‘If a City Is Set Upon a Hill’: Current 93’s Latest Esoterica
I missed this one until now. Apparently, it came out a few months ago, but I haven’t seen it reviewed in Wire, for example. Maybe I need to expand my infotainment, but a copy of Current 93’s newie was delivered today, and I’ve already got some thoughts about it, even after only three hearings (few recordings excite me immediately nowadays).
Firstly, it’s nothing really new. The usual Tibet obsessions are present and correct (including, as ever, cats, stags, witches and children), and If a City Is Set Upon a Hill is very much a companion piece to 2018’s The Light Is Leaving Us All. Which is a good thing. I discussed the latter at the time, and most of the group of that recording are still here, including, miraculously, the ever-wonderful Alasdair Roberts. It seems that, finally (after a woeful time using heavy metal guitarists) David Tibet has found a satisfactory replacement for Michael Cashmore, who was a vital contributor, along with Steve Stapleton, to Current 93’s epic series of recordings throughout the nineties. It certainly, on initial hearing, seems to be of a similar quality to that canon, the best albums by this band seeming to stand out almost instantaneously. Cashmore and Stapleton are long gone, but Roberts seems to have stepped in, and propelled Tibet to produce two albums that stand with any of the other key albums that the group has recorded since 1982. It’s oddly reminiscent in mood to Of Ruine or Some Blazing Starre, probably my favourite C93 record of all. (Tibet constantly sounds close to tears, which is oddly affecting rather than merely annoying.)
In addition, the whole album lasts a very satisfactory 37 minutes in all. (9 minutes shorter than The Light Is Leaving Us All.) Both films and recordings still seem hypertrophied, so some discipline and brevity are always welcomed, for this viewer and listener at least. So, it’s good news all round for Current 93 fans. They, for me, are one of the oddest bands I have ever encountered - they should be terribly embarrassing, but somehow achieve, at their best, some of the most resonant emotional experiences that David Keenan’s 'hidden reverse’ can provide.