THUNDER PERFECT MIND

Current 93

•

Prog Folk

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Current 93 Thunder Perfect Mind album cover

4.40 | 29 ratings | 2 reviews | 38% 5 stars

Essential: a masterpiece of
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Studio Album, released in 1992

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. A Beginning (0:44)
2. The Descent of Long Satan and Babylon (3:00)
3. A Sadness Song (4:14)
4. A Song for Douglas after he's Dead (4:58)
5. In the Heart of the Wood and What I Found There (2:50)
6. Mary Waits in Silence (2:56)
7. A Silence Song (5:27)
8. A Lament for my Suzanne (4:20)
9. Riverdeadbank (3:46)
10. All the Stars are Dead Now (9:06)
11. Rosy Star Tears from Heaven (3:06)
12. When the May Rain Comes (3:23)
13. Thunder Perfect Mind I (5:05)
14. Thunder Perfect Mind II (2:21)
15. Hitler as Kalkhi (SDM) (16:28)
16. A Sad Sadness Song (6:59)

Total time: 77:03

Bonus CD from 2003 remaster - "The Thunder: Perfect Mind" :
1. Suzanne: She And I In Darkness We Lay And Lie (4:26)
2. Red House (0:28)
3. Our Lady Of Horsies (6:34)
4. Anyway, People Die (1:46)
5. Silence As Christine (2:24)
6. Maldoror Is Ded Ded Ded Ded (12:10)
7. They Return To Their Earth (6:18)
8. In Sadness Sang (4:19)
9. 'Khor Ba'I Nyes Dmigs (Live *) (1:28)
10. Lament For Her (Live *) (3:59)
11. A Song For Douglas After He's Dead (Live *) (6:14)
12. They Return To Their Earth (For My Christ Thorn) (Live *) (6:52)
13. A Song For Douglas After He's Dead (Rebirth) (Live *) (5:43)

Total time: 62:41

* Recorded at La Lune des Pirates in Amiens, France on the 15th December 1990

Line-up / Musicians

- David "Tibet" Bunting / vocals, co-producer
- Steven Stapleton / guitars, Fx, vocals, co-producer & mixing
- Michael Cashmore / guitar
- Douglas Pearce / guitars, hand percussion
- Joolie Wood / violin, tin whistle, clarinet, recorder
- James Mannox / percussion

With:
- Shirley Collins / voice (1)
- Rose McDowall / vocals (3,4,8,11,12,15)
- Renate Birulf / lead (9) & backing (10) vocals
- Geoffrey Laurence / lead (11) & backing (10) vocals
- David Kenny / harmonic guitar (4,8), feedback guitar (15), bass (12)
- Nick Saloman / electric dulcimer and acoustic & electric guitars (15)
- James Malindaine-Lafayette / harp (4,8,15)
- Sarah Bradshaw / cello (7)
- Karl Blake / bass (15)
- Edward Ka-Spel / bells (credited but actually not performing)

Releases information

This is the sister album to Nurse With Wound's "Thunder Perfect Mind"

Artwork: Babs Santini with David Tibet (colour paintings)

CD Durtro - DURTRO 011 CD (1992, UK)
2xCD Durtro ‎- DURTRO 069CD (2003, UK) Remastered & expanded with bonus CD including 8 Studio (1990-1992) plus 5 Live (1990) tracks

2xLP Durtro - DURTRO 011 (1992, UK)
2xLP The Spheres ‎- THE SPHERES 20 (2017, UK) Remastered by Michael Lawrence

Thanks to clemofnazareth for the addition
and to Warthur for the last updates
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CURRENT 93 Thunder Perfect Mind ratings distribution

4.40
(29 ratings)

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(38%)
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(45%)
Good, but non-essential (10%)
Collectors/fans only (7%)
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)

CURRENT 93 Thunder Perfect Mind reviews

Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Warthur
PROG REVIEWER

David Tibet of Current 93 is an artist prone to passing fixations which, for their duration, entirely permeate his work, and also is very open to collaborating with a wide variety of people. In the mid-to-late 1980s this almost took Current 93 down a very dark road, due to Tibet aligning with elements in the neofolk scene such as Douglas Pierce of Death In June, a man who if he isn't actually a neo-Nazi of a Strasserist, Ernst Rohm-supporting bent has done such a good job of masquerading as one it rather amounts to the same thing.

On Thunder Perfect Mind, however, his art turns in a more personal and reflective direction, revolving around his mystical conception of reality and firmly rebuking fascism such as on Hitler as Kalki (SDM), a song which takes a concept from mystical fascism and uses it to frame Hitler as the enemy of the cosmic pantheist sort of Christ that Tibet tends to support (and a song which is dedicated to his father, who fought Hitler in World War II). Even more cutting is the lament A Song for Douglas After He's Dead, a premortem eulogy for Doug Pierce whose message essentially boils down to "Douglas, I love you as a friend, but your obsession with Naziism has completely taken you over and you've hitched yourself to a bunch of ideas which have comprehensively failed".

Tibet marries his powerful lyrics to a powerfully melancholic neofolk style which slowly and gradually acquires more complexities and progressive twists as the album progresses, like a philosophical discourse in music which begins with simple axioms and then builds something greater and greater on that foundation, with Hitler as Kalki as the summit of that exploration (with A Sad Sadness Song/An Ending as an epilogue).

Tibet's lack of discretion in his choice of collaborators made me wary of his work for a while; I am inclined to agree with Strelnikiov of the Who Makes the Nazis? blog (a useful resource tracking the rise of fascist elements in the neofolk and martial industrial scenes) that rather than being an actual fascist himself Tibet is more "part naif, part charlatan and part public schoolboy narcissist" - but somehow he is able to create art which exceeds the sum of his parts.

If acquiring Thunder Perfect Mind on CD, hold out for a copy with the bonus disc; the studio off-cuts on there are, whilst not exceptional, still pretty decent (when even your rejected takes and songs hit four star quality you know you're onto something), and the live tracks from the Amiens concert are a must-have if you aren't otherwise able to get hold of the exceptional ...As the World Disappears live CD, which captures more of the set.

Latest members reviews

4 stars 4.5 stars, really Perhaps Current 93's most melancholic output (that I've heard so far), Thunder Perfect Mind is a harrowing and impactful listen at worst, and a beautiful masterpiece at best. Soothing strings are gently overlaid on soft acoustic guitar. There is barely any percussion, but it ... (read more)

Report this review (#629428) | Posted by Triceratopsoil | Thursday, February 9, 2012 | Review Permanlink

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