Here's another pie in which Dave Ball had a number of fingers, and one which seems to have slipped under the radar, or at least under my radar. This is a shame because pretty much everything Dave Ball has had a hand in has been at least great, and usually essential listening. English Boy on the Love Ranch was another one and yet they too sank without trace, which I mention mainly so as to illustrate that there's been more Dave Ball out there than you may realise.
Nitewreckage were thematically and sonically closer to Soft Cell than the Grid - the other one we've all heard of - and distinctive for showcasing the vision of vocalist and cabaret performer Celine Hispiche who chats, sings, screeches, howls and croons her way through a series of terrifying stories of domestic abuse, sordid hook-ups, and emotional blackmail bearing only superficial resemblance to Marc Almond's stint on the same microphone, but delivered with equivalent visceral passion. The whole album feels like a night on the town in Soho - and a rainy night at that - which you're definitely going to regret, but with Hispiche putting on a screw face and doing whatever the fuck it takes to get through - as distinct from Almond's bruised innocence. Even with all those synths grinding away, there's an element of X-Ray Spex to this one.
Sorry - that's about as close as I can get to a working description, and I'm slightly puzzled that we haven't heard more of Celine Hispiche on the strength of this bunch. If it turns out that she simply exploded shortly after they finished the album, it really wouldn't be that difficult to believe. Take Your Money and Run is as good as anything Soft Cell ever recorded without it even being obvious that we have the same guy banging away on the piano. Also, their version of Bowie's Repetition makes the one on Lodger sound like the cover.
No comments:
Post a Comment