Back in the day, the official magazine of Tower Records - Pulse - had a section called "The Desert Island Top 10". The premise is - if you were stranded on a desert island, but had the option of taking ten of anything, what would you take? For the Halloween season, for this post, I will select my Top 10 favorite gothic songs of all time, in no particular order. Yes, I cut my teeth on '80s gothic. Wore the black lipstick, the guyliner and sported the obligatory black, read the Anne Rice chronicles. These are the songs I would die for. Prepared to be spooked! Tell me your favorite songs in the comments section!
1. Christian Death "Figurative Theater"(1982) - As a teen, there was nothing more shocking than L.A. deathrock band, Christian Death, and singer, Rozz Williams, who was occasionally known to wear dead cats as part of his scene's morbid couture. "In the shallow holes of a thousand eyes..." start the lyrics to a song that I copied onto notebooks as an angst-ridden teen, the words seemingly matching the black mood I felt. The violent drumbeat and lurching guitar set to Rozz's droning voice, all of it churning together and frothing to a spitting intensity. It sounded forbidden then. It kind of sounds dated now, although it is easy to see the influence they have had on music through the decades. It was still a sad day in 1998 when Rozz Williams committed suicide, finally giving into the darkness. Rozz was no poseur. He truly walked in the darkness.
2. 45 Grave "Evil" (1983)- "Music that Christians don't have to play backwards," says the announcer in the video below. And that description fits yet another California deathrock band, 45 Grave. This band was always really fun, a clever mixture of '60s surf rock, punk, and horror, they had a stage presence that was as much a part of their performance as their music, fronted by sinister frontwoman, Dinah Cancer, looking like something out of The Addams Family. Although "Evil" sounds like it could be the opening theme from The Munsters, except with Cancer growling her condemnations of, "You're evil!". "Sleep In Safety" was an important album to me in my preteen years and remains, all these decades later, the perfect Halloween album.
3. Tamaryn "Softcore" (2016) - Kiwi artist, Tamaryn, now on tour with Lush, is one of the newer artists at the forefront of the shoegaze revival, but she is known to veer into darker directions, like this gothic gem. The song is off this year's album, and the video here is off of this year's live KEXP performance. Amped-up drums and a caustic bass line sounding like something right out of Sisters of Mercy, Tamaryn's haunted moaning, and guitars screeching, whispered samples, everything coalescing and blending into something that resembles a fevered pitch - something at once beautiful, disturbing, and cool af. Tamaryn is a new artist that you should definitely check out. I will be reviewing her entire new album soon.
4. Xmal Deutschland "Polarlicht" (1986) - An oft forgotten German act, they signed to the prestigious 4AD label who was responsible for releasing much of the gothic bands of the '80s. This song made in onto a mix cassette tape I had as a teen, and I soon had a chance to explore more of their music. The song is mournful and dreamy with Anja Huwe's powerful voice soaring above the landscape, but don't expect to understand it unless you speak German, Sadly, this band never made it out of the '80s, but their impact on gothic and darkwave is undeniable. Any true fan of the genre can tell you about Xmal Deutschland.
5. Cocteau Twins "Garlands" (1982) - Ah, which one of my collections would be complete without Cocteau Twins? This song is off of their debut album. They were a new band out of Grangemouth, Scotland, and this is the only album to feature Will Heggie as a member with his heavy bass guitar. He would soon leave to form proto-shoegaze band, Lowlife. His departure would allow them to explore the more ethereal experiments that they are known for. But this album? Straight up gothic. Heggie's bass chords dominate. Robin Guthrie scratches out spooky noises on his guitar, admitting only later that he only did this because he really didn't know how to play. Elizabeth Fraser's wavering voice offers the names of pretty flowers in a way that they evoke wrongness rather than beauty. This whole album is a classic and one that I listen to several times a year.
6. Modern English "16 Days" (1981) - When people think of Modern English, they think of MTV, '80s one-hit wonders, and their one big hit, "I Melt With You", a happy-go-lucky love tune. They don't think of a gothic band, and, yet, their first album was just that. The song starts out with eerie guitar effects that only grow more nightmarish as the song progresses, followed by samples extolling the horrors of the Cold War era. The bass line is earth-shattering, and Robbie Grey spits out his lyrics in a post-punk fury. Then the song ends in a wash of futile noise and chaos. This Mortal Coil would later cover this song as their very first single, with Liz Fraser from Cocteau Twins and Gordon Sharp from Cindytalk, another great goth band, on vocals.
7. Bauhaus "She's In Parties" (1983) - No goth collection would be complete without Bauhaus? But whereas most might expect me to include the ubiquitous and Halloween-friendly "Bela Lugosi's Dead", the goth anthem, no, I am including this selection instead - the final single from their final album for more than twenty years. These guys created this sound, created this genre. Peter Murphy's vocals are savage, contrasting Daniel Ash's soft background pining. The harmonica seems out of place, and yet Bauhaus offers one last stark masterpiece before venturing into different projects. Believe me - Tones On Tail or Love & Rockets would have made it onto this list had I not already covered these bands extensively.
8. Dead Can Dance - "De Profundis (Out of the Depths of Sorrow)" (1985) - The very first time I heard Dead Can Dance was this song. It was a life-changing experience. I was blown away. I never knew pop music could be so... panoramic. The song goes from silence and explodes into an orchestral swathe so huge that you can't help see images, and then Lisa Gerrard's voice crashes like a hurricane against a mountainside, singing, not in words, but pure emotion. Then the song unravels with a single male singing a wordless Gregorian chant alongside the peals of a bell that sound not so much monastic as pagan. Dead Can Dance defy classification, but it was the goths who loved them first.
9. Sisters of Mercy "Black Planet" (1985) - The album this song came from became so definitively known as "goth" that everyone that came afterwards tried to imitate this sound - even Andrew Eldritch. By the way, this is my favorite lineup of the Sisters, which includes the creative force of Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams, who went on to form The Mission UK right after this album. In this song, Hussey's guitars are crystal clear with the Celtic lilt that he is known for, and Eldritch sings in that wavering, spooky bass that would be imitated by goths forever after.
10. The Cure "Lullaby" (1989) - I had a hard time picking the last band, because there are so many goth artists that I love. But I had to ultimately settle on the most Halloweeny of songs. The Cure had developed the reputation of being dark and gothic, but, in truth, by the time "Disintegration" came along, the band had veered into some very un-gothic territories involving caterpillars, love cats, being hot hot hot, and kisses. Imagine Robert Smith prancing around in a huge teddy bear suit. It was enough to make me shake my head. But with this song - and accompanying creepy video - The Cure went dark and gothic again. Maybe even more gothic than they had previously been. All of the black-clad minions breathed a sigh of relief. Smith sings about being eaten in his bed by a thousand shivering holes all set to the rhythm of pizzicato violins. The song was nightmarish and troubling, and the band redeemed the genre to live for another Halloween.
When I was young, I always prided myself on being up on music, and then, in 1990, I moved to Salt Lake City to go to college. It was like moving into a musical black hole.
Utah is not like that now, home to bands like Neon Trees, The Used, and Joshua James. But back then, it was always three years behind. They had an alternative radio station, X96, but they were playing stuff like The Smiths, Depeche Mode, and The Cure. As appealing as that sounds now, in 1990, that stuff was sooo 1987.
Now, I realize that Phoenix is no cultural mecca, but, in the days before internet, perhaps its proximity to Los Angeles made music a little more accessible. It was home to Meat Puppets, Gin Blossoms, and a healthy punk and metal scene that included JFA, Junior Achievement, Mighty Sphincter, Sacred Reich, and Pedifile. Not to mention an awesome alternative radio station, KUKQ, with its iconic deejay, Jonathan L, who organized the very first alternative festival, Q-Fest, before Lollapalooza was even dreamed of - right there in Arizona.
On Christmas Break, I went home to Arizona, and it was like coming up for water. I went to my friend Steve's house, armed with a stack of blank cassettes to record any new music he might have. One of those bands was Lush, a British band on the prestigious 4AD label. The album was the compilation, "Gala". Armed with new music, I went back to Utah and listened to these cassettes - a lot. I was a college student, so I did a lot of walking and riding the bus with enormous headphones always on my head.
Gala
Apart from the colorful album cover by Vaughan Oliver and 23 Envelope, I noticed that Miki Berenyi's overdubbed vocals reminded me of Elizabeth Fraser's from Cocteau Twins - not a surprise coming from a 4AD band - except that the music, while still swirly and ethereal, was hard and biting, not like Cocteau Twins. Lush, for me, was part of the next-gen lineup of musicians for the label. In the '80s, it had been Cocteau Twins,Dead Can Dance, Throwing Muses, and ending out the decade with The Pixies. Lush, for me, represented the newness of the '90s, music that was unfamiliar to me. Since being back from Utah, when it came to being familiar with the music world, I felt, for the first time, being out of my element, out of touch - a feeling I have felt often since in my many years.
Back then, no one knew to call it "shoegaze", although that's what it would be called eventually. To me, it was swirly, watery music like Cocteau Twins, with a vocalist whose lilt was like Liz Fraser's, except pushed into the background - it was like that, except that it was harder, had an edge. No one knew what shoegaze was back then, except that it is easier to see how things progressed and were influenced - all from the perspective of looking back in time.
At the end of 1990, 4AD wanted to introduce an American audience to the music of Lush, and so they released "Gala", which was essentially a collection of the three EPs that the band had released previously in the UK. As a result, the groups of songs on this collection have a very different sound - different EPs, different producers, different feels.
The first EP was 1989's "Scar", produced by Jon Fryer, of This Mortal Coil fame. The first album is raw and unvarnished, much like My Bloody Valentine's first album, "Isn't Anything". This includes "Bitter", a dead ringer for The Smiths - the machine-like drumming, the fierce strumming just like Johnny Marr's, and Berenyi doing her best female Morrissey. "Second Sight" is one of my favorite Lush songs, because it goes through several tempo changes - starting out billowing like My Bloody Valentine, picking up tempo like Throwing Muses with a punk gallop that would make David Narcizo proud with tremulous vocals emulating Kristin Hersh, and then devolving into chaotic noise like Sonic Youth. "Etheriel" lives up to its name, and "Baby Talk" has rubbery guitar leads over a pounding bassline. There are two versions of "Thoughtforms" - one soaring and the other clear and muted, as well as two version of "Scarlet", one an extended play.
In 1990, their second EP was "Mad Love", which are the songs that I perhaps know this band best for. One thing that I didn't know was that this collection of songs was produced by Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins. This surprised me, because I had always just assumed that Guthrie had unwittingly influenced the shoegaze movement from afar, but here he actively produces a record that defines the sound. The songs here are clearer and uninhibited. If they resemble Cocteau Twins, then it is mainly from the early era where Cocteau had a more primal, less ethereal, sound, like the 1983 John Peel Sessions or on the EP "Peppermint Pig". "De-Luxe" is arguably the most recognizable song by the band with its guitar hooks swathed in reverb, and Berenyi doing her vocal acrobatics. "Leaves Me Cold" is perhaps one of my favorite songs with the guitars turned down to a gothic chill and Merenyi's vocals descending into dark scales, a strong bass ascending over the screeching guitars. "Downer" is the perfect shoegaze song - aggressive and hard with angelic harmonies offering a musical contradiction.
The songs from their third EP, "Sweetness and Light", are perhaps the most uninteresting as the band seems to settle into what people would think shoegaze sounds like. The songs - the title track, "Sweetness and Light", "Sunbathing" and "Breeze" - drift like dandelion chaff on a summer wind, coalescing and swirling, the flitting guitars nearly distinguishable from the hushed vocals. They are good songs, but not nearly as unbridled and throaty as the other songs. There is also a lovely cover of "Hey Hey Helen" by ABBA, which sounds as if it by done by Sex Pistols fronted by Kate Bush - in other words, sublime.
After taking a nearly twenty-year break, Lush reunited last year, releasing a brand new EP earlier this year (that I might have to review), as well as embarking on a tour with newer shoegaze artist, Tamaryn (whom I will review soon). It pleases me that this band got back together, as they were so important to me in my youth, being at the front of a genre that is still my preferred style of music. Now, if we can only get Cocteau Twins to reunite...
In 1984, Cocteau Twins released their third album, "Treasure", complete with the lineup that would persist throughout the rest of their career - Robin Guthrie on guitar, Elizabeth Fraser on vocal duties, and adding Simon Raymonde, a multi-instrumentalist who added an extra dimension to their already ethereal sound. They strayed from their gothic roots and veered into an wispy and dreamy soundscape that even today resists all classification. All through the rest of 1984 and 1985, they released a rash of EPs, sometimes every month, creating some of the most memorable music of their 18 year career.
In 1985, Simon Raymonde took a brief break to work as a session musician on 4AD's grandiose collaboration project called This Mortal Coil for the album "Filigree & Shadow", so Guthrie and Fraser once again entered the studio to record an album without Raymonde, the last time they would do so as a band.
The result was an experimental collection called "Victorialand", named after a region in Antarctica. In fact, many of the names of the songs here are named after features and locations on that icy continent.
Produced completely by themselves, their were able to explore sonic vistas like they were not able to do before. First of all, they ditched the drum machine, so there is virtually no percussion on the whole album. A few keyboards. A saxophone lent by Richard Thomas of Dif Juz. And Guthrie's guitar on heavy reverb and effects to make his guitar sound like anything other than a guitar. That's it. The result is panoramic and colorful, like floating on a cloud, like watching the evening sun reflect on ice floes. This is possibly the most experimental of all of the albums by Cocteau Twins.
The album starts out with "Lazy Calm" with quiet strumming and sound effects like the wind blowing over ocean waters, brought to life by a gentle saxophone. This goes on for several minutes until Fraser's voice sparks up, singing a sweet melody with no discernible lyrics, none that you can understand, anyway. "Fluffy Tufts" swirls together several layers of crystal guitars with Fraser's voice flitting like a bird through the clouds. "Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" features a morose guitar and Fraser's tremulous voice, creating a melancholy resonance that makes sense if you understand the weather shifts on the southern hemisphere. The song ends on a single bright note. "Whale Tails" is resplendent like sunshine on the waves, and Fraser does vocal gymnastics, the notes bouncing up and down through the scales. "Oomingmak" starts out with staccato music and voice, and then Fraser goes positively operatic halfway through the track, showing that she is indeed one of the most versatile singers ever. "Little Spacey" is a joyful waltz through the clouds. "Feet-like Fins" is shimmering and aquatic, the guitars watery and glistening, and then the song takes off quickly like a dolphin speeding through the water. "How To Bring a Blush to the Snow" is a sad piece with exquisite layers of voice and harmony and is possibly the most beautiful song ever written. The record finishes out with "The Thinner the Air" - just an acoustic guitar, some piano, and Liz Fraser's plaintive voice.
Cocteau Twins have always been artistic enough that they have influenced many, many artists that came afterwards. This album, in particular, has influenced the sound of artists like Shelleyan Orphan. I am glad to have this one added to my collection. I owned it back in the day in cassette, and it was the last of the Cocteau Twins albums that I was missing in digital format. It sounds beautiful remastered. It brings me back to the days that I wandered long and far into the night, streetlights glowing beguilingly gold, a Walkman in my pocket, and "Victorialand" playing through my headphones. This is eternal.
About a year ago, I rented "The Perks of Being A Wallflower" from the public library. I liked it so much that I picked up a copy out of the Walmart bin. Such a great movie. It is based on a teen novel written by Stephen Chbosky (who also wrote the screenplay and directed, also produced by the same company that did "Ghost World" and "Juno"). My daughter had actually read the novel and loved it.
There are many reasons I love this movie. First of all, it takes place in Pittsburgh, a city that is beloved to me. Part of the plot involves the excitement of emerging from the Tunnel into the city. I have done it many times, and it was exhilerating every time. Next, it takes place in the time of my youth - the early '90s. Even though it takes place back then, this is not quite a period piece. It is kind of timeless. It could take place at any time. It is about being a misfit, not really fitting in, and finding friends who give your life some meaning - a theme that many, including me, find resonant.
But what I found most compelling in the movie was the music. Music was an important part of the book as well. Charlie (played by Logan Lerman) makes mix tapes for his friends. I was the music geek who handed mix tapes to all of my friends, so I can relate. The book mentions several of these artists like Ride, The Smiths, Nick Drake, and many more artists that I grew up with in the late '80s and early '90s.
I liked the soundtrack so much that I went out to buy it. Many of these songs play an important part of the story like "Asleep" by The Smiths, "Come On Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners, and, my favorite, "Pearly Dew Drops" byCocteau Twins. The Tunnel scene uses "Heroes" by David Bowie in that the song comes on the radio, and they set out on a quest to find out who sings it. The other songs are a drape over an exquisite movie that creates a sense of nostalgia in me. "Teenage Riot" by Sonic Youth, which was an anthem in my younger years, "Temptation" by New Order, one of their earlier pieces, and, also, one of their best, dominated by its electronic beat and Peter Hook's high-end bass, a sound that he created and is much imitated. Cracker, The Innocence Mission, XTC, and Galaxie 500. It really is a great soundtrack.
There are additional songs that didn't make it from the movie onto the playlist of the soundtrack that compliment the movie as well - "Counting Backwards" by Throwing Muses, "Araby" by my favorite Austin band, The Reivers, L7, Bongwater...
It is nice to see my era eulogized so nicely, and with some of the better music from my day. The sense of nostalgia takes me back to those moments. But that's kind of the poetic point of this picture.
A couple of years ago, This Mortal Coil released a box set of their three albums, released mostly in the '80s, along with a "greatest hits" type compilation, "Dust & Guitars", taking selections from their library and digitally remastering them in HD.
For those of you who don't know, This Mortal Coil is the pet project of Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the prestigious British record label, 4AD, and John Fryer. The project was used to showcase musicians from the label's line-up. Usually, they did covers of songs from the '60s and '70s that influenced Watts-Russell, as well as original pieces.
It is hard to describe This Mortal Coil, or to place them in a genre. This is definitely mood music. The songs are all laced together by samples, orchestra arrangements, and electronica to form a stream of consciousness, dreamy texture and sonic landscapes.
And to listen to this - remastered in HD - divine! One of my chief complaints about 4AD's early releases are poor production quality. To listen to these sings enhanced by technology is nothing short of miraculous. This is the way they were meant to be heard.
My only complaint about this particular collection - these albums were conceptual. It's really hard to listen to a song on its own without the rest of the pieces that stand with it. This is one of the reasons that I rarely add TMC songs to my playlists. I don't like to separate these songs.
The compilation starts with bit of a rarity. The very first This Mortal Coil release was a cover of Modern English's "Sixteen Days" and "Gathering Dust." Watts-Russell would frequently cover at least one song from his label's catalog, and Modern English was one of the first bands to sign on 4AD. For those who remember Modern English as the happy-go-lucky one-hit-wonder that sang "I'll Melt With You" might be surprised at the darkly gothic selection that was reflective of their early music. This is old school gothic - sung by Elizabeth Fraser and performed by Robin Guthrie, both of Cocteau Twins, with Gordon Sharp of Cindytalk performing background vocals. All driven by a drum beat a la "Bela Lugosi's Dead" (also an early 4AD release).
Ivo Watts-Russel, founder of 4AD and This Mortal Coil
"Song To the Siren" is also here - arguably one of This Mortal Coil's most famous releases - also with Liz Fraser and Robin Guthrie performing this cover of Tim Buckley's classic, a hint of the future relationship Fraser would have with Buckley's equally talented son, Jeff.
Other selections from "It'll End in Tears" are "Kangaroo" and the title track from that record - both sung by Gordon Sharp and dominated by piano and string arrangements. The pieces from "Filigree & Shadow" include "Drugs", a Talking Heads cover, a revamped version of "Thais (Bird of Paradise)", and my favorite, "Come Here My Love", a Van Morrison cover, a tidal wave of samples. keyboards, and Allison Limerick's vocals that evoke that dream-like feel of their music that I have come to love.
There is also an unreleased track called "We Never Danced" and surprisingly no selections from their final album, "Blood". There is, however, "Acid, Bitter, and Sad", taken from the "Lonely Is An Eyesore" compilation. This song starts out with wind chimes and drums, and fades into a liquid keyboard and Allison Limerick's voice. Limerick is a regular fixture on all of TMC's albums.
This compilation is a good way to become familiar with This Mortal Coil's music. Turn down the lights. Turn on the lava lamp. Let these sounds wash over you...
In late 1986, I got up early one morning to get ready for high school. A moody teenager, most of my wardrobe consisted of black, and I would use copious amounts of gel and hairspray to make my hair stand on end. That morning, while I got ready, I put "The Pink Opaque" on the record player. This was a collection of Cocteau Twin's work from the early '80s.
It was the perfect music to me, at that time. It was ethereal and magical, marked by Robin Guthrie's layered and textured guitar and Elizabeth Frasier's dulcid voice singing nonsense words. Their music transcended description. They weren't really rock, and they weren't really pop. It was kind of hard to figure out what kind of music they were. They were in a class all by themselves.
After I finished getting ready, I left the house with my books, and I didn't get very far from the house when I realized that I had left the record player on. I went back into the house to find my older brother, Tony, squatting in front of the speaker, listening to "Musette And Drums" playing. I froze. Tony was a devout metalhead and took occasion to make fun of my musical tastes.
"Musette And Drums" - a selection off of Cocteau Twin's second album, "Head Over Heels" - starts out with the drum machine pounding a heavy waltz. Guthrie's distorted guitars sway back and forth like a dark ballerina dancing to Frasier's plaintive wails. During the chorus, Frasier pleads desperately, accented by a low keyboard. The song finishes with an odd guitar solo - Frasier scratching on his guitar to make the howls of a ghost.
Tony sat squatting in front of the speaker while I was suspended, motionless, awaiting his verdict. After a moment, he looked at me and said, "Not bad. They need to clean up their sound a bit."
My heart soared with exultation. I felt like I was finally vindicated in my love for this band. A couple of years later, Tony would be just as excited about their fifth studio album, "Blue Bell Knoll".
Tony's description of "Musette And Drums" was accurate. A beautiful wall of sound with messy production value.
Back in the day, I owned every single Cocteau Twins release - either on cassette or vinyl. Now, I own almost every release digitally remastered. However, "Head Over Heels" was always my least favorite Cocteau Twins album. I always loved their hardcore gothic on 1982's "Garlands", and I loved their Classical Greek weirdness on 1984's "Treasure". But you could really tell that they were trying to find their sound on 1983's "Head Over Heels". It wasn't until recently that I realized that I had absolutely no digital copy of "Musette And Drums". So I decided to download "Head Over Heels". Now, it has become one of my favorite Cocteau releases.
By 1983, Cocteau Twins had released one album and a few EPs that were most definitely spooky and gothic, dominated by Will Heggie's heavy bass guitar. Then he left the band, and, for a while, before they accumulated keyboardist Simon Raymonde, it was just Guthrie and Frasier, left to develop their own sound. They did a lot of experimentation, using a lot of jazz, even with a saxophone. At the time, I didn't like it. To me, it just didn't sound like the Cocteau Twins I was used to.
But listening to it today, it has a dreamy quality and a sense of trying to break out of the bonds of traditional pop music. The album begins with "When Mama Was Moth", probably the most gothic song on the album. The drums beat out an uneven rhythm like a heart in cardiac arrest, followed by a keyboard plinking out a mystic music box melody. Frasier's voice billows over it all until the music suddenly seizes leaving only Frasier to scream, "Mother etching" or "Mother retching." It's hard to to understand exactly what she is saying, and that is the beauty of it.
The next song is a beautiful number called "Five Ten Fiftyfold" dominated by a Heggie-style bass and saxaphone. Frasier's vocals, while powerful, seem to be a background instrument like an echo crashing on the mountainside. "Sugar Hiccup" is a well-known Cocteau song, and it is here that Guthrie is learning to use his guitar to create monstrous landscapes of sound. Other songs of note are "In Our Angelhood", "In the Gold Dust Rush", and "My Love Paramour". The album finishes out perfectly with "Musette And Drums".
It has been nice to rediscover this album. The way I have always viewed Cocteau Twins - they spent the better part of a decade trying to find their sound, pushing into new territories, paving the way for other musicians to imitate. Then it seems that once they had found themselves, we lost them. I am praying for a miracle, for my celestial punks to return.
Have you ever liked a band for decades that you didn't even know existed? I did.
Like everyone, I have had some of my favorite music introduced by someone else. A friend of mine from the suburbs of Chicago gave me a mix CD back in 1986 that introduced me to music from the prestigious 4AD label that included selections from Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, Clan of Xymox, This Mortal Coil,Felt, and a couple of songs "Permanent Sleep" and "Mother Tongue" that were labeled as by an artist named Will Heggie. I fell in love with this music and started trying to find out as much as I could about them.
As I have said many times in the past, Cocteau Twins have been one of my favorite bands of all time. I have loved every phase that they have gone through - from the eerie gothic tones of their first album to the pompuous faux-Greek bacchnalia of "Treasure" to the fluffy effervescence of "Victorialand" to the ambient electronica of their latter days. The first album, "Garlands", still always has a special place in my heart. It is a dark album with furious bass strumming and scratchy guitars offset by Elizabeth Frasier's nonsensical caterwauls.
During the course of my investigations, I learned that the bassist on "Garlands" was one Will Heggie, a founding member of Cocteau Twins who left after the first album to, as my friend told me, to pursue a solo career. I really loved those songs by Will Heggie, but I was never able to find them on record, which wasn't too surprising. Most of the stuff I listened to back then was either indie or import. In the golden age before the internet, if you didn't live in a cultural mecca like Chicago or New York, such music was hard to find, and one had to save their pennies for excursions to record stores that specialized in imports.
But even after the advent of online music, I couldn't find anything by Will Heggie, or scarecly even a mention of him beyond his connection to Cocteau Twins. Lo and behold, just recently, I did a research and learned that Will Heggie did not launch into a solo career like I was led to believe. Instead, he joined an existing band of fellow Scotsmen and formed the band Lowlife (produced and managed by Brian Guthrie, brother to Cocteau Twin's iconoclastic guitarist, Robin Guthrie). Lowlife had a long and distinguished career before disbanding in 1997, and I had never even heard about them. So suddenly, I am able to download the music that was so dear to me. (I had lost the cassette decades earlier.)
I still have yet to listen to any of the other albums in Lowlife's catalog, but I did download their debut album, "Permanent Sleep". It is unique to become so captivated by an album that, released in 1986, is 28 years old! And it stands up fairly well. It has some markers of the early '80s goth scene of the UK, a bit like Siouxsie & the Banshees or Bauhas, but it has some of the precursors of the shoegaze movement which wouldn't emerge for another few years with bands like Lush or My Bloody Valentine. In all honesty, this music is shoegaze before any such term existed.
That is me in the middle in 1986. The cassette on the table is my first exposure to Cocteau Twins and Lowlife.
Yes, Will Heggie definitely took some of the Cocteau Twins sound with him to Lowlife, but, to be fair, he helped create that sound. It is a well known that Cocteau Twins influenced many bands from the Sundays, Sigur Ros, Bel Canto,Phantogram, to even Coldplay. But Lowlife can't be numbered as one of those bands, because they emerged right from Cocteau Twins.
As I listen to this music three decades later, it is easy to see the common thread that went through all of these bands - including Lowlife. The melody is driven by the heavy double bass with the guitars, abstract and minimalist, used only to create atmosphere and a static texture, all held together by a low voice, crashing against all of the other sounds. This comes right from Joy Division, the band that practically set the whole tone for underground music of the '80s. I didn't see it then, but I see it now.
Songs of note are "Cowards Way", the title track, "Sometime Something", "Gallery of Shame", and my favorite, "From Side to Side".
If you are interested in innovative '80s music that never hit the mainstream, this this is a good album to check out. I am surprised that, despite my limited exposure to it that it took me so long to locate. This is truly a treasure trove.
It was 1987, and, in my 17 year-old opinion, the best record label in the universe was 4AD.
This was the label that had given us such great acts in the early '80s as Bauhaus, Modern English, the Birthday Party, and Lydia Lunch. Today, they continue to amaze with acts such as Iron & Wine, TV On the Radio, Bon Iver, and Purity Ring.
In 1987, it was Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, Dead Can Dance, as well as new acts, the Pixies and Throwing Muses (both out of Boston).
As a promotion of their music, the British label put out a compilation that showcased their best bands. I think I made a special trip to Tower Records in Tempe, Arizona to buy it. The LP came in a really nice case complete with a booklet with photographs and articles of each band, produced by 23 Envelope - 4AD's visual department. I treasured this LP. They also released the album on VHS, also produced by 23 Envelope, with each video shot in grainy black and white - very artsy. I no longer have the LP, but I still have the VHS cassette. I wanted to add it to my collection, and so I decided to download this treasure digitally. Of course, I decided to review it.
Now that many years have passed since I first bought this album (26!), it is easy to see how much influence that Ivo Watts-Russel, the iconoclastic founder of the 4AD label, had over his musicians. Just like the videos, the music all has common aspects. This makes for a great concept album, envisioned by each of the different artists.
The first song is a a rowdy tune by Colourbox, an electronic outfit. The song, "Hot Doggie", has a dance beat and rocking guitar layered beneath a barrage of samples - most of them from movies like "Evil Dead" and "The Last Starfighter". Colourbox created a hit that same year under the name M/A/R/S called "Pump Up the Volume". You may have heard of it. (It was also a 4AD release.)
The second song is "Acid, Bitter, and Sad" by This Mortal Coil - one of my favorite bands of all time. This Mortal Coil, however, is not really a band. It is a project concocted by 4AD executives Ivo Watts-Russel and John Fryer, who both serve as musicians. This Mortal Coil would typically do cover songs from late '60s and early '70s acts like Tim Buckley, and each song would consist of a series of guest musicians, most of them from the 4AD catalog. They released three albums, and I would highly recommend them to anyone. "Acid, Bitter, and Sad" is a typical example of This Mortal Coil's music - dreamy and ethereal. It starts out with wind chimes and soft electronic music with vocals provided by '90s house music artist Alison Limerick, her voice run through an early equivalent of AutoTune. Then the song build up to an orchestral crescendo. A very nice song.
Track #3 is "Cut the Tree" by Wolfgang Press, also one of my favorite '80s bands. The song is very slow-paced and was always reminiscent of "Wrapped Around Your Finger" by the Police. Except that the vocals provided by Michael Allen (who sport white dreadlocks in the video) are deep, typical of most gothic bands of this era, and sets the song apart, along with its stark lyrics.
The next song is "Fish" by Throwing Muses, and the title "Lonely is an Eyesore" comes from the lyrics of this Boston quartet. They were fresh and young at the time they were signed to 4AD, formed by step-sisters Kirstin Hersh and Tanya Donelly (who went on to co-found the Breeders with Pixies' bassist Kim Deal, also a 4AD act.) I had the chance of meeting and seeing Throwing Muses live in 1989. They opened up for New Order, and the thing that struck me - this band was fronted by three women that scarcely stood above five feet, and they rocked. This song - driven by its staccato drum beat and Hersh's wailing vocals - is no different. The album contains a studio version of this song, but the video is a messier impromptu version of the song that captures some of their live energy.
This is followed by "Frontier" by Dead Can Dance. Many may not know that this legendary set of musicians started out in the punk communes of Melbourne, Australia in the late '70s. They would assemble and make music on whatever implement they could find - pots or pans. On their self-titled debut album released in 1984, Dead Can Dance released a studio version of this song. But on this compilation, it's the version of this song from their demo, which was made in one take with Lisa Gerrard making up her nonsensical lyrics on the spot. The interesting thing about this song - the instrumentation consists of them banging on metal drums filled with water, true to their roots.
Cocteau Twins - anyone who know me knows that this band (whom I was fortunate to see live in 1994, shortly before their breakup) is one of my favorite bands. This is a band that has gone through many phases - from spooky gothic in the early '80s, to the ancient Greek of "Treasure" to the liquidy chimes of "Victorialand". This song - "Crushed" - was from their "Love's Easy Tears" phase. It is scintillating jangle pop. Liz Fraser's vocals are resplendent. The best description that I have ever heard of Robin Guthrie's guitars is "feather-light guitars that sound like anything but guitars". Their music is so unique and has always withstood classification. This song is a jeweel.
Dij Juz is a band that I still know little about, but I always enjoyed their song "No Motion", which is an instrumental that seems to have strong jazz roots. A guitar driven song, it starts out with a strong bass line and a watery guitar, and they it splashes into its climax.
Clan of Xymox was one of my favorite bands. Their first few albums still are favorites of mine. I used to describe them to people in the '80s as "dance goth". Eventually, they became a parody of the gothic image people have of them. I look at their live videos now and laugh at the black lace and poofy hair. But at their core, they were really good songwriters, especially on this catchy tune "Muscoviet Mosquito". At the time, it was rare to combine acoustic guitar with electronic dance music, but that was Xymox's signature. The infectious rhythm is carried by Anke Wolbert's rapid fire guitar strumming, and Ronny Moorings wailing vocals. In fact, now that I think of it, I only liked Xymox as long as Anke Wolbert and Pieter Nooten were involved. Once they left, I lost interest.
This compilation is completed with "The Protagonist" by Dead Can Dance. At the time, DCD always stated that they wished to write soundtracks, and, since then, their music has graced several soundtracks (Heat, The Myst, ect.), and Lisa Gerrard has gone on to score several films (Gladiator, Whale Rider, etc.) This piece feels like it could be from a movie - grandiose and epic. It is an instrumental complete with a full orchestra. The brass section is particularly moving, along with an excellent oboe solo halfway through the song. The song ends with a crashing finale, and diminishes away with chimes.
This album is a must-have for aficianados of 4AD's music, and it is a good intro to those curious about the artsy side of music in the '80s.
Since my favorite band of all time is Cocteau Twins, it is only fit that I talk about them in my first post.
If you haven't heard of them, I would advise checking them out. They started out in the early '80s in Scotland as a gothic band. Then they evolved into something that could not be defined or classified. Their most distinguishing point was their vocalist - Elizabeth Fraser. She rarely sang in words, but rather non-phonetic sounds. And if she did sing actual words - good luck in trying to make sense of them. Her vocals would flit and flutter like a bird on a wing. For me, what always set Cocteau Twins apart was the guitar played by Robin Guthrie. His music would swirl and eddy like liquid, the guitar never sounding like an actual guitar.
Their music was ambient, ethereal and magical. I loved it from the first time I heard it (back in 1985). From that point on, I devoted my time and hard-earned money to collecting their back catalog.
The problem with this - Cocteau Twins were featured on the elite British record label - 4AD. And I was a teen boy growing up in the small, desert town of Casa Grande, Arizona. And this was in the days before internet. Yes, sure, their were record stores in more urban areas like Stinkweeds or Zia Records in the Phoenix area that carried alternative records. But those were an hour away, and I didn't have a driver's license.
My solution was J.P.'s. This was the only record store in Casa Grande, and J.P. soon came to know me as the kid who only ordered import records. I got to know his thick catalogs by heart, and little by little, as I saved enough money, I ordered every EP or album put out by Cocteau Twins since 1981 - on vinyl, of course.
I was very excited at the end of the summer of 1988. I had just graduated high school and spent time in Belgium as an exchange student. I had just started classes at the local community college. Cocteau Twins was coming out with a new album, and it was their first record to be marketed by a major label.
It was still going to be hard to get this in a small town, so I made sure I ordered the new album on cassette from J.P. When it arrived, he called my house, and I set out on a hot summer day to pick it up.
J.P.'s was in the mall all the way across town. It was a hot day, so I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I carried my trusty walkman with me, and walked a few miles to the record store to pick it up.
My heart was beating with anticipation as I unwrapped my new copy of Cocteau Twins' "Blue Bell Knoll". I popped it into the walkman and pressed play. The first dulcid sounds started... I walked out of the store, listening intently. I stepped out into the hot sun and stepped off of the curb onto the parking lot.
As I stepped off of the curb, my tighty-whities got caught on one of my testicles and twisted. A pain that no one should ever experience radiated through my whole nether-regions.
I stood there in public, unraveling this killer wedgie within my shorts and waited for the pain to subside. When I was okay and coherent, I resumed my walk towards home, enjoying the new Cocteau Twins album.
For some reason, I never forgot this episode. I never forgot that my first experience hearing the new Cocteau Twins album was marred by excruciating pain in my nutsack.
I was devestated when Cocteau Twins broke up in 1998.
In the year 2000, they came out with a greatest hits collection called "Stars & Topsoil". I was using CDs by then. When I bought the CD, I read the liner notes written by Alan Warner. There was a peculiar line:
"I remember I missed Blue Bell Knolls for ages. What was the pain the balls again? Oh yes, I was mucking around in Spain and none the wiser for it..."
I had chills go up and down my spine (and other places) when he talked about "Blue Bell Knolls" and "pain in the balls". Was this some sort of universal experience? Anima mundi? Did anyone else experience pain in the balls when they listened to this album? Should the album have been called "Blue Balls Knoll"?
I look forward to the day when Cocteau Twins reunites and makes another album. But rest assured - when they do, I will be wearing protection. A cup... something...
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