Current 93
SixSixSix: SickSickSick

It is known that the failure of World Serpent Distribution was a true catastrophe for those who love bands like Current 93, Death in June, Sol Invictus, Coil, Nurse with Wound, and many others.
Therefore, operations aimed at reviving essential material, alas, not recoverable through the canonical channels of the music market (unless, like myself, you want to wear yourself out with used record fairs and rummage with saintly patience in the dusty shelves of some God-forgotten little shop) are welcome.

In recent years, it seems that David Tibet has committed himself to putting many of the submerged works of the Current 93 catalog back into circulation. Among the first recovery actions, in the summer of 2004, this "SixSixSix: SickSickSick" was released, which goes on to revive three EPs today difficult to find: "Looney Runes" (1990), "Lucifer Over London" (1994), and "Tamlin" (1994).
To be honest, the operation is not managed in the best way: given the importance, but above all the diversity, of the works mentioned above, we would have preferred dedicated publications that remained as faithful as possible to the originals. The cover, already insipidly copying that of "Lucifer Over London", is not the best, and overall "SixSixSix: SickSickSick" appears to us as a heterogeneous and excessively discontinuous product. But only for the exceptional contents it contemplates, it still remains worthy of consideration.

It starts poorly, with the two tracks taken from "Looney Runes", which already at its release did not manage to enthuse: originally the EP also contained six live tracks, which Tibet, however, decided to omit, as they were deemed unworthy of being resurrected. Thus, the two studio-recorded ones remain.
"Panzer Ruin (in the Hands of Gillespie)" is nothing more than a remix of "Panzer Runes" (present in "Crocked Crosses for the Nodding God"), practically identical to the original. As I have already illustrated in the review of this album, the track does not best represent the artistic potential of Current 93, showing them in an unusually merry guise (it is, I recall, a pure divertissement, in which Tibet enjoys himself with his quirky cries, but nothing more).
"That's All, Folks", the other track, is instead a re-reading of the previous one in a more markedly industrial perspective: somewhat irrelevant, you will agree, in the economy of our lives.
("Looney Runes" - rating: 2/5)

 Closing the unnecessary initial parenthesis, the part of greatest interest is constituted by "Lucifer Over London", recorded in 1994 during the making of "Of Ruine or Some Blazing Starre": the EP, in my opinion, remains one of the most formidable testimonies of the entire discography of Current 93.
"Lucifer Over London" (the track) is a true masterpiece: opened by the famous riff of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", it is a bizarre composition with indefinable features that develops over eight engaging minutes. In the first part, electric and acoustic guitars outline in unison a robust folk/rock (live, the piece takes on the characteristics of a visionary punk ride), where Tibet and friend John Balance (Coil) orchestrate a hallucinated duet like never before heard: Tibet spirited, raw, and agonizing (in one of his best performances), Balance echoes the irresistible chorus with his oblique and sick singing, together getting tangled in a crescendo of pure madness. The miracle is repeated in the second portion of the track, which slows down, collapses, and regenerates on the imprint of a more canonical folk, but full of mysticism and dark omens: the piece thus transforms into an esoteric nursery rhyme for two voices, plagued by the surreal tolling of celebratory bells. In a word: phenomenal!
Not much to say instead about "Sad-Go-Round" (covering Tony McPhee): a canonical folk piece, a bit Americanized due to Nick Saloman's electric guitar.
Far more interesting is the next track: "The Seven Seals are Revealed at the End of Time as Seven Bows: The Bloodbow, The Pissbow, The Painbow, The Faminebow, The Deathbow, The Angerbow, The HoHoHoBow". Behind a long-winded title hides another masterpiece track: almost fourteen minutes of apocalyptic visions (perhaps the apocalyptic piece par excellence of Current 93!), a fantastic exploration where Steven Stapleton's liquid electronics miraculously converge into the magical arpeggios of John Cashmore's guitar.
Touching is Tibet's performance, never as in this case close to the art of master Morrison: mystical evoker of apocalyptic scenarios, Tibet celebrates the death of his two beloved cats, amidst biblical quotations and images that already mark his intimate and personal poetry of the End. Nothing more to add, except that we are faced with one of the most intense tracks in the discography of the Current: the "The End" of Current 93!
("Lucifer Over London" - rating: 5/5)  

 The third EP, "Tamlin", instead brings us back to the Current we know best, at the peak, we could say, of their folk splendor!
The title-track is an eleven-minute acoustic saga recounting the troubled love story between Tamlin and Lady Margaret, queen of the Elves: in the style of certain atmospheres of the unattainable "Thunder Perfect Mind", the piece is the astonishing fresco of an engaging fairy tale from popular tradition which, Tibet explains, vividly illustrates how true love can go beyond everything. Cashmore's guitar is simply divine, while Tibet's identification intensity, sublime in highlighting the different moods of the story told, approaches that of the minstrels of the Middle Ages. It is here that Our most "traditionalist" and bucolic instincts are vented (at the expense of the apocalyptic DNA), fully demonstrating the maturity of a band now aware of its means, even outside of the industrial paradigm.
"How the Great Satanic Glory Faded" is another formidable folk-song, still infused with Nick Saloman's electric guitar: in it, one discerns the dualism of Satan (male and at the same time female). Tibet, amidst screams and grunts, offers a decidedly over-the-top performance, possessed as he rarely happened in a folk track; and this contrast (successful, moreover) between music and singing constitutes the true peculiarity of the track.
("Tamlin" - rating: 5/5)

 Closing the whole thing, we find "Misery Farm", also recorded during the "Lucifer Over London" sessions, then released as a single in 1999. It is a re-reading of a classic originally interpreted by Tommy Handley, and it seems to mimic "Old MacDonald Had a Farm": a festive and choral track that speaks of the miserable, exploited, and broke employees (including animals) of a squalid farm. A decidedly negligible episode, that becomes a point of curiosity only because it shows the band in a truly unprecedented guise. ("Misery Farm" - rating: 2/5)

Thus ends, amid shouts and rustic violins, a multifaceted work that illustrates more aspects of David Tibet's multifaceted personality: for this reason, "SixSixSix: SickSickSick" can serve perfectly as an invitation ticket to enter the unpredictable world of the Current.
Even though we, in reality, continue to recommend the laborious recovery of the original works...

And sixsixsix
It makes us sick
We're sicksicksick
Of 666!