Continuing the time-honored tradition of reissuing widely availableback albums instead of releasing new music, Current 93 present aremastered, repackaged and expanded 2CD re-release of 1991's Thunder Perfect Mind. In contrast to some recent, mostly pointless rehashes of the back catalog, TPMwas due for this treatment, as the original CD issue was poorlymastered. The volume was far too low and the mix lacked punch, inferiorto the hard-to-find LP edition. The bonus disc is comprised of TPM-era outtakes, alternate versions and live material. Nearly all of this material can also be found on Emblems: The Menstrual Years and Calling For Vanished Faces,so Current 93 collectors will find very little that is attractive aboutthis package, with the exception of the restored LP cover artwork andthe nifty foldout digipack. Of course, the music on Thunder Perfect Mind is nothing less than essential, the first entry in David Tibet's masterful three-album run that also included the classics Of Ruine or Some Blazing Starre and All The Pretty Little Horses. With TPM,David Tibet created his first highly personal tour de force, asprawling double album that finally gelled all of Tibet's myriadinfluences - esoteric, lyrical and musical - and represented the veryculmination of his promising, though uneven early career. Thunder Perfect Mindis that rare class of albums where every track is a highlight - thecrisp medieval balladry and bizarre Gnostic cosmology that comprise"The Descent of Long Satan and Babylon," the melancholic funeral dirgeof "A Song for Douglas After He's Dead," the atmospheric gloom of "ASadness Song" and the swirling, spectral psychedelia of "All The StarsAre Dead Now." The collaborations on TPM are among Current 93'sfinest: Jhon Balance's vocals on "Rosy Star Tears From Heaven" pushesthe track into the kind of Satanic fury previously only heard on Comus'First Utterance, and Bevis Frond's Nick Salomon contributes anelectrifying third-eye guitar track to the side-long prophetic Blakeanhallucinations of "Hitler as Kalki (SDM)." David Tibet and producerSteven Stapleton transform holophonic krautrocker Sand's skeletal "WhenThe May Rain Comes" into a masterpiece of phased Euro-folk, evoking thewet cobblestones of a half-remembered old-world Berlin. A true rarityin the Current 93 canon, the outtakes from TPM are every bit asgood as the album, especially "Maldoror Is Ded Ded Ded Ded" and "TheyReturn To Their Earth" - a pair of stunning tracks that build to afrighteningly cathartic climax. The re-mastering job is admirable,raising the volume and adding dimension to the high and lowfrequencies, without sacrificing the integrity of the original'sfidelity. This is exactly what I hope for when a favorite of mine isre-issued - a superbly realized package that deepens, rather thandilutes my conviction that the album is a classic. Read More
