Various Artists – No Songs Tomorrow – Darkwave, Ethereal Rock and Coldwave 1981-1990
Various Artists – No Songs Tomorrow – Darkwave, Ethereal Rock and Coldwave 1981-1990
Cherry Red Records
Release Date: 31/05/24
Running Time: Over four and a quarter hours!!!!!!!
Review by Dark Juan
Score: 10/10
Dark Juan is contemplating getting absolutely plastered. Mrs Dark Juan got to go to see Alasdair Beckett-King last night while I was stuck at work, and this has made me grumpy. Apparently, the long-haired ginger twat was reportedly excellent entertainment and Mrs Dark Juan met him after the show and had her picture taken with the whimsical Ulysses 31 copyist, who was wearing green corduroy trousers. I dread to think what the chafing was like. Anyway, Mrs Dark Juan reported that the interdimensional ABK is a charming and polite man and Dark Juan is aggrieved. Still, I have had a cuddle off the fragrant and wonderful Beth-Ami Heavenstone and she hasn’t, so I’m still ahead. Ha! Mrs Dark Juan is listening to the flame-haired tempter on various podcasts while she creates something eldritch that should not be, chuckling to herself as the Smellhounds snore quietly.
In a break from my usual writing style, where I have a three-hundred-word rant followed by a reasonably in-depth record review, this one is going to be a bit different as it is about yet another compilation set from the deeply impressive roster of Cherry Red Records, this time (after the last marathon about adventures on the Industrial Dancefloor called “Control I’m Here” which achieved a full 10/10 because of the sheer quality of the curation of the collection and the insane value for money that Cherry Red’s output offers), this time documenting the rise from uncharted territories in the Post-Punk minefield, where pioneering bands took the increasing commerciality and Poppiness of New Wave and took it back down into the crypts of the underground, gave it a fucking good kicking and set about changing the landscape of Post-Punk and New Wave and expressed parts of themselves others dare not in the truest and darkest of fashions. Yes, this is the infinitely dangerous, blood-soaked, and violently sexual world of Darkwave, the freezing, alienated emotion of Coldwave and the ethereal foundations of Dreampop. Here can be found the bedrock of modern interpretations, like Gunship and Carpenter Brut, in their original, untrammelled forms. Names that conjure nights at The Banshee and The Batcave – where the likes of Soft Cell’s Marc Almond rubbed shoulders with Throbbing Gristle and Wire and Siouxsie and The Banshees and a dangerous new sound was born, the Post-Punkers taking their sound back from the corporations and welding the grinding, fractured experimentation of Cabaret Voltaire and the dangerous, passionate dramatism of The Cure and Depeche Mode together and creating something wonderful.
It should be noted, however, that Darkwave and Coldwave, although Gothic in nature and covering the same subjects and themes, are not Gothic Rock in the classic sense of the term. Goth Rock, with its predominantly bass driven sound, ran parallel to the more experimental, sinuous sounds of Darkwave, which was more electronic and Pop-savvy, but no less affecting. Primarily a European scene, Darkwave offered the listener something MUCH sexier, infinitely more dangerous, and decidedly more interesting than Fuzzbox, Bananarama, Sigue Sigue Sputnik or whatever shitpop nonsense you were having forced down your throat by Top of The Pops or its US equivalents. This music beats the living shit out of the likes of Dexy’s fucking Midnight fucking bastard shitty Runners and their paeans to ejaculating on some poor woman called Eileen. Darkwave and Coldwave often encapsulated the shadow side of Pop, where cold synthesisers, hypnotic beats and incisive guitars were married with wistful, romantic lyrics, dripping with passion. Big hair, dramatic makeup and torn fishnets became the uniform and caused Dark Juan much consternation (and a disturbing latent desire for Goth girls) at a formative age, and that was just what the boys were wearing.
This compilation, then, represents a decade where the underground was at its most sensual and sexy. Names such as Xmal Deutschland, Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins and Suicide Commando occupy the same space as more obscure bands like Executive Slacks, Sad Lovers and Giants and Beautiful Pea Green Boat, but all are linked by their affecting wistfulness, their windy, bleak sound and their lyrics of deep sorrow and longing, a broad church taking in the experimentation of electronics, neo-classical New Wave, dark Ambient, Gothic soundscapes and ethereal Dreampop. It was this experimental quality that made it stand apart from Gothic Rock, which took its pointers from the Punk aesthetic, instrumentation and sound but turned it into something lush, where the bands on this compilation heard Industrial music and thought that that could be something beautiful among the wreckage. Like the joke about the Ska band – “The world might be ending, but hey, I have a trumpet!” and this is ably demonstrated by the likes of In The Nursery’s ‘Lost Prayer’ which melds punishing martial perfection with alto voices and the snowdrift sound of keyboards and layers and layers of vocals in ever-increasing pitches. Dare I say that you can even hear the nascent heart of Neue Deutsche Härte starting to beat on this song…
This music is where the true origins of Synthwave lie. The bumps and squelches of primitive synthesisers and the echo-dripping vocals of Psyche’s ‘The Crawler’ show you exactly what the likes of Pertubator and Timecop1983 were listening to in their youths.
I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to hear some of these songs again. Some I had forgotten about, and some I had never heard before and this compilation, this collection of maudlin anthems to broken hearts and wounded vanity, simply cannot be topped for sheer value for money. You get an expertly curated collection of music (to be fair, “No Songs Tomorrow” could be seen as a companion to other releases from Cherry Red Records, these being “Silhouettes And Statues”, “Close to The Noise Floor’”, “Still In A Dream” and ‘”Cherry Stars Collide”) which effortlessly combines familiar names and underground gems, with comprehensive liner notes and pictures and in a package that describes the range of the genre and gives you a succinct, potted history of where it came from and just why it happened far more eruditely than I ever could.
Yet again, this is another triumph from Cherry Red Records and if you like music that is deeply shadowed, sexier than a room full of cloned Jenny Agutters in nurses’ uniforms, experimental and deeply affecting, and you haven’t grown up with these bands, you NEED to hear this compilation. If you remember the likes of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and Clan of Xymox, you need to hear this compilation.
Dark Juan imagines being very, very drunk on absinthe, seated in a darkened basement club, sipping gently, watching gorgeously and elegantly attired, half-glimpsed figures writhing sensuously in a fog of dry ice and clove cigarettes, being aloof from it all but finding it all sensual in the extreme. THAT’S what this music is like.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating system has no hesitation whatsoever in awarding the full beans, 10/10 for yet another marvellous and comprehensive retrospective of a group of genres that are very close to Dark Juan’s twisted black heart. Once more Cherry Red Records triumph with a perfectly curated collection of dark wonders.
TRACKLISTING:
DISC ONE (62:09)
1 The Cure – The Funeral Party
2 Babel 17 – Come Into Hell and Murder Hate
3 Black Tape For A Blue Girl – Within These Walls (2023 Stereo Mix)
4 Days Of Sorrow – Wild World
5 Cocteau Twins – Blood Bitch
6 Lars Falk – See My Friend Fall
7 Rise And Fall Of A Decade – Nothing To Say, Easy To Answer
8 Dead Can Dance – Avatar
9 Executive Slacks – Say It Isn’t So
10 In The Nursery – Lost Prayer
11 Psyche – The Crawler
12 Kas Product – Tina Town
13 Eleven Pond – Tear And Cinnamon
14 Requiem In White – A Prodigal Son
DISC TWO (60:22)
1 U.V. Pøp – No Songs Tomorrow (Album Version)
2 Soft Cell – Heat
3 Lowlife – From Side To Side
4 Parade Ground – Moans
5 Cranes – Focus Breathe
6 Lycia – From Foam
7 Sad Lovers And Giants – Return To Clocktower Lodge
8 Section 25 – Looking From A Hilltop
9 Fra Lippo Lippi – Now and Forever
10 The Essence – Only For You
11 Mittageisen – Automaten (Radio Edit)
12 Beautiful Pea Green Boat – The Screw
13 Autumnfair – Novy Mir
14 Minimal Compact – My Will
15 Cuddly Toys – Pierrot Lunaire (Malice Pt 2)
DISC THREE (72:17)
1 Clan Of Xymox – Louise (7” Version)
2 Iron Curtain – The Condos
3 Neon – Dark Age (12” Mix)
4 Die Form – Poupée Mécanique
5 Kirlian Camera – Blue Room
6 Danse Society – Danse/Move
7 SS-Say – Care
8 For Against – Amen Yves
9 Heavenly Bodies – Rains On Me
10 Invisible Limits – Demand For Supply
11 Xmal Deutschland – Sickle Moon
12 Red Lorry Yellow Lorry – Hand On Heart
13 Little Nemo – City Lights (Long Way)
14 Royal Family & The Poor – Discipline
15 Bushido – High Rise
16 Mankind’s Audio Development – Craving
DISC FOUR (62:07)
1 Attrition – The Last Refuge
2 Two – Picture Frame
3 Soul – Love
4 Alien Sex Fiend – In And Out Of My Mind
5 Museum Of Devotion – Gauge Field
6 Malaria! – You You
7 No More – Suicide Commando
8 Twice A Man – Decay
9 Collection d’Arnell-Andréa – A L’Aurore Assassine
10 The Vyllies – Give Me A Name
11 Bel Canto – Dewy Fields
12 The Arms of Someone New – Every Seventh Wave
13 Single Gun Theory – Exorcise This Wasteland
14 Tones On Tail – Performance (7” Version)
15 Pieter Nooten & Michael Brook – Clouds
LINE-UP:
Many, many people. Far too many to list. There’s four fucking CDs of bands here. Who do you think I am? Sisyphus?
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
