She has been branded as "steampunk" which is a strange genre designation by any means and I have no idea what it refers to. Her music is a strange infusion of electronic noise, vocals - sometimes distorted, cello and overall weirdness. I'm not sure quite what to make of it.
I did not buy this CD, it may have just appeared in my collection, but more likely my brother - he of the most eclectic and avantgarde tastes, passed it onto me. I'm not quite sure if it was because he thought I would like it or because he had two copies of it. I have to confess, I am not overly fond of it, although she does have a very lovely voice, the discordant, disjoined background noise (hard to call it music) does not spark anything in me except for plucking a little at my nerves.
Still, maybe it shall improve with a dissection. In practice, with CDs that I have listened to maybe once previously (like this one), I listen through them entirely before I begin on a track-by-track breakdown.
She really does have a lovely voice. Why oh why can't the music gain some sort of consistency?
Started again from the beginning and it's actually starting to grow on me.
Cover is not astonishing, but has a sort of melancholic air to the portrait. Maybe it's all the purple. Not sure about the steampunk definition - looks more cyberpunk to me - from the font to the format. The music adds an almost sci-fi edge to it.
The band name is taken from "A Handmaid's Tale" the Margaret Atwood dystopia novel (which I have not read) and which I think also reflects the lyrics and general theme.
"In Gilead" begins with something that I cannot quite understand - "the mind has forgot what a woman is meant to be?" It then moves into dreamy cello and drum machine, with crackling sounds like an old record, scratching its way into oblivion. Over this, wails Erica's fragile voice. She has some nice trills to it. Overall, it is dreamy and somewhat surreal. The lyrics are quite dark - defining a woman by her bits - debating
"you have reduced us to our fertility... A womb, a c**t, a dried-out shell..."More drum machine and samples beckon us into "The Futurist's Nightmare". This does have something of a clockwork feel - a wind-up doll trapped in eternal motion. No lyrics printed, just short, sung lines. Her voice really is like glass, or maybe crystal, stabbing through the distorting electronic noises. The noise is not too loud, but very discordent, twisting and writhing like a cobweb of wires.
I believe the next song, "Deeper Understanding" seems to be a cover of a Kate Bush song. As such, there are more lyrics, and we get to hear a little more of Erica's vocal talents. She really does have a nice voice, although it does seem kind of thin, and I cannot help but imagine her as this slender waif of a thing, entangled in a cradle ot cables. The music is pure electronic noise, somewhat subdued.
A short way into "Who Programmed My Desire?" I am beginning to wonder - is my CD skipping? Don't think so... Fairly repetitive rhythm. Vocals, but no definable lyrics (none printed either).
We have bongo-style drums and electric cello to begin "Knowledge Scars". It has an almost tribal feel - albeit a weird and futuristic tribal feel. Erica's voice seems to be gaining strength too, as she is given full rein over her own lyrics. So far, this is definitely my favourite song on this album. It seems to have a better definied structure. It even has a discernable chorus and concludes with a rather nice cello solo.
Strident string instruments and distortion mark the beginning to "Freedom from Religion?" Along with sampling. Erica's voice is gaining in strength with every song, as here the hint of venom tempers it. This is a not unpleasant anti-religion song:
"You can't legislate reverence. Our cultures are our own. There is no god for us. We can't believe what we know is false."Although the music is still discordant and flavoured with samples and synths and drum machine rhythms, interspersed with wailing vocals.
The beginning of "Sentiment (White Feathers)" is almost painful, and sounds like my speakers are about to explode. Then the drums come in and prove that the noise is intentional, and not a mechanical breakdown. The rhythm of this song is actually pretty good. It is another cover song. I think it may have once been a folk song. Nope, it's a social political song about how meat animals (pigs, cows) are treated. Rather a haunting one actually. Here's the original by Crass. This version is also haunting - but more in a "ghost in the machine" kind of way. I kinda like it. I think I might play it loudly. The rhythm is exceedingly catchy, and a little faster in this version.
The lyrics might make you want to turn vegetarian.
The electronic vibes do funny things to my head, kinda reverberating in my skull. I remember when everyone (except me) was in love with techno, and used to play it far too loudly in the Seventh Form Common Room at school. My locker was just outside the room, and it used to make me feel physically ill. This doesn't make me feel ill, but it does feel kinda weird.
We seem to have some sort of organ-kinda-noise in "Dispossessed".
"Lament for Peter Pan" is rather haunting, the music wailing like a lost spirit over the equally lonely vocals.
Discordance and skipping samples, echo the voices of souls lost in the electronic hell. "Subsistence" is oh-so very weird. I cannot explain it. It's almost like a machine calling for help. Is my CD skipping? If I turn it up louder, will my speakers explode? Are the spirits of cyberspace preparing to unleash themselves upon an unsuspecting world? According to the sleeve, the source material is from "Paresthesia" which is the sensation of pins and needles. That is EXACTLY what this music replicates. Little prickling needles, electric sensation; prod-prod-prodding at your ears. Growing in volume, breaking, splintering.
It's actually pretty damned freaky.
And it's been going for over four minutes now.
Ringing synth vibrates and echoes into the eerie "You". Erica sounds lost, fractured from reality.
There are samples from "Labyrinth" in "When I Touch Myself". It is a song about how love can make you weak and tear you away from yourself. It's almost poetry, and written by Dolores Haze - whomever she is.
"What I realised today was that in loving you I forgot to love myself. Then I was nothing and you lost interest. More importantly, I lost interest in myself."True words, Ms Haze. True words.
"The Drowning Man" drowns you in its churning rhythms and engulfs you in its haunting vocals. The distorted samples are like great droplets, pounding the ears. The echoing, spectral music with its twisting, writhing rhythms and edge of desperation, push you down, suffocating. drowning you.
I think The Cure do it better, though.
More stuttering samples and discordances bring us into "Vacant Skies Revisited". The lyrics are pure morbid poetry, a song of fractured skies and tattered clouds.
This is a weird album, and one I would likely not have bought myself. It is something of an oddity in my collection. The discordancies, the strange samples, the electronic noise twist and writhe into my ears in a manner that is not exactly pain, but not pelasure either. It is tangled, and twisted and surreal and strange. Possibly if I listen to it more often, it might grow on me, or if I turn it up louder it might spark something in my synapses, and make me either ill or put me on an auditory high.
As it currently stands, however (and I'm sorry brother*), I'm going to have to rate it a 4/10. I guess I'm just too mainstream.
* If I recall, you did say "you may not like it" when you gave it to me?
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