75 minutes, 29 seconds

Current 93
Black Ships Ate the Sky

I haven't spent enough time with this CD yet. I've probably listened to it twice, in piecemeal form, which isn't nearly sufficient to form an intelligent opinion of a release as sprawling and complex as this one. Or any C93 album, really.

The first thing that strikes me is the number of guest vocalists. This is not a new approach for David Tibet, who's always relied on a cadre of collaborators to flesh out his musical ideas and enunciate his lyrical ones. Think back to the days of Swastikas for Noddy, to which Rose McDowall, Douglas Pearce, Ian Read, and others all contributed. Other albums similarly featured a rotating cast of characters (I particularly liked Nick Cave's vocals on All the Pretty Little Horses.)

But I count no fewer than seven vocalists helping out here, and that's not even counting the ones on the I Am Black Ship companion CD (available only with the subscriber version of this album). Antony (whom I haven't yet learned to like, although everyone else seems to), Baby Dee, Marc Almond, Shirley Collins--even Cosey Fanni Tutti! It's like the the Durtro equivalent of the '80s 4AD supergroup This Mortal Coil.

Anyway, despite the numerous and varied vocal styles, it's still unmistakably Tibet's album. He waxes fanciful about apocalypse dreams, weaves images both religious and profane, and just generally envelops us in his strange and disturbing world. Which is exactly what you want from a C93 album.

I sometimes wonder whether someday they'll make a film documentary about David Tibet and C93, à la the Daniel Johnston movie from earlier this year or In the Realms of the Unreal, the great documentary about the outsider artist Henry Darger. I realize that in comparing Tibet to these two, I'm suggesting he has some sort of mental illness. I don't think that's the case, but I do think Tibet is in possession of (or possessed by) some sort of insane genius. Perhaps all artists are.

Man, you can always count on C93 to make me write an earnest blog entry. I'll try to return to snarky form tomorrow.

Also today:

75:24 Funker Vogt, Always and Forever, Vol. 2 (CD 2 of 2)
75:19 Hocico, Misuse, Abuse and Accident
75:17 Lycia, Compilation Appearances, Vol. 2
75:16 Terrorfakt, Cold Steel World
75:13 Negative Format, Moving Past the Boundaries
75:13 Ophelia's Dream, All Beauty Is Sad