What does it sound like?:
1983 in La Phonographique in Leeds, or the Batcave in London. Probably.
Venus in Furs with a drum machine. And surprisingly, quite a lot else. There are a lot of echoey vocals and guitars, lyrics in low tones about death, and rigid percussion (when it’s not a straight drum machine). But you knew that.
It doesn’t sound like a summer in the park, but it’s ideal for winter in a rainy Northern town.
What does it all *mean*?
Goth is one of those genres where the leading lights claim that they were never themselves part of it. But if you think Goth you think: The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, The Mission and Siouxsie & The Banshees. All present and correct apart from Siouxsie, who is ably represented by a number of sound alikes (Attrition, All about Eve amongst others).
This is not Goth’s greatest hits but a 5 CD/83 track deeper dive. The big bands are represented by mostly lesser known tracks, and there are lots of one Peel Session wonders who never got so far that Grunge could kill them off. There are some names you would not normally associate with Goth, including Adam & the Ants, The Associates and Theatre of Hate. Others seems more Goth adjacent than actual Goth, but were certainly beloved and here sound suitably Gothic (The Damned not surprisingly, but also Cocteau Twins and Public Image) and a couple of Goth pre-cursors in Joy Division and Nico herself on a rare track “Saeta”.
Of the actual Goth bands you can have fun both running their names together (Gene Loves Jezebel And Also Trees, Dead Can Dance In the Nursery) and working out who they were particularly influenced by (both Siouxsie and the Sisters score highly). But it is not all derivative, and you can hear how some of this might grow to influence both Grunge and Electronic music in the next decade before metastasing into EMO. As well some of the bands progressing out of the crypt to major stardom (we get both Southern Death Cult and Death Cult, leaving The Cult to our imagination).
There is a leaflet with a 2 page history of the genre and a few paragraphs about each of the bands. The photos make it hard to believe now that this was a scene with a reputation for solemnity – the bands look flamboyant, deliberately OTT and terribly young. As the leaflet notes, the hole in the ozone layer is probably directly attributable to the amount of hair spray required to maintain the required haircut. The image and scene may have sold a million t-shirts but the music was essential too.
The early electronic drums have generally aged badly, as have the worst of the vocals of half spoken vampire poetry. But overall it’s still enjoyable all these years down the road from Leeds (other Goth cities were available, but that one was mine). (Oh and my mate told me to mention his favourites: Fields of the Nephilim)
Goes well with…
Cider and black, and dogs on ropes.
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
The hours of darkness, Black & White German Vampire movies, and books.
People who wear black on the outside because they feel black on the inside.
Wonderful review, Paul. I love the way you invert the headings so that ‘What Does It Mean?’ is the meat of the text.
I was never a Goth myself, but a nicer bunch of people I have yet to meet.
Cherry Red Records are good at this sort of thing, aren’t they.
Sounds great. Not entirely sure I’d say AEE we S&TB sound-alikes – they could play and had a singer who could sing, plus had a pastoral hippy thing going on rather than the Bromley suburban thing.
“Goth is one of those genres where the leading lights claim that they were never themselves part of it. But if you think Goth you think: The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, The Mission and Siouxsie & The Banshees.”
Love it, so true!!
It’s been a while since @paulwright ‘s excellent review, but there are 5 discs to go through here, and I’ve been immersing myself in this whole thing for a few listens before committing to writing. Some random thoughts about it all:
– the aforementioned omission of La Sioux (and other notable absences in my view would be Virgin Prunes, Sex Gang Children and XMal Deutschland). Not a problem I’d say, assuming you view this as a decent attempt to capture a lot of what was interesting and engaging about this whole scene, rather than a comprehensive record of everyone who “mattered”. I’d almost argue the opposite and say that the compilers could have safely skipped the predictable inclusion of Bauhaus, Cure, Mission and Sisters, on the basis that if you haven’t heard them then you’re unlikely to be buying a 5 disc goth comp in the first place.
– conversely I’d argue that it makes perfect sense to include a smattering of “surely they’re not goth?” bands such as the Associates, PiL and Joy Division, because they shared a goth “vibe” which was more important than any strict musical criteria.
– one of the delights of this comp is how varied it is – post-punk, psychobilly, industrial, pop, electro, glam, psychedelic … it’s all here. Listening to it as a whole, you can’t bring yourself to cherry pick because it all adds up to a fascinating (but loose) whole.
– nice touches include the presence of some obscure quasi-industrial/experimental types such as Portion Control and Legendary Pink Dots, and following PiL’s Flowers of Romance with a Danielle Dax track which has an almost identical drum beat.
– they certainly knew how to do intros and evocative production, those goffs. In fact, the main thing which jumped out at me was how happily these bands went outside the conventional music elements and played with different sounds and approaches. There’s a pleasing absence of Goth-By-Numbers (one of the main culprits is All About Eve, whose track here is exactly like the Banshees), and in general the weaker tracks are those which veer too closely to other established musical styles (e.g. Brigandage, Rose of Avalanche).
Finally, the all-important question: what would Blast think? He’d dismiss the more ethereal stuff, but be mightily chuffed at hearing the likes of the Associates and Chameleons, as well as the absence of “Six Grown Children”.