ALL DOLLED UP LIKE CHRIST

This compiles two live sets (mostly complete) that took place on Halloween and November 1st at the Orensanz Foundation, the oldest synagogue in New York. The shows came at a busy period in the world of Current 93, happening in the wake of the completion of the Inmost Light trilogy (the centrepiece of which, All the Pretty Little Horses, being a creative high point of their long career. Friend of the group Tiny Tim was supposed to appear as a supporting act but had to pull out owing to a heart attack the previous month, and indeed another heart attack a few weeks later whilst performing would finish him off.

The live sets concentrate, naturally, on the group's neofolk material, their dark ambient stuff naturally being much harder to pull off in a live context and their neofolk period having by this point lasted long enough to yield a fairly expansive setlist, with songs ranging from as far back as the earliest works in this style by the group (Imperium, Christ and the Pale Queens Mighty In Sorrow, and Swastikas for Noddy).

The two sets overlap enough that I suspect in the long run I won't be listening to them both in immediate succession but simply pick one or the other out to listen to when I revisit this collection, but the atmosphere captured is magical enough that I am glad that both shows were captured. They include some playfully boisterous performances of Oh Coal Black Smith which put the studio version of that song on Swastikas For Noddy to shame, and the material from classic albums like Thunder Perfect Mind or All the Pretty Little Horses is beautifully executed here. Current 93's live back catalogue is fairly expansive, and as always in such cases there's always the question of just how many performances of the same material you really need, but this is a true treasury.