Current 93 - Horsey mp3 album

Current 93's entry for 1990, Horse (later Horsey) catches the group experimenting with their folk sound. An overlooked album in the C93 catalogue - possible due to its original release part of a 3LP box set with Sol Invictus and Nurse With Wound - it poses an interesting alternate timeline for the band, had they continued down this route.The cover of Comus's 'Diana' is cleverly built around a loop from the original. Over this, Current 93 completely reinvent the song. Tibet's new vocal phrasing is coupled with thrashing, distorted guitar, bring a new kind of intensity to the piece. And unlike most C93 pieces of the time, it doesn't outstay its welcome at nine minutes. 'The Death of the Corn' returns to the mournful folk sound of Earth Covers Earth (doubtless another Tony Wakeford composition), and is one of the finest songs of this era. 'Tree', in contrast, cuts the folk sound out entirely, replacing it with layers of fuzz guitar. The second side of the album was originally taken up with the title track, recorded live in Japan with psychedelic metal band Magick Lantern Cycle. As the track builds in intensity towards a thrash-like climax, the contrast between the music and Tibet's vocals becomes somewhat ridiculous, and the song enters the territory that every Current 93 fan enters once in while, where laughter is the only realistic response. It's a fairly ridiculous piece of music, but entertainingly so.Two rather samey live versions of 'Broken Birds Fly', also recorded with Magick Lantern Cycle, feature as bonus tracks on the CD edition. These fall into the 'too long and repetitive for their own good' territory for my taste, although your mileage may vary. On the whole, I'm not sure the Maldoror theme really needed revisiting at this point.The heavy guitar sound on Horsey would be retired from the Current 93 sound until Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain, almost 20 years later, making this album a fascinating release. Thankfully the strength of most of the songs keeps it from being little more than a curio.