CURRENT 93 - “LUCIFER OVER LONDON” (1994)

This is one of those bands with a massive, intimidating discography that I’d never bothered to crack — until a few days ago. Allmusic sez:

With a glut of industrial-pop hybrids on the market in the 1980s and ’90s, several bands stayed true to the experimental nature of early industrial music. The Psychic TV axis alone spawned many creative artists, including Current 93’s David Tibet, who blends Gothic chanting and haunting atmospherics with industrial noisescapes courtesy of tape loops and synthesizers.

And, Trouser Press sez:

Named after some theory or other of English mage Aleister Crowley, Current 93’s early work used Crowley and Lautréament’s Maldoror as the starting points for an occult trip tinged with tragic grandeur. David Michael Bunting (aka David Tibet) is the group’s core, with significant assistance from Steve Stapleton of Nurse with Wound. The motto on early albums is “How can there be pleasure, how can there be joy, when the whole world is burning?” On later albums, Tibet finds some joy, though the listener may not, as the music is far less compelling.

This is one of those times where, in the absence of knowing where to start, I just picked something at random. 1994’s “Lucifer Over London” EP turned out to be right-on, a compact little package of dread, droning and delirium. It’s not anything I’d label “industrial” — it’s got layers of acoustic instruments, and it’s probably not where anyone who’s really into the band would tell you to start with. But I like first hitting up EPs like this of bands I don’t know, as that’s where they tend to place their more “out to lunch” stuff.

Current 93 - “Lucifer Over London” (ZIP file)