Stegzy's Music Project

A commentary on Stegzy's album collection

Jun 9

Heavenly Voices Parts 1 – 3 – Various Artists [#578-580]

by stegzy

A bumper three albums on a Friday with a most peculiar acquisition, Heavenly Voices.

Much like how Looking for Europe does for the Neofolk genre, Heavenly Voices does for the dreampop/ethereal wave genre by way of the artists on the Hyperium record label. Here we have, in effect, three distinctly glorious compilation albums featuring a whole range of talent from artists like Eden’s Sean Bowley and his side project Sunwheel to fully functioning bands like Bel Canto,  Black Tape for a Blue Girl and Miranda Sex Garden.

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[#578] Part One is possibly the most accessible of the three. A little catawauling here and there but a nice build up towards (and what was my introduction to) Ordo Equituum Solis‘  Playing with the Fire.

Dreamily swimming onwards through Die Form’s Cantique and culminating in Winter Moon Descending by Annabel’s Garden

hev[#579] Part Two takes a different approach. The songs here have a much more floaty dreamy kind of feel with a slight dash of hauntology. This album was my introduction to the whole Heavenly Voices trilolgy and as a result not only are there many artists who have appeared previously in the Music Project, for example Collection d’Arnell Andréa and Black Tape, but also many who are yet to come. Possibly my most favourite tracks from this album are Sunwheel’s Walk Upon the Grass (which, incidently, I was intending to shoot a music video for but couldn’t find a willing person to film in time! Maybe a later opportunity will arise) The Sea is My Soul by 24 Hours and the haunting 56 in 81 by Eleven Shadows.

 

11K190SNXWLFinally Part 3 [#580] copies of which are currently changing hands for around £300. Featuring a much more accessible approach to the genre with more familiar artists like Miranda Sex Garden and Bel Canto. Again, this album introduced me to many artists and it is easy to see why people prize it so highly. Emerging from Part 2’s forest of floaty vaginas into a dystopian landscape of industry like a stumbling ninny, the listener finds Part 3 rips up the leafy glades of Part 2 and drills deep concrete foundations of industrial darkwave right into your mind.

Legend has it that there is actually a part four and a part five compilation. Rumours, whispers abound.  Sadly the Hyperium label closed shortly after the death of its founder in 2002, but many of the acts continue on in the worlds of Darkwave and etheralwave.

 

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Bel Canto Black Tape for a Blue Girl Collection d'Arnell Andréa compilations dark wave Eden Etheral Wave gothic Miranda Sex Garden Ordo Equitum Solis Sunwheel Various Artists

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May 23

Halo Star – Black Tape for a Blue Girl [#566]

by stegzy

Halo_Star_(Black_Tape_for_a_Blue_Girl_album_-_cover_art)Halo Star is the ninth studio album by the band Black Tape for a Blue Girl.

We’ve seen BTBG on the music project a couple of times before, most notably with their tenth album 10 Neurotics. As 10 Neurotics was my first experience of BTBG album and their most recent, the earlier Halo Star is difficult to adapt to, especially as I’ve not really given it that much play time. That’s not to say I don’t like it, I just guess that having eaten the cherry on the cake, the icing and sponge is one meal too much.

But I will perceiver.

2005 Black Tape for a Blue Girl dark wave gothic

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Apr 12

Goth Box – Various Artists [#540]

by stegzy

R-427454-1292370992.jpegHad I started this project at “G” back in 2012, at this point we would be at Gothic Compilation Vol 342. But rather than shed even more readership, I opted to weed out those compilations and reduced them to  the selection that follows.

Today’s album, four volumes, G, O, T and H. In a box. Goth Box. Genius. Made up of four volumes, it is a showcase compilation of gothic artists from Europe featuring artists such as Inkubus Sukkubus, Big Electric Cat, Bauhaus, Mephisto Waltz, Lycia, Love is Colder Than Death and Black Tape for a Blue Girl.

I really like this compilation. It scares me like all good goth music should, in that I’m not entirely sure what it is I like about it all. It’s a compilation that I dip into for a bit, then quickly dip out of. The arrangement features gothic music from most of the goth subgenres including cybergoth, fluffy goth and neoclassical goth across the decades. There’s something for every wanna be goth, though there are exceptions and omissions that I, personally, would have included had I been compiling the compilation.

The compilation is massive, coming in at a whopping sixty tracks long and would make the perfect gift for any wannabe goth or moody teenager looking to discover their own identity.  Rather than list the tracks and artists featured,I’ve opted to let you discover the album yourself through the wonders of Amazon. 

1996 Bauhaus Black Tape for a Blue Girl compilations gothic Inkubus Sukkubus Love is Colder than Death Lycia Various Artists

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Mar 10

Ghosts from the Darkside II [#519]

by stegzy

R-570247-1150308479.jpeg
A compilation of highlights of Goth, Darkwave and Dark Electro bands.

During my exploration of usenet newsgroups, specifically the goth-industrial binary group, I happened upon a whole treasure trove of gothic compilations (as you will hear about a few weeks later on in this project). In an effort to grow my “repertoire” with goth music I would download compilations as a way to find new bands.

Ghosts from the Darkside II is pretty hard going. I’d heard of a few of the bands featuring on this album through other explorations, such as Inkubus Sukkubus, Black Tape for a Blue Girl and Blutengel so it was natural for me to give it a go. However, I’d not really heard of any of the songs in the compilation either. There are quite a few German bands in this compilation so I suspect this is an album aimed at people who attend Wave Gothik Treffen.

After several listens I’m still not enamoured with the album. Perhaps it’s because I’m older now and I’ve reached “Full of Goth” or perhaps it’s because I just don’t like what I’ve heard.

Tracklist

1-1 –Swartalf Invocation 4:03
1-2 –Non Compos Mentis Without Bloodshed 6:10
1-3 –Ikon (4) Fatal Attraction 3:17
1-4 –In Extremo Ai Vis Lo Lop 4:02
1-5 –Morthem Vlade Art Beyond Sorrow 5:19
1-6 –WeltenBrand The Fall Of Trisona 6:35
1-7 –Diary Of Dreams Drop Dead 7:11
1-8 –Nekromantik Girlstickboy 4:05
1-9 –Blutengel Beauty Of Suffering 6:13
1-10 –Fiction 8 Second Skin 3:32
1-11 –Girls Under Glass New World Order 4:20
1-12 –Das Zeichen In The Garden 3:58
1-13 –Theatre Of Loneliness Holocaust 4:16
1-14 –black tape for a blue girl Given 4:20
1-15 –Hagalaz’ Runedance When The Trees Were Silenced 2:45
2-1 –Exovedate Ego Sum Mons 4:30
2-2 –Untoten Gothik Years 5:54
2-3 –Chaos God Judgement Day 5:36
2-4 –The Dust Of Basement God’s Own Fairytales 5:28
2-5 –The Second Sight Answer 3:29
2-6 –Die Form Spiral 2 4:12
2-7 –Vespertina De Profundis 4:20
2-8 –Inkubus Sukkubus Starchild 4:44
2-9 –Sanguis Et Cinis Nicht Mein Schicksal 5:33
2-10 –The New Creatures My Child Queen 4:53
2-11 –This Burning Effigy Exquisite 4:58
2-12 –Hexedene Only Human (Original Mix) 4:30
2-13 –Attrition The Thin Veil 6:12
2-14 –Louisa John-Krol Alexandria 5:30
2-15 –Summoning Angbands Schmieden 3:28

1999 Black Tape for a Blue Girl compilations gothic Inkubus Sukkubus Various Artists

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Jul 19

Album #78 – Anthology Archive – Revue Noir

by stegzy

Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 14.05.53 Anthology Archive – Revue Noir

This is another one of those music projects by bands I like but didn’t know they’d done.

Revue Noir is a collaboration between Sam Rosenthal and Nicki Jaine both former Black Tape for a Blue Girl.The Noir is rightly placed as this is as dark as 10 Neurotics. The album covers several familiar songs from a variety of artists such as David Bowie and The Doors taking them to a very dark place indeed.

Think Dresden Dolls, with the lights out, in a mine, painted black. With your eyes closed. Or maybe imagine a dark burlesque evening where everyone there is hedonistically miserable and the stage act sounds like they’re about to break into some weird real life S&M.

That’s Revue Noir. Dark and sinister.

Another hipster album I think. For those wanting to sound enchanting, hip and dark or fans of the sexually charged Dark Cabaret revival of the noughties.

I couldn’t find a video of anything from this album other than this one which, curiously, was filmed at a burlesque evening.

Black Tape for a Blue Girl Brian Viglione Revue Noir

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Jan 11

Music Project – Album #9: 10 Neurotics by Black Tape for a Blue Girl

by stegzy

10 Neurotics by Black Tape for a Blue Girl

Aside from Porcupine Tree’s In Absentia which is a concept album about a serial killing pervert, this is possibly one of the more….twisted….albums I have.

Each song on the album tells the story of some sort of sexual depravity, kink or perversion. Some very dark indeed.

Black Tape are a kind of darkwave caberet band. Think Dresden Dolls wearing gimp suits in an S&M dungeon (as opposed to an M&S dungeon; which is something else entirely). Interestingly Brian Viglione of the Dresden Dolls plays drums on this album. Which is nice.

Anyway, the story is that the lyrics, themes and topics dealt with in this album caused a lot of Black Tape regulars to quit the band. Zoe was at home when I was playing this album and even she commented that the lyrics made her feel uneasy. If you listen to the lyrics you’ll see why.  If you don’t you’ll probably think “Oh this is a nice tune”…kind of the way your folks probably did with Abba in the 70’s without realising the twisted sordidness of Benny and Bjorn’s lyrics. (Dancing Queen? Really? You do know what that’s about don’t you?)

No.

This is dark. Dark and happy. Dark and scary. Dark and disturbing. Much in the way that you feel dirty after listening to it and realising that Perfect Pervert is socially unacceptable on so many levels, Marmalade Cat is about Furries and Pleasure in the Pain…well…I’ll link to the video….you make your own mind up…but do try it, it has one of the best lyrics in  a song ever – “I wake humiliated by the reality of what I’ve imagined”

Black Tape are on the Projekt Records label. Take note. I will be mentioning that label again.

2009 Black Tape for a Blue Girl Brian Viglione

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