The Poppy Variations is the ill-natured twin of The Whispering Wall — the qlippothic, mirror-universe reflection, residing in the shadowy nightside of Eden. Where Whispering is right in line with LPD's current manifestation and evolution, Poppy is entirely regressive and even transgressive. Where Whispering is often joyful and musically rich, Poppyis spare, prickly and pessimistic. Rather than a series of inviting,accessible compositions, LPD creates a series of perverse spectralenigmas, even utilizing samples and reworkings of their older material,in some attempt at painstaking self-reflection and exegesis. EdwardKa-Spel's lyrics aren't as bemused and detached as usual here, instead,on many of the tracks, he sounds downright miserable, displaying thekind of perplexed mental fragmentation familiar from early Dotsmaterial like Asylum. Long sections of near-silence andpassages exhibiting the kind of wildly unorthodox experimentation notheard since the Steven Stapleton-produced Malachai: Shadow Weaver part 2make this album one of LPD's most difficult propositions in recentmemory. It's a schizophrenic experience attempting to place this albumin context with The Whispering Wall; best, then, to evaluate iton its own merits. Which are many, especially for diehard fans of earlyDots (read: freaks of nature) - the jagged, minimal electronics andKa-Spel's piercing graveyard whine, staccato drum machine rhythms,bizarre samples, loops and low-budget psychedelic touches thatcontribute to an air of drugged-out bedroom insanity. The hazy, summerbuzz of "Krussoe" shifts and festers in the background, as Ka-Spelmutters: "All I have is sand, a withered hand, a pile of cans, they'rerusting." More nautical metaphors (see Ka-Spel's Pieces of 8),this time the bedraggled literary castaway wishing for a ship to comeand take him away from his tropical hell. Even the song names on The Poppy Variationsseem to echo the album's dire outlook: "Personal Monster" and "ItDoesn't Matter Anway," a pair of songs that echo early Dots melodies,minimal treatments, up-close vocals explicating the most dreadfulfuturistic angst. "L'oiseau Rare (Pt. 1 & 2)" begins with wackyjungle-drums and bouncing vocals familiar from "Crumbs on the Carpet,"but it quickly segues into a lengthy excursion through enigmaticunfoldings of ambient meandering, lost in a vast interplanetary garbagescow at night. It's as frightening, haunted and lonely as The Tower or parts of Crushed Velvet Apocalypse.An Orson Welles-ish radio drama voice slips out of the aethyr on "TheHot Breath on Your Neck," creepily intoning:"It...is...later...than...you...think....," to which a resigned Ka-Spelreplies: "I know, you don't have to rub it in, do you?" Ouch. Thingsend on a note of spectacularly epic melancholy, with the two-part,25-minute picaresque musical patchwork of the title track, which usesthe classic track "Poppy Day" as a jumping off point for a lengthymeditation on depression and addiction. I've never felt so far awaylistening to music on my headphones, the track traveling through mentalcorridors, collecting faded memories and obsessed spirits, ultimatelyexploding into a massive and sinister soundscape of disembodied voices,radioactive swipes of brain-frying sound, cold metallic insectoidtextures and distant, reverberating funereal choruses of bagpipes. Inits own twisted, cadaverous way, The Poppy Variations is an even finer accomplishment than The Whispering Wall, a spooked missive from deep in the heart of the abyss.samples:
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