The new single clocks in at a mere 10 minutes, and contains two tracks. The first is of course our first chance to hear Antony and the Johnsons, whose album is apparently being released through Dutro later in the spring. "Cripple and the Starfish" is a wonderful track. I expected to spend the entire time waiting for Current93's effort, but this held my attention absolutely, and I'll certainly be buying his full length album. The track is well structured, shifting between soft mournful sections and emotional bursts underpinned by various instruments and drums. Antony has a wonderful voice, one which can remarkably almost hold its ground with David Tibet himself. The track is sweet and powerful, tinged both with despair and a sense of meaning. Current 93's effort is entitled "Immortal Bird" and is evidently from the forthcoming album "Sleep Has His House". There is an immediate change of atmosphere, as dark synths and Cashmore's instrumentation give an ambience not dissimilar to the Island material, albeit a little less electronic and well integrated with quietly strummed guitars. The vocals open shortly after with "What drives us on? What drives us on?". Tibet then launches to a tragic and poignant verse, neither sung nor spoken, in much the way that he employed his melancholic vocals on Soft Black Stars. The song is reminiscent of "Moonlight or Other Fields..." in that both have a short spoken-sung section culminating in a final line of half-rhyme "and the gun, and the glory that was to come" (Moonlight...) / "Your eyes wide, and shot through; With Sea blue" (Immortal Bird). The lyrical section lasts only for the first two and a half minutes of the song, whereafter the melody plays on, gradually and subtly sounding more enforced and more desperate. Initially I was a little disappointed that the last four minutes of the song are all instrumental, but on repeated listening I find this works very well; we are all left hanging to Tibet's last line while the music drags us along and away. The holistic effect is very depressing, much more so than the track by Antony and the Johnsons. As with Soft Black Stars, the lyrics sound autobiographical ("I was nothing for you but the shadow of another love" ) and at the same time surreal ("shift your skies to pastures blue, streaked with passing and loss/ Moonlight sweeping over Northern beaches where the trees are stripped silhouettes of memories") and metaphor-laden ("in your vault of skin"). It is, in his own words, the sound of his own "particular fall". And yet nevertheless David Tibet once again manages to evoke emotions, moods and meanings which are universal.

Rainer Padamsee
Sunday, 02 April 2000