Years ago when I was delving into goth lists for stuff I would never find in regular music shops (really the start of my finding the sort of music this thread is about), Arcana's Dark Age Of Reason kept getting mentions, so I've wanted it for a long time. It's neoclassical and I'm sure lots of metalheads will appreciate it, sleeve art is gorgeous. But I think that the acclaim is probably mostly based on the first few tracks, but seriously, check out "Source Of Light", it's really wonderful.https://arcana.bandcamp.com/album/dark-age-of-reasonOnly a small sample of the album, "Angel Of Sorrow" is lovely too if you find the whole album.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 4 May 2018 20:55 (six years ago) link
Cantar de Procella is pretty great, album after Dark Age of Reason... I actually just bought Petrichor the other day, a collection of b-sides and other ephemerata.
― erry red flag (f. hazel), Friday, 4 May 2018 21:21 (six years ago) link
I might have to resort to MP3 for Cantar de Procella. Very expensive second hand.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 4 May 2018 22:05 (six years ago) link
expensive on vinyl, you mean?
― erry red flag (f. hazel), Friday, 4 May 2018 22:28 (six years ago) link
Just the CD copies
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 4 May 2018 23:28 (six years ago) link
Bel Canto - Shimmering, Warm & Bright
There's a bunch of good songs, the slightly aquatic german track is lovely and "Mornixuur" is gorgeous but overall it's just okay and probably suffers from the departure of Geir.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 25 May 2018 17:51 (six years ago) link
It was a couple of years ago but the few webcam performances on Lycia's official youtube channel are worth seeing.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 26 May 2018 18:35 (five years ago) link
I totally missed this Mike VanPortfleet interview from 2013 somehow.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS72VwlXsxQ
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 2 June 2018 14:19 (five years ago) link
Orange - Complete Recordings is the length of a regular album and it's a typical case of occasionally pleasant but poorly written and extremely derivative, formulaic dreampop.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 29 June 2018 18:17 (five years ago) link
it's a better album that at least two by the cocteau twins though
― com rad erry red flag (f. hazel), Friday, 29 June 2018 23:22 (five years ago) link
than
― com rad erry red flag (f. hazel), Friday, 29 June 2018 23:23 (five years ago) link
Oooh.
I owned the original LP release in 1994 (hi Brent et al from Dewdrops Records and the 4AD-email list), and if I recall, I'd rank it as 6.5 best amongst a 9 album CT discography. Ie: Head Over Heals > Blue Bell Knoll > Treasure > Heaven or Las Vegas > Victorialand > Garlands Orange > The Moon and the Melodies > Milk & Kisses > Four-Calendar Cafe.
Orange (13) (as discogs number them) was the only 90s dreampop which really appreciated how important Ella Fitzgerald and vocal improv was to CT's formula. Most everything else at the time was morose hymns by former choir girls.
It's not all as good as the following, but this is an ideal that the Projekt folks never aspired to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IC_KR75liQ
That said, Orange wasn't the best thing on Dewdrops. For that, I'd recommend Glisten by Elysium (4), which remains one of the best late autumnal records I've heard.
― Roomba with an attitude (Sanpaku), Saturday, 30 June 2018 01:18 (five years ago) link
Lots of good dreampop in the mid-90s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxFhd1k5enM
― com rad erry red flag (f. hazel), Saturday, 30 June 2018 01:50 (five years ago) link
I like April March too, but at the time considered them on the shoegaze side of the fence.
But there, hear how all the vocal lines are these long things without syncopation that line up with measures? That's part of what I grew to dislike about dreampop/etherial/etc through the 90s. Even in an obscure genre indie musics there was a conscious rejection of rhythmic play, as if to syllabylize on upbeats might mean one's giving in to the urban music juggernaut. Liz Frazer may have sounded like a wounded dolphin live, but at least on the releases she sounded like she was playing against the beats. Like Ella.
― Roomba with an attitude (Sanpaku), Saturday, 30 June 2018 02:31 (five years ago) link
that's an interesting observation!
― com rad erry red flag (f. hazel), Saturday, 30 June 2018 02:40 (five years ago) link
don't sleep on rose chronicles, kirsty thirsk's former band
― music saved my life (Ross), Saturday, 30 June 2018 02:43 (five years ago) link
I think the singer for Orange has a great sounding voice but doesn't sing very well, like even the "writing" of the vocal parts just isn't very good. Almost seems like she didn't care to learn all the lyrics for the Pixies cover.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 1 July 2018 09:28 (five years ago) link
Just revisiting the two Salt Garden EP's by Fovea Hex, they haven't been mentioned on this thread. Somehow they're classified as ambient or avant-folk, but to my ears it's much closer to DCD/'ethereal goth' than anything else.
― Siegbran, Friday, 13 July 2018 10:45 (five years ago) link
Area - Between Purple And Pink
Fantastic, I rank it above Radio Caroline but just below The Perfect Dream. "Brave Parade", "Rail", "Our Corner Drowning" and "Dry Spell" are all particularly fine.
"The only thing crueler than an emptiness is a promise winding over our heads"
"Take me where the water runs deep and chain me there so that I might sleep"
"Someone said it's getting boring, for about the hundredth time"
Sorry to Lynn Canfield if I got the lyrics wrong.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 3 August 2018 18:14 (five years ago) link
Just two Area albums to get and one more Moon Seven Times album. Then there's Shotgun Wedding and I whole bunch of Lanterna.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 3 August 2018 18:16 (five years ago) link
First Lanterna album is 100x classic (as are the first couple Moon Seven Times records... don't think I ever got Sunburnt?)
― com rad erry red flag (f. hazel), Friday, 3 August 2018 20:08 (five years ago) link
My Medicine is like the most midwestern shoegazing track ever
― com rad erry red flag (f. hazel), Friday, 3 August 2018 20:13 (five years ago) link
Faith & Disease's fifth and final studio album is a bit like Insularia (third album). I liked things about it but again it taken quite a while and never clicked as much as I wanted it to. Even Beneath These Trees (fourth album) was a similar experience but sounds distinctly different (pretty much a folk album) and features probably their best song ever. But I really prefer the first two albums.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 5 October 2018 19:02 (five years ago) link
Black Tape For A Blue Girl - As One Aflame Laid Bare By Desire
Could this be called a concept album about a Marcel Duchamp piece?
I've got quite a few albums still to get but I'll be surprised if "Given" isn't one of their top 3 songs. Marvelous.
The sequence of "Your One Wish", "Dulcinea", "The Green Box" and "Denouement/Denouncement" is a great string of tracks.
Not one of my favorite albums by them but the highlights are as strong as they've ever been before.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 8 December 2018 15:54 (five years ago) link
It's a great record yes. Any thoughts on the Black Tape and DCD records they put out this year?
― Siegbran, Monday, 10 December 2018 13:23 (five years ago) link
Have you always been into this stuff? Only really noticed you were a fan in the last few years.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 10 December 2018 13:42 (five years ago) link
Not really as deeply as into the other stuff I post(ed) a lot about here over the years but yes I've always been into the ethereal/ambient side of it, way more than dancefloor/pop goth which most of the time gets way to hysterical for me.
I don't really know a lot about the obscure stuff and I'm not a 4AD/Projekt obsessive, but the big names I've mostly followed throughout the years, DCD/Cocteau/ITN/Black Tape, later Bel Canto, etc and later the whole Coil/NWW/DI6/C93 axis, and the neoclassical side, Amber Asylum, Elend, Vas, Arcana, DVKE etc.
― Siegbran, Monday, 10 December 2018 14:09 (five years ago) link
Lycia?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 10 December 2018 14:40 (five years ago) link
I'm aware that they're supposed to be good but haven't tried yet.
― Siegbran, Monday, 10 December 2018 14:43 (five years ago) link
I think they might be the best thing in this sub-genre. A lot of metalheads love them and Xasthur covered them.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 10 December 2018 15:41 (five years ago) link
Lycia's Ionia is classic, and just got reissued so it's also easy to get ahold of! Even in tote bag form.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 10 December 2018 16:08 (five years ago) link
Recently saw Dante's Inferno (about Dante Gabriel Rossetti) by Ken Russell and was pleased to discover it was the source of the clip at the start of Mors Syphilitica's debut album.
Had no idea about this band. Odd that they had 3 bands together.https://www.discogs.com/artist/939573-The-NCS
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 9 March 2019 10:08 (five years ago) link
Okay, nobody told me there was a new Lycia album out last year, In Flickers. It's even on Projekt.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 16 March 2019 17:17 (five years ago) link
Insides is probably the best Speaking Silence album by some distance, but again, could probably use a remaster/remix.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 24 May 2019 23:08 (five years ago) link
Also, recently got into Shelleyan Orphan and its a crime that they haven't been pushed harder by fans of this stuff, because it's as good as any of this stuff and competes with peak Cocteau Twins for sheer prettiness. Weird lack of praise for them.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 24 May 2019 23:13 (five years ago) link
Lisa Hammer - Dakini
I'm a fan of her work in Mors Syphilitica and Requiem In White so I was going to get this sooner or later. Detailed soundscapes with Lisa's voice (often multiplied), half of it kind of eastern sounding (sorry I cant be more specific) but going way way beyond the ambition of Dead Can Dance wannabes, whole load of instruments played, very warm and lush. Brilliant actually, it's sad so see this relatively ignored because it's the best thing I've heard with her (admittedly I haven't heard Primrose, NCS or Radiana). I understand that some fans of the more straight goth stuff will find this a stretch but it's worth it. The last three tracks are an amazing combo. One of the best Projekt style albums I've heard, please get it.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 1 November 2019 19:46 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWJEvi4Di8Q
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 8 November 2019 22:01 (four years ago) link
Watched the 2015 Lisa Hammer interview on New York Real youtube channel. Mostly about her film work but she does talk about the band, her and Dame Darcy possibly starting the gothic Lolita movement and a vampire wanting to watch her urinate.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 24 December 2019 02:25 (four years ago) link
or bandS rather
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 24 December 2019 02:28 (four years ago) link
So I'm listening to the new Chandeen (released in February 2020 looks like) and... wow. I'm not sure what I'm listening to here, but it kinda won me over. Lowy's got a passel of new-generation guest vocalists and is also breaking out some other stuff way outside of their usual gothic through-line.
https://youtu.be/5nDv-4oqk70
― avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Wednesday, 3 June 2020 06:02 (three years ago) link
Any thoughts on Machine In The Garden? Surpised I can't find a single mention of them on this forum.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 8 July 2020 00:04 (three years ago) link
never really given them a listen, no real reason besides there just being too much out there to listen to!
― avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Wednesday, 8 July 2020 01:03 (three years ago) link
Interesting list with a more specific slanthttps://rateyourmusic.com/list/sounds_of_decay/musette-and-drums-ethereal-gothic-rock/
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 6 October 2020 18:06 (three years ago) link
https://fashionbird.bandcamp.com/album/phanerothymesLisa Hammer (I thought she had retired that name?) is on "Hunted (Werewolves Of The Astral Plane)" and maybe some other tracks and it sounds good. It's not very gothy but I'm liking their stuff.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 29 January 2021 19:55 (three years ago) link
Idylls by Love Spirals Downwards continues to be a classic album start to finish
― so tonight that I might ramona quimby (f. hazel), Thursday, 11 March 2021 03:16 (three years ago) link
Yup.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 11 March 2021 03:37 (three years ago) link
in other goth news, Dark Entries is reissuing Clan of Xymox's Peel Sessions EP on vinyl and digital in a few days:
https://xymox.bandcamp.com/album/peel-sessions
Contains an amazing version of Seventh Time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN-__3hnUys
― so tonight that I might ramona quimby (f. hazel), Thursday, 11 March 2021 05:11 (three years ago) link
I guess having a new singer prompted a different band name?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouq-r8hXr-Ehttps://trancetothemoon.bandcamp.com/releases
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 17 July 2021 19:00 (two years ago) link
This thread is a great resource!
Cocteau heads have to hunt down Heavenly Bodies with Carolyn Seaman from This Mortal Coil...pretty essential for completists, plus it ROCKS.
Someone stole my copy years ago, so I swiped it back via soulseek.
I prefer the folk / rhythmic aspect of this music and don't much care for classical influences and am looking for suggestions on Irish / Scottish folk that uses electronics or has a more ethereal sound. Also looking for ethereal bands who use funky folk rhythms like bel canto does.
But I'm gonna queue some of this today because I have a headache.
― Night of Olay: The Resurrection (I M Losted), Monday, 6 December 2021 12:42 (two years ago) link
CaroLINE Seaman, I mean. The one who sings on the 2nd TMC album.
― Night of Olay: The Resurrection (I M Losted), Monday, 6 December 2021 13:41 (two years ago) link