May 29, 2013

RhoDeo 1321 Aetix

Hello, no shocking news this week, in Syria they keep on slaughtering eachother the UK thinks giving the rebels more and better weapons will help..to slaughter some more and naturally to provide European Jihadists some nice weaponry to terrorise us with, thereby giving extra impetus to the growth of the security state, and that's really what the public wants isn't it...

Meanwhile Aetix continues with females in the lead,  the Queen of Goth well she's right here, after celebrating her 56th birthday last monday and she drops in and presents us with her classic early eighties work ..N'Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Throughout its numerous lineup changes and textural shifts, Siouxsie and the Banshees remained under the leadership of vocalist Siouxsie Sioux, born Susan Dallion on May 27, 1958. She and the Banshees' initial lineup emerged from the Bromley Contingent, a notorious group of rabid Sex Pistols fans; inspired by the growing punk movement, Dallion adopted the name Siouxsie and formed the Banshees in September 1976. In addition to bassist Steven Severin and guitarist Marco Perroni, the band included drummer John Simon Ritchie, who assumed the name Sid Vicious; they debuted later that year at the legendary Punk Festival held at London's 100 Club. Soon after, Vicious joined the Sex Pistols, while Perroni went on to join Adam & the Ants. The core duo of Sioux and Severin, along with new guitarist John McKay and drummer Kenny Morris, reached the U.K. Top Ten with their 1978 debut single, "Hong Kong Garden"; their grim, dissonant first LP, The Scream, followed later in the year. Two days into a tour for their 1979 follow-up, Join Hands, both McKay and Morris abruptly departed, and guitarist Robert Smith of the Cure (the tour's opening act) and ex-Slits and Big in Japan drummer Budgie were enlisted to fill the void; although Smith returned to the Cure soon after, Budgie became a permanent member of the group, and remained with the Banshees throughout the duration of their career.

Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin elected to soldier on with ex-Slits drummer Budgie and two guitarists, ex-Sex Pistol Steve Jones and John McGeoch of Magazine as guest Banshees. Despite the personnel upheaval, the result is a surprisingly strong record: Kaleidoscope. While a number of the songs here are still dark-hued and feature bleak lyrics, they are made very palatable by extraordinarily imaginative production values featuring intricate synthesizer-flecked arrangements; psychedelic touches in "Christine," spaceship synthesizer swoops in "Tenant," and rhythmic camera clicks in "Red Light" all enliven their respective songs. Kaleidoscope was a make-or-break album for Siouxsie and the Banshees, and happily the band came through strongly. A year later, the Banshees released the psychedelic Juju, along with Once Upon a Time, a collection of singles; at the same time, Sioux and Budgie formed the Creatures, an ongoing side project. Following 1982's experimental A Kiss in the Dreamhouse, McGeoch fell ill, and Smith temporarily rejoined for the group's planned tour. Also in 1983, Severin and Smith teamed as the one-off project the Glove for the LP Blue Sunshine.

After his recovery, McGeoch opted not to return, so the Banshees recruited former Clock DVA guitarist John Carruthers after Smith exited following the sessions for 1984's dark, atmospheric Hyaena. With 1986's Tinderbox, Siouxsie and the Banshees finally reached the U.S. Top 100 album charts, largely on the strength of the excellent single "Cities in Dust." After 1987's all-covers collection Through the Looking Glass, Carruthers took his leave and was replaced by guitarist Jon Klein and keyboardist Martin McCarrick for 1988's Peepshow, a techno-inspired outing that gave the group its first U.S. chart single with "Peek-a-Boo." In 1991 -- the year in which Sioux and Budgie married -- the Banshees performed on the inaugural Lollapalooza tour; their concurrent LP, Superstition was their most commercially successful, spawning, "Kiss Them for Me." Another singles collection, Twice Upon a Time, followed in 1992 before the group returned after a long absence with 1995's stylish The Rapture, produced in part by John Cale. A year later, the nostalgia surrounding the reunion of their former heroes the Sex Pistols prompted Siouxsie and the Banshees to finally call it quits; Siouxsie and Budgie turned to the Creatures as their primary project, while Severin composed the score for the controversial film Visions of Extasy.

In 2002 Siouxsie, Severin, Budgie and Chandler reunited for the so-called Seven Year Itch tour, eventually leading to a live album, Seven Year Itch, and a DVD concert film in 2003. Universal Music began releasing the band's albums remastered with bonus tracks in 2006. Voices on the Air: The Peel Sessions, drawn from live recordings made for the John Peel radio show between 1978 and 1986, appeared that same year.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

One of the band's masterworks, Juju sees Siouxsie and the Banshees operating in a squalid wall of sound dominated by tribal drums, swirling and piercing guitars, and Siouxsie Sioux's fractured art-attack vocals. If not for John McGeoch's marvelous high-pitched guitars, here as reminiscent of Joy Division as his own work in Magazine, the album would rank as the band's most gothic release. Siouxsie and company took things to an entirely new level of darkness on Juju, with the singer taking delight in sinister wordplay on the disturbing "Head Cut," creeping out listeners in the somewhat tongue-in-cheek "Halloween," and inspiring her bandmates to push their rhythmic witches brew to poisonous levels of toxicity. Album opener "Spellbound," one of the band's classics, ranks among their finest moments and bristles with storming energy. Siouxsie's mysterious voice emerges from dense guitar picking, Budgie lays into his drums as if calling soldiers to war, and things get more tense from there. "Into the Light" is perhaps the only track where a listener gets a breath of oxygen, as the remainder of the album screams claustrophobia, whether by creepy carnival waterfalls of guitar notes or Siouxsie's unsettling lyrics. "Arabian Nights" at least offers a gorgeously melodic chorus, but after that the band performs a symphony of bizarre wailings and freaky imagery. As ominous as the cacophony is on its own, close attention to Siouxsie's nearly subliminal chants paints a scarier picture. A passage such as "I saw you...a huge smiling central face with eyes and lips cut out but smiling and eating lots of other lips" doesn't exactly brighten one's day. Siouxsie is full of such quips throughout the album's running time, but her delivery packs as much punk as her message. Her attack-the-world dynamic range on "Voodoo Dolly" predates and out-weirds Björk's similar styling years later. McGeoch, Budgie, and bassist Steven Severin deserve just as much credit for crafting an original sound that would inspire a diverse group of future bands from Ministry to Placebo. All the while, producer Nigel Gray maintains the sense that the album is an immediate, edgy performance unfolding right in front of the listener. The upfront intensity of Juju probably isn't matched anywhere else in the catalog of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Thanks to its killer singles, unrelenting force, and invigorating dynamics, Juju is a post-punk classic.



Siouxsie And The Banshees - Juju  (flac 351mb)

01 Spellbound 3:17
02 Into The Light 4:13
03 Arabian Knights 3:05
04 Halloween 3:41
05 Monitor 5:34
06 Night Shift 6:04
07 Sin In My Heart 3:37
08 Head Cut 4:22
09 Voodoo Dolly 7:12
Bonus
10 Spellbound (12" Mix) 4:43
11 Arabian Knights (12" Vocoder Mix) 3:09
12 Fireworks (Nigel Gray Version) 4:15

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

A Kiss in the Dreamhouse shows Siouxsie and the Banshees backpedalling a bit from their excellently forthright predecessor, Juju, to update the more avant-garde stylings of Kaleidoscope. This album is in fact the Banshees' crowning glory in this experimental vein. Production and arrangements are highly varied and accomplished, and Sioux's singing by now is excellent, capable of imaginative shadings and free of its former tunelessness. "Obsession" is scored for chimes, overdubbed breathing, swallowed synthesizer sounds, strings, and very occasional guitar touches; this all supports a fine vocal with lyrics about the speaker's fixation on her object of desire. "Green Finger" is a driving, up-tempo number with Joy Division melodic bass, sparkling synthesizer touches, and wacky recorder tootlings. "Painted Bird" features a full helping of multi-tracked vocals propelled by a drumbeat that is alternately skittering and thumping; portions of this song suggest a nightmare version of Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way." "Cocoon" is best characterized as mutant bopping jazz with an often breathy, cooing vocal. "She's a Carnival" and "Slowdive" suggest eccentric stabs at mainstream acceptance.



Siouxsie And The Banshees - A Kiss In The Dreamhouse  (flac 390mb)

01 Cascade 4:26
02 Green Fingers 3:33
03 Obsession 3:51
04 She's A Carnival 3:40
05 Circle 5:23
06 Melt! 3:48
07 Painted Bird 4:16
08 Cocoon 4:29
09 Slowdive 4:25
Bonus Tracks
10 Fireworks (12" Version) 4:33
11 Slowdive (12" Version) 5:49
12 Painted Bird (Workhouse Demo) 3:49
13 Cascade (Workhouse Demo) 4:33

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Broadening the eclectically experimental landscape of 1982's Kiss in the Dream House with the occasional string arrangement and a spacious sound mix, Siouxsie and the Banshees' here nicely bridge the gap between the band's handful of more-punk-than-pop early releases and their run of new wave, radio-friendly hits from the late '80s and early '90s. And though echoes of classic albums like Kaleidoscope and JuJu are heard in dark and menacing tracks such as "Bring Me the Head of the Preacher Man" and "Blow Your House Down," the emphasis here is on layered arrangements and pop tunes disguised as art-house production numbers ("Dazzle"); tasteful horn and keyboard parts expand the group's guitar-dominated sound and provide Siouxsie with an airy and dreamlike backdrop in which to fully display her considerable vocal talents. Hyaena qualifies as one of Siouxsie and the Banshees' finest moments.



Siouxsie And The Banshees - Hyæna (flac 396mb)

01 Dazzle 5:31
02 We Hunger 3:32
03 Take Me Back 3:04
04 Belladonna 4:30
05 Swimming Horses 4:05
06 Bring Me The Head Of The Preacher Man 4:37
07 Running Town 4:05
08 Pointing Bone 3:49
09 Blow The House Down 7:08
Bonus
10 Dear Prudence 3:48
11 Dazzle (12" Glamour Mix) 7:06
12 Baby Piano (Part 1) 1:48
13 Baby Piano (Part 2) 5:43

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Juju remasterizado en formato flac no se consigue por ningún lado, podrías subirlo otra vez? gracias por el post!

Rho said...

Ok Juju is re-upped now N'Joy

Unknown said...

Many thanks for sharing the Banshees albums with the extra tracks - I had a sudden burst of nostalgia and have got this urge to hear the extended versions of Spellbound and Arabian Knights - and of course now we have entered the era of unlimited storage, it's been FLAC and WAV for a while now (it is amazing to think of limewire and earlier file sharing systems and being overjoyed I could get a 128kbps file in six hours!).

It is amazing that I can still remember buying the Spellbound 12 inch when it came out on a Sunday family trip to a small market town called Matlock here in the UK and the same goes for the Arabian Knights 12 inch (I think I had a paper round at that point so my spending power increased from 7 inches to 12 inch releases - albums were still a birthday/Christmas thing!

It is amazing to think its nearly 35 years ago and the music of Ju-Ju and Kiss In A Dreamhouse still sounds amazing.

Been listening to the Downside Up b-sides etc compilation and the Peel Sessions a lot recently as well - also Creatures Feast album (the former two and probably the latter can be found on the Russian RUTracker in FLAC and probably elsewhere.

Amazing to see your blog is still going! All the blogs I used to occasionally visit like Painted On Silence, Paul Durango, even Mutant Sounds has gone - all credit to you for your continued enthusiasm and attention to detail. What I enjoy about your blog aside from the quality rips are the texts that accompany the releases - 99% of music blogs these days just rely on a cut and paste of someone else's opinion.

Thanks again for the rips! You tried Zippyshare for file sharing? It would be a good addition - I used to tell people to try MFire but they seem to have had an outbreak of the fascist mind and their mindless scourbots are copyright crazy!

Anonymous said...

Hello Rho,

I tried to download today the Siouxsie And The Banshees - Juju (flac 351mb) ... No luck!! Could you please include it in your re-up list?
Much appreciated ...

zeroid said...

Hi Rho, i would love it if you could re-post the Siouxsie albums A Kiss In The Dreamhouse and Hyeana, Thanks!