DOGS BLOOD RISING

Formed in 1982 by David Tibet, CURRENT 93 emerged as one of those experimental collage type acts that followed in the footsteps of the strange industrial noise artists like Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire and Nurse With Wound. In fact CURRENT 93's first public offering was on the "Mi-Mort" split with Steven Stapleton's Nurse With Wound act in 1983 so it's no wonder he invited Stapleton on board to assist in crafting a new style of bizarrely demented soundscapes that offered veritable soundtracks to hell. Tibet put out three releases in 1984 and it's not exactly clear which came first. While some claim "Nature Unveiled" to be the official debut, others cite this darker sibling DOGS BLOOD RISING to be the actual first. It's very likely they were released simultaneously when few were paying attention.

Whatever the case, while CURRENT 93 has become more famous for its experimental folk musical expressions that dominated the 1990s, at this first stage Tibet delivers an anarchic wild mix of Gregorian chants, poetry, grating industrial sounds, field recordings, nursery rhymes, drones and harsh electronics mishmashed into one of the freakiest displays of experimental music that the 80s had to offer in the company of equally disturbing sound weirdos like Zoviet France, Coil, Einstürzende Neubauten and Z'ev. DOGS BLOOD RISING features six distinct tracks that experiment with tape loops, chanting, haunting vocal accompaniments and random noise. With a clear obsession with Jesus Christ and the art of violence, the album opens with an abrasive droning industrial soundscape with repetitively looped chanting and absurdly unstable electronic sound effects.

The second track "Falling Back In Fields Of Rape" offers a 14-minute freakathon that finds a subdued backdrop of Gregorian chanting accompanied by an erratic electronic drumbeat and shouted vocals that "bleed" to the forefront with electronic effects. Tibet also showcases his spoken word poetic prose delivered with indignant passion and finding studio effects offering variations on the spoken word delivery system which leads up to crazed angry screams and moments of children's nursery rhymes with a collage of random noise and spoken dialogue overlapping. It just gets weirder and darker as it progresses with more abrasive electronic static sounds and industrial vocal styles akin to Skinny Puppy. "From Broken Cross, Locusts" offers liturgical church readings in text while eerie electronic buzzing jumps in and out along with Tibet's evil sounding chanting. Sporadic percussive clanking offers the bleakest of industrial griminess to the mix.

As strange as the entire album is perhaps the most bizarre of all is the 14-minute "Relo No Terrasu (Jesus Wept)" which finds Tibet bellowing out some of his most possessed vocal performances on the album while a demonic female backing vocalist offers operatic contrapuntal harmonies. The track progresses in cyclical loops with the same repeated phrases and production tricks that create a rather psychedelic weirdness to it all with echoes and reverberation. The layered vocals result in sounding like a swarm of hornets while the Gregorian chanting pops in and out of audibility. The hypnotic chanting reminds a bit of Tibetan Bhuddist varieties which is supposedly designed to reach higher levels of consciousness which can alter the fabric of space time itself. Well perhaps this doesn't achieve the same magnanimous task but does deliver one of the most hauntingly bizarre musical expressions ever laid down to tape. This is more bizarre than any Krautrock or experimental rock of the 70s.

After a rather short ending track "St Petes Keys All Bloody" which is a menacing recital of the lyrics to Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound Of Silence" with minimal freaky effects, the album ends leaving you wondering WTF you just experienced! A highly alienating album upon first encounter, DOGS BLOOD RISING only reveals its genius after fully integrating it into your soul and only then can you truly appreciate the groundbreaking efforts that were performed in bringing this perplexing peculiarity to reality. An acquired taste for sure but the tapestry of musical elements that serve as some sort of musical quilting of pointillistic musical styles is actually quite brilliant. Personally i love this uncompromising experimental stuff and CURRENT 93's earliest releases will deliver to you the most bizarre and erratic quirkiness that you could ever hope for.