- Jonathan Dean
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/current_93-how_i_devoured_apocalypse_balloon.gif)
Durtro Jnana
To me, the live albums always seemed like filler in the Current 93catalog, frequent stopgaps between studio material, meant to pleasehardcore fans and completists. The problem plaguing much of the pastmaterial, in my opinion, is that Current 93 just weren't a very goodlive act until very recently. Though they have performed many liveshows since their earliest incarnation, David Late Tibet and his merryband of apocalyptic folksters have frequently given new meaning to theterm amateur. Just listen to the Hitler as Kalki material withDouglas P. senselessly pounding away on the same chord he's beenplaying for twenty years, John Balance "playing" stick guitar and Tibetand Rose McDowall shrieking out of key, taking a massive shit all oversongs that sounded powerful and hypnotic on the proper studio album.Adding to the problem were bad PA systems and bad recording equipment.So, with all this in mind, I found myself pleasantly surprised by How I Devoured Apocalypse Balloon,a new double-disc live album featuring two full sets from last year'stwo dates at Toronto's St. George-the-Martyr Church on June 18th and19th. (By the way, I can't stop singing the title of this album to thetune of The Fall's "How I Wrote Elastic Man.") This is probably Current93's best live album, at least the best one that I've ever heard, as Iadmit to having skipped a few. Though the ensemble featured here is notquite as large and spectacular as that which was featured during thisyear's three-night run, the players still do a wonderful job ofcreating a fine musical accompaniment for Tibet's intense, crepuscular,poetic speak-singing. Though there are no liner notes which wouldindicate the personnel that performed at these concerts (and also,alas, no track listing), I think that I can hear and identify MajaElliott on piano, Joolie Wood on violin, and perhaps also Simon Finnand Ben Chasny on acoustic guitar at various times. The recordingquality is sparklingly clear, and the setlist chosen for both nightsfeatures of some of Current 93's best and best-loved material, drawnfrom as far back as Island and Imperium, all the way through Thunder Perfect Mind, Of Ruine or Some Blazing Starre, All the Pretty Little Horses, Soft Black Stars, Sleep Has His House and even a cut off of Bright Yellow Moon.Along the way are some surprising wild cards from the back catalog thatI've never heard performed live - including the haunting and powerful"They Return to Their Earth," "A Sadness Song" and "The Blue Gates ofDeath (Before and Beyond Them)," each faithfully rendered within a morelimited instrumental palette. The second features very effective usageof noise loops and live electronic voice manipulations, which I can'trecall hearing since the earliest phases of Current 93 live shows. Istill don't think I'll listen to this much beyond the few spins I gaveit before writing this review, but as Current 93 live albums go, thisone is truly definitive. - Jonathan Dean
samples:
- The Descent of Long Satan and Babylon
- They Return to Their Earth
- The Blue Gates of Death (Before and Beyond Them)
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- Jonathan Dean
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/simon_finn-magic_moments.jpg)
Durtro Jnana
Original press copies of his frequently bootlegged MushroomRecords LP (which has only just last year been officially reissued onDurtro Jnana) have traded hands for insanely high prices, the inclusionof maverick experimental accompanists Paul Burwell and David Toopmaking it a desirable treasure, as well as soul-shattering tracks like"Jerusalem," easily one of my favorite songs of all time. Unexpectedlytwo years ago, David Late Tibet somehow dug up Simon Finn, who hascontinued to write music through the years, and has given Finn anoutlet to release new material, as well as utilized his considerabletalents on new Current 93 recordings. Magic Moments is acollection of 12 folk songs, Finn singing in his familiar, world-wearyTom Rapp-esque voice, accompanied on a few tracks by Joolie Wood onflute or violin. Because of the simple, unadorned recording style andthe minimal instrumentation, this record doesn't repeat the sameshambolic, psychedelic chaos that characterized his classic LP. Thiscan't help but come as something of a disappointment to me, but I haveno complaints about Finn's songs, which are deceptively simple,redolent of the best British folk, with cryptic lyrics pregnant withmeaning and emotional intensity. Three tracks on the album are repeatedfrom last year's Silent City Creep CDEP (now out-of-print) -"Walkie Talkie," "Eros" and "Wanted You," great songs all. Of thebrand-new material, the title track is one of the best, a sadrumination on how human lives involve long periods of unhappiness,punctuated by magical moments that we carry with us as a salve againstdepression. Also memorable is a song Finn wrote many years ago but hasnever recorded until now, "Golden Golden," an apocalyptic war balladthat ends the album on a pessimistic note: "All our lives we'researching/to find a lord to crown/And Golden, Golden was ourtime/Golden, Golden truths and lies." This song is also one of the fewtimes that Finn's vocals reach the throat-stripped ferocity of hisperformance on classics like "Jerusalem" and "Big White Car." Magic Moments is incredibly brief at only 30 minutes, but eminently listenable, and it's great to hear Simon Finn making records again. - Jonathan Dean
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- Jonathan Dean
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/simon_finn-subjunctive_mood.jpg)
Durtro Jnana
The title track tells the story of a man who has passed away hisexistence as a stranger in his own life - forever living in thesubjective, the hypothetical, the plane of dreams and ideals - the verbtense suggested by the title: "Most of his life, it seems/Has passed inthe subjunctive mood/The imagined, wished and dreamed for but/He mustlearn how not to brood on all the/Were it nots, and were she theres/Thebe that as it mays/and God help him." On all of these songs, Finnaccompanies himself, strumming or fingerpicking simply melodies thatbolster his lyrics, which are the real attraction here. I thought atfirst that "Rich Girl With No Trousers" might be a declaration of lovefor the slutty heiress Paris Hilton, but judging by the sad, reflectivelyrics, it's more likely about a woman from Finn's half-rememberedpast. The high lonesome blues sound of "Lingering" recalls Chris ThomasKing's haunting versions of Skip James songs, connecting Finn'straditional Brit folk leanings with early American folk and blues. Ihave nothing but respect for Simon Finn, who has jumped back intowriting and recording after a more than thirty-year absence, with allthe aplomb and poise of a seasoned veteran. However, I do hope that atsome point he considers recording another album like Pass the Distance,working again with collaborators that can transform his emotionallycharged folk songs into something even greater through unorthodoxarrangements and interesting production. Not that I wouldn't be happywith more like this EP and Magic Moments, it's just a wish. - Jonathan Dean
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- Jonathan Dean
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/baby_dee-made_for_love.jpg)
Durtro Jnana
Very little has changed about Baby Dee's sound since her earliestdemos, still the same hauntingly affected voice singing fragile songsabout love, loss, gender, identity, mothers and fathers, and the tiny,seemingly insignificant memories that collect over time to comprise ouremotional lives. On all three of these tracks, Baby Dee accompaniesherself on piano (no harp this time), with bright, sad minor-keymelodies that set her songs aloft. There is still somethingunmistakably, gnawingly creepy about the pain and sadness that seems aninseparable part of Baby Dee's transgender vocals, even when she singsrelatively joyful songs like "Morning Fire," a simple and sweetdeclaration of love. On "Three Women," Dee sings a mournful song whichseems to be about her desire for motherhood: "I'm making a cradle/Outof broken arms/Out of arms that sing." On the song's masculinecounterpart "Three Men," Dee sings lyrics so achingly simple they couldbe straight out of a book of nursery rhymes, but they are nonethelesssad and evocative: "I went to see my mother/And I got lost/Now it's sohard to get home...I heard your children singing/In a western sky/Letthem call that sky their own." There are many who will doubtlesscontinue to regard Baby Dee as a novelty freak show (as a youth, sheworked in a Coney Island circus sideshow as a bilateral hermaphrodite),something along the lines of a transsexual Tiny Tim. However, there area precious few enthusiasts, who like me, never regarded Tiny Tim as anovelty act, and don't think of Baby Dee that way either. Baby Dee isan utterly unique voice in contemporary music, one that once you havelet it into your heart, can scarcely be forgot. - Jonathan Dean
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- Jonathan Dean
- Albums and Singles
Durtro Jnana
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/john_contreras_rose_mcdowall_nurse_with_wound-afraid_1_and_2_geometric_horsehair_cavalcade.gif)
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
Young God Records
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/bodyloversbodyhaters.jpg)
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- Andrew Culler
- Albums and Singles
Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L'Acier
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/haino_keiji-black_blues.jpg)
samples:
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- Joshua David Mann
- Albums and Singles
Matinee
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/the_lucksmiths-warmer_corners.jpg)
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![](/images/easyblog_images/64/b2ap3_large_marsen_jules-herbstlau_20220513-030429_1.jpg)
- Matthew Jeanes
- Albums and Singles
![](/brain/images/marsen_jules-herbstlaub.jpg)
http://www.skam.co.uk" target="new">Skam
![](/brain/images/marsen_jules-herbstlaub.jpg)
Skam's hip hop ambassadors the Shadow Huntaz are back with another full length of trans-atlantic collaborations with their brothers-in-arms the Funckarma production crew. Shadow Huntaz Skam debut was a breath of fresh air that fused classic American hip hop with contemporary European electronica in a way that others had flirted with, but not quite achieved. The follow up <i>Vampire EP</i> was more of the same, but showed that when the Huntaz put their minds to it, they could create a truly brilliant track. With <i>Valley of the Shadow</i>, the team is once again mining the same basic well of sounds and lyrical topics that were covered in the previous two records, which makes <i>Valley</i> seem more like a continuation of <i>Corrupt Data</i> than a next-step in the group's evolution. The beats are all synthesized, featuring heavy kick drums and noise-pong snare and high hat patterns that mimic the rhythm of classic hip hop but interpret it in the mode of minimal techno. Samples are few and far between (at least samples that haven't been processed into blurry washes of filter noise) and that's what keeps Shadow Huntaz from sounding like other contemporary hip hop artists who are being sold to the Warp/Planet Mu buying public. While hip hop has always been a mash up of sampled grooves and synthetic ones--a world of producers and MCs-- the hip hop aesthetic itself has been diluted so much in recent years that collaborations such as this one tend to sound at times like a production team and a vocal team playing together, but not exactly on the same page. There's the hint of an all-too-convenient pairing of styles that smacks at times of a record executive's idea of capitalizing on the laptop generation's love of all things hip hop. I have no doubt that Shadow Huntaz are the real deal, and that they take this work seriously, but with a back catalog of excellent releases, this one just doesn't seem as exploratory as it should. Occassionally as on "Radically," Shadow Huntaz amaze with fluid, intelligent rhymes over simple beats that don't get in the way of themselves, and give the words room to breath. "Radically" is the reason to buy a record like this because it's a near-perfect synthesis of styles that doesn't step on any one sensibility, but focuses different ideas together to be something greater. The brilliant tracks like this though, have to be weighed against the filler tracks full of typical rap bravado and stories of sexual conquest, or the tracks that out-spaz themselves in mindless worship of the twitch. These tracks aren't risk-taking when one considers the success of other indie hip hop records that are pitched to the same audience. Shadow Huntaz as MCs have formidible skills on the mic, and Funckarma are studio wizards capable of slick, bouncing production, but by the end of "Valley of the Shadow," I get the sense that the two sets of minds have done all that they can do together. Hip hop is naturally progressive music, much like the digital cut up techno from across the pond, but we've heard all of this before, and while some of it is still great and will make it into many DJ sets, it just isn't pushing down walls the way it could be.
- <a href="/brain/contributors.html">Matthew Jeanes</a>
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
Burial Mix
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- Lucas Schleicher
- Albums and Singles
Paw Tracks
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