CXLIV. Rozz Williams And Gitane Demone | Dream Home Heartache

ROZZ WILLIAMS AND GITANE DEMONE

Dream Home Heartache

©Triple X. US, 1995.

‟This 1995 collaboration between Rozz Williams and Gitane Demone finds them abandoning their death-rock origins, instead attempting a more esoteric stance. It works in their favour.

The album kicks in with a nightmarish cabaret take on the Roxy Music classic "In Every Dream Home A Heartache", which explodes in a frenzied litany in the end with Demone's wailing vocals. Similarly, "These Vulnerable Eyes" finds Demone in full-blown jazzy cabaret diva mode. The mood is that of an autumn walk by a river in an elegant European city. Rozz then takes over with "The Pope's Egg Hat", a somber piano meditation, with Gitane in the background playing the muse enchanting lost souls.

Things get slightly more lively with "Flowers", and the almost vivid "A World apart" (yet still enclosed in the album's sense of tragedy). The album reaches yet another peak with the lullaby "Moon Without A Tear", with Gitane's tender vocals contrasting a menacing drone. And finally, the reprise of "Dream Home Heartache" swirls with almost apocalyptic intensity. The album has completed a full circle.

Rozz Williams and Gitane Demone may well have found their true niche here.‟

Ily

CXV. Shadow Project | Dreams For The Dying

SHADOW PROJECT

Dreams For The Dying

©Triple X. US, 1992.

‟Sounding like the band imploding, this might be the nastiest & most twisted Rozz Williams album since 'Only Theatre Of Pain'. But Rozz wasn't the only driving force in Shadow Project. Eva O. was just as important and for this album she wrote not only some of her best songs, but some of the band's best. 'Static Jesus' might be the definitive Shadow Project song. Her vocals here seem to be chasing the spookier side of Diamanda Galas, and though she might fall short, it is pretty damn interesting. Rozz, likewise, is trying to be Bowie circa Low or Diamond Dogs, and again, though he's not always successful, his vocals are at their most assured.

The band manages the quite rare trick of playing several 7 minute songs without sounding like an edit is needed. 'Knight Stalker' is presumably a tribute to handsome Satanist rapist/murderer Richard Ramirez (makes sense in a sick way, we all know how much Rozz loves serial killers, AND the guy's easy on the eye), Zaned People is an unusually equal collaboration between Rozz and Eva, Thy Kingdom Come is held up by beautiful and scary Paris atmospherics... all the tracks are well developed and interesting, though I'm not crazy about 'Funeral Rites'. Worth investigating for even a casual fan of Goth music.‟

Team Vampire 

CXII. Various Artists | Darkwave: Music Of The Shadows V2

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Darkwave: Music Of The Shadows Vol.2

©K-Tel International. US, 2000.

‟Within the realms of Darkwave, you can chart three basic eras, all featured on this CD. The groundbreaking artists appeared in the early '80s and have stayed active (in one form or another) up to the present day. Europeans of this era include Cocteau Twins and The Legendary Pink Dots; while Rozz Williams, Controlled Bleeding and Black Tape For A Blue Girl represent a section of the American front. The second generation, drawing inspiration from the former, came onto the scene in the early '90s. These include Lycia, Love Spiral Downwards, Miranda Sex Garden, Lustmord, Roach/Rich, and Faith & The Muse. Finally, you have young up-starts like Rhea's Obsession and The Crüxshadows, who appeared in the late '90s and reintroduced a beat to the Darkwave sound.

Whether you are contemplatively listening to music alone by candle light, submerged in mid-winter finals with a dark soundtrack slowly churning in the background, or watching that sexy thing you've had your eye on dancing at the local club, chances are this CD wiil serve as the perfect soundtrack to your experience; that effervescent and seemingly unobtainable mystery which awaits you when you walk through the portal...‟

Sam Rosenthal