A Sweeping Curve of Sound

Blogcritics Magazine has a positive review up of new London After Midnight album “Violent Acts of Beauty”. Reviewer ‘Coryluscontorta’ calls the album a “fairly satisfying” release that will please goth “aficionados”.

“Primarily this album is intended to stand as a rousing vehicle for Brennan’s passionately held socio-political views; his lyrics weave a web of commentary about the human condition around the electro-pulse. But lofty aims aside, this is an album for those high-energy, punch-out-the-stars nights; an album for sticky floors and long purple wool falls. This is an album listen to while having fun, even if you allow the message to slip past you.”

Goth journalism legend Mick Mercer is completely impressed with the latest from UK post-punk/goth band And Also the Trees entitled “(Listen For) The Rag and Bone Man”.

“The little buggers have done it again! After the relaxed eerie brilliance of the ‘Further From The Truth’ albums comes something similar in tone, but of a weirder bent …  Another stunner from them then, and enticingly weird, as though Wim Wenders was brought up in the Midlands.”

Hot Indie News (Hot Indie News?) features a (short yet) positive review of goth personality/musician/author Voltaire’s latest album “Ooky Spooky”.

“Is it possible that there is such a thing as “Pretty Goth”? If there is, Voltaire is definitely in that category. But don’t make the same mistake as I did and assume that every song will be the same. Ooky Spooky is easily one of the best CD’s I’ve heard recently … Needless to say, I’m in love with this CD, I strongly recommend going out and buying it.”

Mammoth Press give a mediocre review (and some snotty goth-scorn) to The Birthday Massacre’s  album “Walking With Strangers”.

“There is this underbelly of the rock industry that for a long time has tried to be subversive and different. Instead gothic ‘80s rock has only come off as silly makeup wearing clowns that make some fun, yet dread-filled pop songs that appeal to a large scale of people in the form of one-hit-wonders. The synthesizer base of this music comes ringing through on The Birthday Massacre’s new album that is filled to the brim with heavily programmed music. “

Finally, Pitchfork looks at the new David Bowie box set “David Bowie Box” that collects his uneven recent (post-Tin Machine) work. Predictably, a high score is not forthcoming (it got a 4.6).

“Since the 1990s, David Bowie has been in the worst kind of rut. It’s not that his output has been substandard– each of his recent albums has had its share of pleasures. The problem is that by and large his output has been just good enough. As a result, nearly each of his releases from the past two decades have earned the usual “best album since…” reviews, and Bowie did admittedly sound more engaged than he had for most of the 80s (a decade he himself has since mostly written off). But considering that virtually everything Bowie recorded between 1970 and 1980 became more or less canonized, it’s a bit of a legacy risk to re-release his most recent slate of CDs as a boxed set, with each album expanded to double-disc sets containing a mostly negligible collection of catalog detritus. It calls attention to the very albums that refurbished Bowie’s iconic status, but outside of that big picture context it’s a bit of a rocky ride.”

That is all I have for now, have a good night.

Smooch Records is releasing a double-album compilation from Denver’s short lived “psychedelic death rock” band Soul Merchants. Often regarded by fans as America’s version of The Sisters of Mercy, the band only lasted a couple years (1985 - 1987), but in that time released a large amount of recorded material that infused distinctly American psychedelic rock elements into the gothy post-punk sound.

Soul Merchants

“Soul Merchants’ music is best described as the band dubbed it 20 years ago: psychedelic death rock. On the surface, one could consider them Denver’s version of Sisters of Mercy, but even in the ’80s these guys were too old to be the new hip goth act and their ’60s psych and ’70s glam influences shined brightly over the darkness. Too punk for the goths and too goth for the punks, Soul Merchants never fit into the ’scene’ yet still collected a devoted fan-base during their brief 1985-’87 tenure. After an exhausting two years with over a hundred songs recorded, Soul Merchants threw in the towel and performed their final show at the inaugural South By Southwest in Austin.”

The bulk of their releases were cassette-only and have been out of print for years, forgotten by all but the most hardcore of fans. Now, thanks to Smooch Records, we have access to an hour and twenty minutes of re-mastered material. Listening to the songs now, the band shows the last glimmers of the glam-infected post-punk that typified the early goth sound before it gave way to the drum-machine-driven gestalt that typified second-wave 1990s Gothic Rock. Certainly a treat for Deathrock revivalists, and fans of musical treasures from the post-punk era.

Downloads: Soul Merchants - “Joanna”, “Crown of Glory”, “When I Smile”, “Attics”
(from “1985 - 1987″)

Links: Soul Merchants on MySpace

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

This time around I’ll be doing a double-dose of my favorite releases from 2007. Two European bands whose releases point to the still-thriving “ethno-gothic” genre (also called “Neoclassical Darkwave”) created in the wake of bands like Dead Can Dance, and Ataraxia. While there have been many releases in 2007 that could fit under this banner, including quality releases by Faun, Omnia, and Irfan, the two that have impressed me the most are “Regõ Rejtem” by Hungarian band The Moon and The Nightspirit, and “The Spirit Rises” by Italian/French collaboration Khvarena.

The Moon and The Nightspirit

“Regõ Rejtem”, The Moon and the Nightspirit’s second album, highlights a rapidly evolving duo who went from a talented but uneven darkwave project, to a surprisingly confident ethnic folk-driven force to be reckoned with.

“They released an admirable but uneven CD entitled “Of Dreams Forgotten and Fables Untold” in 2005. Back then I wished they would sing more songs in their native tongue and inject some more energy into their music. It seems that all my wishes were granted because on “Rego Rejtem” (which means “I with conjure magic” in Hungarian) Agnes Toth and Mihaly Szabo de-emphasize ethereal electronics and concentrate on the music and folklore of their native land to create a breathtakingly amazing release.”

While the album is dominated by (Hungarian) folk styles, they also insert electronic atmospherics and even some metal-inspired vocal work to flesh out the album and give the songs an even greater passion and energy. Their music embodies a shamanic primal quality that hearkens to an older Europe.

Downloads: The Moon and The Nightspirit - Rego Rejtem
(from the album “Regõ Rejtem”)

Links: The Moon and The Nightspirit on MySpace

The second release, “The Spirit Rises”, comes from a collaboration between Jeanne & Fabrice Lefebvre of the French band Rajna (a sort of orient-inflected Dead Can Dance), and Francesco Banchini of Gor (a project that gives a special focus to medieval and middle-eastern sounds) called Khvarena (a Zoroastrian concept meaning “divine glory”), a unified musical vision of Europe’s early interactions with the Middle-East that seems to transcend the individual projects and create something truly sublime. This is a work that vocally and sonically rivals Dead Can Dance at their very best.

Khvarena

The band uses lyrics inspired by 10th century Persian poet Ferdowsi, and incorporates a ritualistic reverence for Middle-Eastern ethnic instruments, recalling a time when monotheism was still young, and mysticism the order of the day. This is a mature and intelligent work that impresses from the first listen, and stands up to constant play. An album I enjoy returning to over and over again. One can only hope that this isn’t a one-off project and we will see more from Khvarena in the future.

Downloads: Khvarena - “Khvarena (clip)”, “Zot (clip)”
(from the album “The Spirit Rises”)

Links: Khvarena on MySpace

I was fourteen when post-punk populists U2 hit mega super-stardom with “The Joshua Tree”. I was far too young to enjoy the “War”-era firebrand stances, and I had only paid slight attention to “The Unforgettable Fire” and the subsequent Live Aid performance, but by 1987 everyone knew (and liked) U2. This was telegraphed home to me (in retrospect), by the fact that in my home town of Omaha, Nebraska, (not the most musically adventurous place to be in the mid-80s) they got played on the classic-rock radio station (a feat not repeated by an “alternative” band until R.E.M.’s “Green” released the next year), in malls, on TV, and in mainstream magazines like Time.

But I wasn’t a U2 fan at that point. I mean, I liked “Where the Streets Have No Name” as much as the next teenager just starting to explore music outside the norm, but they certainly didn’t resonate with me as an important band. That year for Christmas my mom splurged and got me an early CD player (something almost unheard-of in my age-group at the time) along with a small assortment of CDs. One of those CDs was “The Joshua Tree” (along with some Dire Straits, and The Pet Shop Boys), but I barely listened to it (I still have that CD). To my young ears, U2 had already passed into the sort of mainstream parent-respectability that made it seem “boring” to me. This was only confirmed by the bloated and overly-earnest “Rattle and Hum” released the next year. I was far more interested in Depeche Mode, R.E.M., and a variety of bands I was exposed to on Mtv’s “120 Minutes”. A re-evaluation of U2 didn’t happen till their “Achtung Baby/Zooropa” years, where a darker and “sexier” version of the band managed to win me over (somewhat).

So I’m rather ambivalent about all this media hype at the twenty-year anniversary of their big breakthrough album, complete with deluxe re-mastered box-set and loads of reminiscing from critics and journalists. Only critic Joe Gross seems to echo much of my own ambivalence in his review:

“As a 12- and 13-year-old kid feeling out the parameters of cultural rejection that punk rock afforded, I was wary of U2. Something that rockers and Christians agreed on was suspicious. Twenty years and one deluxe, three-disc reissue of their signature album later (it was released Tuesday), I remain almost as conflicted about them now as I was then … U2 is one of the very few bands to translate the cool, distant European post-punk into something both intimate and arena-ready. And nobody quite sounds like them, no matter how hard they try. U2 kept their own counsel, never replaced a band member and seem to be a God’s-honest team in what they do. On the other hand, this is arena rock — by design, there’s nothing anti-establishment about it. And Bono is one of the most exhausting rock star media presences of all time, from his on-stage pretension (especially back then) to his endless political yammering.”

While few can deny the talent and songwriting chops of U2, I do often wonder at how this band was singled out amongst the post-punk crop for fame and glory. What would have happened if U2 faded into obscurity maintaining only a cult audience, while (much stranger and darker) Irish musical peers The Virgin Prunes rocketed on to superstardom. Or if English rivals Echo and the Bunnymen became ubiquitous global pop-stars while U2 were relegated to “college rock” status and notable soundtrack appearances. I suppose it comes down to the fact that U2 didn’t threaten the “rock royalty” upper echelons due to their humble appreciation of “the roots” (something that separated them from many of their post-punk peers), they supported political causes that were popular (or at least not offensive) amongst middle-America, and won over Christians thanks to their own faith affiliations. In hindsight they were the perfect “outsider” band to gain acclaim in Reagan’s America. Years before “indie” bands started breaking big in waves.

So while the music world bows in remembrance of U2’s crowning achievement, I remain an ambivalent and peripheral fan (at best), and continue to stump for the semi-forgotten bands (and the bands that followed in their footsteps), the ones that reached out to a kid from Omaha wanting anything but what the adults (and the musical mainstream) approved of.

For all the blather about how Industrial music serves dark purposes and powers, it is actually pretty rare to come across a band that seems somewhat serious in their convictions. Scratch the loud klanging beats and horror-movie samples, and you’ll often find a rather pedestrian product. So it is refreshing to know that when Peter Devin of yelworC invokes notorious occultist Aleister Crowley and dark ritualistic magick, he really means it (man).

“yelworC’s dark stage performances usually consisted of Devin dressed in a robe, singing from a wooden podium and surrounding himself by candles, pagan symbols and a black tapestry backdrop”

You know, this sort of thing…

Around on and off since the early 1990s, yelworC returns with “Icolation”, the second album since the project reformed in 2004 (sans co-founding member Oliver Büttner). This time the band gets downright diabolic with a set of songs inspired by Dante’s Inferno.

“Drawing influence from Dante’s Inferno, Icolation takes the listener on a journey of the damned, from darkest hell straight to an apocalyptic purgatory. The music is as hard, twisted and complex as before - a synthesis of strong, vital rhythms and darkest melodic compositions. Darker than dark, harder than hard - but always featuring that surprising and patented twisted YelworC sound. The master of evil electronics has returned, and has brought the very sounds of Hell with him.”

So how does it sound? It is surprisingly accessible. Much of the record involves itself with atmospherics laden with samples, at times bordering on dark ambient rather than industrial music. This works in the albums favor, making the darkness a more seductive and unnerving presence rather than relying on the battering-ram mentality of many bands working within the industrial genre. Some of the tracks, like “Lord of the Three” and “The Bells of Waiting” are almost pretty (in a demonic, clattering sort of way). When the music does become faster-paced and more aggressive on tracks like “In the Purgatory”, yelworC avoids boring monotony and keeps things interesting. My only real complaint is the album’s over-reliance on “evil” vocoder-manipulated vocals, which just comes across as somewhat cheesy to me. Still, this is a strikingly mature work, that explores occult themes and ideas about supernatural evil without falling into many of the traps similar artists encounter.

Downloads: yelworC - “Lost Futile” (clip) and Ecce Mundo ver.2 (clip)
(from the album “Icolation”)

Links:  yelworC on MySpace

My weekly podcast “A Darker Shade of Pagan” has just been posted. This week featuring brand new tracks from Jade Sol Luna, Adas, Inkubus Sukkubus, and Irfan. Enjoy!

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

Playlist:

Jade Sol Luna - Silver Moon, Bill Laswell (feat. Coil) - Kala, The Valerie Project - Grandmother’s Theme (live), Adas - The City of Is, The Moon and The NightSpirit - Rego Rejtem, Hexperos - The Call of the Ibis, Inkubus Sukkubus - Night Wing, Irfan - Invocatio, Sigur Ros - Vaka (live), Monica Richards - The Antler King, The Eden House - Freakshow

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

Writer and “techgnostic” Erik Davis profiles the American Black Metal band Wolves in the Throne Room for Slate.com. Unlike their nihilistic/Satanic European brethren, Wolves in the Throne Room subscribes to a more Pagan, earth-conscious, and ultimately hopeful, worldview.

“The contours of this myth echo what my chat with the band after the Santa Cruz show confirmed: Wolves in the Throne Room are hard-core tree-huggers, with a Manichaean view of the environmental crisis and a pagan faith in the transformative powers of nature. I mostly talked to Aaron, an articulate and intelligent fellow wearing a green Tyrolean hat. After honing his politics in the Pacific Northwest’s DIY punk scene, Aaron moved to D.C. to fight the good fight as a secular lefty. It didn’t work out, and he moved back to Olympia, where a surprising series of spiritual experiences he hasn’t really talked about made him a clear-eyed seeker of earth wisdom. With his brother and their respective partners, he now lives on 10 acres of land near Evergreen State College, where his posse is painstakingly crafting a sustainable life off the grid. And finding time to play hard-core, shamanic eco-metal.”

For Davis, the marriage of brutal Black Metal and a Gaian environmentalist ethos makes perfect sense, considering  the mental effects of taking an unfiltered look at environmental calamity.

“This is disturbing stuff, and it’s supposed to be. I mean, aren’t you a bit disturbed? Lots of people who open their souls to today’s seemingly relentless assault on wild creatures and wild places find themselves gripped by bitterness, melancholy, and misanthropy.”

Considering the rise of Pagan-themed music across Europe, it seems inevitable that the more extreme metal genres would grab hold of a spiritual view of the world that allowed them to fight for something, while still opposing the dominant monotheisms. Will metal’s nihilism slowly give way to a reluctant polytheism or pantheism? For more on Davis’ love of Pagan-influenced metal, check out his paean to Viking Metal  at Powell’s Books.

First there was Cinema Strange, a deathrock band that emerged in the mid-1990s who followed reverently in the footsteps of bands like The Virgin Prunes (though they have since evolved towards a more “dark cabaret” sound). After a string of critically acclaimed releases, lead singer and founding member Lucas Lanthier decided to strike out on his own and formed The Deadfly Ensemble in order to pursue his own musical path. Deadfly Ensemble, a more folk-infused and personal affair than Cinema Strange, pushed Lantheir’s Brechtian strangeness to new heights and resulted in the captivating (though slightly uneven) album entitled “An Entire Wardrobe of Doubt and Uncertainty”.

The Deadfly Ensemble

Now Side-Line has the news that the much-anticipated follow up album “A seed catalog for extinct annuals” will be released in mid-January.

“Out on January 18th is the 2nd album from The Deadly Ensemble. On “A seed catalog for extinct annuals” the solo project of Cinema Strange founding member Lucas Lanthier … The album comes as a limited, luxurious digibook including an elaborately designed and voluminous booklet with all lyrics, photos and illustrations of mastermind Lucas Lanthier himself.”

You’ll most be able to order it from CD Baby, Projekt, or IsoTank in the near future. There aren’t any clips of the new material to be had yet, but you can get a taste of what the Deadfly Ensemble has to offer at their MySpace page.

Have a good day, back tomorrow!

http://www.nomusicday.com

Singer Peter Murphy has revealed that legendary post-punk/goth band Bauhaus has recorded a new album, and that it will be released in March of 2008. Entitled “Go Away White”, Murphy claims that this is the final project that the original members of Bauhaus will do as a group, after which all things  (collectively) Bauhaus will cease.

Bauhaus (in earlier days)

“Since Bauhaus are no longer a band working together, we are planning at least to release an album that was recorded in a stunning 18 day period including writing recording and mixing , and this should reach your doorsteps early 2008. I plan to play Bauhaus material from time to time from this point on in the future. This is a change from my policy over the years whereas in my own live work I chose never to play Bauhaus material, preferring to leave that to whenever the band were to decide to reform. Now that Bauhaus has seen its last incarnation as a bona fide band, the tours of the recent year and a half were our last ever. So from now on, I will incorporate my Bauhaus work into my solo concert work , since at least a part of my audience would like to hear it ,and for now it is something that should be celebrated.”

Reports of a new album have been bouncing around since 2005, but this is the first time a release date and label have been mentioned. With the material already in the can, it seem like there is a good possibility of it actually happening. No word on a track listing, though the chances are good that new songs “Adrenaline” and “Endless Summer of the Damned” (introduced during the 2006 tour) will be featured.

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

It is often the case that some of the best “dark” music isn’t made by the usual merchants of goth music, sometimes, the most sublimely haunting music comes from an unlikely marriage of styles that show a promising new direction. Such is the case with Leeds band iLiKETRAiNS. Their debut full-length album, “Elegies to Lessons Learnt”, is a masterful revelation of how different musical forms can meld beautifully. In this case it is taking the grand and sweeping post-rock styles of bands like Sigur Ros and Godspeed You! Black Emperor and fronting it with a vocalist who could easily have fronted a goth rock band circa 1985.

iLiKETRAiNS

Almost relentlessly mournful, yet buoyed with transcendent orchestration that veers between heavenly swirls and a churning menace that makes the at-times over-the-top lyrics seem right at home. The band has been quoted as saying they wanted to their post-rock sound to have a “sense of location”, and if put in that context the portentous vocals married to anthemic and orchestral sounds makes perfect sense considering that Leeds was also the home to bands like The Sisters of Mercy, The March Violets, and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. This isn’t to say that iLiKETRAiNS will be incorporating a named drum machine any time soon, but that its impossible not to acknowledge the rich veins of darker sounds to come out of their home town and that infuse the songs on “Elegies to Lessons Learnt”.

It is rare to find a band so fully formed on their first full album. iLiKETRAiNs have created a special album, that will no doubt generate a nigh-fanatical audience (if it hasn’t already). Despite some critics harping on their “goth undertow” as if referencing that genre were some sort of musical sin, I applaud their bravery to acknowledge that life can be tormented, melodramatic, and yes, over the top at times. Certainly one of the best albums with a darker-bent for the year 2007.

Downloads: iLiKETRAiNS - “We All Fall Down”
(from “Elegies to Lessons Learnt”)

Links: iLiKETRAiNS on MySpace, iLiKETRAiNS @ The Hype Machine

My weekly podcast “A Darker Shade of Pagan” has just been posted. This week featuring brand new tracks from Julianna Barwick, The Valerie Project, Vanishing Kids, and White Magic. Enjoy!

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

Playlist:

Falling You - Moth & Flame (Sadness of the Witch), Julianna Barwick - Dancing With Friends, Daemonia Nymphe - Nocturnal Hekate, [:SITD:] - Reincarnation, Trance to the Sun - Thistle Lurid, The Valerie Project - Death and Rebirth, Vanishing Kids - Blanket of Stars, White Magic - Shine in Heaven, Poets to Their Beloved - The Disillusioned Nihilist, Faun - Das Tor, Irfan - Vernal Garden

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

As we hit mid-November, the inevitable “best of 2007″ lists are starting to see the light of day. Some of the more notable lists include Stylus Magazine’s top 50 (which features ASCoS faves P.J. Harvey, Grinderman, and Low), Rough Trade’s list (giving the nod to Studio’s intriguing album “West Coast” among others), and the Drowned in Sound top 50. Music blog Largehearted Boy is keeping an updated list of “top” lists from blogs and magazines. So be sure to check there to see what your favorite cultural barometer has to say about the year’s musical releases.

As for me, I’ll be waiting until the end of December to unveil my own picks, you never know when you’ll be bowled away by an album at the last minute. In the meantime, I’ll be posting regular entries that give a sneak-peak at my favorite albums of 2007 from the “darker” musical genres.

Earlier this year Projekt released an album that would certainly have made my “best of 2007″ list if it weren’t for my personal rules against including retrospectives. But all the same, any year in which a Trance to the Sun album hits the stores is almost certainly a good year (for dark music). Formed by guitarist Ashkelon Sain in the early 1990s, Trance to the Sun would become a huge creative force within the American Darkwave scene, anticipating and inspiring many bands that would emerge later. Their mix of shoegaze, ethereal darkwave, and goth styles evolved over several albums (and lead vocalists) culminating in the brilliant (and almost bombastic) epic swan-song “Atrocious Virgin” in 2001.

Trance to the Sun circa 2000

Now, for those who missed out on those heady years when the band was active, there is a “finest works” package entitled “Spiders, Aether & Rain” which gives an excellent overview of the bands nearly decade-long career.

“Projekt is proud to announce the release of a ‘best of’ compilation album from the legendary surrealist goth / dream-pop / darkwave ensemble, Trance to the Sun. Ground-breaking and critically acclaimed in their time (1990-2001), this compilation coincides with the band’s first performance in half a decade, at Convergence 13 in Portland (last weekend of May, 2007). Spiders, Aether & Rain features thirteen tracks spanning the entire Trance to the Sun oeuvre; from haunting, spindly ballads to thunderous goth-rock waltzes; from freaked-out electronic gems of hypnotic rhythm to heavily orchestrated pseudo-symphonic cacophonies. Whether you’re a long time devotee, or just discovering this critically acclaimed, elegant music for the first time, this release is for you. “

Any look at the goth/darkwave scene in the 1990s would be incomplete without this seminal (and talented) band, and it is to Projekt’s credit they have taken the initiative to put this “best-of” together and expose a new audience to Trance to the Sun’s sound. Perhaps if we are very lucky, their brief reunion performance at this year’s Convergence will be a harbinger of things to come, and we’ll hear some new material from the band.

Downloads: You can hear some down-loadable sound clips at the Projekt web site, and you can find a track from “Atrocious Virgin” at Ashkelon Sain’s MySpace page.

Links: Trance to the Sun at MySpace