Hypnopazuzu
Create Christ, Sailor Boy

This is an interesting collaboration between the legendary David Tibet of the legendary Current 93 and the charismatic Martin “Youth” Glover, bassist of the great Killing Joke. In reality, the two had already crossed paths during the time of the dazzling debut of the Current, namely Nature Unveiled, a manifesto of a new industrial-esoteric aesthetic. The project is called Hypnopazuzu (Pazuzu was the demon featured in the film The Exorcist) and the album, titled Create Christ, Sailor Boy, is released by House Of Mythology. It is an extremely nuanced work, characterized by grandiloquent and neoclassical atmospheres, in the wake of a kind of dark and symphonic psychedelia. At certain moments, such as in the epic opening track “Your Eyes In The Skittle Hils” and in “Christmas With The Channelers,” it reminded me, at least in terms of atmosphere, of an in some ways unreleased album of the Current like the electronic Island. Tibet is in dazzling form: he is as malevolent and esoteric as in his best times, and his creative vein doesn’t seem exhausted. “The Crow At Play” is another highlight of Create Christ, Sailor Boy: it begins with an oriental and mystical vibe, then the percussion creates a hypnotic vortex while the riff from “Kleiner Krieger” by Popol Vuh (from Einsjäger & Siebenjäger) is picked up with Tibet proclaiming frenziedly. “Magog At The Maypole” is more electronic, a sort of decadent anti-new age. With “Sweet Sodom SingSongs,” we are still in the realm of a mystical psychedelia embracing the '60s culture devoted to the lysergic acid while “The Auras Are Escaping Into The Forest” is another strong piece: it is a gloomy litany for cosmic travelers. Overall, Create Christ, Sailor Boy is a good work that will surely please the followers of the Current (even though here we are very far from neo-folk) but could also interest a wider audience.