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bedsitter23Lydia Lunch is an artist that occasionally will pop up on my radar. She has also amassed a career that is nothing short of amazing.
She started out in Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, which appeared on the compilation "No New York", effectively creating a genre called "No Wave" and infleuncing noise rock permanently.
In the 1980s, she pushed the limits of music, collaborating with like minded folks like the Birthday Party, Sonic Youth, Foetus, and others, and was making her own recordings, writing books through her own press, and making indie films. Essentially, what she was doing in the 80s was paving the way for the trends of the 90s (self-publishing, indie movies, spoken word). To the point, in the 90s, even DC Comics was having her write (through Vertigo, with Toxic Gumbo).
So her credentials are bona fide. Checking in with Lunch in recent years, she has gotten a lot of acclaim for working with a guitarist named Cypress Grove. Grove is probably best known as a devotee of Jeffrey Lee Pierce, became a collaborator with Pierce, and has championed Pierce's music, as a driving force in The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Session Project- three albums of which people like Nick Cave, Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop, Mark Lanegan and others.
It's faint credit though just to label Grove a Pierce disciple. He's a very accomplished and unique musician in his own right. he weaves in blues and Spanish folk and the kind of Americana that you would find in the likes of Nick Cave and some other Lunch cohorts.
2014's collab A Fistful of Desert Blues was a critical hit which brough Lunch back on to my radar, and strong proof that she is still going strong in her 4th decade of music. So i was interested in checking out her split LP (with Grove) with Italian neofolksters Spiritual Front, Especially, as it featured Lunch covering "Hotel California".
I wasn't familiar with Spiritual Front, but I have really been interested in neofolk (or apocalyptic folk, if you prefer) for the last few years, and especially digging through the back catalog of Current 93.
For me, it combines the folk and goth genres that I love, much in the way of combining say Fairport Convention and Sisters of Mercy. Of course, although this genre is right down my alley, I found out that like every genre, 95% of it's crap. Current 93 and others like Sol invictus may be masters, but they are the exception, not the rule. Which of course, it is with all genres.
Also, this genre uncomfortably seems to draw in a lot of people who seem to be interested in say Ernst Rohm, some more explicitly into nazi regalia, while others uncomfortably just blur the edge. That's a bit unsettling.
I wasn't familiar with Spiritual Front, but they do seem to be pretty good at what they do, and as far as I can tell aren't explictly Right wing. Like industrial music (which neofolk seems to pair up with quite well, which may be ironic, but quiet is the new loud, and like metal and goth, you have to play it straight, and sometimes it lends to parody).
In any case, Twin Horses, the collab LP hasn't got the buzz that Fistful of Desert blues has, which is probably fair. It's nothing spectacular. The SF stuff I do like, including a cover of WASP's "L.O.V.E. Machine" done as a goth dirge.
As far as "Hotel California", i really wanted to like it. it seems on the surface, perfect. All the Crowley-influenced lyrics delivered as near spoken word by Lunch; but I suspect it's familiarism. The joke gets played out. if everyone wasn't so well acquainted with the song, it would probably work, but since we know what is coming, it seems like a joke,
The rest of the Lunch/Grove stuff is of various quality- some strong, some forgettable. Over all, this LP is one that will probably not make a Favorite Album list at the end of the year, but is a bit of a nice diversion to spend time with.
She started out in Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, which appeared on the compilation "No New York", effectively creating a genre called "No Wave" and infleuncing noise rock permanently.
In the 1980s, she pushed the limits of music, collaborating with like minded folks like the Birthday Party, Sonic Youth, Foetus, and others, and was making her own recordings, writing books through her own press, and making indie films. Essentially, what she was doing in the 80s was paving the way for the trends of the 90s (self-publishing, indie movies, spoken word). To the point, in the 90s, even DC Comics was having her write (through Vertigo, with Toxic Gumbo).
So her credentials are bona fide. Checking in with Lunch in recent years, she has gotten a lot of acclaim for working with a guitarist named Cypress Grove. Grove is probably best known as a devotee of Jeffrey Lee Pierce, became a collaborator with Pierce, and has championed Pierce's music, as a driving force in The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Session Project- three albums of which people like Nick Cave, Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop, Mark Lanegan and others.
It's faint credit though just to label Grove a Pierce disciple. He's a very accomplished and unique musician in his own right. he weaves in blues and Spanish folk and the kind of Americana that you would find in the likes of Nick Cave and some other Lunch cohorts.
2014's collab A Fistful of Desert Blues was a critical hit which brough Lunch back on to my radar, and strong proof that she is still going strong in her 4th decade of music. So i was interested in checking out her split LP (with Grove) with Italian neofolksters Spiritual Front, Especially, as it featured Lunch covering "Hotel California".
I wasn't familiar with Spiritual Front, but I have really been interested in neofolk (or apocalyptic folk, if you prefer) for the last few years, and especially digging through the back catalog of Current 93.
For me, it combines the folk and goth genres that I love, much in the way of combining say Fairport Convention and Sisters of Mercy. Of course, although this genre is right down my alley, I found out that like every genre, 95% of it's crap. Current 93 and others like Sol invictus may be masters, but they are the exception, not the rule. Which of course, it is with all genres.
Also, this genre uncomfortably seems to draw in a lot of people who seem to be interested in say Ernst Rohm, some more explicitly into nazi regalia, while others uncomfortably just blur the edge. That's a bit unsettling.
I wasn't familiar with Spiritual Front, but they do seem to be pretty good at what they do, and as far as I can tell aren't explictly Right wing. Like industrial music (which neofolk seems to pair up with quite well, which may be ironic, but quiet is the new loud, and like metal and goth, you have to play it straight, and sometimes it lends to parody).
In any case, Twin Horses, the collab LP hasn't got the buzz that Fistful of Desert blues has, which is probably fair. It's nothing spectacular. The SF stuff I do like, including a cover of WASP's "L.O.V.E. Machine" done as a goth dirge.
As far as "Hotel California", i really wanted to like it. it seems on the surface, perfect. All the Crowley-influenced lyrics delivered as near spoken word by Lunch; but I suspect it's familiarism. The joke gets played out. if everyone wasn't so well acquainted with the song, it would probably work, but since we know what is coming, it seems like a joke,
The rest of the Lunch/Grove stuff is of various quality- some strong, some forgettable. Over all, this LP is one that will probably not make a Favorite Album list at the end of the year, but is a bit of a nice diversion to spend time with.
