OFF: reccomendations?

[Doug Pearson]

On Thu, 22 Jun 2000 14:21:04 +0100, bart <bart at AEOLIANS.BT.CO.UK> wrote:
>> > Swans
>
>I have one of thier discs somewhere Holy Money/Greed, but its hard work.

That's from their seriously heavy/pouding/brutal/abrasive period.  Someone
else mentioned 'Children of God', which I'd recommend as an excellent
transitional album from that stuff to the Jarboe-era more melodic (but just
as dark) material.

>As for Nurse With Wound / Throbbing Gristle people, Chris & Cosey have done
>some quite excellent ambient stuff in recent years, the CTI / Library of
Sound
>series for starters.

I can hardly say I've kept up with C&C very well.  Some of their stuff is
lame and disco-ish, but as you point out, some is very good.

>Whilst we're fishin for reccommendations in this area, anybody want to
>enlighten me on the following ?
>
>Current 93

Spooky pagan folk stuff.  Highly recommended if you like Coil's
creepier/quieter material.

BUT ... if you're planning on checking out Current 93, you should do
yourself the favor of listening to the album that HEAVILY influenced them -
'First Utterance' by Comus (C93 titled one of their albums 'Second
Utterance').  It's spooky, creepy, abrasive (despite nearly all of the
instruments being acoustic), nightmarish, but not overbearing (although
somewhat affected, perhaps).  Imagine Fairport Convention / Steeleye Span /
Trees / Incredible String Band on a seriously BAD acid or PCP trip.
Extremely evil stuff that demonstrates that Satanic music (darkly pagan,
actually, in this case) does not have to be metallic.  It's been reissued
on vinyl (with a bonus 12"EP, and probably on CD) by one of those Italian
labels (Get Back, Abraxas ... ?) who are doing nice vinyl pressings these
days (speaking of vinyl pressings - hey Scott Heller!  If you're reading
this, where did you get the Dark Sun 'Ice Ritual' LP pressed?  It is one of
the nicest, best-sounding pieces of vinyl I have ever seen/heard/grabbed in
my grubby hands).

However, the second Comus album (the one that Keith Hale played on before
joining Hawkwind) is said to truly suck in a big way.  I've never heard it,
but no one I know who has has disagreed with that assessment.

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com