Through Piskidisk comesthis release from Rose MacDowell's Sorrow and various other relatedbands. The first two songs, from Sorrow, are very much in the vein oftheir pretty folk-influenced work, although with less of a pop (not aninsult) feel. A short folky instrumental followed by "The FinalSolstice," a more ambient, lovely piece with Rose's inimitable vocalsfloating over a lovely backdrop of keyboards, cello, and uiellaen (sp?)pipes. Very nice, but the next song, "Extracts from the Faery Queene,"features David Tibet's spoken vocals over minimal, creepy electronics,and it's absolutely brilliant. Judging by the title, I'd guess that thelyrics are adapted from the masque of the same name, but i'm notfamiliar with it, so i don't know for sure. Going from Strength toStrength, this is followed by Rosa Mundi's, "The Snowman," with JohnBalance doing the lead vocals and Rose providing ethereal backing. Thiscould easily be as wonderful as their version of "Christmas is DrawingNear." It makes me especially impatient for a full length Rosa Mundidisc. The Velocity Star (no details about this project) cover of "WarmLeatherette" is fun, yet nothing too spectacular, the instrumentationis very similar to TVOD's original version, with some noisier soundsadded. The final song, "Butterfly Hawk," by the equally mysteriousResonance, is superb as well, another beautiful piece very much alongthe lines of the Sorrow tracks. The only real complaint I have is thatit's a CDR instead of an actual CD. The cover art is nice, a simplewhite background with red paint thrown accross like blood and the titlein Rose's handwritten script. If you can still find this (as it'slimited to 500 copies), it's definitely worth picking up, especiallyfor Current 93 and Coil fans...samples:
- Sorrow - The Final Solstice
- Rosa Mundi - The Snow Man
- Velocity Star - Warm Leatherette
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