Tamlin

Durtro 025CD, 1994, Running time: 16:55

Tamlin
  1. Tamlin - 10:36
  2. How the Great Satanic Glory Faded - 06:19

Following shortly on the heels of Lucifer Over London, Tamlin is another rather short EP. Despite its brevity, it’s another brilliant example of Current 93 at their best. As with most of their later albums, it’s pretty deep in their distinctive “apocalyptic folk” sound. This may be rather tricky to find, as the CD version is limited to 3000 numbered copies (mine’s number 1994); it was released to celebrate Hallowe’en 1994. Lyrics are included in the liner notes.

The title track, TAMLIN, is a traditional British folk song about an encounter with the world of faerie.  The music (much of it by the brilliant Michael Cashmore, I suspect) is mostly a delicate and melancholy acoustic guitar.  Says David Tibet about this song: “For me, it reveals that true love finally conquers all, even hell itself.” Beautiful and chilling stuff (the voice of the Queen of Elfin is downright scary!).

Track two, HOW THE GREAT SATANIC GLORY FADED, begins with a phone conversation between Tiny Tim and David Tibet, with Tim talking about how the world is headed for disaster and about his vision of the beautiful devil, who appears as an angel.  The lyrics of the song are about the duality of Lucifer (both male and female) and Tibet’s impressions of their respective aspects.  While the theme is familiar, the lyrics are a little different, in their construction, from Tibet’s usual style.  Once again, the music is fairly quiet and subtle, but with a bit more intensity than the previous track and with some electric guitar by Nick Salomon.  Another powerful and wonderful song.

Epilogue: (Tiny Tim) I believe that the world is headed for catastrophe. (David Tibet) Uh huh.  (Tiny Tim) I can also tell you something, something right now, which no one else has heard yet.