A stately, cinematic slab of music, Lana Del Rabies ‘ new album, her third, lies somewhere between the early brutality of Swans and the eerie, gothic neo-classical experimentation of Dead Can Dance. It’s absolutely heady, erotic and hypnotic. Sometimes, it’s a thunderstorm, sometimes a soft caress. Tracks like ‘Mother ‘ and ‘Master’ feel like miniContinue reading “Album Review: Lana Del Rabies- Strega Beata”
Tag Archives: Goth
Garlands Is 40
More people seem familiar with later work from Cocteau Twins but their debut album Garlands is still beautiful. Having just turned forty, I thought this record was worth a reappraisal. Featuring the original lineup of Liz Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Will Heggie, the original sound was dark, dense and as tight as a boa constrictor.Continue reading “Garlands Is 40”
I Blame Robert Smith…
At fourteen, I was a bona fide Goth. Black of eyeliner, crimped of hair, and with a tendency towards a shyness and melancholy. Small-town life in rural Perthshire just wasn’t cutting it for me. I wanted to see bands, dance and theatre, but there was nothing within the vicinity and we were a working classContinue reading “I Blame Robert Smith…”
Overlooked Classics: Danielle Dax- Jesus Egg That Wept
Danielle Dax has had an interesting career- she trained in opera in her youth; became a multi- instrumentalist and formed the experimental Lemon Kittens in the post-punk era, appeared as the Wolf Girl in Neil Jordan’s Company Of Wolves, went solo, and now works in interior design and art. Her second album is very muchContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Danielle Dax- Jesus Egg That Wept”
Overlooked Classics: Bauhaus- In The Flat Field
We need to talk about Bauhaus. No, not the German art movement, although it’s hugely influential and important. The debut album from the English band is also the very first album ever released on 4AD. I feel Bauhaus are often unfairly dismissed as pretentious pretty boys and mere Goths, like a haircut that you growContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Bauhaus- In The Flat Field”
What Is Goth?
What is Goth? I see Goths all over Instagram,generally doing excessive glam make up tutorials, but as an old, and old school, Goth, it leaves me feeling somewhat alienated. Have they ever even heard Fields of the Nephilim or Sisters of Mercy? I suspect not. Young people, eh?!? Inspired by the spiky grandeur of art,Continue reading “What Is Goth?”
Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Once Upon A Time Is 40
Siouxsie and The Banshees emerged fully formed from the punk scene- Siouxsie Sioux and Steve Severin were part of the Bromley Contingent who followed the Sex Pistols- and gained notoriety for a spiky, atonal and extended version of The Lord’s Prayer during the spit, vomit and snot heyday. However, by the time of this, theContinue reading “Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Once Upon A Time Is 40”
Lydia and Rowland- Some Velvet Morning
Cover versions are always interesting when they’re cut to ribbons. So it is with Lydia Lunch and Rowland S Howard’s 1982 version of the Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood classic. Already pretty trippy, as befits a proto- psychedelic nursery rhyme, Lunch and Howard decided to make it even murkier. The duo, who met during Howard’sContinue reading “Lydia and Rowland- Some Velvet Morning”
Make It Gorey
As Halloween doth approach e’er closer, I felt it fitting to doff a silken top hat to the great genius of art and literature, Edward Gorey. A true eccentric, Gorey, who wrote luxurious macabre prose augmented by pale, spindly creatures often meeting their untimely demise, wore fur coats and sneakers, oft with moustache and beard,Continue reading “Make It Gorey”
Hit The North 