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CROOKED CROSSES FOR THE NODDING GOD

Current 93

Prog Folk


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Current 93 Crooked Crosses For The Nodding God album cover
4.02 | 12 ratings | 2 reviews | 8% 5 stars

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Studio Album, released in 1989

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. He Is Everywhere Nowhere (2:55)
2. Northforth (0:38)
3. Hail (2:40)
4. The Return Of The Final Church (5:06)
5. Snow (1:59)
6. Oh Thou Coal Black Smith (4:44)
7. From Boyd's Bunker (0:33)
8. Ending Ending (0:59)
9. The Summer Past (2:06)
10. The Sickstair Song (0:35)
11. Toytown Awakes (0:30)
12. Dark Wood Too Awakes (1:27)
13. After Tomorrow (4:03)
14. Hey Ho The Nodding God Comes! (1:42)
15. Looney Runes (6:17)
16. The Ballad Of Bobby Sunshine (7:58)
17. The Use Of Compassion Explained (2:13)

Total time 46:25

Line-up / Musicians

- David "Tibet" Bunting / vocals, drums
- Tony Wakeford / guitar, bass, keyboards, drums
- Rose McDowall / guitar, vocals
- Geoffrey Laurence / stick guitar, vocals
- Douglas Pearce / guitar, drums, vocals
- Cyril Bunting / accordion
- Steven Stapleton / hookah, bong, mixing
- Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson / obeah, wanga
- Boyd Rice / vocals
- Freya Aeswynn / vocals
- Ian Read / vocals

Releases information

Re-recording of 1998 album "Swastikas For Noddy"

Artwork: Rosy Abelisk

CD United Dairies ‎- UD 033 CD (1989, UK)

Thanks to clemofnazareth for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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CURRENT 93 Crooked Crosses For The Nodding God ratings distribution


4.02
(12 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(8%)
8%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(92%)
92%
Good, but non-essential (0%)
0%
Collectors/fans only (0%)
0%
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)
0%

CURRENT 93 Crooked Crosses For The Nodding God reviews


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

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by thellama73
COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Current 93 is the name former Psychic TV member and all around weird guy David Tibet records under, assisted by whatever motley crew of UK underground musicians he can manage to round up that week, the most frequent of whom is Stephen Stapleton, of Nurse With Wound. This dark partnership has resulted in many, many fine albums, since both men are notoriously prolific and seem to have more than enough creativity to spill over onto guest appearances on other albums.

Crooked Crosses for the Nodding God is one such album in which Stapleton's presence in particularly felt. The whole thing is basically a remix/reworking of the 1987 album "Swastikas for Noddy" with some fresh recordings thrown in to liven the proceedings. The result is one of Current 93's most engaging records, that nicely bridges the gap between the band's violent, industrial past and its present tendency towards overly gentle folk meanderings. Tibet rambles on about his Gnostic faith enough to be interesting, but there also room for his other interests such as the sheer horrific creepiness of children's nursery rhymes and even a couple of cover tunes.

Tibet's voice is very unusual and his alternations between overly melodramatic whining (sometimes approaching outright crying) and gutteral growls take some getting used to, but if nothing else it's unique. Never fear though, there are a number of guest vocalists to round out the album, including John Balance (Coil) Rose MacDowell (Strawberry Switchblade) and the obligatory incomprehensible babbling of Boyd Rice (NON).

The tracks are mainly short and run the gamut of sounds from straight recitations with sound effects ("He Is Everywhere Nowhere") to traditional folk tunes with a sinister edge ("Oh Thou Coal Black Smith") to industrial stomp-rock ("Looney Runes") to nightmare inducing pastiches of music boxes and children singsonging lyrics about evil things that lurk in dark heart of the woods. There's even a Blue Öyster Cult (????) cover shoved in there!

For me, this is the Current 93 record that has everything: Beautiful melodies, religious themes, Halloween spookiness and most importantly a sense of surreal fun. Tibet has a tendency to be a rather serious chap, and it's a rare moment when he seems to be able to laugh at himself. Stapleton's sense of whimsy combined with Tibet's vision make Crooked Crosses a must have addition to any Current 93 collection.

Review by Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Current 93's Swastikas for Noddy had gone for an incredibly sparse, stripped-back production style, perhaps the barest and starkest release the band had put out up to that point. Much of the audio wizardry on previous Current 93 had come from the hand of Stephen Stapledon, the man behind Nurse With Wound, and whose presence was barely felt on Swastikas aside from some cello contributions.

For Crooked Crosses, David Tibet and Stapledon absolutely run riot on Swastikas, remixing parts, reconfiguring others, and outright rerecording some bits. The end results are remarkably transformative. Some of the tracks - typically the more traditional songs - are not changed that much, but gain a very different atmosphere with the textures that Tibet and Stapledon add. (Their cover of Blue Oyster Cult's This Ain't the Summer of Love - retitled The Summer Past here - gains some of the blood and thunder of the BOC original, for instance, and their tribute to Bobby Beausoleil, whilst still repetitive, is a bit less irritating than it was). Other parts, however, are radically transformed; for instance, Tibet seems to distance himself a bit from the rabid Social Darwinism espoused by Boyd Rice in his little speech on Swastikas for Noddy by truncating it greatly and turned it into the distantly-heard snippet "From Boyd's Bunker".

On balance, I think this is an interesting experiment in taking some very bare-bones raw ingredients and cooking something spicier out of them, and I'd give this a solid extra half-star over its predecessor.

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