Hello gang... In my grim, formative years I had a penchant for the foaming pit of studied melancholia and studio experimentation that was This Mortal Coil. Before my lingering 4AD-fetish had finally been extinguished by one too many Frank Black digipaks in the middle of this decade, I even persuaded someone who is now a Prominent Listee to obtain for me the box-set, comprising all three albums and a bonus disc of originals, from the United States. It was shortly after this that things rather fell apart - the originals, in all their hissy, dated glory, so far surpassed most of the TMC versions, that I vowed never to listen to a polished, avant-goth reading of a 70s folk-pop obscurity again. There were three LPs: "It'll End In Tears" (1984) - wherein Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry do their damnedest to turn Ivo Watts-Russell's pet project into a Dead Can Dance record, and Elizabeth Fraser wraps her larynx around Tim Buckley and Roy Harper; I puzzled for years about the heart-stopping opening lines to "Another Day", until I discovered that Mad Liz was warbling something like "You put the kettle on...". A couple of terrific Big Star covers too, one with Howard Devoto. "Filigree & Shadow" (1986) was twice as long, had lots of nice droney bits, helicopter noises and eerie androgynous spins on "Come Here My Love" (Van Morrison) and "I Must Have Been Blind" (Buckley again). "Blood" (1991) was my favourite record in the world for a good three months; there's a lot of guitar-waffle on there and too much of that Shelleyan Orphan woman, so I can't understand why. Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly do lovely things with Chris Bell's "You and Your Sister" (as featured on the Uncut sampler), and elsewhere there are not-too-bad interpretations of Emmylou Harris and Mary Margaret O'Hara songs. Ivo revived the project this year under the name The Hope Blister and, er, my Mum bought it me for my birthday (true !). Despite featuring songs from a couple of my fave records (Sylvian's "Beehive", Cale's "Paris 1919"), it's not much cop and just features the one vocalist (Louise Rutkowski). Thesedays, if it's not New Peruvian ArtStep, chances are I'm not interested... Mike. _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". For list archives and searching, list rules, FAQ, poor jokes etc, see http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +---+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" +---+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+