then 9-11 happened...It shook me awake, hard, and I desired better<br />
culture and a bigger city, and wanted to move back to New Orleans<br />
with my company, but ended up moving to Chicago unexpectedly to<br />
be near a close friend and seek a larger social scene and possibly a job<br />
in the entertainment industry.<br />
“It was soon after moving to Chicago that I started becoming ill, and<br />
after one year, I went from being a full-time 86-hr a week executive to<br />
spending every few months in the emergency room, unable to breathe,<br />
fighting infections that wouldn’t go away, and trying to figure out<br />
when I could go back to work. I met one or two people in the scene<br />
here before I got too sick to go out, saw a brilliant Chameleons<br />
reunion gig at The Metro, and when I moved here, my friend was<br />
working in the markets getting all kinds of perks as tips, mostly<br />
tickets to shows, special venue passes, VIP passes to The House of<br />
Blues’ Foundation Room where I got to mingle with lots of big<br />
names, bands, producers...one of the Second City producers tried<br />
to enlist me!<br />
“My local friend knew a band that James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins)<br />
was producing, so I got to meet with Iha and industry people at a<br />
“The hospital told me they refused to give anyone an MRI unless<br />
they couldn’t move their legs. I finally limped out of there, and<br />
blacked out over and over at home for the next few days knowing<br />
that calling an ambulance would do nothing for me.”
TheRedRoom – “This is from the same museum that houses all the music machines and collections of antiques and oddities. This room<br />
itself IS a music machine, full of historically significant antiques as well, it plays a maddening instrumental rendition of some well-known<br />
tune from days of yore that I can’t remember now. You actually insert coins, and the whole room starts up. I love this room, and it would<br />
be a perfect music studio with the padding on the ceiling. I’m inspired to mix this décor with 3 others in the museum to make-over my<br />
bedroom some day lol. I am in love with something I call ‘fronteirsteam’, or westernsteam, in which the elements of multi-period<br />
steampunk combine with a wild west aesthetic. There is a lot of that in this museum, another reason I have hundreds of photos from the<br />
place. I could truly live there!”<br />
promo party and was being offered PR positions left and right. I got to<br />
see the tail end of the 9<strong>50</strong> Club, got to know a couple DJs, hang out<br />
with Thrill Kill Kult and reminisce about the good ol’ days (a friend<br />
toured with them in the 90’s). I never really got to enjoy or experience<br />
goth club culture here in Chicago, however. I still haven’t made it out<br />
to the lovely Scary Lady Sarah’s Nocturna, or Neo, or Exit. I did get to<br />
see a profound gig at historic and bizarre Phyllis’ Musical Inn right<br />
after I moved here. It was Sealed In Silence performing with Things<br />
Outside The Skin, one of the greatest industrial rock shows I’ve ever<br />
seen live, with coincidental coverage of 9-11 happening on the bar TV<br />
screens through most of the show.”<br />
2006 was your first heart failure, and then the diagnosis<br />
followed?<br />
“After the first near-fatal heart failure, it took me four months to sell<br />
all of my finer gothic and dress clothing, boots, jewellery, and even<br />
bedding and books on eBay and locally until I had enough money to<br />
afford a heart specialist and the required echocardiogram, which itself<br />
was over a thousand dollars, and actually wasn’t performed correctly<br />
so the pulmonary valve wasn’t even diagnosed. The condition was<br />
congenital, and misdiagnosed when I was a child as being mostly<br />
innocuous, as long as I didn’t drink black tea, or go without sleep.”<br />
Being a dancer you must have pretty fit? Had you ever had any<br />
major health problems before then or was it just a massive shock.<br />
“I spent almost 2 decades in upper management always being the one<br />
who, when others were out sick with the flu and ill for weeks, I would<br />
feel a little icky for a day or two and that would be that. It was a<br />
shock, but I’d been ill since I’d moved to Chicago, developing severe<br />
asthma which I’d never experienced before, and was overworked and<br />
very run down, having chronic infections, so I took some time off of<br />
work thinking I just needed a rest. I worked an average of 70 hours a<br />
week then, for a company that didn’t like managers to stop to use the<br />
bathroom, or leave the premises to go eat, so I just thought that, after<br />
15 years of working extreme overtime with no vacations, I was<br />
exhausted and needed a break.<br />
“When I had the near death experience, there was also an expired<br />
inhaler involved that I’d been given by a nurse in one of my horrific<br />
Chicago ER visits for asthma, but I was later told that although that<br />
aggravated my heart (and I shouldn’t have been using it even if not<br />
expired), that the cause of the problem was a progressive heart valve<br />
disease that was affecting at least 3 of my heart valves.”<br />
You’ve since had three more? Life must be ultra-stressful but<br />
you’re lucky to be alive.<br />
“This is true. I’m lucky to have found a doctor who can help me and<br />
offers me a discount.”<br />
Living in the UK we have the Health Service to sustain us. It isn’t<br />
perfect but it’s a million miles better than the US system. Is it<br />
common for people to just be cast aside and left to fend for<br />
themselves?<br />
“Millions of Americans suffer without health care if they have no<br />
insurance. One of my worst ER visits, after I announced I had no<br />
insurance, involved me being told I was nuts, needed to calm down<br />
and take a Valium, (Diazepam, which can lead to my heart failing),<br />
and then go find a good shrink. At that time, I had passed out
TheDoctor’sDesk – “This was a steampunk-themed room at an Inn that was a recreated turn-of-the-century doctor’s study, completely<br />
period to the time when it was built, and the owners scoured the little town to acquire all of these items that were originally belongings of<br />
the doctor who lived and practiced in this room. It was fantastic décor, apparently locals found out about the hunt for his belongings and<br />
many of them stepped up and surrendered things they had purchased or inherited that had belonged to the doctor. Even the calendar was<br />
period, and as you can see, the headline in the newspaper is announcing something unsettling about a lovely little boat called ‘The<br />
Titanic’. I also have many photos of this location to edit.”<br />
repeatedly in public, was bleeding internally in two places, the second<br />
vertebra down from my skull was twisted 180 degrees sideways,<br />
causing paralysis, agonizing pain, nerve damage, brain damage,<br />
memory loss, my stomach valve wasn’t closing because of the<br />
bleeding in my stomach, my blood pressure was way too low, and I<br />
was dying from untreated progressive heart disease. I begged for even<br />
a urine test or blood test to no avail. They wouldn’t even give me a<br />
room, I was left on a cart in the hallway for 6 hours with no treatment,<br />
being insulted from time to time by the staff and the doctor. I begged<br />
the entire time for help, and was told I was a hysterical female with a<br />
panic disorder. I could have died.<br />
“The hospital told me they refused to give anyone an MRI unless they<br />
couldn’t move their legs. I finally limped out of there, and blacked out<br />
over and over at home for the next few days knowing that calling an<br />
ambulance would do nothing for me. That is just one of the long list of<br />
horror stories I can tell you from my ER visits here in Chicago. Once a<br />
nurse put the mouthpiece for a breathing treatment on the trashcan<br />
before attempting my mouth (we stopped her, they charged me double,<br />
$300, for new mouthpiece). Once I was blatantly felt up (squeezing<br />
breasts for pleasure in the US) by an obese doctor in a jewish<br />
yarmulke whilst turning blue from lack of oxygen. Do you laugh, or<br />
do you cry?<br />
“Any aware American realizes how bad things are, and it’s a bit like<br />
needing a drink to survive and the only water available is full of<br />
sharks. You know the sharks could kill or maim, but you want to<br />
survive, so you take the risks and spend time in the water as little as<br />
possible.”<br />
I see on your fundraising page it mentions you planned to work in<br />
healing and have helped counsel those in awful situations – does<br />
any of that experience help you with what you’re going through?<br />
“I kind of feel we are born with the amount of fortitude and integrity<br />
we carry throughout life, it’s my own theory on character and<br />
goodness, but… I counselled in many areas, one was chronic illness,<br />
one for drug/food addiction and smoking, once a mentor for a teen<br />
with stomach cancer who was forced to work in a bullet factory in<br />
South America when she was a child, and I went through a lot of<br />
suffering as a child, so I’m not sure if all of that added something to<br />
how I’ve coped so far, but it did help remind me at the most painful<br />
times that I shouldn’t give up, and perhaps what I’d given in life<br />
would come back to me and things would somehow work out. I<br />
studied medicine, neurology, and psychology as a hobby growing up<br />
as my mother stocked medical research texts and the AMA journals,<br />
and I studied nutrition, cooked for a health-oriented resource center<br />
where you learned about medicinal foods from around the world, and<br />
studied various healing arts under professionals for decades.<br />
“I once worked with one of this country’s top PhD’s helping run her<br />
lab, assisting clientele, synthesizing herbs for tinctures and doing<br />
various work in the field, so I had a lot of knowledge that enabled me<br />
to treat myself. I had a library of reference materials to rely on. I<br />
treated my own asthma after being told the inhaler damaged my heart,<br />
and eventually I cured it, along with some hormone-response<br />
migraines I’d been having alongside it, so that was a great<br />
accomplishment. I suppose armed with the experience I was, I might<br />
have saved my own life a time or two, and I don’t know what someone<br />
without my knowledge would have done in those circumstances to<br />
survive.”
“I can’t play with my cat, and she mopes and sometimes cries for me<br />
to play with her, to chase her. It’s hard to get down on the floor with<br />
her because of my neck. It breaks my heart, she’s a rescue cat and I<br />
worry she thinks it’s her fault I’m not playing with her.”<br />
What had led you into health and counselling before you found<br />
yourself in a crisis?<br />
“I’ve always instinctively helped people in need, simply because I<br />
couldn’t stand to watch people suffer when there was a solution. I’m a<br />
problem solver. I think everyone has the right to feel good and be<br />
happy, that’s what we’re here on earth for in my opinion. I was always<br />
the one people went to with their problems, and luckily for them, I had<br />
good answers and lot of nurturing to offer. I have a gift as a healer,<br />
I’m extremely intuitive with diagnosis. One of my first jobs was<br />
working in a nursery and I helped a little boy whose father committed<br />
suicide by setting himself on fire in front of him. He refused to speak,<br />
and I worked with him for a short while and he had a miraculous break<br />
through. He’d been like that for a long time, so I know I had a hand in<br />
it. It was just something that came to me naturally, and a lot of my<br />
jobs have involved caring or helping in some way or another.<br />
“If life had followed a different path, I would have gone to medical<br />
school and become a doctor. Also, there are a lot of people involved in<br />
medicine in one way or another in my family tree, and I’m actually<br />
related to Jonas Salk, the famous researcher who is known for<br />
inventing the Polio vaccine. Salk was a type of medical Sherlock<br />
Holmes, something that really inspires me, and I have spent years<br />
studying specific neurological disorders and one mysterious skin<br />
disorder that baffles medical science, and have revolutionary theories<br />
on these matters that would help a lot of people. I would love to be a<br />
medical investigator seeking the cure for untreatable viruses or<br />
diseases, incorporating seemingly magical sources from other ancient<br />
cultures in order to bring about miraculous discoveries that western<br />
medicine has missed, a bit like the lead character in Darren<br />
Aronofsky’s The Fountain. I suppose now, I’ll just have to include all<br />
that in some fictional book or song I’m writing.”<br />
“I’ve been having life-threatening reactions to synthetic drugs since<br />
age 7, after a surgery. I was forced to look to alternative sources of<br />
healing than those basic ones prescribed by western medicine. There<br />
are cultures all over the world who have much healthier societies as a<br />
whole than the one I live in, and have been using what we call<br />
‘alternative’ medicine for thousands of years. (I love that ‘we are the<br />
sun around which all other heathen medicine revolves’ attitude). So<br />
because I needed to ease my pain after surgery, or needed treatment<br />
for something medical and couldn’t find it in my own culture, I looked<br />
elsewhere, and kept finding it, without dangerous side affects and high<br />
dollar signs. I’m still considering a career in healing arts when I am<br />
well again and able to finance the degree.”<br />
The doctor you have found leaves you grounds for optimism,<br />
getting back to doing what you previously enjoyed. What do<br />
you miss most? What do you dream of doing again, or maybe<br />
doing more of than you did before?<br />
“Well, to be completely honest, I miss dancing more than anything in<br />
the world. Dancing every day and doing yoga is what kept me sane<br />
apart from music. I haven’t been physically able to dance since<br />
February of 2006. I have been dancing since age 3. I tend to dance<br />
around a lot normally. I had to force myself to stop doing that in 2006,<br />
as I fractured a bone in my chest (from the cervical spine injury) in the<br />
beginning of all this, from just bopping around my living room to<br />
some German industrial and Gary Numan. It’s not safe for me to even<br />
do yoga, which I’ve done all my life. I really miss yoga, especially<br />
since I’m missing intimacy, because whenever I went without the<br />
latter, I had the former to soothe my body and keep me relaxed and<br />
healthy.<br />
“I can’t exercise, and I can’t jog, run, bike, or hike, my preferred<br />
methods of exercising. I can’t play with my cat, and she mopes and<br />
sometimes cries for me to play with her, to chase her. It’s hard to get<br />
down on the floor with her because of my neck. It breaks my heart,<br />
she’s a rescue cat and I worry she thinks it’s her fault I’m not playing<br />
with her. That part sucks. I never know what will happen when I’m<br />
alone, and sometimes simple things like walking or seeing in focus<br />
become impossible, and you don’t want to be alone and vulnerable<br />
like that in a city like Chicago. I’ve met amazing local people in the<br />
scene online, and then alienated them by having to refuse invitations,<br />
and seeming anti-social or burdening them with an explanation. It’s<br />
embarrassing and difficult. I just want my life back, really. It’s like<br />
I’ve been dead all this time, and the pain is extreme. I just want a<br />
pain-free life where I can enjoy the basics, have a relationship and<br />
date again, and play my instruments/work on my music and writing<br />
projects. I’ve always dreamt of having a family of my own, that is one<br />
of my fondest dreams, but that has been up in the air since childhood<br />
with my heart, so although I thought I might defy the odds in the past,<br />
now there is doubt that my body can handle that kind of stress. I try<br />
not to think about that right now, and just imagine myself hiking to a<br />
dance club whilst leaping randomly, having wild fun without<br />
hesitation. I will definitely be spending less time working in a 3 piece<br />
suit, and more time writing, playing music, and hopefully travelling<br />
and getting back into my love of photography. And bowling (take the<br />
skinheads!).”<br />
Will there be things you can’t resume fully. You’ve mentioned<br />
playing music being affected?<br />
“I’ll never be able to work like I did before or do as much lifting and<br />
hard labour as I did. Gardening will be impossible (a big plot) for a<br />
couple of years. I don’t know if I’ll be able to remodel homes and<br />
buildings again like I used to enjoy doing. Set design is off the list as<br />
well. My hearing is affected somewhat. We don’t know if that will<br />
improve, my doctor says roughly a year from now, we will know if it<br />
will get any better, so I have to play the game where you pretend until<br />
it happens. I haven’t been able to play violin since my neck was<br />
broken. It will be years before I can play again. I wasn’t a genius<br />
violin player, but it’s a passion and I have talent. There are now some<br />
things I’ll never be able to do but I’m trying not to think of them,<br />
because it’s crushing emotionally and will make me sick.<br />
“Mt. Everest is definitely off the list. I really wanted to go to Tibet,<br />
and visit the Great Wall of China, see the mountains of Japan, and I<br />
will have to defy odds to pull that off now, with the oxygen/altitude<br />
issue, though with hard work in a few years, it may still be possible. I<br />
haven’t been able to read or write much in the past few years with my<br />
vision being affected also, and I lost a golden opportunity to join the<br />
exclusive orchestra of a legendary Chinese musician who has played<br />
with Yo Yo Ma and on the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon<br />
soundtrack. They kept waiting for me to be well enough, and I was so<br />
embarrassed, I stopped communicating with them, why would I, (to<br />
say I’m still too sick). I don’t know if that window is passed, we shall<br />
see. I have a premier harp player offering me lessons practically free,<br />
with a practice harp, and I know that will hurt as I’m so sore, but it’s a<br />
passion, so I’m starting that up again as soon as I’m out of danger. I<br />
can’t spin around, do a cartwheel, hang upside down, ride a roller<br />
coaster which I lust for, slow dance and be suddenly dipped….it’s my<br />
goal to recover enough to be able to do these things again and safely!”<br />
Tell me about your photos. You obviously know what you’re<br />
doing. What inspires you most, people or objects/settings?
“My father surprisingly encouraged my fascination with photography<br />
when I was 6 or 7, by giving me a light meter and an old camera<br />
handed down from his relative. I still have my first two photographs,<br />
two time exposures of different coloured candles. (They were pretty<br />
good!) I see beauty in almost everything. I love photography, I think<br />
because I am at heart a frustrated artist who was never allowed to be<br />
one growing up. Unknown to me until 2 years ago, at age 5, I made a<br />
beautiful painting, it looks like a Chinese watercolour, and it showed<br />
talent, so my fearful mother forbade me to draw in the house again<br />
after that, removing all my art supplies, and I was never allowed to<br />
draw or paint again or take art classes. Photography replaced my<br />
desire to create imagery. I almost worship some illustrators. I started<br />
practically painting my photos in Photoshop before I knew what I was<br />
doing (which I still don’t). It’s rare I look at any human and think<br />
they’re ugly.<br />
“I think I’m drawn to whimsy that entertains, but I also like telling the<br />
truth that no one wants to hear. I think that’s why I admired journalists<br />
growing up. The idealistic Holmesian investigators exposing<br />
corruption and saving the underdog appealed to my sense of justice,<br />
and I like photos that present truths like aging, environmental<br />
destruction, industrial waste, and poverty. My inspirations are endless:<br />
nature, animals, theatre, design and architecture, fashion, history, the<br />
absurd, and marionettes, I have a thing for marionettes and puppets. I<br />
would tour the world photographing Abbeys, waterfalls, and puppets<br />
in every country if I could! I think I’m drawn to things that defy the<br />
norm in society. I want to shoot erotic black and white as my first big<br />
project when I get decent equipment, but I don’t want it to be standard<br />
subculture imagery, or blatant, just evocative, almost abstract, more<br />
about texture, movement, and the bliss of union, not so much about<br />
lust or sex. I like raw things that wake you up and make you think, and<br />
I like faeries and fantasy, costumes and conceptual set-ups. There is<br />
little I don’t find motivating. It would be easier to say what I don’t<br />
like, which would be intense vulgarity, violence that isn’t <strong>master</strong>ful<br />
and based on spirituality, like martial arts, and hog-tied women in<br />
bloody bathtubs haha. I promise never to shoot photos of hog-tied<br />
women in bloody bathtubs! J”<br />
You say Steampunk things will be available – what kind of<br />
things?<br />
“Well, that’s not really something I can elaborate on till a project is<br />
finished being edited, but along with random Steampunk finds I’ve<br />
come across including sculpture, I’ll soon have hundreds of gallery<br />
photos from a famous museum oozing with Steampunk elements the<br />
likes of never seen anywhere in the world, including one of my<br />
favourite things ever, antique music machines, and there is a<br />
photojournalistic essay and feature in the works for one of the world’s<br />
most brilliant unsung Steampunk artists, as soon as his wife and I<br />
have another discussion about legality and book sales.”<br />
And so that, for now, is Phoenix’s exhausting but quite remarkable<br />
and inspiring story. Here though are the links through which you can<br />
help directly by donating, buying a print or two - examples following<br />
over the next pages - checking for the auctions, and by circulating the<br />
details of these links themselves if you would be so kind.<br />
http://helpphoenix.teapoweredphoto.com - fundraising details.<br />
http://blogalicious.teapoweredphoto.com - Jody Elliott photos<br />
available to buy, with proceeds going to medical expenses.<br />
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/<br />
phoenixmarieparis?ref=profile - Facebook “A silly place where all<br />
the updates for everything will be posted, along with videos of badly<br />
translated Chinese Christmas songs, and cat photos. Please leave a<br />
note if you add it, saying you heard of me THROUGH <strong>THE</strong> <strong>MICK</strong>,<br />
thanks!”<br />
http://lacy-b-timeless.livejournal.com - “Photography LJ, newly<br />
formed, delayed use due to illness. Pretty pictures, crazy adventures,<br />
LOL cats. Feel free to add it. Leave a note that says you heard about<br />
me through The <strong>Mick</strong>.”<br />
www.myspace.com/marie_de_la_mer - “It’s myspace, and I still use<br />
it. Music and myspace are living harmoniously. Leave a note that says<br />
you heard of me through The <strong>Mick</strong>, please.”<br />
www.last.fm/user/hauntedtearoom - “Music I listen to when I have<br />
my home office plugged in, feel free to add it.”<br />
http://twitter.com/hauntedtearoom – “Nothing personal here, all<br />
notices of photography being posted, sharing links for art, meeting<br />
artists, keeping up with Steampunk happenings, and friends. ”<br />
http://hauntedtearoom.blogspot.com - “Newly formed blog for<br />
photography and adventure stories, development of which has been<br />
delayed due to illness. This will be active when possible, or a website<br />
will be developed instead.”<br />
My Flickr account is Lacy B Timeless – The Haunted Tea Room<br />
http://www.flickr.com/people/fujicho - Leave a note if you add me<br />
after reading this feature, and this will be a fun place soon, I promise.<br />
Lots goes on here, just not lately. Photo sales will be mentioned here<br />
in the near future, as well as the Lacy B Timeless livejournal.
JODY ELLIOTT<br />
PHOTOGRAPHS<br />
As part of the PHOENIX MARIE fundraising appeal photographer JODY ELLIOTT is making<br />
prints available for sale.<br />
I am showing some small versions here which can be viewed in better detail at: http://<br />
blogalicious.teapoweredphoto.com and<br />
www.flickr.com/photos/tea-poweredphoto<br />
8x10”: USD$15. Shipping to US: USD$2.<strong>50</strong>, UK: USD$5, Australia: USD$5.<br />
“All proceeds over the cost of production are going straight to Phoenix’s medical costs, of<br />
course. Larger prints will be available, but I’ll have a more detailed price breakdown for that at<br />
the website.”<br />
E-MAIL Jody Elliott - velveau@gmail.com<br />
angel22
deathoftea2<br />
manyheadstones2 keepingabreast2<br />
treecrossred2
okehglass2<br />
dyingautumn2<br />
bluedoor2<br />
olllllldangel2<br />
jesusmimestrees2
cemeterypath2<br />
Cemeteries and cats, what could be a better combination?<br />
And please remember, these are quality items, and images.<br />
You wouldn’t be able to buy anything this good at such a low<br />
price in any art shop selling prints, so here is an oppurtunity<br />
to acquire great art and help a really worthwhile cause,<br />
where you support someone within the scene. ALSO, please<br />
don’t keep this to yourself once you have the magazine. Show<br />
all your friends within the scene as well. THANK YOU.<br />
GiddybooBw2<br />
TGstarebw2
tchair2
FiniJungle2<br />
tzaraears2
tzaradarling22
BIG CAT<br />
PHOTOS<br />
~ for sale in aid of the<br />
Phoenix Marie fund.<br />
Similar to Jody Elliott’s photos, I am making these pictures,<br />
taken by myself, <strong>Mick</strong> <strong>Mercer</strong>, and my fiancee Lynda, available<br />
with all profits going to the Phoenix Marie fund. 10x8 inch prints<br />
cost £10. If you buy just one there will also be a postage cost of<br />
£2.<strong>50</strong>. If you buy more than one they are post-free, worldwide.<br />
E-mail: mercermick@hotmail.com<br />
snowleopard 4
snowleopard 2
snowleopard 1 snowleopard 3 snowleopard 5<br />
tiger 05<br />
tiger 01<br />
tiger 02 tiger 03 tiger 07
tiger 04
tiger 08<br />
tiger 09 tiger 10<br />
tiger 06
serval 3
serval 2 serval 4<br />
serval 1 serval 5
cheetah 1
cheetah 5<br />
cheetah 3 cheetah 4
cheetah 2<br />
cougars 3 cougars 4
cougars 5
cougars 1<br />
leopards 2<br />
cougars 2
leopards 1
leopards 4<br />
leopards 5 leopards 3
lynx 4<br />
lynx 1 lynx 3
lynx 2
lynx 5
lions 8
lions 6<br />
lions 9
lions 2<br />
lions 1 lions 10
lions 5<br />
lions 3<br />
lions 7
lions 4<br />
Pallas 19 Pallas 20
Pallas 01
Pallas 14<br />
Pallas 13
Pallas 03
Pallas 15<br />
Pallas 16<br />
Pallas 10
Pallas 02 Pallas 04<br />
Pallas 05
Pallas 17<br />
Pallas 08<br />
Pallas 06<br />
Pallas 11
Pallas 18
Pallas 09
Pallas 12<br />
Pallas 07
MUSIC PHOTOS<br />
~ for sale in aid of the Phoenix Marie fund.<br />
I haven’t been selling my music photos recently. Here you see a selection of classics<br />
Goth images. I will only make these available for the Phoenix Marie fund. 10x8<br />
inch prints £10 each. Buying just one there will be a postage cost of £2.<strong>50</strong>. Buy<br />
more than one and they’re post-free, worldwide. E-mail: mercermick@hotmail.com<br />
ALL ABOUT EVE - Julianne and Wayne Hussey<br />
Marquee 1987<br />
ADAM & <strong>THE</strong> ANTS - High Wycombe 1980 ADAM & <strong>THE</strong> ANTS - Moonlight 1978
<strong>THE</strong> ADVERTS - Marquee 1978<br />
BLONDIE 1<br />
Alien Sex Fiend 1<br />
Alien Sex Fiend 2<br />
Ausgang
Bauhaus 1980<br />
<strong>THE</strong> CLASH 1<br />
<strong>THE</strong> CLASH 2<br />
<strong>THE</strong> CRAMPS 1<br />
<strong>THE</strong> CRAMPS 2<br />
BLONDIE 2
<strong>THE</strong> DAMNED 1<br />
<strong>THE</strong> DAMNED 1<br />
DANIELLE DAX 2<br />
DANIELLE DAX 1<br />
DAISY CHAINSAW 1
GITANE DEMONE (CHRISTIAN DEATH) 1984<br />
DAISY CHAINSAW 2 DAVID J<br />
JULIANNE REGAN 1987
FIELDS OF <strong>THE</strong> NEPHILIM 1<br />
FIELDS OF <strong>THE</strong> NEPHILIM 2
PENETRATION 1 PENETRATION 2<br />
ROZZ WILLIAMS 1984<br />
SIOUXSIE & <strong>THE</strong> BANSHEES 1977
SPECIMEN<br />
JOHNNY THUNDERS 1<br />
SOU<strong>THE</strong>RN DEATH CULT<br />
JOHNNY THUNDERS 2
Mind Control
SCARLET LEAVES<br />
Brazil’s beautifully atmospheric and inventive SCARLET LEAVES released an<br />
excellent album in ‘Outlining States Of Mind’ which will brighten any record<br />
collection. Synth player Jean who answered my questions is also a man of deep<br />
creative principles, a tangible clue as to why the band have that special depth.<br />
You formed in 2004 so it took a while for the debut album<br />
to emerge. How different musically was the band when it<br />
first started?<br />
“In the beginning our sound was sparse but with the right idea,<br />
because we always knew what the sound we wanted to reach. We did<br />
some experiments and spent some time individually learning our way<br />
achieve that sound. I think the first materials weren’t so different that<br />
we make nowadays, everything is just more mature now. Comparing<br />
the first demos to the recent works you cannot see a huge musical<br />
difference.”<br />
Were you actively influenced by your local scene? Or did<br />
you look outside your own country?<br />
“Most of the influences come from outside. All this started outside<br />
here, but as we live in a different situation, our music tends to have<br />
something of our own, what is perfect cos we don’t to sound like our<br />
influences and we don’t have to make any effort to do that, it comes<br />
naturally.”<br />
Your scene seems strong, with a lot of high quality varied<br />
bands, has this always been the case from your own<br />
experience, or has it just been getting better recently?<br />
“In fact it’s getting better now with, but I wouldn’t say it’s a scene.<br />
The people here must open their minds and ears. They must pay more<br />
attention in what we produce here, and of course, who produces be<br />
interested in do it well done. It’ll be a circle that closes and run.”<br />
What would you say was a defining characteristic of<br />
Brazilian Goth which is distinctly its own?<br />
“I think that the best we have is the creativity. Actually, I think it’s the<br />
main characteristic of the Brazilian people, cos we can survive and<br />
make things come true without many devices and opportunities. We<br />
make our own opportunities, with some limitations of course, but we<br />
do. This creativity can also be noticed in the musical style of some<br />
bands you can find here, that don’t sound like any other else in<br />
anywhere.”
Have you found things easier thanks to Myspace, do you<br />
feel a sense of community with other bands in your<br />
country, or neighbouring countries, where once you might<br />
have felt a bit isolated?<br />
“With Myspace we could reach much more people and all around the<br />
world. We made some real good friends there, had opportunities for<br />
compilations, interviews and reviews.<br />
Chile has a very good scene, and all the other countries are connected<br />
and share events and bands. I wish Brazil could join them.”<br />
What pets do you have? Bonus points are awarded for<br />
cats.<br />
“We all like so much nature, and pets. I had dogs for a long time when<br />
i was younger, now i have 2 cats, Scout and Veruca. Danny has one<br />
cat, Claudia has none pet at this moment and Audret had a Hamster<br />
who died.L Many points for us huh ;)”<br />
‘Cold Painted Landscapes’ – a very beautiful song<br />
musically but the vocals tell of frightening characters in<br />
corrupted lands, what do these lyrics deal with?<br />
“Actually I don’t like to explain my lyrics, Because, I think, each<br />
individual can have its own interpretation.<br />
“But I’ll tell you how it was born: One day I was walking through my<br />
neighborhood, and I looked at the sky and it was purple, very beautiful<br />
and also very sad, ‘cos it’s not natural, it’s caused by pollution. At this<br />
moment I thought I should write about this, about how our world is<br />
changing, how soon we won’t recognize anymore the places we used<br />
to walk on. How people are invading and destroying it. We don’t know<br />
them, where they came from. We just feel affected by what they are<br />
doing to us and to our environment. We feel so different of them cos<br />
our mentality is different, our behavior is different.”<br />
‘Absinthe Tears’ reminded me of the feel of Badalamenti’s<br />
work, are you influenced by composers as well as bands?<br />
Or is this all from your own minds?<br />
“We all like many bands and I like some classical composers myself,<br />
and I think our taste in music reflects in what we create, but I have to<br />
say that this influence is subjective, and, as the same time it’s inside<br />
us, it’s not something that we consciously add to our music. It comes<br />
by inspiration and from our minds as any kind of art does.”<br />
‘The Last Romance’ also has that sorrowful – in fact here<br />
it’s quite miserable - air. Are Scarlet Leaves quite an<br />
emotional band?<br />
”We create the melodies, arrangements and lyrics to transmit a feeling.<br />
That’s the role of art right?! You can just listen to the musical part and<br />
have a comprehension, like it or hate it. We can’t go without a<br />
reaction. And we also offer the possibility to go deeper, if you want to,<br />
especially in the lyrics.”<br />
“I think that the best we have is the creativity.<br />
Actually, I think it’s the main characteristic of the<br />
Brazilian people, cos we can survive and make things<br />
come true without many devices and opportunities.”
‘Fate’ seems more up in spirit but again the lyrics are<br />
there to scorn an unfaithful lover? Are these songs from<br />
the heart or lyrics written to fit the mood?<br />
“More faithful than it seems to be. That depends of the point of view.<br />
The songs and lyrics are from the heart and the lyrics most of times<br />
assembling many different experiences to create one lyric.”<br />
‘Estado de Espirito’ is so beautiful and yet so short. Why?<br />
“The song title means “Instrumental State of Mind”. It was born<br />
short, like an interlude, and it transmits what we wanted to. Musically<br />
I could add some of my classical influences, showing it more clearly in<br />
this song than the others.<br />
“Thinking that’s short, you’ll listen many times in a row, as I do, with<br />
the short songs I like (lol) ;)”<br />
‘Annwyn’ – is this a graceful tale of suicide? Or do you<br />
have a secret desire to be a fish?<br />
“I like to write telling the facts not giving many details. You can<br />
understand it as a suicide or also as process of renewal. Something<br />
you want to leave behind, get rid from your life, and start to receive<br />
something different. Something, that, you want to completely fill your<br />
spirit with. Maybe a way to kill the things you don’t want to you, and<br />
reborn completely renewed.”<br />
‘Faces’ – more emotional problems yet you keep the music<br />
light and lovely, carrying the listener along. Why,<br />
considering the lyrical content, do you not go for some<br />
stark, angry music?<br />
“Because it’s about forgiveness. When nothing else matters, besides<br />
the peace and freedom. Be angry won’t change the reality and what is<br />
done. The angriness is the first feeling when you don’t have control<br />
over a fact that disturbs you, or second if considering the denial. I left<br />
it, or part of it, to talk about in Fate.”<br />
‘Desilusion – In 3 Acts’ – what is this, in your mind?<br />
“What is in my mind is too complex to explain. I don’t even<br />
understand it. :P<br />
“This song represents 3 stages of one feeling or 3 different feelings<br />
changing, transforming. How your state of mind can change so easily,<br />
according to what happens to you in your day. Musically it shows the<br />
3 different styles we mix in our music: electronic/synthetic, organic/<br />
electric and acoustic/classical.”<br />
‘Images Of Memories’ – I was expecting a happy end but<br />
the lyrics are still gloomy and full of pain!<br />
“Pain? No, it’s all about art.”<br />
What sort of approach do you take with these songs live,<br />
does it have a depressing effect on the audience, or does<br />
the music hypnotize?<br />
“It absolutely hypnotizes. You can see on the audience’s faces how the<br />
songs affect them. And it’s always positive. What is great cos we are<br />
not a depressive band, and we don’t wanna delivers this image. We<br />
just like to create a deep atmosphere with the music supported by the<br />
lyrics. We like to people identifies themselves with state of mind of<br />
the songs, musically and literally. And in the literally aspect, this<br />
identification is the whole point of the individual understanding that I<br />
like people to have.”<br />
What can people expect from you during the rest of 2009?<br />
“We intend to perform a lot of gigs as many places we can, and, of<br />
course, sell tons of CDs. Meanwhile, work in new songs for a future<br />
release and put into them, all the experience we got in the first release,<br />
correcting some steps and improving others.”<br />
www.myspace.com/scarletleaves
...in<br />
<strong>THE</strong> <strong>MICK</strong> 51<br />
interviews with<br />
UK DECAY<br />
BLACK TAPE �OR A BLUE GIRL<br />
SCREAMING BANSHEE AIRCREW<br />
WILL DANCE �OR CHOCOLATE<br />
ZEITGEIST ZERO