Horsey

Durtro 032CD, 1997, Running time: 55:09

Horsey
  1. Diana - 08:59
  2. The Death of the Corn - 06:00
  3. Tree - 06:38
  4. Broken Birds Fly I (Maldoror Waits) - 08:48
  5. Horsey - 14:22
  6. Broken Birds Fly II (Maldoror Wails) - 10:21

This is one of Current 93’s “just ok” releases.  Though I wouldn’t say it’s a bad album, it’s definitely not one of their better ones, either.  It’s perhaps best described as “noisy folk.” Lyrics are included in the liner.

DIANA is a cover of a song by the band Comus.  It’s kind of a manic folk-rock song with a repetitive background guitar loop and some vaguely interesting piano and dirty-sounding electric guitar.  A decent (if not exactly brilliant) song.

On the other hand, THE DEATH OF THE CORN is a great folk song.  The lyrics aren’t particularly inspiring, but the music and vocals are quite nice.

Not sure if I really like TREE, though.  It’s noisy dirty guitar with menacing vocals by Tibet.  I find it to be a little repetitive and not very interesting.

Unfortunately, the same holds true for BROKEN BIRDS FLY I (MALDOROR WAITS).  The guitar is extremely repetitive, and the rest of the background music and lyrics seem uninspired.  The main guitar riff also appears on the Magick Lantern Cycle song CITIES OF THE RED NIGHT (from their “Chimaera” album).

Though the lyrics are mostly the same as the Nature and Organisation song HOOVES (which appears on Emblems: The Menstrual Years), the music is very different, and in fact, is very different from the usual Current 93 style; musically and vocally, the style is rather punk rock, bordering on metal(!).  I’ve got mixed feelings about this piece, but I think I like it more than I dislike it, even though the second half starts getting a little too silly for its own good.  All in all, though, the HOOVES version of the song is infinitely better.

The final track is another version of BROKEN BIRDS FLY.  I don’t know how BROKEN BIRDS FLY II (MALDOROR WAILS) is much different from the previous version, or why we needed two almost-identical versions of the same song on the same album, but my opinion of both of them is the same.

No epilogue.