For all the modern world’s negatives, the globalisation of the music industry is helping to get voices heard which would never have reached our ears in the 20th Century. Here’s a selection of the weird and the wonderful currently worthy of further investigation.
Cruel – A Rock Opera
It’s always thrilling to be able to mention Transylvania and delightfully we can again as this far-reaching rock opera hails from vampire head quarters. Devised by Tibor Molna, a classical musician, as well as a member of rock band, The Harriers. His combination of baroque classical and heavy metal sets the scene for a tangled moral tale which includes suicide and a mysterious priest. Sounds great! Look out for it for one night only at London’s Troxy on 22nd October
Various Artists – Kopf Music
A three-disc set of innovative covers of Kraut Rock classics, a great many of which you’ll never have heard of. Exotic is not the word – experience Brainticket’s Black Sand performed by Cranium Pie’s Research Baking Station; Neu’s Jennifer covered by Frobisher Neck Heads South By Weaving; Kraftwerk’s Rückstoß Gondoliere by Dead Sea Apes and many more. Magnificent.
Holy Blood – Voice of Blood
Unblack Metal. You might think a less clumsy term would be white metal but there ya go. It is, as you might guess, Black Metal in every sense, apart from the bit about worshipping the devil. Here we’re very much about vanquishing Satan and doing good deeds and who can argue with that? As an example, here’s Ukraine’s Holy Blood, giving it plenty whilst ensuring their place in the ever-after is assured
Bringing together acts from the UK, USA and less familiar hot beds such as Holland, Russia and Romania, this compilation promises: “scary horror-sound infested witch-house to carefully arranged soundlayer madness, from Westcoast 8-bit to Berlin soul, even some post-fidget glitch-house” Yay!