CXXI. Skin | Blood, Women, Roses

SKIN

Blood, Women, Roses 

©Product Inc. UK, 1987.

‟The World Of Skin was a project springing out of the American group Swans, and was a collaboration between the core Swans members Michael Gira and Jarboe.
The project was initially called Skin, with the first two albums being released under that name, the last one being released under the name the World of Skin. The musical style was similar to "The Burning World" and the other later Swans releases, although it shed most of its rock influences to play a mostly acoustic goth-folk style with electronics.
In the UK, the first two albums were released by Product Inc., an imprint of Mute Records, while the last was released on Gira's own Young God label.
"Blood, Women, Roses" (1987) was the project's first release and featured vocals entirely by Jarboe, who had previously mainly been performing backing vocals. Many of the tracks on this album were covers of show tunes and other popular songs (for example "Cry Me a River" and "The Man I Love").

"Blood, Women, Roses" was followed in 1988 by Shame, Humility. Revenge, which featured vocals by Michael Gira (although Jarboe did perform some backing vocals).‟

Urbanaspirines

LXXXVI. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | The Best Of

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS

The Best Of

©Mute. UK, 1998.

‟In 1997 a 16 track retrospective covering the career of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds would have made for some difficult choice of content, ten albums strong since '84 the groups sound had developed a step away from the early days of intellectual angry man post-punk experimentation to more mature realms leaving quite a body of work behind.

Lyrically inspired by a headful of literary and historical influence as well as the wit of Cohen; albums such as "From Her To Eternity", "The Firstborn Is Dead" and "Tender Prey" featured sparse and depressing soundscapes of dissonant noise which could become a primal roar of angst or a shower of melancholy at the drop of a hat, folk tinged and often bass led with an interweaving twang of guitars and piano that made for some complex and satisfying arrangements as a backdrop to Cave's morose and angry voice.

The band is often seen to have truly hit their stride in terms of songwriting with mid-career works such as "The Good Son", "Henry's Dream" and "Let Love In", finding their own unique niche in maturity by expanding to an often relaxed and beautiful contemporary adult sound sandwiched in between compositions that are as aggressively rock as anything attempted previously but written so much more smoothly. 1997's "The Boatmans Call" was released just before this compilation, bringing a new era of critical acclaim from previous critics of the group for a departure to more intimate songwriting featuring just Cave's solo voice, piano and a few instruments. A couple of songs are included.

The obvious single choices are all here, the bizarre rock bounce of 'Deanna', the dark, smoothly profound nightmare of 'Red Right Hand', the thunderous, apocalyptic imagery of 'Tupelo', the elegant and simple beauty of 'The Ship Song', the chilling duet with Kylie Minogue 'Where The Wild Roses Grow', and of course the groups signature song and darkest hour, 'The Mercy Seat'. Amongst this fan favourites such as 'Do You Love Me', the Tom Wait's styled evil circus music poetry recital 'The Carny', the majestic 'Straight To You', 'The Weeping Song' and an excellent PJ Harvey duet 'Henry Lee' rightfully make the cut, padded out by a couple of tracks chucked in to represent the early years in the form of 'From Her To Eternity' and 'Stranger Then Kindness'. Two songs are featured from "The Boatmans Call" for good measure, with 'Into My Arms' and '(Are You) The One I've Been Waiting For' making an appearance.

The song choices here are an excellent representation of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds during their 1984-1997 period and an excellent starting point for anybody wanting an overview of the group. Of course with any best of/greatest hits release there tend to be several song omissions in favour of others that will displease any constant listener of the group, here this is true with opportunities to use songs such as 'Wanted Man', 'The Good Son', 'Papa Won't Leave You Henry', 'Loverman' and 'Stagger Lee' wasted. Despite this personal gripe, this is an excellent compilation and a well recommended entry point to a superb group with a large body of work to cover.‟

Haz567

LXXV. NON | In The Shadow Of The Sword

NON

In The Shadow Of The Sword

©Mute. UK, 1992.

‟This one is simply a classic. The first ever NON release I owned was the mind crushing "Physical Evidence". I then rushed out the moment "Blood And Flame" came out and purchased it. Back then, with out the aid of the internet, it was perfectly clear that Boyd Rice was off his nut. This was crystallized in 1990 with the Death In June track "Bring In The Night" and the venomous "Music, Martinis, and Misanthropy". During this time of hyper-creativity Boyd teamed up with friends Douglas P and Rose Mcdowall, fellow Misanthrope (and touring Japan at that time) Tony Wakeford... and Boyd's current roommate, a young Michael Moynihan (who at the time was wrapping up his existence as Coup De Grace). Together they played recorded a live performance in Osaka, Japan, July 3rd 1989. This powerful experience has been preserved in two forms; "In The Shadow Of The Sword" - presented here, and "Live In Osaka" the DVD.Non Live In Osaka, 1989. For this release tracks 1-8 represent the Osaka performance. 9-13 were recorded back in Colorado.‟

Emotions Will Kill Me

 

XXXVIII. Boyd Rice | The Black Album

  
BOYD RICE

The Black album

©Boyd Rice (Self-Released). US, 1977.

‟This originally late 1975 recorded, 1977 self released (in a run of eighty six copies), and 1981 (Mute) properly (re) released Black Album (as it was originally known) can hardly be considered a standard long player, but more like something of a bricolage of recorded/isolated/(mis)treated/looped/found sound fragments making for a 43:24" (if you dind't go for the multi speed thing) experience rather than a collection of handy song structures.

Contextually, or historically if you prefer, this is pretty much as out there, exploratory/provocative speaking anyway, as any of them.

The fragmentary and at times drone like frenzy here simultaneously evokes a Hymnen period Karlheinz Stockhausen, a young and riotous John Cale, and of course, his highness Milan Knížák. Not a small feat at all in my book. A very chunky (but not quite) musical artifact.‟

Chispita

XXXVII. Einstürzende Neubauten | Tabula Rasa

EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN

Tabula Rasa

©Mute. Deutschland, 1993.

‟Despite its title--Latin for "clean slate" but, more likely, a play off the concept of beginning again--Einstürzende Neubauten's seventh full-length is a culmination of everything that has come before for this extraordinary band. Sure, they were known for making hellish noise in their early days, employing rocks, circular saws, and drills in their performances, but they were musicians, too, crafting elegant songs by the late 1980s that still possess an affecting power. Tabula Rasa, released in 1993, contains all these elements and ups the ante considerably. For one thing, it's a much more varied listen than its predecessor, the grimly powerful Haus der Lüge. The exuberantly melodic ("Zebulon") bumps up against the darkly experimental ("12305[te Nacht]") and the outright rockin' ("Die Interimsliebenden"). But the most startling track must be the ethereal "Blume," a sexually charged lullaby that's fraught with the thick layers of symbolism we've come to expect from lyricist Blixa Bargeld. Sung--in English!--by Anita Lane, whose voice registers somewhere near the Cranes' Alison Shaw, it sounds like nothing we've ever heard before from Neubauten. The disc closes with the 15-minute "Headcleaner," a mesmerizing, bombastic, symphonic cacophony that interpolates the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love." It all ends quietly, but your ears may never be the same again.‟

Simon Landau