Diamanda Galas "Plague Mass"

[larry@csccat.cs.com (Larry Spence)]

Galas new release, _Plague Mass_ is now available on Mute Records (CD only,
as far as I can tell).  It's staggeringly great... words fail me.  The
disc is about 73 minutes long, excerpted from two 95 minute live shows at
a huge cathedral in NYC.  She's backed up by David Linton on drums and
percussion, plus some keyboards/electronics, and the usual multi-micro-
phone mixing tricks.  

While some of the material is familiar (e.g., "Sono L'Antichristo"), most of
it is new.  There are numerous spoken passages, plus the operatic wailing
that Galas fans know and love so well. %)  The dynamic range of the 
recording is amazing -- although the CD says "Play At Maximum Volume Only,"
watch out for sudden unexpected peaks that could kill your speakers.  And
listening at moderate volume is a problem, as the quieter passages tend to
disappear unless you have a very quiet listening area.  On the plus side,
the natural acoustics of the cathedral add big gorgeous gobs of reverb to 
everything without turning it into mud.  Pretty much the entire spectrum of
Galas' vocal techniques is represented, and full lyrics and two essays are
included in the accompanying booklet, along with more nice photos of Ms. G
covered in blood.

The CD itself is black, with an inscription in big purplish scrawled letters:

                 "Give Me Sodomy or Give Me Death."

-- 
Larry Spence
larry@csccat.cs.com
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