DAWN

One of the creepier Current 93 recordings. Building quickly without beat to a cacophony of church bells, wailing guitar, sprinklings of piano and vocal help from John Balance of 'Coil' and Rose McDowall of 'Strawberry Switchblade'. Yeah - that's her - the sexy one in the polka dot dress from '84!

95% of right thinking people will detest this messy, anti christ abomination from hell. A looped vocal of Aleister Crowley during the second track adds an undeniable spookiness. David Tibet's vocals at this time were far more shouted than his later limp, dreary work and here they fit perfectly, sounding properly demonic and piercing, whilst being subjected to various filters, echo and delay.

This second track 'Maldoror Est Mort ' is a reworking from 'Nature Unveiled' from 1984.

At the end of the day I still find it uproariously funny that 'The Mamas and Papas - California Dreaming' somehow managed to find a way on to this seriously dain bramaged record.

Two good bonus tracks are included: 'A Day in Dogland' which mixes loud booming church organ with 'Green Sleeves' and 'The funeral March' mixed with chopped up and elongated religious vocals.

'Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus' is a condensed 'Maldoror Est Mort' played in reverse. Here you really expect goblins and faeries to creep in through your window as this strange and bewildering album comes to a close. Good stuff for those with a strong attraction to misanthropic music

Dawn is the end of night; so too is Current 93's Dawn the end of the ritual ambient-industrial style of the project's earlier work. Essentially following the same "two long sidelong tracks" format as Nature Unveiled, Live at Bar Maldoror and In Menstrual Night, Dawn feels like a bit of an afterthought - David Tibet throwing this release out there to save the material from vanishing completely.

On the first side, Great Black Time unveils its ranting, raving, and occasional intrusions from the Mamas and the Papas' California Dreamin' underneath a cacophony of church bells, making for a sonic experiment which doesn't quite manage to be as interesting as prior works by the group but still manages to produce an air of panic, mostly from the sense of alarm that the ceaseless, nagging bells evoke. Maldoror Est Mort is essentially the early version of Ach Golgotha from Nature Unveiled, as originally released on the Mi-Mort split with Nurse With Wound. On balance, I am inclined to say that the Nature Unveiled version is a greatly superior take on the track, though this version is pretty good and will be of interest to those interested in early Current 93.

On the whole, then, an album which is not incompetent but not excellent. It was high time for Current 93 to move on - and David Tibet evidently recognised that, because after this they did just that. If you love early Current 93's ambient style, I'd say Dawn is worth getting at some point, but between Nature Unveiled, Bar Maldoror and In Menstrual Night it's probably the weakest of the four. (Dogs Blood Rising I count separately since it doesn't follow the "two sidelong pieces" formula.)