Thursday, December 10, 2015

Lycia - 'A Day In The Stark Corner' (1992)

Ok so there was really no way I was planning on making another post about Lycia until I put on 'A Day In The Stark Corner' which is their follow-up to 'Ionia' and was completely taken aback. One way of listening to this era of Lycia is as if prime-gloom-era The Cure were made by a lot less people and then set adrift on an ice floe and/or left to wander the frozen wastes like Frankenstein's Monster but the other, more immediate manner in which I hear it, is as a/the direct precursor to bedroom depressive black metal like Xasthur or Striborg, recorded a decade plus prior. Unlike 'Ionia', the atmosphere is the temperature and consistency of a 7-11 slushie drenched in the flavor-syrup of Sorrow and Loss and Isolation. There is massive reverb on the vocals but also on everything else. Everything seems withdrawn, pulled away up and from, but also almost imperial in solitude. The beats are minimal and regular. Here, listen to this! Also, this seems to be a Lycia-approved? fan-made video for this song. 'And Through The Smoke and Nails' - that even sounds like a Xasthur track or album title, right? Later on this album, the guitars and synths make thick swaths of texture which any band of that ilk would give their eyeteeth to Satan for. I don't know what Satan wants with eyeteeth? Adornment? Anyway, Lycia rules so extremely muchly. PS - Wikipedia tells me that this album is not only Type-O approved, but is also the product of inadequate recording equipment, so, right on on both of those counts!!!

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