mementomori

Of course, for Sol Invictus, where Wakeford focuses his best energies while being accompanied by excellent musicians: more generally, the works of SI are more polished, while those of Wakeford as a solo artist are more "experimental" and a bit haphazard and often lack the talent of great musicians (often it’s Wakeford himself who juggles multiple instruments, and it’s known that technically he is a limited artist). What can I say, if you want just one album, I recommend "In Europa," an excellent live album by Sol Invictus that gives a good overview of their art. Then, if you want to sample a mature album, I suggest "In a Garden Green" or "In the Rain"; but if you seek a testimony of a rougher past (but also more inspired), there’s certainly "Trees in Winter" (a bit of caution for the good "Sol Veritas Lux," as historic as it may be, still feels very, very, very raw). Cheers!

a beautiful work that found me skeptical at first and then captivated me listen after listen...dreamlike music that transcends metal to become an experience...sleep is a curse is wonderful and reminds me of the more dreamy King Crimson...to be listened to anywhere and with anyone...but I prefer the twin album "bath"...and I don’t mind Kayo Dot either, a formation born from the breakup of Maudlin that features many former members and a reinterpretation in a post-rock key of the music of the original band...

Damn, compared to your old reviews (which were already good), you've made giant strides... this is definitely your best... I stumbled upon them by accident once, but I wasn't impressed... maybe I'm remembering wrong, but what left me puzzled was actually the voice (I could also hear some high notes like King Diamond, or am I just confused?)...

Well, Vortex, I'll try to respond to you. The exact phrase is, in my opinion, "mission is changed"... I don’t consider myself a great connoisseur of the neo-folk/industrial scene, because in the end my love is limited to 4 or 5 groups that I adore (and therefore my impartiality is clearly out the window). What can I say, many of the groups you mention I don’t even know, and for those I do know, it seems you are mainly referring to the first wave of British industrial, but the situation, for many groups, seems to have changed already in the second half of the eighties. Sure, the C93 would make me laugh if they were still making albums like Blood Dogs Rising today, but that hasn’t been the case: from Imperium onward, their evolution has been remarkable, they’ve produced memorable records, one more beautiful and courageous than the other... even Christopherson, who you think put the final seal on the scene in '81, continued with Coil, with whom he demonstrated he could credibly follow up on the TG revolution... If one mission has ended, another equally arduous has begun: to no longer be pioneers but "simple" musicians who have something to say. What has changed is the paradigm: no longer that of industrial/experimental music, but that of singer-songwriter (in the broad sense of the term): to express and give emotions, which seems to me not a small thing. Whether they take themselves seriously or not is solely up to them (and I can understand that P-Orridge, a peculiar character, may have something to say knowing them, but that concerns the personal sphere of the artist, not the more properly artistic one). In truth, I have a different view of things: I’ve seen Death in June, Sol Invictus, and C93 live, for example, and they seem like the least sure, most fragile, and shy people in the world (while, not knowing him, it’s P-Orridge who seems to play the diva role the most...). More generally, I don’t think there is an artist who isn’t convinced of their own art; on the contrary, that would be concerning... and then, the role of the art wannabe is appealing, which must be forgiven. Moreover, looking closely, it seems to me there’s more irony than one might think (just look at certain photos taken of Tibet and Douglas P.), nor can it be said that courage is lacking: only Death in June seems to have marched on a well-defined formula, the others have continuously changed style, and while they may have lost the pioneering charge of their beginnings, it must be said that they have transformed their art into something personal that transcends styles and attitudes: if Tibet recites a poem to me, I enjoy it and that’s it; I don’t look for the truly innovative charge of his music (it seems a limited way of viewing the issue), but I appreciate him as an artist who knows how to convey emotions, akin to a Drake or a Cave, hardly innovators... the end of the world? Of course, it's an overused concept and in some respects banal, but it’s beautiful to see how each entity interprets it in its own way (some in psychoanalytical terms, others in religious, eschatological, political, philosophical, aesthetic, romantic, etc. perspectives...), and even more beautiful is to realize how a generic label like neo-folk actually covers a variety of artistic impulses. In short, Vortex, to answer you: what is considered boring or monotonous is decided by the user according to their tastes; and if you tell me that the scene is rich with incompetents, I can agree, but also here one must consider tastes (there are ballads by Death in June or Sol Invictus that drive me crazy even though a third grader could perform them). Anyway, this is not a crusade of mine, Vortex; I welcome well-argued interventions like yours... it just seems to me that we start from different premises... you, correct me if I'm wrong, seem to have an avant-garde background, while I emerge from rock and dark, and it’s obvious that I’m more attracted to emotional impact than to the more strictly

H.B., I would give the album you mentioned a 3... it's not bad, but taken on its own it doesn’t make much sense: just one piece, atmospheric but quite repetitive, essentially functional to the evolution of the concept (better then the third chapter, which more or less moves on the same coordinates but in a brighter way, with Shirley Collins at the end singing all the pretty little horses)... anyway, I saw on the band's website that the entire trilogy has recently been reissued in a single box set, which I highly recommend, since finding material from Current is not that easy... Ain Soph, who do you remind me of, I might as well review something of theirs, even though I must say it’s not at all easy...

I liked the reception; aside from the small initial inaccuracy and the fact that Cale is not mentioned, it seems faithful to the work while concurrently providing a perfectly shareable personal interpretation. As for Nico, I would say she is not overrated at all and deserves all the good in the world... simply for the fact that, regardless of the content (which is beautiful!), her art is unique and completely detached from the moods of her time. Her music still sounds current today, and yesterday as well, there are hardly any artists who can be said to have done better in that field and in those ways. Mythologization has little to do with it, or it only relates to the extent that we discuss an icon of the past whose image is presented to us and transfigured as if crystallized in a specific form. Music and the "rest" are difficult to separate, but in this case, I think such an operation makes no sense...

I almost forgot... my reviews tend to be a bit long, and I suppose many might feel discouraged when faced with these dense pages... lately, I've been trying to work on being more concise, but it's something that goes against my nature... the internet is a wonderful tool, but it doesn't lend itself well to long and detailed readings... sometimes, even I struggle when rereading myself, let alone someone who’s just dropping in and isn’t inclined to invest effort... then again, I have to admit that sometimes I’m the idiot who, in the excitement of sending a new review (who knows why?), sends it without having properly polished it to make it more streamlined and fluid. Anyway, OleEinar, if you haven't already, I recommend listening to Current... try with the latest black ships ate the sky, which is full of interesting collaborations...

Thank you OleEinar, you are always very kind... however, I don’t think I’m being undervalued; rather, it’s the groups I review that are often little known... I must have written about thirty pieces just about sol invictus, current, and death in June, and this monothematicity dilutes the appeal of these pages... then add the fact that many of these CDs are out of print and that I never provide even a scrap of mp3 (something I should start doing... I didn’t know how, but it seems to me that it’s pretty straightforward...). However, I find comfort in the fact that: first, there are still people interested, and the idea of having brought something new into someone else’s life is incredibly rewarding; second, little by little, a rather nice archive is being developed: paradoxically, although Debaser isn’t a site specialized in dark music, it risks becoming the most comprehensive in Italy regarding the neo-folk scene, which no one pays attention to (everything I write is self-taught, I don’t refer to any particular source...). In fact, while you can find some Death in June information here and there, for everything else, it’s truly a blank slate...

but...I think that even as satanic he was already a bit of a loser...and then at a certain point everyone goes crazy, look at what happened to Ferretti...you know, artists are all a bunch of clowns...

but no, the mukkazza dark is awesome!