Emilie Autumn

 

When you look there are very few musicians who make a living from playing electric violin. Sure plenty of those modern classical-crossover violinists (Vanessa Mae, Bond etc.) use electric violins, but they use them simply as amplified acoustic fiddles - you don't get masses of feedback and overdrive, you don't get [insert the name of your favourite guitarist here] excesses. Even in 'our world' of Prog, with the likes of Daryl Way and Eddie Jobson, it hasn't featured as a lead instrument for quite some time. You need Emilie Autumn for that.

 

I have know of Ms Autumn for sometime but never really took the time to hear anything by her until now. As singer, violinist and pianist over the course of her career thus far she has recorded classical, dark cabaret and fantasy rock, worked with Courtney Love on American Sweetheart and Billy Corgan on FutureEmbrace as well as touring as part of Love's backing band as backing singer & violinist

 

Recently she switched styles and created what she calls Violindustrial or Vicotriandustrial which features mainly electric violin and harpsichord over an industrial synth & drum machine backing...

 

So I purchased a copy of her latest - Opheliac...

 

 

Musically this album is excellent - the contrast of classical against the electro beat works far better than the dire 4/4 disco beat you get on classical crossover tracks ...it's not Industrial in the Skinny Puppy, Ministry or NIN (with a migraine) sense, but it's still edgy and sharp in that Depeche Mode kind of industrial way, and there is a degree of baroque classical and Victorian inspired cabaret running through it that's like The Dresden Dolls jamming with a chamber orchestra. Then there is the singing - Ms Autumn has a wide range of singing styles to draw upon - ranging from the angelic to screaming to riot-grrrl to gentile Victorian parlour (often within a single verse) and she invites immediate comparison to Tori Amos, Siouxie Sioux, Diamanda Galas and Courtney Love as she switches voice from one to the other - sometimes successfully, sometimes not. The let down for me is the lyrics - the songs are just ...meh ... girly angst & angry hard-done-by little girl rants - which don't really connect with me and there is a tendency to repeat lines, choruses and even verses far too often - as if she'd hit a writer's block mid song. Four of the songs from Opheliac are featured on her My Space page (Liar, I Want My Innocence Back, The Art Of Suicide and Misery Loves Company). The bonus disc is better (MySpace track: Thank God I'm Pretty) as it shows off Autumn's violin skills with a two very good instrumental tracks (one classical piece by Bach and a little bombastic symphonic overture by Autumn), the vocal tracks are not so repetitive and a couple of them are even witty in a smutty kind of way.

 

Though slightly disappointed with the lyrics, I did enjoy the music, (especially the two instrumentals) so I bought Lace/Unlaced:

which is a completely different kettle of fish - disc one (Laced) is a re-release of an earlier album of classical recordings with tunes by Corelli, Bach and Leclair played straight, while disc two (Unlaced) is 'Victoriandustrial' instrumentals with full-on beats, industrial noise, synth bleeps and fttz, and electric violin distortion, feedback and mad soloing that instantly brings Curved Air's Ultra Vivaldi to mind, but madder. The title track from Unlaced is on the MySpace page.

 

Laced/Unlaced I like *a lot*, more so than Opheliac (which I don't regret buying btw - I will play it from time to time, if I ever get it back from my daughter, it disapeared into the pit of her bedroom and I haven't seen it since, though I do still hear it )

 

Would I recommend either of these to a discerning Prog-head? Probably not, but I do recommend listening to the MySpace tracks and the samples of Laced/Unlaced from her web-site so you can make your own minds up.