indarknessletmedwell
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(4/1/04 7:03 pm)
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All Music Guide reviews
The following reviews are taken from the website www.allmusic.com - the copyright belongs to AEC One Stop Group. Please visit the All Music site for more information.
NADA!:
Nada! was the breakthrough record where Death in June abandoned the mix of industrial noise, punk, and Joy Division-styled mayhem to embark on a new style of apocalyptical folk, and though Current 93, Death in June spin-off bands like Sixth Comm and Sol Invictus, and countless other groups on World Serpent followed that path, Death in June was one of the pioneers. Acoustic guitars feature heavily on "The Honour of Silence," the short "Leper Lord," "(Behind the Rose) Fields of Rape," and "She Said Destroy," most of them co-written with David Tibet of Current 93. In fact "Fields of Rape" has some of the same lyrics as the piece of the same name on Current 93's nightmarish Dogs Blood Rising, but instead of mixing nursery rhyme and distorted screams with industrial noises, the Death in June version turns the piece into a rather catchy folk song, though one imbued to the core with gloom and decay. The rest of the album traverses similar territory, despair and torture, death and war, utter bleakness. A few of the tracks revert to the earlier Death in June of mechanical rhythms and strange sound effects, and "Crush My Love" offers strange repeated keyboard textures and droning vocals with some weird effects at the end. Except for the stupid "C'Est un Reve," a piece about Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, Nada! is excellent stuff. — Rolf Semprebon
THE WORLD THAT SUMMER:
This double album finds Death in June covering similar ground to the earlier LP Nada! from a year earlier. Jackboot rhythms, acoustic guitar strums, electronic effects, and Douglas Pearce's low, droning vocals and gloomy choruses conspire to paint a vision slightly more depressing than Joy Division. While "Come Before Christ and Murder Love" could almost be a pop song on heavy downers, other pieces offer more experimentalism. David Tibet adds backup vocals on most of the songs on the first record, his raspy voice offering an interesting contrast to Pearce's smoother lead, and at times Tibet is either whispering or screaming in the background. "Break the Black Ice" with the echoed voices and creepy little piano runs over a bed of acoustic guitar textures is frightening. This piece and several others have horn fanfares, elsewhere gongs and a tinkly music box can be heard. The second disc has three instrumental versions of tracks from the first record on one side, while the flip side is taken up by "Death of a Man," a long collage piece with mechanical rhythms, found-sound voices in many different languages, what sounds like monkeys shrieking, and other effects. The record may not be quite as strong as the earlier Nada!, especially with the filler on the second LP, but still finds Death in June moving forward. — Rolf Semprebon
BROWN BOOK:
Another slab of Douglas Pearce misanthropy, Brown Book doesn't veer too far from the apocalyptical folk of the earlier Nada! and The World That Summer, acoustic strumming guitars, rhythms that thud slowly like the marching footsteps of an army, and some weird electronics effects thrown in, while Pearce sings in his low voice. Though less absent than on The World That Summer, Current 93's David Tibet provides lead vocals on a couple tracks, the synth-driven "Punishment Initiation" and the calmer "Born Again," with its simple guitar riff, while Rose McDowall backs Pearce on several others, her high childlike voice adding a nice contrast to his deep drones, especially when they duet on the trumpet-fanfare punctuated "To Drown a Rose." Though it's not quite as obvious as the similarly themed "Down in the Willow Garden" from Boyd Rice's Music, Martinis and Misanthropy, one wonders why McDowall would sing either of these songs. There's also plenty of ammunition for Death in June's detractors, songs like "Runes and Men," "Touch Defiles," and especially the title track, which sounds like World War II German soldiers singing with a minimal amount of tape effects underneath. Crying babies, gunshots and screams, spoken word bits, and even the industrial "We Are the Lust," with vocals by Coil's John Balance, who co-wrote the piece, create another grimly disturbing soundtrack that is oddly beautiful in places. — Rolf Semprebon
OPERATION HUMMINGBIRD:
For Operation Hummingbird, Death in June frontman Douglas P. programmed seven dense, dirge-like tracks with heavily orchestrated samples and only occasional concessions to a beat. Led by chanting vocals, "The Snows of the Enemy (Little Black Baby)" and "Let a Wind Catch a Rainbow on Fire" are eerily reminiscent of Britain's pre-Christian past. — John Bush
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