Cindytalk- Wappinschaw (1994) MP3 & FLAC -For Ol' Foggy-

"It is becoming more difficult day by day to sustain this level of magic."

On Camouflage Heart, Cindytalk's 1984 debut, Gordon Sharp created a hopelessly dark, yet starkly beautiful, proto-industrial descent into psychic despair that made so-called "Goth" albums of the time sound like little more than cartoonish attempts to paint facile forms of despair in shades of cheap black paint. Central to the effect of this truly singular album is Sharp's harrowing vocal performance, ranging from the despondent to the cathartic, sometimes within the same song. A decade later, Cindytalk released its second masterpiece, Wappinschaw, which seems, on the surface, to emanate from emotional regions far calmer than that of its heady predecessor, but on repeated listens reveals itself as constructed from the same emotionally wrenching cloth. Wappinschaw was to be the last album Cindytalk would release for 15 years, and as such, it can be seen as both a culmination and integration of the various elements comprising Sharp's first three albums. Wappinschaw starts with a song as surprising as it is stunning: Sharp's beautifully sung a capella cover of Ewan MacColl's "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face." Elegant, raw, austere, and sounding like a fallen angel, Sharp masterfully sets the tone for the album's dynamic exploration of the extremities of emotion, a tone which moves into more familiar Cindytalk territory on the second track, "A Song of Changes." Mournfully melodic while eschewing anything resembling traditional song structure, Sharp creates a strange dirge-like atmosphere for another of his beautifully-wrecked vocal performances. Perhaps the biggest highlight is "Return to Pain," which features Sharp's heavily reverbed voice backed by some wonderfully moody experimental guitar noodling. Wappinschaw is easily one of the most under-appreciated albums of the nineties, and though it is not a comforting listening experience, it is an exquisitely dark corner offering its own kind of recompense.

Cindytalk- Camouflage Heart (1984) / In This World (1988) MP3 & FLAC

"You have the twisted head of fate my love."

Exceedingly dark, cathartic, and at times, seemingly unhinged, Gordon Sharp's Cindytalk was a dazzlingly self-indulgent gloom-fest that anticipated the Industrial-Rock movement years before the genre even had a name. Best known for his fine contributions to the first This Mortal Coil project, It'll End in Tears, Sharp's work in Cindytalk is far more visceral and far less ethereal than what was emanating from 4AD at the time. While Gothic in mood, Camouflage Heart, Cindytalk's debut, has a dirty, gritty undertow that makes it sound something like Peter Murphy at his most dramatic fronting The Birthday Party (in fact, Mick Harvey appears on "Under Glass"). On the standout track,"The Ghost Never Smiles," Sharp's eerie, wailing vocals sound like they are emanating from the bottom of a well as a dull tribal beat and guitar feedback carry the song toward what feels like a free-fall into the abyss. Truly harrowing stuff.

Breathless- Three Times and Waving (1987) MP3 & FLAC -For Douxee's Girlfriend-

"As a matter of course you rush through your lifetime, turning a blind-eye to world-weary crossfire."

As was the case with Breathless' debut album The Glass Bead Game, their follow-up, Three Times and Waving, is a lush, darkly romantic piece of dream-pop that is easily the equal of, if not better than, what the 4AD stable, mining similar aesthetic territory, was producing at the time (okay, with the possible exception of Dead Can Dance). While Dominic Appleton's vocals (sounding something like a more overtly romantic Brendan Perry) clearly set this band apart, he does not take center stage in most of these songs; instead the vocals are integrated into hauntingly ornate but often ominous soundscapes, functioning as just another sonic texture. Appleton's voice has an unusually tender quality, which provides an intriguing counterpoint to the album's Gothic overtones, giving these songs (and all of Breathless' early recordings for that matter) a very unique feel. Tracks such as "Into the Fire" and "Waiting on the Wire" are simply stunning Post-Punk gems, and whenever I listen to Breathless, it amazes me how such a talented and sonically interesting band could have fallen through the cracks of commercial success (come on, they even had a singer with a big voice!).

Breathless- The Glass Bead Game (1986) MP3 & FLAC

"So christen these kind hearts with names they don't deserve, and measure out the sanity that falls into lunacy, hung bitter, sweet-faded and lost."

Despite his stunning vocal performances on This Mortal Coil's Filigree & Shadow, Dominic Appleton's band Breathless was inexplicably fated to spend the next two decades toiling away in abject obscurity despite being one of the more interesting and talented Post-Punk bands of the mid-eighties. Breathless integrated the dark dream-pop associated with the 4AD label with Appleton's dramatic (and sometimes sinister) vocals, sounding, at times, like a more straightforward version of Dead Can Dance or a more lushly ornate version of Joy Division. On The Glass Bead Game, named after a Hermann Hesse novel, Appleton & co. traverse some dark sonic territory, such as on the memorable "Monkey Talk," where Appleton's vocals take on the cadence of a death-chant as foreboding guitar textures and rolling percussion slowly build a soundscape of beauty and dread. For anyone interested in 4AD-style gloom, Breathless will be a revelation.

Dif Juz- Extractions (1985) MP3 & FLAC

Mining sonic territory located somewhere between The Durutti Column and This Mortal Coil, Extractions, the only full-length Dif Juz ever recorded, offers a glimpse of what Post-Rock might have sounded like 4AD-style. This strange jem, now resigned to a forgotten corner of the 4AD back catalog, was produced by Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins fame and, not coincidentally, also features a vocal turn on "Love Insane" by the other Cocteau Twin, Elisabeth Fraser. Subtle and at times haunting, Extractions deserves a listen if only for the disorienting experience of hearing Richard Thomas' fine sax work weaving in and out of 4AD's trademark gloom like a seal swimming in a sea of black satin pillows.

This Mortal Coil- Filigree & Shadow (1986) MP3 & FLAC -For Douxee-

"Notes that roll on winds with swirling wings, bring me words that are not the strength of strings."

If This Mortal Coil's first album, It'll End in Tears, felt, at times, a little too much like a 4AD talent sampler, albeit a more original approach to such a thing than the standard record label "comp" (see Lonely Is an Eyesore), the follow up album, Filigree & Shadow, avoids this by being far more ambitious musically and doing so with what had evolved into something resembling a 4AD "in-house" band. While This Mortal Coil's second album is noticeably lacking in 4AD star power (Liz Fraser, Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry had all participated on the first album but are absent on the follow-up), vocalists such as Dominic Appleton, Alison Limerick and Deirdre & Louise Rutkowski more than ably lend the cover songs a distinctive feel, often succeeding in liberating them from their original contexts. However, tying these songs together by way of moody, atmospheric interludes are 13 instrumentals that, while listenable, are more forgettable than not. The overall effect of this is both the main strength and primary weakness of the album: sonically, it comes across as remarkably cohesive (a rare feat for a double album), but you also might find yourself skipping over the instrumentals in search of the gems, such as the cover of Pearl Before Swine's "The Jeweller," which alone is worth the price of admission.

Various Artists- Lonley Is an Eyesore: 4AD Compilation (1987) MP3 & FLAC

"Have a fish nailed to a cross on my apartment wall. It sings to me with glassy eyes and quotes from Kafka."

In a certain sense, Lonley Is an Eyesore functions as a time-capsule, a snapshot of Post-Punk circa the mid-Eighties, albeit a snapshot saturated with the particular shades and tinctures of the Goth-informed Dream-Pop of the 4AD stable. As a result, there is an aesthetic cohesiveness to this album that is unusual for a compilation, which stems from that fact that, to some extent, 4AD was pushing a particular (Ivo Watts-Russell produced) sound rather than the bands themselves. This approach was taken a step further with the This Mortal Coil releases, in which various 4AD artists were thrown together in the studio (under the control of Watts-Russell) to record cover songs dressed up in 4AD-style gloom. Despite this overriding emphasis on style over substance, Lonely Is an Eyesore holds up quite well 25 years later because it contains an intriguing mix of the influential (Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, Throwing Muses) and the obscure (Dif Juz, The Wolfgang Press, Clan of Xymox), all at the height of their powers. With the exception of the badly dated Colourbox contribution, this album still sounds fresh, dark, and revelatory, even if it is not quite the manifesto it was clearly conceived to be.