From Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail
1. Public Image Limited “The Order Of Death” – So, someone around here was saying recently that it’s been getting a little too sunny around the Dregs lately. Well, you don’t have to tell me twice; I’m always ready to close the curtains, toss a shroud over the lamp, fire up the candles and descend into some aural darkness. Last week, we began our descent with Will Helm’s tribute to the darker side of vice, and we continue the downward spiral this week with my own personal mashup of murder ballads, dissertations on distress, ponderings on paranoia, and assorted twisted tales. It begins with a classic semi-instrumental track by John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon’s post-Pistols project, Public Image Limited (PIL), the rhythmic and eerie “The Order Of Death” from PIL’s 1984 Virgin Records release, This Is What You Want… This Is What You Get. This is a song for a David Lynch film, for traveling a lost highway in the dark with no headlights, a soundtrack for the things that go bump in the night; to quote another PIL song title, this is death disco. To those who wished for the sun that’s been shining upon the Dregs to hide behind a cloud… this is what you want, this is what you get.
2. The Faint “Ballad Of A Paralysed Citizen” – My interest in The Faint has been largely limited to the excellent remixed redux of their 2001 LP Danse Macabre, 2003’s Danse Macabre Remixes. What before was an album of slow- to mid-tempo, spare, and occasionally plodding tracks was now made fuller, richer and danceably darker in the hands of superstar techno and house remix artists like Paul Oakenfold, Thin White Duke and Photek. My second favorite track on Danse Macabre Remixes (after The Calculators’ extremely sensual take on “Posed To Death”) is Medecine’s remix of “Ballad Of A Paralysed Citizen”, and I must confess that I hadn’t heard the original version until I sourced the video clip for this week’s playlist. I ended up going with the original; the dirge-like orchestration and stripped down trip-hop beats lend themselves well to this tale of a man who loses his ability to walk while trying to save a child who faked a drowning incident. Perhaps it’s time for me to re-experience the original Danse Macabre.
3. Depeche Mode “The Love Thieves” – This is unquestionably, hands down, forever and ever, my favorite Depeche Mode song of all time, and given that I’m a massive Mode fan, it’s a strong statement for me to choose one song above all others. It’s the darkness and despair in the music and lyrics of “The Love Thieves” (from 1997’s semi-forgettable Ultra) which has always appealed to me. Expectations were astronomical for this album, which was released on the heels of both the greatest DM record (1990’s Violator) and the darkest DM record (1993’s addiction-driven Songs Of Faith And Devotion) and after singer David Gahan’s escape from the grip of heroin, but Ultra only delivered in spots. “The Love Thieves” is both the brightest and the darkest of those spots, and the song instantly resonated with me when I first heard it and continues to do so every time I hear it, like an echo of the memory of a lost love. “Oh the tears that you weep / For the poor tortured souls / Who fall at your feet / With their love-begging bowls / All the clerks and the tailors / The sharks and the sailors / All good at their trades, but / They’ll always be failures…”.
4. V.A.S.T. “Blue” – So much of V.A.S.T.’s music is wrapped in layers of dark emotion, morbid melodies with swirling, lush orchestration that pulls at your soul and lyrics filled with the raw power of bandleader Jon Crosby’s deepest and darkest desires. It’s a uniquely intimate experience listening to a V.A.S.T. album, especially true of their first three major releases – 1998’s astounding Visual Audio Sensory Theater, 2000’s Music For People, and 2004’s exquisite Nude. Lyrically, V.A.S.T.’s trademark has always been brutally honest self-examination, profound and revelatory, with emotions worn plainly on the sleeve and seemingly no filter between Crosby’s innermost thoughts and his microphone. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing V.A.S.T. live in concert on four occasions, and the most memorable show was at the former Knitting Factory NYC in 2008; not only because I had a chance to meet and speak with Crosby, but also thanks to hearing “Blue” (from Music For People) played live for the first time, and with a violinist to boot. The melody of this song is transcendent, with morphing time signatures and choruses reminiscent of old seafaring ballads. It’s a song to be savored.
5. Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue “Where The Wild Roses Grow” – The genre and tradition of murder ballads dates back several hundred years to England and Scotland, when musicians would use the narrative form to recount murderous tales which almost always included the inevitable capture and punishment of and/or the revenge taken out on the perpetrator of the crime. This dark genre has largely fallen by the wayside in modern times, save for the torch proudly and unapologetically carried by Nick Cave. As far back as his early days as the singer of dark rock band The Birthday Party, Cave’s music has always centered on themes of death, passion and murder, but his vision rose to new heights and coalesced on his storybook of an album with longtime backing band the Bad Seeds, 1996’s Murder Ballads. A combination of original songs and well-executed covers, such as Dylan’s “Death Is Not The End” and a particularly violent rendition of the legendary “Stagger Lee”, originally recorded by Mississippi John Hurt in 1928, Murder Ballads’ most haunting moments are captured in this duet by Cave and fellow Australian singer Kylie Minogue. Cave as killer and Minogue as victim trade verses on this tale of a lover’s murder, with Minogue singing from beyond the grave as fallen beauty Eliza Day.
6. Johnny Cash “Delia’s Gone” – I’m pretty sure that my best friend and Subkulture co-deejay Scott would never let me hear the end of it if I didn’t include this modern classic murder ballad by our dearly departed legend of dark tale-telling, the one and only Johnny Cash. Johnny lived and died by the narrative form of song-craft, evidenced time and time again throughout his prolific body of work in such well-loved songs as “Folsom Prison Blues”, “The Ballad Of Ira Hayes” and “A Boy Named Sue”. A character in his own right, “Delia’s Gone” is not the first time that Johnny steps into the role of murderer, but this time he does it in true murder balladeer fashion as he describes from prison how he had to kill the woman he loved because of her devilish ways. Just about any Johnny Cash recording will serve your ears and your soul well, but if you haven’t heard 1994’s Rick Rubin-produced American Recordings and the four albums that followed it (American II, III, IV and the posthumously released American V), get your hands on them and queue them up in order. A truer and more honest sound you will never find.
7. Neko Case “Deep Red Bells” – From the moment I first heard “Deep Red Bells”, off of Neko Case’s 2002 David Lynch-inspired “alt country noir” LP Blacklisted, I was entranced. Eight years later it’s still one of my favorite songs, hauntingly beautiful and sung by one of the most gorgeous voices you could possibly get into your eardrums. At first, I didn’t realize that “Deep Red Bells” is actually a murder ballad sung in the third person as a lament for the victim, but it soon became clear; “It always has to come to this / The red bells ring this tragic hour / She’s lost sight of the overpass / The daylight won’t remember her / When speckled fronds raise round your bones / Who took the time to fold your clothes? / Who shook the Valley of the Shadow?” Case is a master wordsmith, painting the story of a young girl’s demise at the hands of a serial killer with the imagery evoked by her lyrics, never speaking in a pedestrian way but still getting her meaning across. I’ve never really been sure what the deep red bells themselves are (train crossing lights? police car siren?), but fortunately that’s never kept me from enjoying the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC-vf84dh_Y
8. Bauhaus “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” – The quintessential gothic rock song by the quintessential gothic rock band, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” is a dark masterpiece. Released as Bauhaus’ first single in 1979, “Bela” is widely considered to be the first gothic rock record ever released. Over nine minutes long (with some live versions clocking in at over thirteen minutes), it’s frequently used by dark alternative DJs as a great song to put on if you need extra time to run to the restroom during a gig in a crowded club… but even if you don’t have to go, the dark beauty of this elegy for one of the most beloved and universally recognized actors of the B-horror film genre is always a pleasurable and borderline sensual listening experience. Peter Murphy’s deep, soulful voice and mournful delivery highlights spooky imagery of bats departing a bell tower upon the news of Lugosi’s death, as virginal brides file past his tomb. The drum sections at the beginning and end of “Bela” are instantly recognizable to those who love dark alternative music, a hypnotic and almost tribal beat that beckons you to the dance floor. An equally excellent listen is the harder rocking version by virtual unknowns Rosary Violet, from their 1992 self-titled EP.
9. Nine Inch Nails “The Great Destroyer (Modwheelmood Mix)” – Trent Reznor sort of lost my attention for awhile after Pretty Hate Machine (1989). Yeah, I know – The Downward Spiral (1994) has several good songs on it, and then of course there was “Starfuckers, Inc.” and “We’re In This Together” from the overly grandiose double-disc The Fragile (1999), and I even fell in love for a short while with about fifty percent of With Teeth (2005), in particular the superbly dark opener “All The Love In The World” and the very Reznor-esque gently-packaged paranoia of “Every Day Is Exactly The Same”. But it wasn’t until NIN’s 2007 release Year Zero, or more specifically, Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D, that Reznor once again got my full attention. Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D is one of those rare cases where the remixed versions far surpass the originals; they are given new life, new perspective, and, in the case of Saul Williams’ militantly beat-driven treatment of “Survivalism”, even move into a whole other genre. Modwheelmood slows down their version of “The Great Destroyer”, adding acoustic guitars, ethereal effects on Reznor’s vocals, and a more cohesive beat structure than the disjointed rhythms of the original, and it becomes a much more emotionally turbulent track, the effect of which is a bit like you’re listening to a funeral hymn at the end of days. Trent’s vision of the near future may be paranoid, but Modwheelmood takes his mania and makes it beautiful.
10. Basement Jaxx “Scars (feat. Meleka, Kelis and Chipmunk)” – I just heard this track for the first time last night, and I’ve probably listened to it about 20 times since I downloaded it this morning. In fact, I’ve been wondering where this song has been all of my life. The level of dopeness is turned up to eleven on this track from Basement Jaxx’s most recent release, 2009’s Scars, and I can’t get enough of it. “Scars” features newbie British chanteuse Meleka, along with milk-shaker Kelis and Brit rapper Chipmunk (there is something so sexy about Brit accent-inflected rapping… maybe it’s me, but I’m just saying). Chipmunk’s vocal delivery comes across like a more mainstream Tricky, and I’ll take that all day long. The style of “Scars” is a definite departure for Basement Jaxx, whose previous recordings have been in the dance-y nouveau Euro-house vein of Daft Punk and Royksopp, but this track is a dark and quirky mix of epic operatic vocal samples, lyrics about demons, fairytales, and losing control, and a craaaaazy mid-tempo beat that sounds like it’s straight outta the dirty-dirt. If Basement Jaxx is headed down a darker path, I might just need to take that walk with them. At the very least, it’s a great place to leave the playlist for this week.
