I asked a question on the Black Tape thread, but no-one replied and I hope someone knows: There is an astonishing vocal performance at the end of Ashes In The Brittle Air by someone called Robin Russell, who as far as I can find, has no other recorded music credits. Who on earth was that guy?
I'm really curious about the aborted albums Trance To The Sun tried and if there is anything more that was worth hearing. I'd love to hear some of their stuff with Gordon Sharp from Cindytalk, what a bizarre collaboration! I wonder if Dawn Wagner was ever found after her disappearance. Did Ingrid Blue ever do anything after Trance? I'm still missing some of their compilation appearances... Wow! I just found out they put out a compilation called The Blue Obscurities last year. I gotta have it!
I actually only have the first Faith And The Muse album, so I dont know them that well. I have the last two This Ascension albums, I think Sain was on one of them, I really adore those two albums. But I think I know what you are getting at. "Mannered" is a tricky word, to speak about it in its obvious sense... when I was getting into this music I wrestled with feeling that perhaps it was false, mannered, pretentious, etc... but something those guys in Sparks once said really stuck with me when they were defending themselves against those sort of acussations. They said that a literal presentation of their day to day lives would not be a true expression of who they were and that some people need to pretend somewhat to really be true to themselves in art. I initially thought Mike VanPortfleet was trying to sound cool, dark, edgy and sexy in a modern vampire way but the more I got to know his voice, the more I knew this was not true. And vocalists as mannered as Tibet from Oscar from Black Tape, Current 93, Mr Doctor from Devil Doll and Varney from Sopor Aeternus are going to be a tough sell to a lot of people.
Any Rise And Fall Of A Decade fans here? The first album is the only properly gothic one, but I'd say the first three albums were essential.
I think Katie Jane Garside could have been a goth icon had she put on a bit more black or made slightly darker( visually not thematically)music.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 13 April 2012 23:06 (twelve years ago) link
Sorry, I meant Zoe Wakefield when I said Dawn Wagner
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 13 April 2012 23:22 (twelve years ago) link
I'd just like take a quick moment to say how much I like School of Seven Bells' cover of Siouxsie's "Kiss Them For Me."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAf6akprIBQ
http://stereogum.com/1014372/school-of-seven-bells-kiss-them-for-me-siouxsie-and-the-banshees-cover/mp3s/
― theskysgoneout (Jason Pitzl-Waters), Friday, 27 April 2012 20:49 (twelve years ago) link
Also, new Light Asylum comes out next week!
― theskysgoneout (Jason Pitzl-Waters), Friday, 27 April 2012 20:58 (twelve years ago) link
I posted this over on the DCD thread, but I thought it was worth mentioning here as well.
New Dead Can Dance album will be out August 9th.
http://www.directcurrentmusic.com/dc-music-news-feed/2012/5/7/dead-can-dance-are-alive-again-for-first-album-since-96.html
― theskysgoneout (Jason Pitzl-Waters), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 19:44 (twelve years ago) link
They've got a fair number of older tracks they only ever performed live they can pull from... I just hope they have some duets on the new one.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 20:11 (twelve years ago) link
Have enjoyed the last couple of 2:54 singles, album comes out at the end of this month. They sound a bit like Warpaint or PJ Harvey or something...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGH7bKlABIc2:54 - Scarlet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9blpg5NknU2:54 - You're Early
― btw didn't i braek ur heart (NickB), Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:29 (twelve years ago) link
soft moon with john foxx, seems relevant here
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/13622-evidence/
― 'real danger' of Abbott ovenmitt (electricsound), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 23:25 (twelve years ago) link
I love the Soft Moon/John Foxx collaboration, it made me wish it was a whole album.
― theskysgoneout (Jason Pitzl-Waters), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 00:24 (twelve years ago) link
Happy World Goth Day ILM!
http://www.worldgothday.com/
― theskysgoneout (Jason Pitzl-Waters), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 17:10 (twelve years ago) link
What the
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ-GiVfD3wE
― StanM, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 18:34 (twelve years ago) link
i posted this on the punk/underground thread earlier.. i guess i'll post it here also even though their last few releases sounded way more goth
http://katorgaworks.bigcartel.com/product/merchandise-children-of-desire-lp
― billstevejim, Saturday, April 7, 2012 3:50 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i just ran into this band via tumblr etc. pretty good!
fucking unsearchable names these days tho
― goole, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 18:40 (twelve years ago) link
this is hot!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu3oEc6CSpc&feature=relmfu
― goole, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 18:45 (twelve years ago) link
holy hell, I love this
― that is a weird thing to bring up over lean cuisine (DJP), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 18:48 (twelve years ago) link
i know it's just that the guy has a deepish voice, but an echo and the bunnymen act! just what the world needed imo.
― goole, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 18:52 (twelve years ago) link
apparently they are from tampa. lol.
I finished listening to the Black Belles album recently. I liked it okay but it sounds like Jack White not only produced it but wrote half the album. I bought the album on the strength of the cover( I rarely buy any records without knowing something about them first), it looked a bit like Join Hands by Banshees. In purely musical terms it is only slightly gothic. I often wonder why a lot of bands choose horror imagery for their dress up and record covers but dont evoke it with their music very much. I see that quite a bit from punky rockabilly bands. It makes me wonder how much goth really is a musical genre, because most of it could be said to be just a regular genre (post punk, ambient... etc) but taken a darker way.
When I started listening to The Cure and Banshees and progressed onto other stuff, I always loved it but was disappointed in a way because I didnt think it sounded gothic, I always thought gothic music surely had church organs, harpsichords and ghostly choirs. Early Jacula/Antonius Rex (dark prog/early metal) filled this need to an extent and I think I'll be finding others close to this. I'm curious about Nox Arcana and Midnight Syndicate.
I see plenty of room for new types of goth music because I believe and hope that upcoming musicians should just find musical ways to describe their gothic fantasies.
Jason- Earlier you described how goth moved into dance/club orientated music. Could you explain how goth moved away from the UK? At least it seems to me it has. So much UK activity in the 80s but there cant be many UK goth bands now. Did british cynicism kill goth? If I ever see a goth in the street, I tend to assume they are a metalhead. When I was in highschool, the gothic dress was pretty much associated with Industial and bizarrely Nu-Metal. I've talked about this to a bunch of people how where I live (scotland) there seems to be decreasing amounts of people in public visibly belonging to a subculture. In the late 90s I remember seeing punks, goths, bikers, hippies and leather/pvc people in public. But now everyone looks the fucking same. It's a bit scary and sad to wonder how this happened. I never dressed up because I'm too lazy and I think it is tougher for guys to goth up and look good.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 26 May 2012 00:23 (twelve years ago) link
I often wonder why a lot of bands choose horror imagery for their dress up and record covers but dont evoke it with their music very much
Lots of bands are guilty of this these days imo.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, 26 May 2012 15:19 (twelve years ago) link
Just watched Soft Moon live. Insanely good.
― Ima Skim Read That Bitch (Doran), Sunday, 27 May 2012 01:59 (twelve years ago) link
Did british cynicism kill goth?
You'd probably have to ask Uncle Nemesis or Mick Mercer for a definite answer, since I'm not based in the UK, and would no doubt miss something vital. That said, my understanding is that after the dark rock "boom" in the late-80s and early-90s, club music of all sorts came to dominate, live gigs fell off, and the scene retreated to a handful of dance clubs. Things are better now, as I understand it, but there's a good bit of separation from the original scene and the newer dark bands. So cynicism? No. More changing trends and economic realities.
― theskysgoneout (Jason Pitzl-Waters), Sunday, 27 May 2012 22:12 (twelve years ago) link
Bunch of goth-y new releases out today...
Unto Ashes - Burials ForetoldArcana - As Bright As A Thousand SunsTropic of Cancer - Permissions of Love EPSavages - Husbands / Flying to Berlin Single
Anyone here pick these up? Anything out this week I missed?
― theskysgoneout (Jason Pitzl-Waters), Monday, 28 May 2012 17:33 (twelve years ago) link
Really enjoy that Merchandise album while cleaning my hamster's cage last night, thanks for recommending! Although I think the part where it goes all crazy in the middle of "Become What You Are" kind of freaked the little dude out.
― The Devil's Panini Machine (J3ff T.), Monday, 28 May 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
Anything out this week I missed?
o children new album "apnea".. came out digitally this week anyway
― garrett still a cunt (electricsound), Tuesday, 29 May 2012 01:53 (twelve years ago) link
Wow, Tropic of Cancer continues to rock it with their new 12". I love their Clan of Xymox/Section 25 thing.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Tuesday, 29 May 2012 02:00 (twelve years ago) link
i dig it.
― garrett still a cunt (electricsound), Tuesday, 29 May 2012 02:17 (twelve years ago) link
doomy htrk-ish solo stuff from member of everyone's favourite synth nihilists chrome dome
http://asps.bandcamp.com/
― garrett still a cunt (electricsound), Tuesday, 29 May 2012 04:04 (twelve years ago) link
Thanks for the reminder on O Children, just picked that up. Veering into some overlapping metal territory, I'm also pretty excited about the new Ides of Gemini album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzIyPK6bqIk
― theskysgoneout (Jason Pitzl-Waters), Tuesday, 29 May 2012 20:34 (twelve years ago) link
will get the o children album when it hits a silver disc.
fuck a download.
quite a backstory re the singer since the previous album .. was wonderin as they just 'disappeared' for a long time
― mark e, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 20:45 (twelve years ago) link
fuck a download
I got it in FLAC format from Boomkat, so audio-quality-wise it's just as good.
― theskysgoneout (Jason Pitzl-Waters), Wednesday, 30 May 2012 00:22 (twelve years ago) link
I've got a love/hate thing for Mick Mercer.
On one hand he can be unecessarily rude (he has admitted this) and I think he said people have even attacked him in person for this. He complains about the way people ignorantly treat goth but I think he is guilty of doing the exact things he complains about, but to progressive rock (one of my 3 top genres next to goth and dreampop, with the latter two overlapping a lot). I've said before how good Devil Doll and Jacula/Antonius Rex were. Trance To The Sun listed prog as an influence too. But on the other hand he can be very funny, he is extremely dedicated to the bands. He once said that the difference between him and a lot of brit music journalists of his generation was that they written about themselves while he written about the bands. It shows when I looked back at archive reviews that this is true. I really enjoyed some of his books. Sadly some of the music he written rave reviews for is invisible on the internet.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 30 May 2012 17:55 (twelve years ago) link
just ducked in to see if anyone had talked about Merchandise ITT .... check
Children of Desire is a good record
honk if you <3 the eighties
etc
― dmr, Wednesday, 26 September 2012 00:49 (eleven years ago) link
their older record available at the bigcartel link that billstevejim posted upthread is worth a listen too. Strange Songs in the Dark. more guitar noise / shoegazey vibes compared to the new one.
― dmr, Wednesday, 26 September 2012 00:52 (eleven years ago) link
i like "strange songs in the dark" a lot better, but the new one is good.
i just ran into this band via tumblr etc. pretty good!fucking unsearchable names these days thotry putting "merchandise wordpress". i think all the digital albums are still free.
i've come around to their self-titled demo which is my favorite at the moment. darker/harder-edge songs and production. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmZBkHmNrMA
― billstevejim, Wednesday, 26 September 2012 02:05 (eleven years ago) link
Found this on Spotify, it is the shit. Soundtrack to queer horror movie (which looks amazing) by Bruce LaBruce:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhgaj4LW4a4
The film is about a zombie named Otto who hitched a ride to Berlin and begins to explore the city. Otto is discovered by underground filmmaker Medea Yarn, who begins to make a documentary about him with the support of her girlfriend, Hella Bent, and her brother Adolf. Medea is trying to finish Up with Dead People, the epic political-porno-zombie movie that she has been working on and convinces its star, Fritz Fritze, to allow the vulnerable Otto to stay in his guest bedroom.
― โตเกียวเหมียวเหมียว aka Italo Night at Some Gay Club (Mount Cleaners), Friday, 19 October 2012 23:44 (eleven years ago) link
I just put this outhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp4xTcJya8s
You can pre-order / listen to the whole thing herehttp://instantpleasure.bandcamp.com
― instantpleasure, Saturday, 20 October 2012 18:19 (eleven years ago) link
'some ember' ep on night-people would appeal to o.children fans.
― gila free (electricsound), Tuesday, 2 April 2013 05:06 (eleven years ago) link
peeps might also dig the white hex lp on nihilistic orbs
http://nihilisticorbslabel.bandcamp.com/album/white-hex-heat-lp
sadly the label founder passed away so there won't be anything else on this label, which is a damn shame as almost everything on it was great
― gila free (electricsound), Tuesday, 2 April 2013 05:09 (eleven years ago) link