43 minutes, 53 seconds

Sol Invictus
Trees in Winter

Probably the first good Sol Invictus album. Sol Veritas Lux was marginally OK for a debut, but Lex Talionis was pretty awful. So what changed with Trees in Winter? Well, for one thing, the songwriting is a lot more accomplished, both lyrically and with regard to the arrangements and the breadth of instrumentation. But if I had to pick one thing that makes the most significant impact on this album, it's Joolie Wood's violin.

You may know Wood from her appearance on several Current 93 albums; she's also worked with a lot of other bands in the onetime World Serpent stable. Her plaintive and sad yet strangely uplifting contributions to the songs she plays on seem to elevate a mere folk song to something elegiac. Here, you can hear it to best effect on the songs "Here We Stand" and "Deceit."

She's released some solo material recently, which I haven't yet had the chance to hear much of. So much new music, so little shelf space...

Also today:

43:52 Cranes, EP Collection, Vol. 1
43:52 Wappenbund, Zeitenwende
43:51 Radio Kuolema, 10050 Cielo Drive
43:51 Thirteenth Exile, Assorted Chaos and Broken Machinery
43:50 God Module, Let's Go Dark
43:49 Beefcake, Hôte
New arrival! 57:20 Berkana, Lichtrad
New arrival! 55:22 Am'Ganesha'n, Estolia
New arrival! 47:34 Crackletone, Journey to the Sea of Sparks
43:47 Data-Bank-A, Salad Days
43:47 L'Effet C'est Moi, Tomber en Héros
43:47 Photophob, Music for Spaceports

47 minutes, 49 seconds

Sol Invictus
Lex Talionis

I doubt many Sol Invictus fans feel the same way, but the first few recordings they made, including this one...uh, what's the word I'm looking for here...uh...suck. (Apologies to Jon Stewart.) I don't think they found a proper footing until the Trees in Winter album, their third, depending on how you count. Part of it is the plodding songwriting--say what you will about the lyrics to "Abbatoirs of Love," but it's otherwise a tuneless, dreary mess. And I don't share the love of Ian Read's voice that others seem to. Not that Tony Wakeford is such a smashing vocalist either, but Read makes Wakeford sound like Liz freakin' Fraser.

Also today:

47:47 Pieter Nooten & Michael Brook, Sleeps with the Fishes
47:47 Tactical Sekt, Syncope (CD 2 of 2)
47:47 Vomito Negro, Human
47:46 John Foxx & Harold Budd, Translucence
47:45 Michael Cashmore, Sleep England

49 minutes, 23 seconds

Sol Invictus
The Death of the West

The Death of the West catches Sol Invictus's Tony Wakeford in typical mid-period cranky mode. See, he's upset that globalization (read: America) and its obsession with money is destroying "The West" and any traditional notion of life in Europe. At least, that's my reading of his mood at this stage in his career. And I'm not entirely unsympathetic--no fan of globalization, I. But I've always felt Wakeford's material was strongest when he stayed away from complaining about broad political issues and trained his wobbly yet affecting voice on other things: his curious fixation on Love vs. Death, for example (as on his solo album Cupid & Death), or his periodic delving into history for inspiration (as on "Sawney Bean").

That said, there are a few songs I really like here, particularly "Our Lady of the Wild Flowers" and "Come, Join the Dance." Hell, even the title track (a really old song of Wakeford's that dates back to his days with Death in June) is kind of catchy, and I love that in its lyrics he cites the '80s movie Fame as being one more nail in the coffin of the West. Oh, Tony. If only you knew then that Fame was the very top of the hill and that the greased pig has quickened his sliding but is still nowhere near the bottom.

Also today:

49:21 C-Drone-Defect, Neural Dysorder Syndrome
49:18 Picatrix, Quaestio Prima
49:15 Ohgr, SunnyPsyOp
49:15 Putrefy Factor 7, Decay Station
49:14 Mediæval Bæbes, Mistletoe & Wine
49:11 Image Transmission, HLC
New arrival! 67:14 Pecadores, 10% for Jesus
New arrival! 66:55 Anima Mundi, Another World II
49:09 Collection d'Arnell-Andréa, Cirses des Champs
49:08 Attrition, The Jeopardy Maze
49:07 Front 242, Geography (CD 1 of 2)
49:07 Stellamara, Star of the Sea