With the death of Joy Division, the self implosion of Bauhaus, and the Cure and the Banshees folding their Goth influence into more pop oriented ventures, there was a gaping void left for new leaders of the genre. Like any other music genre that is healthy and thriving, the sound evolves and experiments with aspects of other genres. All the while, even though the style of the sound transformed and mutated in many different ways, the tone and mood still link them.
The Sisters of Mercy linked the goth sound to a lot of sounds that would become characteristic of the genre. Early on they incorporated drum machines and heavy synth lines that would help form its marriage to industrial music. Andrew Eldrich also most notably added the deep flat voice that worked so well for him and would be imitated by many Goths to follow.
Dead Can Dance. Goth also came to blend quite wonderfully with world music. DCD are one of the most beloved bands among Goths. Lisa Gerard and Brendan Perry took the dark imagery of death and sorrow and weaved it into wonderful celebrations of life that drew from structures and instrumentations from around the world. If there really is another dimension that music is channeled from, these two individuals are quite attuned to it. Most of the songs that are sung by Gerard are sung in tongues rather than words and they need to be. What she sings is so moving and intense that applying words to it would somehow cheapen its meaning and value. The live album Toward The Within is one of my all time favorite albums.
The Swans took the somber mood of goth and formed their own vision of horror. Swans came out of the New York noise rock scene and had a reputation for pushing the limits of sound and imagery to extremes. Even to the point of playing a series of shows that were reportedly so loud that they induced vomiting in audience members. Their albums that followed this era set out to deconstruct their reputation of being so extreme. They set out to shock and awe their audience in other ways. Instead of pummeling them with a wall of noise, in a way, they would now woo and kill them softly. And then they would pummel them with noise. They blended ferocious rhythms, tender melodies, and lyrics that delve into some of man’s least favorable qualities: cowardice, humiliation, and failure. The Swans can be beautiful and terrifying at the same time. The fact that they achieve both so well at the same time is what gave them the strength to really move a listener and stimulate a truly haunting atmosphere. I had the pleasure of seeing them on their final tour (luckily it wasn’t the make you throw up tour). The way that they built the intensity of each song was outstanding. Nothing was rushed and they used the power of silence within their music just as effectively as they used pounding rhythms to fill the space and create an atmosphere that you would expect from a David Lynch film.
In contrast to the Swans, The Cranes took the sound to much sweeter places. I just love the innocence of Alison Shaw’s voice. If the Swans’ music conjured feelings of darkness punctuated by beauty, the Cranes’ music conjured feelings of beauty punctuated by darkness. They make me happy in a sad sort of way… which is what I guess the whole goth thing is about.
The Sisters of Mercy linked the goth sound to a lot of sounds that would become characteristic of the genre. Early on they incorporated drum machines and heavy synth lines that would help form its marriage to industrial music. Andrew Eldrich also most notably added the deep flat voice that worked so well for him and would be imitated by many Goths to follow.
Dead Can Dance. Goth also came to blend quite wonderfully with world music. DCD are one of the most beloved bands among Goths. Lisa Gerard and Brendan Perry took the dark imagery of death and sorrow and weaved it into wonderful celebrations of life that drew from structures and instrumentations from around the world. If there really is another dimension that music is channeled from, these two individuals are quite attuned to it. Most of the songs that are sung by Gerard are sung in tongues rather than words and they need to be. What she sings is so moving and intense that applying words to it would somehow cheapen its meaning and value. The live album Toward The Within is one of my all time favorite albums.
The Swans took the somber mood of goth and formed their own vision of horror. Swans came out of the New York noise rock scene and had a reputation for pushing the limits of sound and imagery to extremes. Even to the point of playing a series of shows that were reportedly so loud that they induced vomiting in audience members. Their albums that followed this era set out to deconstruct their reputation of being so extreme. They set out to shock and awe their audience in other ways. Instead of pummeling them with a wall of noise, in a way, they would now woo and kill them softly. And then they would pummel them with noise. They blended ferocious rhythms, tender melodies, and lyrics that delve into some of man’s least favorable qualities: cowardice, humiliation, and failure. The Swans can be beautiful and terrifying at the same time. The fact that they achieve both so well at the same time is what gave them the strength to really move a listener and stimulate a truly haunting atmosphere. I had the pleasure of seeing them on their final tour (luckily it wasn’t the make you throw up tour). The way that they built the intensity of each song was outstanding. Nothing was rushed and they used the power of silence within their music just as effectively as they used pounding rhythms to fill the space and create an atmosphere that you would expect from a David Lynch film. 
In contrast to the Swans, The Cranes took the sound to much sweeter places. I just love the innocence of Alison Shaw’s voice. If the Swans’ music conjured feelings of darkness punctuated by beauty, the Cranes’ music conjured feelings of beauty punctuated by darkness. They make me happy in a sad sort of way… which is what I guess the whole goth thing is about.
1 comment:
Why can't Ash get this to work?
-Brad
Post a Comment