Archive for the goth tag

Processory – Non-Aggression Principle

While doing my weekly record shopping I came across a few EPs from Processory, a new project from prolific Finnish producers Jori Hulkkonen and Jerry Valuri. Processory's output is a perfect balance of goth, shoegaze, and new wave, bringing to mind acts such as Slowdive, Xymox, and the more introspective work of Peter Murphy. While most of the original tracks are more suited for lounging, remixes of Processory's tracks by Aeroplane and Hercules & Love Affair provide us with some great dancefloor fodder. I've posted up a free download of "Non-Aggression Principle" below. For those of you looking for something a bit more dancefloor friendly, you can check out a video of one of the Aeroplane Remixes of "Nightfall" AND get a free download of the track here.

Processory via Jori Hulkkonen
Processory's Soundcloud

Recoil: Faith Healer

Tuesday. Tuesday...I never thought next Tuesday would ever happen. Way back in the wee days of the internet, I was on the Recoil official mailing list--back when that meant daily emails of conversing with other fans, and sometimes Alan Wilder himself, who is surprisingly approachable for someone who used to be a very key member in one of the most important electronic bands ever.

We begged, and begged, but he said it couldn't be done. Recoil could never tour, could never even do a live show... there were just too many people involved. We couldn't expect him to actually pack Douglas McCarthy, Toni Halliday, Moby, Maggie Estep, Siobhan Lynch, Nicole Blackman, Samantha Coerbell, Hildia Cambell, and Diamanda Galás all on a tour bus. Oh come on, we could dream, right?

I guess Alan changed his mind, because he's on tour, and he's coming to The Metro on Tuesday night with Gary Numan. After a LOT of digging around, I was able to discern that he actually accomplished this by bringing no vocalists at all; in their place is film, with imagery chosen specifically for each piece. It's not Diamanda Galás and Douglas McCarthy hanging out on a bus, but I'll take what I can get.

Though nearly impossible given all the options, I choose Recoil's first single and most well-known track, a cover of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band's "Faith Healer" featuring Douglas McCarthy (Nitzer Ebb) from Bloodline*. I can't say it's a good representation of Recoil, because each album and even each song is a work of art that stands on its own, ranging from vintage Bukka White placed over minimal electro and Maggie Estep's hilarious spoken words to Diamanda Galás screeching in tongues and Toni Halliday screaming hate over industrial like nothing you'd ever imagine listening to her spacerocky Curve albums. And I'm not even touching on the whole plane-crash-as-concept-album thing...

official website
buy Bloodline on Amazon.com

*trivia: Foetus also covered this song on Rife, ergo this track is often mistaken for a Foetus cover, not to say that Thirwell's version didn't influence this one.

Editors: Lullaby

It seems like I've been posting a lot of covers lately. I hope you don't mind, but here's another, a bit inspired by Nocturna this evening. If you've somehow managed to not hear Editors before, go check them out; this may be a cover, but it's an excellent example of their style.

In a statement about their most recent album and criticism of its tone, Tom Smith wrote, "dark is interesting, dark is exciting, dark can be funny, there’s real life in the dark, real life IS dark...I am so fucking bored of people asking us why we’re so “dark”, or worse questioning our integrity for being this way, this is how we do it, it excites us to express ourselves like this, to be honest we don't even understand what the alternative is and the alternatives we can imagine are too boring for us to even consider". Did he just write the Grufti Manifesto?*

Who better to rework a Cure song, then, than Editors? Smith invokes Ian Curtis to make Robert Smith's lyrics a little more paranoid, but I'm still not buying that he's really afraid of "the spider man". In fact, I suspect that he might just be inviting him over for dinner.

This track is taken from the BBC Radio 1 Established 1967 2 disc compilation, released in 2007 and bizarrely listed as being a Kaiser Chiefs album (they contributed the first track). It chronicles 40 years of the legendary radio show with 40 artists doing a cover for each year. Editors were assigned 1989; they certainly did right to choose a song off of Disintegration.

official website
Buy Editors on Amazon.com

*I prefer the word "grufti" because it's much more inclusive than "goth". I encourage you to use it as well!

Patrick Wolf: Hard Times + Damaris

Patrick Wolf was born in 1983 to famous musicians Siouxsie Sioux and Adam Ant. Shortly after his birth, he was possessed by the ghost of Klaus Nomi. He currently resides in some sort of weird time warp where he's stuck in mid-'80s England.

Ok, so I don't know that any of that is true. BUT IT'S POSSIBLE. Siouxsie and Adam are old enough and Nomi died the same year he was born. Also, his biography is SO vague: "Patrick Wolf was born in St Thomas' Hospital, South London, into a creative family."
"Creative family"? Mmmhmmm. And what kind of kid is making theremins at 11?! Maybe they just hid him from the press. There's really no other reasonable explanation for this guy's existence.

I present to you two examples that I believe back up my claims:

Both tracks are from his 1985 2009 release The Bachelor.
Buy The Bachelor on Amazon.com
official website

The Cure: Disintegration (Live from Entreat)

I was eleven when I accidentally found The Cure’s Disintegration in a pile of my brother's cassettes along with New Order, Depeche Mode, and Nine Inch Nails. This may come as a shock, but I thought it sucked. I liked "Pictures of You”, “Lovesong”, and “Lullaby”, but the second side of that cassette... man was it long and boring. I tried numerous times to get through “The Same Deep Water as You”, but every attempt failed.

So how did Disintegration become my favorite album? That was an accident as well. I got really into The Cure around 1992 (Wish) and backtracked to the older albums. I also started to collect Cure stuff: magazines, posters, and singles. I bought the “Pictures of You”  single, and one of the B-sides was the live version of "Disintegration". It blew my away like nothing before or since. I went back and listened to Disintegration. Maybe my taste matured, or maybe I was discovering that life sucked, but I connected with the second half and the whole album like I had found my one and only true love . I knew it would stand the test of time, and in high school I introduced it to as many people as possible. If they didn’t like it, I would insist they listen to the live version of “Disintegration”.

It worked on my friends Jill and Tony. Jill and I would stay up all night trying to decipher the lyrics. There were a bunch of lines added  and a few missing from the album version, and it drove us crazy. Jill suggested I buy Entreat at Reckless Records since the live version of “Disintegration” and almost every album song was on the live disc.  I couldn't afford it, until the lucky day I found a used copy for $34. I ran to Jill's car and as I ripped open the case, found tucked into the sleeve inlay card a sheet of handwritten lyrics to the live version. I screamed louder than I have ever before in my life. The coincidence, the luck, the idea that someone out there loved the song so much they figured out all the lyrics and hand wrote them onto notebook paper...and the sadness and shock that this person had parted with it, made me realize how much I loved The Cure, loved that song, and how it made me give that album a second chance and falling in love with that too.

Crazy to think that after all that I went through to save $34 to buy Entreat, it’s now being given away as a bonus disc as part of the 3CD re-release of Disintegration for $32.99. For me and millions of people around the world, this album means re-living great memories, but I hope that some kid out there stumbles upon this release, listens to it for the first time, and is blown away with the greatness of it all.

official website
Pre-order the 3CD deluxe edition of Disintegration

theSTART: Wartime! (It’s Time 2 Go Now)

This is theSTART...

Kissing their metal & art-rock bands goodbye in the late 90's, vocalist Aimee Echo (Human Waste Project) and swiss army knife multi-instrumentalist Jamie Miller (Snot) bonded over a mutual love for 80's New Wave, ranging from the Cure to Missing Persons to Depeche Mode. They formed a new band together in Los Angeles soon after, encouraging their fans to "rise up & dance to a different beat" on their debut album Shakedown!. The couple provided a soundtrack for the future with memories of the past - new wave for now people.

With three albums and an EP under their belts, theSTART's latest release Ciao, Baby was issued under Metropolis Records. Echo's unique sprite-like delivery recalls the squeaks & squeals of a modern day Lene Lovich or Dale Bozzio, while in the next breath morphing into a howling Siouxsie Sioux or Exene Cervenka. Miller's guitar soundscapes are reminiscent of the early 4AD roster or bands like Bauhaus & the Chameleons. His lush keyboards shimmer, the perfect accent to Echo's pop melodies to create a sound of their own.

Featured here is Ciao, Baby's opening track "Wartime! (It's Time 2 Go Now)" as well as a cover of one of the band's favorite songs, "Cities in Dust" by Siouxsie & the Banshees.

theSTART on Myspace
theSTART website

theSTART are still active & are currently focusing on a new experimental project Normandie. And no, my love for theSTART isn't simply because Echo & I share the same hair stylist & both know the Marilyn Monroe secret! Enjoy & dance. The circle is ever larger...

Sisters of Mercy: Flood I

I always think it strange that everyone calls Neo a "goth" club; outside of fashion, the genre has seen little representation there since Scary Lady Sarah's departure 13 years ago. I'd love to see a proper goth night happen there again, but in the meantime, we'll dip our feet in the dark pool for a night at Atomic this week. Peroxide will join us in the booth throughout the night to play some retro goth that we don't normally give much attention to.

I used to spin this stuff... a really, really long time ago. I also used to spin vinyl. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to drag a turntable into the club for this event, but I will be doing a vinyl freeform set live on Chicago's WLUW [88.7] at 10am Thursday morning. It's broadcast online as well, so listen in even if you're too far away to join us that evening. Expect it to be something like the early '80s goth and new wave set that Kamar and I did for the opening of Neo's 30th anniversary party, for those of you who were there.

I'd post more, but I've got some vinyl to dust off...

Here's one of my favorite Sisters of Mercy tracks, off the entirely fantastic Floodland, to listen to while you dig out your velvet jacket and practice those catch-and-release-the-bat dance moves.

Sisters of Mercy at Amazon.com

Strawberry Switchblade: Since Yesterday

The could-be long lost Scottish synthpop sisters of Tegan & Sara, Rose McDowall and Jill Bryson from Strawberry Switchblade paved their way with teased hair, gothy cupcake dresses and polkadots in the mid-80's with their debut and only album of the same name... and what a great album and name they were!

Their biggest imprint was with their sugary sweet single "Since Yesterday," which became a top 10 hit in the UK and featured the opening fanfare of Sibelius' Symphony No.5 and enough sunshine harmonies to keep you smiling for days - days of Dayglo, if you will. C'mon, I dare you to give this a listen and not be bouncing right out of your seat! Take a close listen though - beneath the surface of those driving dancefloor drumbeats is a truly tragic tale of love lost. But hey, that's really nothing to be shocked by in the world of new wave now, is it? The album actually dives into much deeper, darker water than the single does.

Following a busted switchblade in 1986, Rose went on to become a floating member of various goth & industrial acts like Coil, Psychic TV, Into a Circle and Death in June. She now continues to perform solo under her own name.

"Since Yesterday" is available on the CD import of their debut album or the Warner Platinum Collection, which is probably much easier & less expensive to track down. Highly recommended cutesy bubblegum pop for New Romantics.

Platinum Collection on Amazon

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