支持青貓，收藏本期
還記得在長輩懷里的感覺嗎
我一定是記得
昨晚夢到小時候常走的那條小路
被父親懷抱著，我在酣睡，他卻健步如飛
醒來后站在明媚的陽臺上回憶起夢中有白茫茫的雪地
想起父親抱著我騎馬翻山時露出雪地凜冽危險的青石尖兒
又想起父親把白玉馬送給老友時馬場雪地里凌亂的馬蹄印兒
在一個看不到這一切的地方
我還能擁有真實和夢幻交織的回憶
這足夠做一期更新所需
有時候我覺得不是我們選擇音樂和夢境
而是她們選擇了我們
無論如何把此期送給遙遠吧
我們的遙遠
我們的根源
哦 其實她們是如此近
她們就是我們
青貓，12.11.
While Angels Watch（WAW)
把偉大的民族音樂和darkwave洶涌的新古典主義色彩精彩融合
冬季,悲哀,噩夢,殺,烏托邦,女神
While Angels Watch靠著音樂
帶領我們在黑暗的時代吟唱與遺忘
這個和Nick Cave聽起來如此相似的聲音來自Dev
Dev和他的朋友從1985年至今依然活躍
雖然出片的量和知名度一直不高
但他們的音樂能夠帶來足夠的驚喜
Acoustic, electric and bass guitars;
percussion and drums;
flute and French horn;
piano, trumpet, violin and viola:
each combine to give this recording an incredibly
full-bodied and complex flavour.
支持青貓，收藏本期
The opening track, ‘Our Last Fanfare’
is about the coming demise of humanity and the inevitable transition
between the old world and that of a new Golden Age
Here the music drifts gently like a melancholic Celtic air
before a deep bass rhythm and clattering
drumroll add a more upbeat modality
to Jane Howden’s flute-assisted harmonies
‘Sister of the Sea’ is a nautical ode
to the catastrophic and deadly lure of the siren
confirming the similarities
between Dev’s characteristic baritone delivery
and that of Nick Cave
The delivery itself is rather unusual, too
‘Burn Like Ice’ is etched upon sweeping waves
of Classical guitar and the lyrics totally
refuse to adhere to the typical dictates of modern formulaic verse.
Again, we have the Nick Cave influence,
but this time the singing is truly wonderful and accelerates
with a frenzied emotion before mellowing out altogether.
This allows Jane Howden’s poetic recital to act as
an intermittent prelude to a choral duet:
‘Two crashing waves / One master One slave’.
Next we have a guest appearance
in the shape of none other than Ian Read of FIRE & ICE.
‘Medusa’ rumbles along menacingly and
bears a refreshingly nationalistic quality in its refusal to
bend in the face of adversity:
‘And here we are as pillars of stone /
We cannot move our roots from our home /
Here we were born and here we shall die /
Defending land with blood and with pride.’
This time it is Ian’s job to assume a lowered vocal undercurrent,
whilst Dev’s rising harmonies further demonstrate
his great range and versatility.
‘Death In Avalon’ is less than three minutes
in length and slightly reminiscent of OSTARA and STRENGTH THROUGH JOY.
Matt Howden’s engrossing bow can be heard
scything in the background above Jane’s bewitching vocals.
These delicate harmonies continue into the next track,
‘The Warmth of Being’, as a repetitive and plodding keyboard
intro gives the recording a carnivalistic quality;
its fluttering flutes and dark incantations
(‘Virgin / Mother / Crone’)
weaving a timeless epitaph to the endless cycle
of female power and entrapment. Meanwhile,
‘The Waiting Grounds’ is a fitting testimony to
just how different and original this album is
when compared to many of its neo-folk contemporaries.
It is at once both endogenous and exoteric.
Lyrically, it almost verges on R&B and the inclusion
of a wailing guitar solo conjures up memories
of CURRENT 93’s psychedelic conclusion to ‘Hitler As Kalki’.
I
mentioned earlier the penchant for history and homeland
which pervades ‘Medusa’, and this admirable theme
is continued in ‘Behind the Mists’.
song is a lament for the ancient
and now dwindling ways of our forefathers,
echoes of a forgotten world in which
songs were sung and battles were raged
in England’s green and pleasant land;
a country which is now entering its final death-throes.
‘Eye For Eye’ bears the sadness of
CURRENT 93’s ‘Soft Black Stars’,
but is none so forgiving in its sentiments:
‘You servants of false power /
You who go nowhere /
Just to a bottomless pit /
Of dreamless sleep /
Drowning us and ours /
In your filth’.
This is a warning to the faceless automatons of the Establishment
whose materialistic wiles bring to
mind G. K. Chesterton’s new unhappy lords (‘The Secret People’).
Somehow the track seems to fuse the vocal style o
f Tony Hadleigh (SPANDAU BALLET) with ‘The House of the Rising Sun’ (THE ANIMALS),
although WAW will probably think I’m completely mad
for suggesting as much.
The album’s final offering - ‘Silence’
- is a torrid gale of high winds,
screeching crows, peeling churchbells and explosions.
Its sustained and crowded atmosphere is a stereophonic pendulum.
Jack Or Jive 是由一對日本姐妹組成的仙音組合，中文譯為光之姐妹
這期有一首beautiful world是她們的。深夜聽來不錯。