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Chrystal Belle Scrodd, "Belle de Jour"
Once again I'm impressed with the packaging of this reissue. Having thecover and inside photos restored on nice paper in a booklet is farbetter than the flimsy Beastingscard and anything done in a chintzy digipack. While this is the secondChrystal Belle Scrodd record (originally released in 1986), it featuresmusic which pre-dates The Inevitable.
Klanggalerie
The first three songs arebrief, scratchy soundscapes, recorded with bowed cymbals and droninghorns while the second three songs are far more melodic, and breathehorn and other droned sounds in the same, patient tempo. "Charlie Hostsa Pork Pie Parasite" and "Chair Improvisation #4," both featured on theZamisdat Trade Journal #4 cassette, provided soundtracks to thefilms of Diana Rogerson. These songs were subsequently renamed to"Source" and "Muse," respectively, the first and second songs on theoriginal LP of Belle de Jour. But, in the shuffle to Beastings,"Muse" got listed as "Immanence" while "Immanence" got listed as "Muse"and "Soup of the Day" got listed as "iDeath." While the reissue did agood job of straightening these side A tracks out and including"iDeath" on CD for the first time, it completely dropped the ball onthe side B by listing "Riding the Red Rag" as "The Demon Flower" andincluding "Black Mother Mountain" (a song recorded in 1993 and named"Beetle Crawls Across My Back" in a remixed form on 18 Years of Sunshinecompilation) but listing it as "Riding the Red Rag." While the side Atracks are very similar to each other and not terribly exciting, twomasterpieces make up the majority of side B. "Dead Roads / A GothicWestern" opens with the inter-weaved samples of some obscure rock bandsgrooving riffs as Diana growls, sings, and screams out the surrealisticstory, one day I might be able to sing along but it still sounds likean intricate stream of consciousness. By the end, it's mutated into abright piano and drone piece which strangely sounds like it wouldn't beout of place on a later period Talk Talk record. It's hard to figureout what exactly has or could be done on the mastering of a song likethis, as a number of the samples were pulled from old records to beginwith, however, there is a noticable amount of digital-sounding clicksand volume issues which are most likely unintentional and unavoidableat this point. Those looking for the missing "The Demon Flower," you'llfind it playing over the tail-end of "Unknown" on The Inevitable(see above) while the fantastic epic "Riding the Red Rag" closes thealbum with Diana's singing voice over what could easily by a Rolanddrum machine circa 1985, played live with tons of delay, combined withguitar and other instruments that drone. The almost genre-defyingqualities of "Riding the Red Rag" lead me to believe it could haveeasily been recorded at the same sessions for Melchior withHNAS. "Black Mother Mountain" closes the CD with the prominentdigeridoo playing of Pete Bog along a faint pulse and a healthy amountof delay on Diana's voice, and while I truly love this song, it'srather out of place to hear a song this modern (1993) on the end of anLP recorded in 1986. Inconsistent with the pre-release promises, thereare no bonus recordings included here, so I've come up with my owncollection to annex these two discs. It features the vocal version of"Soup of the Day," as appeared on the various artists release UnitedDairies tape UDT 018, the full version of "Schizo," "The Demon Flower"all alone by itself, "Split and Well Hung" from Ohrensausen, and"Beetle Crawls Across My Back" along with the live stuff (see Live at Bar Maldoror LP and L'Age d'Or)that's yet to be released on CD since it's so Diana-heavy. Maybe withenough persuasion and a letter campaign, Stapleton, Potter, andKlanggalerie can be convinced to clean up those recordings and makethat package. Don't count on it, though. -
Klanggalerie
The first three songs arebrief, scratchy soundscapes, recorded with bowed cymbals and droninghorns while the second three songs are far more melodic, and breathehorn and other droned sounds in the same, patient tempo. "Charlie Hostsa Pork Pie Parasite" and "Chair Improvisation #4," both featured on theZamisdat Trade Journal #4 cassette, provided soundtracks to thefilms of Diana Rogerson. These songs were subsequently renamed to"Source" and "Muse," respectively, the first and second songs on theoriginal LP of Belle de Jour. But, in the shuffle to Beastings,"Muse" got listed as "Immanence" while "Immanence" got listed as "Muse"and "Soup of the Day" got listed as "iDeath." While the reissue did agood job of straightening these side A tracks out and including"iDeath" on CD for the first time, it completely dropped the ball onthe side B by listing "Riding the Red Rag" as "The Demon Flower" andincluding "Black Mother Mountain" (a song recorded in 1993 and named"Beetle Crawls Across My Back" in a remixed form on 18 Years of Sunshinecompilation) but listing it as "Riding the Red Rag." While the side Atracks are very similar to each other and not terribly exciting, twomasterpieces make up the majority of side B. "Dead Roads / A GothicWestern" opens with the inter-weaved samples of some obscure rock bandsgrooving riffs as Diana growls, sings, and screams out the surrealisticstory, one day I might be able to sing along but it still sounds likean intricate stream of consciousness. By the end, it's mutated into abright piano and drone piece which strangely sounds like it wouldn't beout of place on a later period Talk Talk record. It's hard to figureout what exactly has or could be done on the mastering of a song likethis, as a number of the samples were pulled from old records to beginwith, however, there is a noticable amount of digital-sounding clicksand volume issues which are most likely unintentional and unavoidableat this point. Those looking for the missing "The Demon Flower," you'llfind it playing over the tail-end of "Unknown" on The Inevitable(see above) while the fantastic epic "Riding the Red Rag" closes thealbum with Diana's singing voice over what could easily by a Rolanddrum machine circa 1985, played live with tons of delay, combined withguitar and other instruments that drone. The almost genre-defyingqualities of "Riding the Red Rag" lead me to believe it could haveeasily been recorded at the same sessions for Melchior withHNAS. "Black Mother Mountain" closes the CD with the prominentdigeridoo playing of Pete Bog along a faint pulse and a healthy amountof delay on Diana's voice, and while I truly love this song, it'srather out of place to hear a song this modern (1993) on the end of anLP recorded in 1986. Inconsistent with the pre-release promises, thereare no bonus recordings included here, so I've come up with my owncollection to annex these two discs. It features the vocal version of"Soup of the Day," as appeared on the various artists release UnitedDairies tape UDT 018, the full version of "Schizo," "The Demon Flower"all alone by itself, "Split and Well Hung" from Ohrensausen, and"Beetle Crawls Across My Back" along with the live stuff (see Live at Bar Maldoror LP and L'Age d'Or)that's yet to be released on CD since it's so Diana-heavy. Maybe withenough persuasion and a letter campaign, Stapleton, Potter, andKlanggalerie can be convinced to clean up those recordings and makethat package. Don't count on it, though. -
