Friday, April 17, 2015

Recently-Acquired Vinyl LP of the Day #8: 'Throwing Muses'





Following-on from yesterday’s entry & its idiosyncratic nature, it seems appropriate today to feature Throwing Muses’ eponymously-titled debut album, previously-owned & purchased originally on vinyl shortly after its release, on one of those rare hunches of buying something without having heard the band’s sound at all, being inspired to do so by a music paper review (something florid from, probably, the Melody Maker, quite possibly written by Chris Roberts, including a line that ran something like “a thousand tiny seahorses swimming past your window”) & the fact the record was released by 4AD, then very much the label-de-jour featuring as it did a number of then-favourite artistes.


At the time, it proved to be an astonishing listening experience, never having quite heard the like of before, often going to some very dark places, yet electrifyingly, with such curious song-structures & such a range of vocal ‘techniques’, from soft cooing to screaming (& ‘Vicky’s Box’ in particular can still send a shiver down the spine), and it remains a uniquely powerful piece of work, imperfect in the best way, again best heard via the physicality of vinyl, thus rendering it another essential purchase when opportunity presented itself.

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