Black Tape for a Blue Girl
The Scavenger Bride
Projekt
Strap on those corsets and slip on the velvet gloves kids, for one of America’s foremost goth mainstays have returned with enough melodrama and tranquil beauty to upstage Merchant & Ivory. Black Tape’s main songwriter, Sam Rosenthal is never one for musical modesty, and The Scavenger Bride harnesses Celtic dabbling under the grandiose trappings of Dead Can Dance mysticism and new age undertones.
Main chanteuse Elysabeth Grant lends her symphonic, somber vocals to the majority of tracks, with the exception of the rest of the band handling backing vocal duties, as well as guest stars like Spahn Ranch’s Athan Maroulis on the all-too-brief “Floats in the Updraft.” Perhaps most surprising, rock deities Sonic Youth are paid homage to with the spoken word interpretation of “Shadow of a Doubt.”
As to be expected from this group, the overtones are cavernous, dark tapestries, making Black Tape one of the few bands left who truly signify Gothic music. They wear their hearts on their laced sleeves, creating ancient music for modern times, updated with technology, but still making one feel as if they were moonlighting with Vlad Drac in some Transylvanian twist. Drift away to this on your melancholy Sundays, but use discretion in any other circumstance, especially when driving.
Projekt Records: http://www.projekt.com
