Lorna Irvine reviews an 'excellent collaboration' between Katharine Blake and Nick Marsh.
Old Goth that I am, I have long had a girl-crush on Katharine Blake, the angel-voiced singer who made dark, impish music in the 90s with Miranda Sex Garden and worked with Einsturzende Neubauten and Nick Cave, among others, and went on to form the more traditional 'mead and velvet' choir Mediaeval Baebes.
So it is wonderful to have her back, with this excellent collaboration, an eponymous album between Blake and her real-life partner Nick Marsh (Flesh For Lulu) who sadly passed away in June of this year. Their respective styles mesh together in an eclectic mix—everything from mariachi trumpets to folk songs feature here—so there's the orchestral, epic The Lovers and the sepia twang of Shepherd's Song which could easily stand alongside the country noir of Django Django's film soundtrack work.
Elsewhere, there's a sensual cover of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's classic Summer Wine which contrasts their vocals to immense effect, but when they get too ambitious, as with the gospel-backed, throw-everything-into the pot song Red Hot Lust it doesn't quite work.
Still, that's the only misfire in a cohesive sonic journey. Siren's Song and Thomas The Rhymer recalls the best of early Miranda Sex Garden's classical Gothic experimentation , and slinky torch song Where Blue Shadows Grow wouldn't sound out of place in a David Lynch film. But it's in drunken waltz Vagabond where it sounds truly inspired, Marsh's craggy croon somewhere between Mark Lanegan and Nick Cave, and the simple, gorgeous a cappella of Inky Black Water that is truly moving—a fitting tribute to their romantic and creative partnership.
From The Deep is released on October 30th on Bellissima Records.
From the Deep - Inky Black Water: http://youtu.be/Az0uadyPxVo
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