David Tibet's Current 93 project carries forth one of those dauntingly prolific and richly dense discographies that took me until recently to start to crack, and although he has probably become most synonymous with helping pioneer the pastoral groundings of the neo-folk movement, Tibet began his project immersed in an aura of abrasion and cacophony. Dogs Blood Rising from 1984 was one of the first records of his that I latched onto, with the cold-sweat nightmare it evokes hinting at a sort-of cross between a humorless Nurse With Wound fed through the trajectory of early SPK at its most dirge-y. The NWW comparison makes obvious sense given Tibet's close musical partnership with Steven Stapleton, and one can perhaps deduce that the divergent paths Stapleton and Tibet would take their respective projects in were birthed from a similar starting point. Current 93 during their "noise" period seems still oft-underrated, and if one needs reminder of Tibet's power as a performer right out of the gate, this extremely intense live performance from 1984 should provide more than enough evidence:
On the other ends of Tibet's spectrum lays this late period video of the song "Happy Birthday" from the Looney Runes LP, with this performance melding a more accessibly melodic undercurrent of folky post-punk into something nevertheless confrontational and unsettling thanks to Tibet's impassioned performance. Although superficially miles away from Tibet's initial works, one can perhaps more easily draw a distinct line between the two periods with careful attention:
On the other ends of Tibet's spectrum lays this late period video of the song "Happy Birthday" from the Looney Runes LP, with this performance melding a more accessibly melodic undercurrent of folky post-punk into something nevertheless confrontational and unsettling thanks to Tibet's impassioned performance. Although superficially miles away from Tibet's initial works, one can perhaps more easily draw a distinct line between the two periods with careful attention:
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