Ambient / Neo-classical / Ethereal-Wave gods Dead Can Dance today launched Anastasis, their first new studio album in sixteen years.
Following the initial announcement and release of a free download of the song "Amnesia" on Pitchfork media yesterday, the band's homepage was today updated to allow free streaming of the 3complete album and pre-purchase options for the album in a range of formats including digital download and deluxe autographed packages.
The official release date of Anastasis has been set for August 9th.
There's now a purportedly complete track listing for Anastasis floating around out there. No sign of this information on the band's official pages that I can see yet, but let us grant it the benefit of the doubt by assuming it to be accurate. Also some dispute about the actual release date with suggestions that it may in fact be August 13. May well depend upon the country in which you are unlucky enough to reside.
1. Children Of The Sun
2. Anabasis
3. Agape
4. Amnesia
5.
Kiko
6. Opium
7. Return Of The She-King
8. All In Good Time
How could we not talk about Fields of the Nephilim? Indeed,
when I first became interested in Gothic Rock which is now literally more than
half a life-time ago, even just their name fascinated me.
That they were influenced by the The Sisters of Mercy seems
too obvious to say. That eclipsed only by The Sisters, they would become the
prime influence on 90’s Goth seems doubly so. That without them the entire
subgenre of Gothic Metal from Paradise Lost to Tiamat to Moonspell would never
have existed is indisputable.
But all of this comes later, and is a story for another
time. What concerns us now is a vastly younger and somewhat softer band with
their first release and a saxophonist come keyboard player by the name of Gary
Wisker.
Yes, you did read that right – the same harder-than-nails
Goth gods that goose-stepped straight out of Ennio Morricone’s fever dreams once
possessed a saxophonist. However, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Fields of the Nephilim originally sauntered out of Stevenage in Hertforshire during 1984. At the time they
were apparently working under the name of Perfect Disaster, itself a perfect
disaster of a name that could easily have belonged to any of the godawful metal cover
bands I was subjected to while growing up in the Perth of the late 80s. They very sensibly
changed it to The Mission, only to have that idea completely derailed by the
massive schism that occurred in The Sisters of Mercy camp.
Clearly, a new name was needed and, likely inspired by their new vocalist and
Kaos Magick enthusiast Carl McCoy, began delving into more obscure parts of The
Old Testament and Fields of the Nephilim came into being. It’s probably
safe(ish) to say that most fans of Fields of the Nephilim are aware that the
name derives from a biblical race of giants, but as few people have actually bothered
to read the relevant bits and pieces, it’s probably worth taking a look:
“(1)And it came to
passe, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were
borne vnto them: (2)That the sonnes of God saw the daughters of men, that they
were faire, and they took them wiues, all of which they choose…(4) There were
Giants in the earth in those daies; and also after that, when the sonnes of God
came in vnto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them; the same
became mightie men, which were of old, men of renowme.” Genesis 6:1-4 KJV
This is of course, about as far as most people get, and they
understandably come away thinking that the bits about giants were awesome, but still
bewildered as to where the band derived their name from. This is an unfortunate
effect of later reiterations of The Bible striving to popularize itself by
removing all the more esoteric references. To find the actual mention of The
Nephilim, we need to look much earlier, and The Torah will do just fine:
“(1) And it came to
pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were
born unto them, (2) that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they
were fair; and they took them wives, whomsoever they choose…(4) The Nephilim
were in the earth those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in
unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the
mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.”Genesis 6: 1-4 Torah.
Aha! And now we have the name, but we’ve somehow lost all
mention of giants. To get that, we need to look a little bit further:
“And they spread an
evil report of the land which they had spied out unto the children of Israel,
saying ‘The land, through which we have passed to spy it out, is a land that
eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all the people that we saw in it are men
of great stature. (33) And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who
come of the Nephilim; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we
were in their sight.’”Numbers 13: 32-33 Torah.
And, Ta-Dah! Imagery no doubt pitching a tent in Carl Mc
Coy’s pants rivaled only by the big top it must have pitched in Erik VonDaniken’s. (Serious students of esoterica and apocryphia might care to go here.)
But enough of this nonsense! You want to hear about the music,
yes? And rightly so.
The year is 1985 and
already the effects of The Sisters’ Reptile House EP and the Temple of Love
single, released at the absolute peak of the first wave of Goth in ’83 are
being felt. Never shrinking violets, those young Turks, The Nephilm picked up
the ball and ran with it (three metaphors in one sentence – Go me!). The result
musically, was something in the Sister’s pre-Wayne Hussey mold but with harsh
vocal stylings previously seen only in proto-black metal bands like Venom or Celtic
Frost albeit massively slowed down.
The EP itself is quite the dynamic little number, commencing
with the jaw-dropping “Trees Come Down”
which in itself, could have easily become the The Nephilim’s signature tune if
they hadn’t gone beyond all expectations of the time and bettered it just a few
short years later with “Preacher Man”
(Situation Two, 1987) and “Moonchild”
(Situation Two, 1988).
“Back In Gehenna”
follows (More Old Testament references!), but is perhaps overshadowed by some
of the other tracks on the EP and it is here that we first encounter the
saxophone. Not that it is bad in any way, but despite its compelling
self-referential line “we are the
Nephilim!”, it does seems a weak and runty beast when compared to the EP’s
other offerings. Not that that stopped the band re-recording it for the Returning
to Gehenna EP ( Supporti Fonografici, 1986).
Then we hit “Dark Cell”,
quiet, laid back and heavy on the saxophone. I think I may have mentioned
several times in the past that I’m not keen on the sax, but here it actually
does something worthwhile. Nevertheless, after this, the Nephs seem to have woken
up to the fact that the post-punk era of sax, as employed by Theatre of Hate,
Ritual and Actifed et al. was over and after the Returning to Gehenna EP, the
saxophone, and for better or worse, the keyboards were gone forever after.
Last, but far from least, we come to “Laura”. It is without question, one of Fields of the Nephilim’s
strongest earlier songs. It’s a more relaxed version we hear here in the
original than in later versions, but the fact that Fields of the Nephilim would
go back and re-record it not just once but twice speaks volumes in itself. Its
first reincarnation appears on the Returning to Gehenna EP (as “Laura (New Version)”), and then again on the B-side of the Preacher Man single (Situation Two, 1987)
as “Laura II” before reappearing yet
again as bonus tracks on the various later re-releases of their debut LP Dawn
Razor (Situation Two, 1987).
Trees Come Down
Back In Gehenna
Dark Cell
Laura
I’ve always been one for album cover art so, despite not
particularly liking that which graces Burning the Fields, I can’t help myself
but to note that right from the start, Fields of the Nephilim aimed straight
for the heart of collectors, and accordingly, there exist a number of
variations on the original sleeve, all through Tower Release in 1985.
Speaking of Tower Release, I strongly suspect that this may
have been The Neph’s own label; an early Nephilim song bears the title “The Tower” and Burning the Fields and
its eventual 1993 re-release on CD are the only goodies that ever came out from
said label. Strangely though, it appears to have been a child of Jungle
Records. While I can’t claim much expertise in record licensing or
distribution, this does seem a very odd arrangement.
Cover art on the rear of Burning the Fields is equally interesting,
albeit for quite different reasons, namely the band pictures.
The story told here is quite plain – at the time of
releasing Burning the Fields, the band were yet to adopt the post-apocalyptic
cowboy pose that would later become their trademark. Equally interesting though
is the EP’s central sticker, clearly suggesting that even at this stage, the
cowboy concept was already past its initial incubation period.
Given their level of influence on Goth throughout the 90s, I
doubt this will be the last we see of Fields of the Nephilim on Plunder the
Tombs, but for now, let it be the end.
Track Listing:
Trees
Come Down
Back
in Gehenna
Dark
Cell
Laura
Line Up: Carl
McCoy (vocals), Tony Pettit (bass), Gary Wisker (keyboards & saxophone),
Nod Wright (percussion), Paul Wright (guitar)
Since reforming with new drummer Ray Phillpott in 2008, Luton’s
Godfathers of Goth, UK Decay have been
playing the festival circuit around Europe and
conjoured up enough new material to return to the recording studio for the
first time in almost 30 years. They need your help to make this happen though
kiddies, and following the very effective strategy employed in 2010 by The March Violets have gone through Pledge Music to raise some much needed dosh.
Just click here to provide UK Decay a helping hand and be a
part of what promises to be a very exciting musical outing.
UK Decay live at the DV8 Fest in York, July 2011
In other news, Australian ex-pats and gods of neoclassical/world music and
ambient/ethereal Goth , Dead Can Dance have somehow sneakily reformed sometime
last year without my noticing and are now threatening both a new album and a
world tour for 2012. Click here to sign up to their news updates, and they’ll
very nicely give you the free download EP "Live Happenings Part II" recorded
during their 2005 reunion tour.
Track Listing:
The
Love That Cannot Be
The
Lotus Eaters
Crescent
Minus
Sanctus
Dead Can Dance live in 2005
Man, they better come
to Perth or I’m
going to be seriously pissed.
Falling somewhere in the gap between Alien Sex Fiend and a slo-mo
version of The Cramps, the short-lived Anorexic Dread appeared out of DanielleDax’s hometown of Southend, Essex in 1983, lasting until just 1985. Perhaps
best described as a kind of Horror-Punk / Psychobilly outfit, other obvious
influences included The Birthday Party and Killing Joke. If they’d been
American, it’s a fair bet that Anorexic Dread almost certainly would have come
under the Deathrock tag. Frontman Phil Black was quick to belie the band’s
morbid image however, stating
“..we go onstage and
have just as much of a lunatic time leaping around. We don’t take what we do
seriously. We go onstage to enjoy ourselves and we invariably do.”
The Tracy’s Burning 12” recorded at Diploma Studios represents Anorexic Dread’s sole
contribution to vinyl. Interestingly, while discogs.com lists only one version
of the 12”, variations of the cover art appear to exist, with the band’s logo sometimes
appearing top left, and sometimes in the top right. The variant album cover can be seen on the deathrock.com link below.
Side A of the 12” begins with the epic nine minutes plus
title track “Tracy’s Burning” and its
conclusion “Epitaph” while side B
graces us with the much more Psycobillyesque “Tick Tock”. I must confess, that this didn’t do much for me on
initial hearing, but it does grow on repeated listenings, actually becoming
kind of endearing. And here for your listening pleasure:
Tracy’s
Burning / Epitaph
Tick Tock
The band played quite a few venues around Essex
including The Pink Toothbrush /Crocs (Don’t bother Googling “Crocs” – you’ll just end up with links
to a lot of sites selling some spectacularly unattractive excuses for what
passes as “shoes”). They also played The Batcave in London on at least one occasion, and managed
to wrangle a support gig with Alien Sex Fiend, a coupling I imagine would have
worked perfectly for them.
This live picture purports to have been taken at Crocs, but
the source who was nice enough to point me in its direction disputes this.
Things didn’t last too long after the 12” however, with
Anorexic Dread’s guitarist going walkabout as a roadie for The Cure. A new line-up
did record a demo “Dark Night in London”,
apparently in a more straight forward rock direction, but the band seems to
have dissolved soon after. Other songs are documented to exist including “She’s Beautiful and She’s Mine”, “Dragnet” and “Limelight”, but as far as I can tell, none were ever formally
released.
There’s a common misconception, especially amongst newer musical
collectors of subgenres that “obscurity” somehow equates with “credibility”. In
reality, some bands remained obscure because they weren’t in existence long
enough to make a real impact, some because they never got the breaks, some
because they were so left of field as to never catch on, and quite a lot who
remained obscure because they simply weren’t that good. In the case of Anorexic
Dread, I suspect that this is very much a matter of personal taste, but I do
think it worth more than just one listen before making your mind up.
Track Listing:
Tracy’s Burning /
Epitaph
Tick
Tock
Line Up:
Phil Black (vocals), Leonard Finch (AKA: Leonardo de
Finchie) (guitar), Magoo (keyboards), Donald Frame (drums)
This will be a short entry I suspect, given the almost
complete dearth of information available on line. Research here is made doubly
difficult by the emergence of the much more recent all girl outfit of the same name who inconveniently have been widely labeled as “Goth”.
(For the record, they’re not. But from what little I’ve heard, are not too bad
either, and I suspect fans of Ladytron might find much to appreciate there).
Materialising out of Yorkshire,
Ipso Facto had an ever-changing line-up revolving around their one constant
member and vocalist Eb.
Their first release was the Mannequin 7” (IF, 1983) after
which original bassist Ged Warren and some of the other early line up appear to
have parted company and formed something called Sedition who released a
solitary 12” The Mighty Device (Fon Records, 1986) which despite being produced
by Cabaret Voltaire’s Richard Kirk, sadly didn’t really seem to get them
anywhere.
Ipso Facto however, soldier on regardless, releasing their
single biggest project, the Give it to Her EP/12” (Zodiak, 1984). Apparently
only 500 copies of the original were pressed.
Somewhat oddly, and despite sheer weight of opinion being
against them, the usually reliable Discogs.com has this release listed as “Life is a Cabaret – Is it?” presumably
confused by the cover art on the album’s flipside. Still more confusingly, they
appear to have the track listing in the wrong order despite it being printed
very clearly on the front cover art. If only one had an original pressing to
work out how on Earth they arrived at this conclusion.
The flip-side of Give It To Her. Eb didn't
just do "vocals" - he did "words".
It’s actually a quite
engaging little record, despite what it lacks in the originality stakes. Curiously,
the B side is actually stronger than the A side, although perhaps that’s simply
my opinion. Although one can’t help but feel that Eb just really, really wanted
to be the next Pete Murphy, it makes for a genuinely enjoyable disc. If you like Bauhaus, you'll like this. I Suggest
you pick it up.
Give it to Her
Greta
Femme Etait Un Homme
Another two singles exist. There was the Noir Doir 7” (IF,
1984) and finally the Glass Tigers 7” (Zodiak Records, 1985). For a band so
relatively obscure and about who so little online information is available, it
seems quite remarkable that both the Give it to Her 12” and the Glass Tigers 7”
are both readily available for download on iTunes. (Sweet Lord – did I really
just give a plug to one of my most hated pieces of software?)
All this leaves us with one final mystery:
IF records apparently released just three pressings, the
first two of which were the Ipso Facto 7”s Mannequin and Noir Doir. This and
the label’s name may well lead those of a more suspicious mind to ponder
whether the IF label was actually owned by Ipso Facto themselves. The real
mystery here though comes with the enigmatic third pressing. It’s an untitled
7” (1985), allegedly from the Netherlands, and just to add to the oddness, the A & B sides were recorded at different speeds. Most interesting though, it comes from a band curiously titled In Formation (note the initials). Did Eb
actually do a little side project following Ipso Facto’s demise?
This warrants further investigation – we’ll get back to you.
Track Listing:
Give
it to Her
Blue
Angel
Greta
La
Femme Etait Un Homme
Line Up: Eb Aneza(vocals),
Vivienne (guitar), David Kane (bass), J. Fenn (drums), Steven Masters
(saxophone)
For a band who managed to knock out no less than five
full-length albums and had sufficiently decent distribution to see their CDs
make it all the way to isolated little Perth, finding hard information online
concerning these kids is surprisingly difficult. Their CD liner notes aren’t
much help either.
Sleeping Dogs Wake were initially a two piece consisting of
Robert Wilcocks and Karin Sharret, who seems to have had a thing for playing
drums sans shirt, although judging from band promo pics they seem to have
acquired an extra or two as time went on (members that is – how many shirts
Karin eventually owned remains a matter of speculation).
Robert also appears to have some connection to German
Darkwave outfit Girls Under Glass and the more industrial The Cassandra
Complex, although it’s not terribly clear if he was actually a member or not.
Both Robert and Karin also seem to have been involved in a relatively obscure
dance/industrial project known as Cobalt 60.
Originally starting out in 86 or 87, rehearsing in Robert's Camden flat, the Toys for Alice
/ Confined to Memory 12”appeared in 1988 as their first release, and a
thundering unique beastie it was. With the possible exception of a vaguely
passing resemblance to the early electronica of Diamanda Galas, I honestly
can’t think of anything similar that had gone before. Sleeping Dogs Wake
weren’t quite as scary as Diamanda, although the necrophilic imagery of “Toys for Alice” certainly came close:
“She dropped her gaze,
those lips, those eyes,
I’ve got you at last,
Come closer, come
closer,
Into my web,
I’ll not leave you
living!
I’ll haunt you, I’ll
haunt you!
Till your fresh young
skin
Crawls back off your
skull and the maggots step in.
Toys for Alice!”
The B side “Confined to Memory” presents a considerably more
restrained face of the band, although the vocal dynamics are astounding. It’s a
mournfully beautiful piece of reflections on a dead (or possibly dying?)
relationship. I suspect most of us have been there at some stage or another and
know that empty feeling of wondering what the aftermath will be like and what
will remain. It’s a magnificent break-up song, but I’d certainly be inclined to
leave it until well after said break up.
Mick Mercer seemed to like them, noting Sleeping Dogs Wake
in the summary of Goth History Part 2 (The Gothic Rock Black Book, Omnius
Press, 1988) as one of the new up and coming bands to watch out for.
Two full length albums followed. The first of these was the
exemplary Understanding (One Little Indian, 1989) which included both tracks
from the Toys For Alice 12” and a number of others, often displaying some very odd lyrics. If art-rock is your
thing, it comes highly recommended. Threnody (One Little Indian, 1990) came
next – in a very similar vein from recollection, although it’s been years since
I heard it.
Mick Mercer evidently had a change of heart however, describing
them in Gothic Rock (Pegasus, 1991) as “Godawful
pretentious bilge” which I always thought did Sleeping Dogs Wake material a
terrible disservice.
They popped up again a few years later with Up! (One Little
Indian, 1992) which I can’t claim to have heard, but by this time had added Haggis to their membership, who had previously played bass as a session musician on the Understanding album. Following this, SDW would undergo a complete change
in direction on the utterly brilliant Sugar Kisses (Hyperium, 1993). A much
more laid back approach than SDW had displayed previously, beautifully
dreamlike and whimsical that remains a firm personal favourite to this day.
They made their final full length album with Under the Stars (Hyperium, 1995).
Robert seems to have more recently done some work with German Darkwave outfit
Deine Lakaien on their April Skies album (Capitol, 2005).
I think we’ll close with some brief live footage,
just because I can. The sound quality here is awfully muddy, but I think it makes for interesting viewing nevertheless.
Track Listing:
1. Toys for Alice
2. Confined to Memory
Lineup:
Robert Wilcocks (guitar, sampler, vocals), Karin Sharret
(vocals, drums), other participants including Haggis and Jens Lankniv seem to
have been added from the Up! album onwards.
A curious enigma Actifed present us with here – while it’s very easy to find downloads on the net, it’s also very difficult to locate any solid information. Even that Mercer chappie isn’t much use here, with Gothic Rock (Pegasus Publishing Ltd, 1991) omitting them altogether and mentioning them only in passing in The Gothic Rock Black Book (Omnibus Press, 1988) with the description
“bandwagon terrorists…(who) might normally have been allowed access but for the sheer proliferation of bands.”
So let us consider what we do know.
Actifed evidently started up around 1981 in London and despite some brilliant coverage in the UK music press, promptly ran into a whole shitstorm of legal entanglements with pretty much everyone. Contractual issues with dodgy promoters and record labels abounded and worse was to come. A certain pharmaceutical company evidently had misgivings about the band’s name, based as it was on a brand of cough & cold syrup which later became famed and in some regions banned for its high content of pseudoephedrine.
This wouldn’t be a promising start for any fledgling band, and probably links into why the band in their original incarnation released just two 12” albums although they apparently had a full length planned.
The first of these 12” was Dawn of a Legion in 1983. The magnificent cover art of a bishop praying over a soldier, and both wearing gas masks aside, this is quality stuff, but still clinging to a very punky quality, just as The Sisters “Temple of Love” single (Merciful Release, 1983) was beginning to see the scene moving away in a completely different direction.
Although it would probably be safe to say that Dave was not the most talented vocalist to ever to grace the Goth scene, he was certainly far from the worst and Dawn of a Legion stands the test of time as an enjoyable listening experience. We begin strongly with “Creation”, a tale of John Merrick, better known as the Elephant Man. “Prophesy” and “Innocent” follow, providing catchy, if simplistic hooks that make them hard not to like.
The 12” closes with the dynamic and very punky indeed “Exit”, which one can easily imagine setting the dance floor on fire in a live performance.
That's not a quiff! This is a quiff!
Fast forward a year, and we arrive at the Tony James produced Crucifixion 12”. Crucifixion was easily the strongest song of the band’s first incarnation, and indeed appears on at least three Goth compilations that I’m aware of (Flesh, Fangs & Filigree - Dressed to Kill, 1996, Gothic Rock 3 - Jungle Records, 1998, and the DIY Make it Dark in Here - Raw Goth Insurrection, 2011). It’s a real testament to the song’s power that Actifed by this point had acquired a saxophonist (I really fuckin’ hate saxophone) and yet, “Crucifixion” still manages to delight.
Unfortunately, side two is rather less pleasing. Apart from irritating Ska tendencies in general, did I happen to mention that I really HATE saxophone? It honks annoyingly throughout both “Black Skin” and “Blue-Eyed Boy” (effectively different versions of the same song - itself a cover of 60s funk outfit The Equals ("Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys" - President Records, 1969)) in a way that makes me wish I had a time-machine so I could go back in time and shove that fucking horn right up his...
Sorry, I got a wee bit carried away there.
But seriously – you know that pair of Muppets?
The ones with the car-horn ears?
Yeah - the ones who honk their nose and their ear-horns go off?
That’s what this sounds like.
And it makes me want to punch Actifed every time I hear it. Which is a real shame for an otherwise decent band. It may also go some considerable way towards explaining why Richard Kick made one of the single most silly statements in the history of music journalism when prior to the Crucifixion 12” he wrote
And while we’re here, we also have this spectacularly uninformative interview from 1983.
And like so many others, Actifed are back too after a 25 year hiatus, releasing the full-length Chains No More (Revelation Records, 2009) which appears to be mostly old songs they never got to release the first time around, and in an apparent attempt at the world title for cheesiest album name ever, Rhythms of Mass Destruction (Revelation Records, 2011) which reportedly may be a return to the Ska influences.
Boy, do they love those gas masks - I sure hope they’ve lost that fucking saxophone.
I do wonder if they normally perform in gas masks? Surely a tad on the warm side?
Dawn of a Legion - Track Listing
Creation
Prophesy
Innocent
Exit
Crucifixion – Track Listing
Crucifixion
Black Skinned
Blue Eyed Boys
Line Up: Dave (vocals, guitars), Clinton (guitar), John (bass), Stuart (drums) and some really, really irritating unknown person (saxophone).
Yet another of the sprawling Horde of Leeds, The Lorries actually released their debut single “Beating My Head” (Red Rhino Records) right back in 1982, but it would be another three years and two Peel Sessions before their first full-length Talk About the Weather would see the light of day.
Their first single which for a band who by popular perception
became slotted into the Goth genre, had about as un-Goth
a piece of cover art as it is possible to imagine.
Taking their name from a lesser known tongue twister (go on, you try saying “Red Lorry Yellow Lorry” five times fast after a couple of pints), the group brandished a musical style, both belligerent and bleak, not unlike a much less restrained version of Joy Division although the Lorries themselves would maintain that a much bigger influence was post-punk outfit Wire.
Talk About the Weather is a loud and desolate piece of engaging post-punk, that for better or worse saw the group labeled as Goth. If we accept that The Lorries at this stage, did indeed fall under the Goth umbrella, then they make a compelling argument for what Goth with maturity can be – tales of vampires, belltowers, Crowleyesque references, and girls with unlikely exotic names ending in “a” are simply unnecessary when human angst, cynicism and ennui are sufficient in themselves to render bleak atmospheres and dark soundscapes.
Nowhere is this better demonstrated in the album’s accompanying single “Hollow Eyes” (Red Rhino Records, 1984):
“I’ve seen that look, I know those eyes, I think this is a thin disguise,
Alone at last, but no surprise, I’d seen it in those hollow eyes,
You should have seen them…
An empty room, an empty space, But you can’t really hide your face,
I’ve seen that look of hate inside, I see it in those hollow eyes.
This is the place where I have seen, you hide behind your sunken dreams,
I had this feeling deep inside, you hid behind those hollow eyes.”
‘tis a merry little ditty no?
Around the 84-86 period the artwork became decidedly darker
But you don’t need to listen to me banging on about RLYL’s sound, not when various helpful netizens have put Talk About the Weather in its entirety on Youtube. Go – hear it for yourself.
A second single “This Today” (Red Rhino Records, 1984) was also in the mix there somewhere, but after Talk About the Weather, drummer Mick Brown would depart, joining Wayne Hussey and his chums on the run from The Sisters of Mercy to form what would become The Mission. Meanwhile Red Lorry Yellow Lorry under a new configuration would release Paint Your Wagon (Red Rhino Records, 1986) and a small litter of new singles.
Later RLYL albums like Nothing’s Wrong (Situation Two, 1988) and Blow (Situation Two, 1989) would grow to display more musically rich textures and while arguably less bleak and Gothy, nevertheless remain quality work.
I must admit, none of those videos were that visually engaging, so here is some live (and presumably bootleg) footage of them performing Talk About The Weather in Brussels in 2004 to make up for it.
Come to think of it, that wasn’t too visually spectacular either, but at least it contains images of people who were reported to be actual living beings – oh well, moving right along…
As the video suggests, they’re still going, releasing the self-issued Black Tracks EP in 2004, their first since 1991’s Blasting off (Deathwish Office, 1991), and playing live at Slimelight as recently as October 2010.
And so we end as we began with The Lorries continuing their
long-running penchant for very un-Gothy cover art.
Note the distinct absence of gargoyles...
Track Listing:
1)Talk About the Weather
2)Hand on Heart
3)Feel a Piece
4)Hollow Eyes
5)This Today
6)Sometimes
7)Strange Dream
8)Happy
Talk about the Weather was re-released on CD first as a split with their second album Paint Your Wagon by Cherry Red in 1994 and again as a CD in its own right in 2005 with massive amounts of bonus tracks, also through Cherry Red.
Line up: Chris Reed (vocals, guitar), David Wolfenden (guitar), Paul Southern (bass), Mick Brown (drums)
My, what a busy little week or so it’s been in resurrection
land, with both The March Violets and The Danse Society gracing us with actual
factual output.
First up we have The March Violets pre-empting their own
first full-length album, Made Glorious due out later this year with the Love
Will Kill You EP. Worth owning on the strength of Road of Bones and Dandelion
King alone, but there’s nothing here that will disappoint. It’s available for free download to all who’ve been kind enough to pledge a financial contribution to
their efforts to release Made Glorious.
Haven’t already pledged? Time to go digging through the
spare change jar and do so here.
No trace of the Taken as Gospel / Haloes and Wings 12" is to be found on line.
Readers will have to enjoy this pic of my own copy taken with my very own hand,
using photographic skills that I optimistically describe as "modest".
And so it comes to pass that I must finally get around to
inspecting a contribution from my own home town.
Ahh! Perth,
Western Australia – home to
countless bland indie-pop bands, embarrassing attempts at public art, and guys
who fly in from the mines every Friday fresh from an intellectually stimulating
week of digging stuff out of the ground.
Oddly enough, it’s also home to a surprisingly large Goth
and Industrial scene.
The number of Goth/Industrial bands who have sprung out of
this cultural backwater are almost legion. Some, like Janco’s Mask or the
infamous Accelerated Men I might get round to reviewing at some point (I probably
won’t though, ‘cause they do happen to be quite good friends of mine and I
rather like getting invited to their soirees.),
And An A however, were something quite different. Much
earlier for starters, and also one of the few Perth bands back then to actually
release something more substantial than a demo tape.
When I saw them it was at what I suspect must have been
their absolute final gig after a long absence at a party in Northbridge of
dubious legality in the very early 90s. They were a two-piece then, and the
Goth and Industrial scenes hadn’t yet fully crossed-over. It created a fairly
unpleasant vibe – the Goth kids sitting and the more dancy Industrial crew
trying to dance over the top of them, screaming “Fuckin’ boring Goths! Get the fuck out of the way!” as fingers,
feet and knees were mercilessly, but rhythmically stomped upon.
At the time though, I had no idea at all how long they and
their synth-driven goth-come-industrial stylings had actually been around for. Unfortunately,
so little of their legacy has been documented anywhere, and such minimal
information exists on their record sleeves that putting this entry together
proved quite a chore, and many thanks are due to the help provided by my
long-term partner in musical crime Mr Brad Smart esq.
Apparently starting up sometime around 1981, the artiness of
And an A must have come as something of a shock to Perth at a time when only cover bands got
gigs. The original band line-up seems to have actually employed real live
drummers, sometimes to beat the crud out of a 44 gallon drum, much to the
horror of uninitiated sound mixers. The drummers, for various reasons didn’t
last and were ultimately replaced by a rather more reliable drum machine.
The comments on a Worst of Perth entry concerning The Red Parrot- a notorious Perth Nightclub from the 80s, are bizarrely probably the best source of information on And An A currently on
the net, and it is largely from a pair of posters known only as 3am and Elroy
that a number of amusing tales of the band can be found. This tale of knight-errant
Paul Cumming, one of their former drummers, being a fine example:
“When holed up for the night
in Mullawa, a racist spec 100 ks east of Geraldton, he had a conversation with
the publican’s son that went something like this:
Red-haired Publican’s Son: Youse from the city, eh?
Paul
Cumming: Um…yeah.
PRHS:
I went there once. Went to a nightclub
and everything.
PC: Oh…good for you.
PRHS:
Yeah, saw a band.
PC: Oh. OK. Who were they?
PRHS:
I dunno. They were fucking shithouse,
but.
PC: You don’t remember what they were calle…
PRHS:
Ah yeah. Andana
PC: Who?
PRHS:
Andana. Fucking shithouse.
PC: Oh, And An A…yeah, um, I was in that band.
PRHS:
Oh. (Pause). But you weren’t the drummer,
eh? Fucking dickhead was using a ball-peen hammer on a 44-gallon drum!
PC: Um yeah, I was the drummer. That was me.
PRHS:
Oh. (Long pause). Jeez, youse were
fucking shithouse.”
Ah, Western Australia, how do I love thee, let me count the ways (This shouldn't take long)
Moving right along, and we arrive
at the mid 80s with a much more refined outfit and two quite brilliant synth-driven
12”s, the first of which, “Affirmation /
Ambition” is known thanks to Discogs.com to have been released in 1985, and
a second, lesser known “Taken as Gospel /
Haloes and Wings” which we must assume to have been released shortly
thereafter. And An A may not have ever achieved world dominating fame, but even
these days, both Affirmation and Haloes and Wings can occasionally be
heard given a spin in Perth
alternative venues, much to the delight of the old guard.
It does seem quite unreasonable to
accept that all trace of these 12”s magnificence to be left forgotten, so for
this once, I’m going to abandon this blog’s usual policy and actually provide a
download. Both 12”s! Grab ‘em now you lucky lucky people and experience the
long gone joy that was And An A!
Rumour has it that there may have
been a third release, possibly an EP or possibly even a CD, depending on who
you listen to. May have been titled something along the lines of “Earth am Flat, Sun do Move”, but apart from the rather vague link below, history
appears to have erased all trace of it.
Such is…well….death.
Here’s to resurrection.
Lineup:Dave Kelsall, Tony Roncevic, and possibly Nigel Harford (bass)
Another tragic loss to the ravages of time, Mick Mercer once referred to these kids as “lost Goth giants”, thereby contradicting his own earlier statement that the rise of Goth “can truthfully be traced only as far back as the rise of Bauhaus” (Mercer, The Gothic Rock Black Book, Omnibus Press, 1988).
Gloria Mundi started coming to public attention supporting early John Foxx-era Ultravox! Indeed, saxophonist C.C. actually worked as a session musician on the track “Hiroshima Mon Amour” on the second Ultravox! album Ha!-Ha!-Ha! (Island Records, 1977), and bassist Ice had previously played in an outfit known as Yours with early Ultravox! guitarist Stevie Shears.
Highly theatrical in their live performances, Gloria Mundi stood apart from the majority of their post-punk peers in being driven more by a sense of gloom than by any more nihilistic tendencies, a noose reportedly gracing their stage on regular occasions.
First materializing on vinyl with the Fight Back! single (RCA, 1978), the astonishing musical document that is I, Individual was their first full length release. Complex and diverse, the album ranges from the outright punk of “Split Personality” through to longer labyrinthine arrangements that suggest the band may have been more than passing fans of Eno-era Roxy Music. A strong flavour of performance art remains throughout, providing a thread that would later be picked up by early Dark Cabaret artists, most noticeably Sex Gang Children.
I-Individual
The Pack
Split Personality
Perhaps too far left of field for their time to gain widespread acceptance, the true legacy of Gloria Mundi remains as being the nurturing uncles of the then nascent Bauhaus, inspiring the latter as their support band to adopt a more refined image that would become the template of the ten million Goth acts that would follow in their wake.
Several more singles and a second album, The Word is Out (RCA, 1979) would follow, before Gloria Mundi would dissolve, leaving Eddie and Sunshine to continue as the imaginatively named Eddie and Sunshine who released several singles and at least one LP, Perfect Strangers in 1983, described as “synth-pop” through Survival Records. Sunshine continues to work under the name Sunshine Gray.
I think we should let Mick Mercer have the final word here, writing in the introduction to his self published (?) photo book of Gloria Mundi : “Indisputably the first Goth band”.
And brilliant they were.
Line Up: Eddie Mealoy (vocals), Sunshine Patteson (vocals, keyboards), C.C. (saxophone), Ice-AKA Roland Oxland (Bass), Beethoven – AKA Pete Vas (guitar), Mike Nicholls (drums)
The line-up of Gloria Mundi seems a little dubious. While everyone agrees on Eddie and Sunshine as core members, there is little consensus on anyone else. Who was actually in the band and who were hired guns along for the ride seems to depend largely on who you read.
This is the rear cover for I, Individual, but the
track order (at least on the version I own) is completely wrong.
