A Sweeping Curve of Sound

…and for my fellow Pagans, happy Samhain! If you are looking for holiday-appropriate music that wanders off the beaten path, then the new compilation “All Souls Arise” from the online dark/”wyrd” folk distributor Woven Wheat Whispers is just what you have been looking for. Intended as a companion piece to the excellent John Barleycorn Reborn release, the set features a collection of folk-oriented (mainly) British artists exploring themes related to the October/November holiday season.

Some artists of note include In Gowan Ring, The Owl Service, Novemthree, and Sedayne. The digital-download-only set is curated by Mark Coyle, and should be an excellent addition to the collection of anyone following the vibrant underground folk scenes found in the British Isles and Europe. You can hear full-length sound samples at the site.

The L.A. Times posted a report on Sunday about the wedding of Scarling members Jessicka Fodera and Christian Hejnal. According to the paper is was the goth event of the season:

“A pink-haired drag queen scattered rose petals before the bride as she glided toward the altar, looking every inch the goth princess — vampy eyes, raven bouffant, black lace gown and black Dutch rose nosegay. She swooshed with funereal drama past her guests … Waiting at the altar was her dapper, inky-haired groom. The DJ, lowbrow artist Tim Biskup, faded out the music — a dirge by Sigur Rós — and the wedding officiant cleared his throat. He was wearing, naturally, a giant Easter Bunny head.”

In attendance were a bevy of darkly-inclined superstars, including burlesque star Dita Von Teese, artist Mark Ryden, Bauhaus drummer Kevin Haskins, sculptor Elizabeth McGrath, “Lenore” artist Roman Dirge, and author Clint Catalyst. The couple has taken on the new surname of “Addams” in honor of the ghoulish cartoon family created by Chas Addams. Scarling are currently in the process of recording a new album, slated for a mid-2008 release.

Eminent journalist and goth historian Mick Mercer has posted his top 30 favorite goth singles.

“8. XMAL DEUTSCHLAND Schwarz Welt (1981 7-inch - Zick Zack ZZ31)
We are not alone - that’s what we got from this. In America Christian Death were top dogs, and on the continent Xmal did the girl power thing with a single so noisy it puts virtually every record before or since to absolute shame. Later they went more for vocal drone, with keyboard wash and stony, stormy rhythms, but this record is just vicious. I hear they’re reforming, which is exciting news. “

The list was supposed to appear in this month’s issue of Record Collector Magazine, but was cut due to size constraints.

Since you can’t have two articles concerning all things goth without someone declaring the scene dead, I present an article from the Marquette Tribune (a college paper in Milwaukee), in which a bitter ex-scenester is interviewed concerning the allegedly ex-subculture.

“Halloween used to be the biggest day of the year on the goths’ calendars. But today, the goth scene identified by its fashion, music and attitude is deader now than it ever was, according to one local former goth enthusiast. “It’s been dead for a while,” said Jeff Murrell, a 44-year-old attorney and 1995 Marquette Law graduate who said he quit the scene four years ago. “I just never realized it when it did die.” … Murrell said goth is not a subculture. And it only existed between the early 1980s and late 1990s, he said.”

The paper also interviews Gothsicles member Brain Graupner, who has a somewhat more easygoing attitude towards the speculated end of all things gothy.

“It’s pretty easy to say anything is dead … It’s definitely different, but I’m not going to say it’s dead.”

Perhaps rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated.

The line between “dark” post-punk and full-out goth is a precariously thin one. Often, certain indie reviewers will use “post-punk” as a descriptor if they like something, and “goth” if they don’t. In fact, the term “goth” has become so wrapped up in fashion and lifestyle choices that a lot of people are hazy on what goth music is in the first place. I preface this to explain that when I call the band Magick Daggers “goth”, I’m not doing so as insult, or to back-handedly compare them to Marilyn Manson, I’m doing so because I recognize a certain blending of post-punk energy with theatrical excess that defined bands like Bauhaus, Sex Gang Children, and Skeletal Family.

Magick Daggers

Magick Daggers is a relatively new band, they played their first show in August of 2006, and the Portland-based trio has just released its first EP on Manimal Vinyl at the beginning of October (with a full-length due in the Spring). Their sound is full of echoes, creepy organs, and vocals that alternate between decadent cabaret purrs and horror-film shrieks. Death-disco meets 1920s Germany. Raw and appealing, they embody a fiercer sort of dark cabaret than what is usually offered up. Magick Daggers is a band to watch closely in 2008, even if they do get tagged with the “goth” label.

Download: Magick Daggers - “Emerald Ships”
(from the “Black Diamond EP”)

Links: Magick Daggers on MySpace, Magick Daggers on Manimal Vinyl

My weekly podcast, “A Darker Shade of Pagan”, has just been posted. This week is a special tribute to the Halloween / Samhain season with songs about Paganism, poetry, darkness, death, and having some spooky fun. Enjoy!

[direct download]
[subscribe via iTunes]
[podcast feed]

Playlist:

Omnia - The Raven, Hungry Lucy - Grave, Monica Richards - Death is the Ultimate Woman, Bauhaus / Haunted Mansion - Haunted Bela, Inkubus Sukkubus - Belladonna and Aconite, Lycia - The Dreaming Body, Hexentanz - Midnight Procession, Black Ice - In the Dark, Unto Ashes - One World (Funeral), Covenant - Bullet (Live), Dead Can Dance - Salem’s Lot (live)

You can also listen to this show on the Pagan Radio Network!

Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan is getting decidedly mixed reviews for his new solo album “Hourglass”. While some reviewers, like Pitchfork’s Nitsuh Abebe, feel that “Hourglass” lacks real passion, others, like David Jeffries at AllMusic, think that Gahan has released a solid record that plays well to his strengths.

“Hourglass doesn’t have any overly urgent need to shake off Depeche Mode comparisons. Instead, it surrounds Gahan’s serviceable writing skills with the dark electronic soundscapes he’s obviously comfortable with … At the very least the album displays how much Gahan brings to Depeche Mode, and should go a long way in getting the Gore-favoring fan base to admit it. “

Speaking of solo efforts, Monica Richards, the lead singer of goth/darkwave band Faith and the Muse, released her first solo album entitled “InfraWarrior” in May of this year (it came out earlier in Europe). While it hasn’t been getting a lot of mainstream press, subculture-related reviews have been very positive.

“It’s a pity that “tour de force” has become such a hackneyed term, because there’s really no phrase that better describes the enormous scope of InfraWarrior … an album that, despite its haunting beauty, simmers with righteous anger.”

Reviewers haven’t been very kind to the new album from the dark electro-pop duo She Wants Revenge. General consensus on “This is Forever” is, well, bad.

“The dark electronic sounds come across sounding like a bad Halloween sound effects album rather than the Depeche Mode sounds they so obviously attempt to ape. None of the tracks quite match up to the catchiness (like a virus) of the last album, too similar but not even as “good” as the last. Let’s face it, the last album sucked too. When will it stop sounding like bad Joy Division? Maybe they should stop having such dramatic love affairs and writing about them like we care.”

The most charitable review is from the Onion’s A.V. Club, and even they call it “dumber” than the last album.

Turning from music to movies, I haven’t seen the new Joy Division/Ian Curtis biopic “Control” yet (hasn’t reached Milwaukee, alas), but it has been certified critically “fresh” by Rotten Tomatoes. While a majority of critics seem to love (or at least like) the film, there have been some notable dissidents to this warm welcome. This includes The Village Voice, and Fluxblog’s Matthew Perpetua.

Image from the film “Control”.

“Despite co-writing exactly one great song (”Love Will Tear Us Apart”), being an epileptic, getting married at a very young age, and committing suicide at 23, Ian Curtis was a dreadfully dull human being. Maybe that’s an overstatement, but there’s certainly not enough in his brief life to support the plot of a feature-length film … The film is just awful; basically a pretentious tv movie … Really, don’t bother, even if you totally love Joy Division.”

His review, and claim that Joy Division has only one great song (and that Def Leppard had more great songs), caused some emotions to run high in the comments thread for the post:

“I will never read your blog again. Not even your love of Ghostface and Fiery Furnaces will make up for your blasphemous claim that Def Leppard had more great songs than Joy Division. Consider yourself dumped.”

I disagree with the notion that Joy Division only had one great song, but I’ll withhold judgment on “Control” until I’ve seen the film myself.

Finally, the new band Red Voice Choir (featuring Miss Kel from Black Ice on vocals) has its first release, “A Thousand Reflections”, out now and initial critical reception seems to be fairly positive.

“They define their sound as some kind of a post punk experience. Their female front-woman is rather persuasive and her vocals evoke bands hailing from the 4AD corner. The music alternates smooth and quiet melodic passages with more tenses atmospheres. A bit short to really unveil their potential but I’ve heard some good tunes here and there so the future might be promising for them.”

You can also read an interview (along with a positive review) with the band, here.

That is it for now.

Silber Records has released a free compilation of Mp3s just in time for the Halloween season. “Silber Sounds of Halloween” features tracks from darkwave-faves like Lycia, Attrition, Tara Vanflower, and The Elysium Facade.

“So it has been a little while since something in our free comp series has gotten out of our control. We were like, “Hey, let’s do a Halloween comp & do an open call for entries!” So we ended up with thirty tracks & over two hours of music. Also just a little too short in time to manufacture compact discs. So that’s why this time there are no physical copies at all. Just available on this thing called the internet. This time out we have some of our best & longest time friends aboard like Lycia & Attrition & Remora & Electric Bird Noise as well as a ton of new friends & some bands actually making debut appearances. So we hope you dig the stuff & find new bands to like. Thanks for your interest & Happy Halloween.”

You can download the entire compilation at the Internet Archive.

[This is the first in a series of posts discussing some of my favorite musical releases in 2007.]

I have been following the San Francisco band Black Ice since their first demo appeared in 2002. The band was initially formed by members of The Phantom Limbs as an instrumental venture, but with the addition of Miss Kel (from Sister Mary Shoelace) on vocals, the group quickly evolved into a deliciously dark concoction of alternately moody and chaotic sound textures driven forward by Kel’s clear and emotive voice. A vital part of the dark musical underground that was emerging in the SF-Bay area and related scenes at the time.

Black Ice

Since then, the band has been evolving its strange but appealing mix of goth, post-punk, experimental, and ambient styles into a signature sound uniquely their’s. The band’s 2005 release, “Terrible Birds,” saw them mature in a way that didn’t compromise the underlying uneasiness or power contained in earlier works. Solidifying them as a band with its own identity, and not merely a side-project for the individual members. In March of 2007, Black Ice released “Myopia”, perhaps their most assured and confident work yet. Incorporating a larger array of players and sounds, “Myopia” is as dark and unnerving as ever, but it also represents one of their most accessible collections of song. Tracks like the brilliant, lamenting, “In the Dark”show a band willing to trust its own songwriting, rather than hide behind layers of art-damaged noise (as some of their peers have been accused of).

“Myopia” is yet another triumph for Black Ice, and one hopes that this is only the beginning in a longer exploration of “dark” music that doesn’t insult your intelligence, or bore you to death. Certainly one of the best, and overlooked, releases this year.

Downloads: Black Ice - “In the Dark”
(from the album “Myopia”)
Black Ice - “Terrible Birds”
(from the album “Terrible Birds”)

Links: Black Ice on MySpace, Black Ice on Hungry Eye Records

Word is spreading that legendary trip-hop pioneers Portishead have almost finished their long-awaited third album:

From close, to, well, closer: in fact, as Geoff Barrow of Portishead tells it, the band’s third proper LP is just one day away from completion. Barrow, checking in on the band’s blog, says Portishead spent a few days in London finishing things up, but are back in Bristol making executive decisions regarding album art and plotting their return to the stage. “i think one more day messing about with it and it will be done,” Barrow writes. “then into the wonderful world of mastering.. [joke]” He doesn’t actually like mastering all that much, see.

Beth Gibbons of Portishead

This makes me very happy. Few bands from the 90s were more influential on darkly-tinged music, and it will be exciting to see what direction they will go now that it has been ten years since their last full-length album.

Links: Portishead on The Hype Machine, Portishead on MySpace

The Portugal-based darkwave label Equilibrium Music has two new releases out that should please fans of Dead Can Dance’s darkly-tinged tribal sounds, and the neoclassical gloom of Sopor Aeternus. The first is “The Garden of the Hesperides”, by the Italian band Hexperos. Evoking a haunting mix of chamber music and electronic textures, the songs are made sublime by the clear, strong, soprano of vocalist Alessandra Santovito (from the band Gothica). Stand-out tracks include the gentle, soaring grace of “Hesperos”, and the moonlight-fueled, trance-inducing, “Ritual”. As their web site claims, this is music of “love and mystery”, and it is a strong debut album that promises even greater things in the future.

Hexperos

Download: Hexperos - “Hesperos”
(from the album “The Garden of the Hesperides”)

Links: Hexperos on Myspace

The second band making its debut is the German/Dutch duo Poets to their Beloved with their album “Embrace the Fool”. While Hexperos is decidedly influenced by Dead Can Dance, PttB can claim that Dead Can Dance brought them together as a music project. The two members, Saskia and Marcel, met and fell in love at a workshop held by Brendan Perry in Ireland. This fateful melding in Perry’s presence must have rubbed off, because some of the best tracks on “Embrace the Fool” seem positively haunted by the singer-songwriter’s guitar-sound and vocal preferences. Not that this is a bad thing, tracks like “Ecstatic Dance” and “Embrace the Fool” are well-executed and benefit from their influences. PttB would make an ideal opening act should Dead Can Dance ever do another reunion tour, it will be interesting to see where they go from here.

Poets to their Beloved

Download: Poets to their Beloved - “Ecstatic Dance (clip)”
(from the album “Embrace the Fool”)

Links: Poets to their Beloved on MySpace

You can hear tracks from both of these bands on my latest “A Darker Shade of Pagan” podcast.

I’ve been reading reviews of “The Modern Tribe”, the new album by 4AD band Celebration. While I enjoy Celebration’s psychedelic TV on the Radio-enhanced sound, I do find myself missing vocalist Katrina Ford’s previous project Love Life. Love Life (and post-Love Life project Birdland) also dabbled sonically in psychedelia, but it was was an altogether darker affair, eliciting comparisons to The Birthday Party instead of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Celebration: Katrina Ford, Sean Antanaitis, and David Bergander

“Their music teeters between chaos and structure, between beauty and horror. Within the funereal catharsis of the songs on their second LP, led by Ford’s girl-Satan vocals, you might discern traces of the Sugarcubes and Joy Division in addition to the Birthday Party and Bauhaus.”

But one can hardly blame Ford and Antanaitis for wanting a bit of success (and an escape from the commercial pains of being labeled “goth”), and while their sound is nowhere near as dark as it used to be, Ford’s voice is still an amazing instrument, a “roomy staccato gasp” that I find utterly captivating. “The Modern Tribe” is a worthy effort, great for fans of Katrina Ford’s previous projects, TV on the Radio, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I’ll still miss their earlier, darker, efforts, but I’ll console myself with the fact that great music is still being made by Ford and Antanaitis.

Download: Love Life - “Montag”
(From the album “Here is Night, Brothers, Here the Birds Burn”)

Links: Celebration on The Hype Machine, Celebration on Myspace, Salon.com Love Life review (with Mp3)

The Independent interviews famed “Generation X” author Douglas Coupland where they discuss his career, dealing with writers block, and how he misses the lightheartedness of the 1990s.

“I miss the silliness of the Nineties. What would society be like if 9/11 never happened? If that silliness was extended forever? It’s interesting, living an hour and a half from the US border, how random and chaotic the US is right now. No one has a clue. It’s being run by bandit special interest groups. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Having come of age in the 90s, I remember vividly the lack of any real concern regarding the political future of America among my peers (outside of some overly earnest politically-motivated camps). The Reagan/Bush era had ended, the Cold War was a diminishing memory, and problems like global climate change were barely a blip on the radar screen. It often seemed that any political consciousness or commentary we did have was couched within art. There was the first flowering of the Riot Grrl movement, the rise of New Queer Cinema (which was partially galvanized by AIDs activism in the 80s and 90s), the ‘zine culture was still going strong, and the ongoing right/left culture-wars, featuring the usual suspects, continued to drag on.

Living now in an era of terror-wars and jingoistic saber-rattling, one has to wonder if the “silly”90s were just a brief escape from the cultural pressures of the previous decade. Some of the musical artists who carried a lot of artistic weight during that time seem to be a bit lost in how to remain relevant.

“Why did Tori Amos’s show last Friday night, at the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden, feel like it was suspended in time, lost somewhere between 1992 and 2007? Like an increasing number of her elders and peers, Amos is aging so well that age feels irrelevant to the musical questions. Her voice hasn’t lost any range and her piano playing continues to be good enough to get her back into the conservatory … The new characters [from her album “American Doll Posse.”] add a level of camp and distance that don’t suit a firestarter like Amos. Her ad-libbed song about cute boys in New York was closer, in theory, to old Tori: she imagined life in the big city as a boy, able to love whomever she wanted. But it was more cutesy than cute. She’s not much of a comedian or a high-stepper—she’s still the one who goes into the cave to slay the dragon. She didn’t need the gold leopard-print jumpsuit or the wig. Still doesn’t.”

Nor is Tori Amos the only one with this problem. Nine Inch Nails seems to be trying far too hard, and bands like The Red Hot Chili Peppers long ago solidified into the sort of predictable hit-makers even your mom could approve of. Perhaps not all hope is lost, maybe a new Clinton in the White House will usher in a new era of stability and prosperity, and those old Generation X favorites will stride forward as returning champions. But considering the instability of the Middle-East and the looming issue of eco-crisis, Coupland’s words may be prophetic, and we may have a long time to go before those (relatively) care-free days emerge once more.

Mick Mercer gives a good review to dark Pagan-folk outfit Omnia’s latest CD “Alive!” despite its occasional lapses into “hippie” territory.

“Quite apart from the fact this is Omnia’s easiest-access album which means nobody need be put off by any Pagan worries (as in it might be dodgy folk music), it is quite the loveliest presentation of a CD I have ever seen … A wonderful and quite unusual album, this is both supremely confident and at the same time utterly modest and unassuming, assuming you will be be open-minded enough to let it entrance you. “

Review sites across the board seem fond of Siouxsie Sioux’s first solo effort “Mantaray”. Pitchfork says: “its a success, without doubt”, Vanity Fair calls “Mantaray”: “beguiling, contrary, mysterious, and rocking”, and Rolling Stone thinks its one darn tough album from the punk/post-punk/goth veteran.

“Goth-punk goddess Siouxsie Sioux hasn’t sounded this tough since the Banshees fell apart more than a decade ago … with all her cities in dust, Siouxsie concentrates all her eccentric music powers on her first solo album ever, one where you don’t have to keep telling yourself “but it’s Siouxsie” to pay attention.”

Matthew Perpetua at Fluxblog echoes my own feelings about P.J. Harvey’s amazing new album “White Chalk”.

“White Chalk is a mood piece for sure, but it’s also a careful, nuanced work that rewards close listening. Klein may be correct that it is not suitable as all-purpose background noise, but he fails to realize that this is in fact an indication that the album has succeeded on its own terms. The point of White Chalk is to transport the listener into the world of Harvey’s characters, and it is remarkably effective in doing so. It’s meant to be a window into other lives, not yet another mirror to gaze upon ourselves, or a blanket of ambient sound to keep us from feeling uncomfortable in silence.”

Meanwhile, one of my favorite bands, M83, has been getting lukewarm reviews for their new release “Digital Shades Volume #1″. Pop Matters feels that this more ambient-focused series may be seen as “a footnote in an otherwise impressive catalogue”, while Stylus Magazine accuses the band of “succumbing to laziness”. I’ll have to listen to it myself, before passing any judgment.

In a final note, check out the ever-witty and entertaining wrap-up of Germany’s 2007 Wave Gotik Treffen festival by England’s own Uncle Nemesis.

“The Wave Gotik Treffen must seem like a strange and surreal thing to most people from the UK - and, perhaps, to people from many other locations around the world. Why? Well, in a nutshell, because it’s gothic, and it’s big. Here in the UK, our once cutting-edge goth scene - don’t laugh, it really did look like the future back in 1982 or thereabouts - has now more or less dwindled to a small social circuit, based around DJ-driven clubs that play eighties chart hits and familiar, no-brainer floor-fillers for an increasingly ageing dress-up-and-party crowd. By and large, the denizens of the UK goth scene take little interest in music from any other area or era. That’s assuming they take any interest in music at all, of course. That in itself seems like an assumption too far sometimes. Set against that, the sheer scale, diversity, and no-shit success of the WGT seems positively unreal.”

That is it for now…