ANTHOLOGY TWO 1992-96

An excellent compilation of odds and ends that seamlessly fits together on this double CD. All the hallmarks and traits of 'Voice of Eye' are at play throughout. Swooshing tidal waves of electronically manipulated sounds are evident from the outset. Some may call this tuneless, but in my mind - it's simply beautiful and tuneful though not in an ordinary way. It's all very atmospheric and dark with a whole lot going on in between. Real haunted house stuff...

The fact that each recording is taken from separate various releases only adds to my enjoyment of this recording due to the differentiation of sound.

There's a slight blip with 'Belladonna' which has an aura of sheer miserableness. It's enough to induce the listener into a comatose state of stupor . Maybe it's my age, but I just can't take sheerly miserable music any more. Happily things pick up with the very threatening and foreboding 'Zirkle' which displays that instantly recognisable 'Voice of Eye' sound with its circular hard percussion. It's very odd indeed, almost like a Crusaders call to arms. The electronics sound like the death throes of a harpooned whale.

'Musique Concrete' sounds follow with 'Bike' amongst a sea of distant female vocals. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the metallic sounds are actually parts of bicycles being struck. There's certainly a few spinning wheel sounds thrown in.

'Touch' re-invigorates the intensity of the album with what can only be described as 'Serial Killer music'. Deeply unsettling washes of vocal samples spray forth while metal percussion and all sorts of strange warblings occur all at once. One of the highlights on 'Anthology' is the very tuneful mediaeval sounding 'Fluvio Labenti' replete with 15th Century female vocals and an atmosphere that is very similar to 'Dead Can Dance's' 'Aion' recording.

Disc II kicks off with an unreleased track from '96 and at 19 minutes it's hefty in length. A few echoed cheesy flute sounds appear at the beginning before all sorts of twisted gadgetry mayhem breaks forth at the 3.30 minute mark. Every sound is so heavily manipulated by electronic effects that it's hard to get a grasp on just what on earth is happening. Unfortunately it outstays its welcome as it's a relentless slab of more 'Musique Concrete' - a never repeating sound collage of almost random noises.

A bizarre juxtaposition occurs next as a nice flute and pretty acoustic guitars frivolously play away in the style of Krautrockers 'Emtidi' and 'Bröselmaschine'. Lastly and triumphantly the highlight of this double disc rears its 44 minute long head. Despite being a Dress Rehearsal for a live show it has an immensity and depth of sound that eclipses all that has gone before. Like most 'Voice of Eye' classics - it's the lengthier ones that are the most successful. 'Sonic Works' can be taken as an isolationist masterpiece, or a slab of melancholic gloom with an atmosphere heavier than a Nuclear Winter. Once again certain elements are very similar to 'Steve Roach', but there's an underlying current of threat and malevolence that belongs solely to 'Voice of Eye'. I could listen to this stuff all day. It's perfect mountain top music as you look smugly down at tiny little human civilisations as if they were ants. After an airily grim 17 minutes the real deal begins with some the most beautiful vocal treatments you're likely to hear. This is followed by swathes of elongated chords and drones which add a sense of majesty and impending doom. For such a quiet track it really carries one hell of a punch. Great big horns, which may be some mutant form of clarinet, blasts out Tibetan Monastery style wails of displeasure. Creaks, groans and ghostlike vocals see us through to the end of this enormously long recording.

It's nearly a masterpiece folks, but is let down just once or twice throughout it's duration - only momentarily - by some cheesy flute sounds and just one track 'Belladonna'. Other than that, it's a superb recording and well worthy of investigation by the more adventurous.