Current 93- How He Loved the Moon

Artist: Current 93
CD Title: How He Loved The Moon (Moonsongs For Jhonn Balance)
Label: Beta-lactam Ring Records
Reviewer: Matthew Johnson
Date: 4/16/06

A sort of musical eulogy to Coil's Jhonn Balance, who died in 2004, this double-CD consists of audio material from Current 93's album In Menstrual Night as remixed by Nurse With Wound's Stephen Stapleton. The four extended tracks are slow explorations of drones, ambience, and gently noisy psychedelia, subtle but beautiful. "Ecclesiastes XII:2" is all sustained droning, with bits of speaker buzz and volume changes that pan unexpectedly across the speaker channels, and "The Song Of Solomon VI:10" is familiar territory to fans of Nurse With Wound, with bits of distorted speech emerging occasionally from an assembly of drones, rattles and whirrs. "Psalm VIII:3" begins the second disk with more drones and reverberations, while "Psalm LXXII:7" is the most rhythmic, with rambling beats in and amongst the quietly chaotic found-sound assemblages. Taken as a whole, this tribute lacks the heartbreaking immediacy of "Sleep Has His House," which Current 93 founder David Tibet penned for his late father, but achieves something just as touching, if far more esoteric and difficult to grasp at first listen. Jhonn Balance, no doubt, would have been pleased.

Visit www.durtro.com for more about David Tibet and Stephen Stapleton's work.