The Bubblemen – The Bubblemen Are Coming!

You wish you were a Bubbleman, you wish, you wish, you wish.

The Bubblemen Are Coming! is a 12" single put out by, well, The Bubblemen, obviously, back in 1988 on Beggars Banquet, Vertigo, and RCA. Of course, unless you are like Ygritte's version of Jon Snow and know nothing, you probably know that The Bubblemen are none other than Love and Rockets. I mean, if you've ever paid any attention to the latter, then you'll probably pick up on David J's voice pretty quickly on "The Bubblemen Are Coming!" And, given that this release is, as of this writing, twenty-six years old, well, I don't think it's any big secret anymore that this little ditty was a side project of Love And Rockets--if it ever even was a secret in the first place.

The A-side begins, oddly enough, with an echoing, hollow, bubbly sounding synth that sort of seems like it could be approaching the listener--are the Bubblemen really coming? Watch out! After a bit of wishful choral thinking, the fun begins. This song is obviously Love and Rockets goofing around a bit for sure, but it's a snazzy little snappy number--fans of Love and Rockets can sort of understand, I'd reckon, how the group might not have felt this song would fit into their typical releases.

Not really synth-pop, even with the blippy snippets of arcade sounding synth bits (or maybe they're processed percussion samples--or a bit of both), this is more what I'd probably want to call "alternative pop-rock" with a playful edge. I mean, we've got a jazzy sounding bass line, some swinging percussion, and Daniel Ash's right rippin' guitar parts. How this ended up classified as "hip hop" and "electronic" on Discogs I'll never know. But, hey, go for a whirl.

The costumes that Love and Rockets don in order to become their Bubblemen alter egos get likened to bees--although, they are the happiest looking bees I've ever seen, but I bet it's probably the stripes and antennae--and this might go some way to explaining the B-side of this record, which probably gets played only slightly more often than the "Absolute Elsewhere" B-side of Coil's How To Destroy Angels. It's called, oddly enough, "B Side" and is three minutes and forty-seven seconds of the sound of bees buzzing around. Those clever punters.

The Bubblemen Are Coming! is a fun little release, bees and all, sure, that I'm glad Love and Rockets took the time to put out: it never fails to bring a smile to my face or put a little groove in my move. I give it a solid seven and a half ears out of ten.

This release on Discogs.

Interested listeners can find the actual video for The Bubblemen Are Coming on YouTube and can hear the full length version on Grooveshark.

William S. Burroughs + Gus Van Sant ‎– Millions Of Images

This translucent red vinyl version of the 45 released in 1990 by Singles Only Label (SOL) features two of the four tracks from the 1985 12" The Elvis of Letters put out by William S. Burroughs and Gus Van Sant, "Millions of Images" and "The Hipster Be-bop Junkie." Fun fact: SOL was co-founded by none other than Hüsker Dü's Bob Mould!

Well, if you like Burroughs' baritone drone-like voice, then you'll probably enjoy these tracks. If you hate Burroughs' vocal delivery, well, you'll probably not like these tracks very much. And if you're indifferent to Burroughs' voice, but enjoy some swinging jazzy acoustic guitar type noodling, then you might well love these tracks!

The guitar work on these songs--at least the guitar as called "word guitar"--is provided by one Doug Cooeyate (as credited on the sleeve) and is absolutely lovely! It really goes a long way to making these tracks delightful to listen to and seems to complement Burroughs' vocals extremely well. A spacey sort of airy sounding layered surf jam, well, more or less. Van Sant is credited with "music" on this release, so maybe he plays some guitar as well? Since I'm not really familiar with what "word guitar" is supposed to be, it is difficult for me to distinguish what may or may not be played by Cooeyate.

Let's simply put it like this: the guitar on these tracks is a pleasure to hear and makes these songs great to listen to.

"Millions of Images" is a more or less straight forward sounding track. Sure, some of the guitar tracks are processed with some effects--a bit of reverb, probably, some delay here and there--and perhaps some of the arrangement is a little avant-garde, but I wouldn't say there is a whole lot of "experimentalism" going on in this particular piece. It's simply some really good music with Burroughs' narrated lyrics. "The Hippster Be-bop Junkie," on the other hand, while still very recognizable as a more traditional sounding "song" goes a bit more into experimentalism via manipulations of Burroughs' voice tracks along with a more distinct avant-garde approach to the resulting sound of these manipulations.

This is a great little 45 to throw on now and then for some swingingly mellow avant-garde listening. I enjoy Burroughs' voice and, again, the guitar work on these songs is really great. I give this release eight ears out of ten.

This release on Discogs.

Interested listeners can find a video for Millions of Images on YouTube and hear The Hipster Be-bop Junkie at Grooveshark.

HÖH / Current 93 ‎– Crowleymass

Don't give us no sass or we'll kick your ass 'cause we're the heralds of Crowleymass.

Crowleymass is a 12" single released back in 1987 on Maldoror, an early label of Current 93's (not to be confused with a more recent manifestation of a different label by the same name), in an edition of 2,000 copies. It is a product of the combined efforts of Current 93 and Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson. This record was also rereleased in 1997 as a CD maxi-single on David Tibet's Durtro label and includes a fourth bonus track.

I neither own nor have heard every Current 93 release--there are many--but, from what I am familiar with, this single is somewhat of an anomaly in terms of the more typical output of Current 93. Released in the dawning of the late eighties, it certainly sounds like a product of its time. This is, of course, not a bad thing if you enjoy that eighties synth-pop, hip-hop influenced dance sort of stuff.

Yes, I do mean "hip hop influenced": the vocals of the two songs on this three song 12" are delivered in that sort of rap-like style that some people were doing in the late eighties. Certainly the musical arrangement, drum machine programming, and possibly the editing go a fair bit of the way to creating that seeming sort of delivery, but, to me anyway, they definitely have that style.

The fuzzed out chorus effected guitar sound in the third song, "Crowleymass (Mix Mix Mix)" reminds this listener of Killing Joke or Love and Rockets, and the riff itself seems somewhat similar to the latter's "The Dog-End Of A Day Gone By," from Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven, which came out in 1986. So, yes, this release does seem to be drawing from the (somewhat?) successful sounds of other eighties "alternative" bands and is perhaps an attempt to create a more listener friendly and danceable set of tracks--maybe to garner a wider audience for Current 93 or at least get something out there that could be played in the clubs.

In itself this is quite a feat considering it is still David Tibet's distinct voice and delivery regarding what is generally typical Current 93 subject matter. If we threw in some deep bass vocal samples going "Oh Yeah!" or "yeah, yeah, yeah!" here and there the whole package would have possibly been a complete club success. But they left that sort of thing out and instead opted for some absolutely beautiful backing vocals delivered by Rose McDowall whose voice is entirely a slice of heaven for sure. Hands down, her vocals elevate any song they appear on: always hauntingly pure delight.

For consisting of tracks that are well outside the usual Current 93 fare, this is a very fun release, entirely listenable, and definitely an example of classic eighties alternative synth-pop. It's not like I've been to lots of "retro eighties goth industrial bat cave" nights at clubs, but I'm kind of surprised that this release isn't in a higher rotation at these sorts of events that I have been to. Indeed, I'm not sure I've ever heard any of the tracks on this record played at such a night, but, in my opinion, it could easily be right there with Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's Dead" as far as goth anthems go--I mean, geez, it's about Aleister Crowley, ferchrisakes, and next to vampires the definitive witchy "Beast" of last century ought to have at least some memetic traction amongst those inclined to darker things.

Or maybe I'm merely mistaken and this release is more well known amongst that sort of crowd than I am currently aware. I'm simply too square to be that hip.

Anyway, an enjoyable effort that'll fit right into any playlist of an eighties synth-pop sort of mix, sure. I give Crowleymass seven and a half ears out of ten. Now go put on some dark (like all black) colours, maybe some really pale foundation and black eyeliner, and dance, dance, dance--but, y'know, in a subdued and saddened melancholic expression of inner turmoil and angst.

This release at Discogs.

Interested listeners can find the A-side version of Crowleymass on YouTube.

It isn't Crowley that rhymes with foully, blech.