Day 0918 - Punishing Kiss

Ute Lemper "Punishing Kiss" (2000)

I'd not heard of Lemper, but it seems she is an acclaimed actress as well as being a singer.   She had built much of her music career dipping into the past, particularly interpreting the songs of Kurt Weil.  For this album she went with modern composers, though many of them had been inspired by Weil too, so still within Lemper's comfort zone.

Thankfully it's VERY much in my wheelhouse too, with her modern composers being such luminaries as Scott Walker, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Elvis Costello and Neil Hanlon.   Hanlon's band the Divine Comedy provide backing for much of the album and he duets with Lemper on a couple of tracks.

The album is bombastic, theatrical and bursting with good music.    Though the individual composers' voices can certainly be heard (Lemper even seems to mimic Costello's snarling crooning style on some of his songs) there's a cohesiveness across the album, and Lemper owns each song with a voice that ranges from gentle theatrical murmur through to passionate howl, on the almost Bjork-esque opener "Little Water Song".

The Costello-penned title track is a fun highlight for me, but the whole album is really good.  The finale is a brooding 10-minute late-era style Scott Walker dirge, which is quite frankly as good a way as any to close an album.

Day 0464 - Killing Joke

Killing Joke "Killing Joke" (1980)

 The seeds of industrial metal find fertile soil here.... or is it this album that is the seed?  My metaphor is eating itself.

This is a really interesting album with elements of tribal drumming, funk bass, touches of what almost sounds like early electronica (heavily treated vocals, synthesizers), there's a bit of post-punk, there's atmospheric slow building repetitive tracks, there's more straight-ahead metal.

I was familiar with this band initially through a couple of side-routes
1) Metallica covering their track 'the Wait' on the "Garage Inc." album
2) vocalist Jaz Coleman producing the debut full-length from NZ band Shihad (and later their most recent album) which definitely bears hints of this album.

Day 0407 - Public Image: First Issue

Public Image Ltd. "Public Image: First Issue" (1978)

 
I didn't realise that the Sex Pistols had imploded quite so quickly. John Lydon (nee Rotten) formed PiL shortly afterwards and moved on from his punk background to communicate his nihilistic, destructive street poetry via new idioms.

I seem to remember enjoying Metal Box and one or two other PIL tracks, but this one didn't really appeal to me. It sounds as though John didn't really know what he wanted to do at this stage and was just lashing out lyrically and casting about musically... which is an approach that can be interesting when done well, but on this occasion it just didn't really hold my attention.

Day 0130 - Scott 2

Scott Walker "Scott 2" (1968) - got it

I've made no secret in the past for my love of Scott Walker.  His luscious, lush arrangements, his brilliant croon, his quirky sense of humour... this is possibly the peak of his early work (to my tastes).
This set is somewhat typical of the 'Scott' albums: some translated Jacques Brel covers with an added swagger, some syruppy easy listening ballads and some other grandiose galloping arrangements.  Ranging from the trumpeting upbeat 'Jackie' the almost Bond-esque epic sound of 'best of both worlds' (a great near-breakup song).  The elephantine Eastern swagger of 'the girls from the street' slips into a nimble European bounce without a thought spared!