The Great in the Small
Durtro 053CD, 2000, Running time: 61:16
- The Great in the Small - 61:16
One of the things I particularly appreciate about Current 93 is the fact that they’re not afraid to experiment, to undertake whatever projects that they believe in, without necessarily considering the commercial appeal. This album strikes me as such a project, being a 60-minute mix of every recording c93 has ever made… Every recording from 1983 thru 2000! As Tibet states in the liner notes, “Especial care was taken to include all the tracks that have appeared on compilations, as well as those alternate mixes which sometimes featured on the vinyl editions of our work. Also added are all the studio recordings made by myself and Steven Stapleton outside the confines of Nurse With Wound and CurrentNinetyThree.” No printed lyrics, for obvious reasons.
The album is a single long track, a muddy cacophonous mix of, yes, all the work of c93. Imagine placing five or six or seven CD players in a small room, loading a random Current 93 CD into each one and hitting play simultaneously. Sadly, it’s about as distracting and unpleasant as you’d imagine, although it’s clear that a lot of time was taken to mix somewhat complimentary material together. I’ve listened to the album straight through a few times, and although I’ve come to appreciate some of the textural compositions of it, the appreciation is mostly technical. However, I do happen to have a favorite section that I think works very well musically, which starts at around 55 minutes and continues until the end of the disc; this section, for me, manages to capture the eerie discordant majesty that I suspect Tibet was aiming for with this project. In fact, when I listen to this CD now I simply start it at that point.
So, is this album for you? Naturally, collectors and die-hard fans will certainly want to own it, as there are a few moments which shine. I suspect that most people, however, would be better off fleshing out the rest of their Current 93 collection with other material before investing in this album, as it lacks a “personal touch,” so to speak. In other words, there’s not much here that really displays the character of the band, nothing I found touching or emotionally moving (which is ironic, as this album contains all the material from c93 that I’ve found emotionally moving, just not in an accessible or audible way). I’m impressed by the fact that this CD got released, but unfortunately, it’s something that will be rarely listened to by me.
No epilogue.