SUSPIRIA

No one was more surprised than me when Miranda Sex Garden began to be referred to in the same sentence as the term progressive rock. Not my recollection for sure, but looking back now after more than fifteen years I guess it sort of makes sense.

Back in the early nineties there seemed to be an awful lot of these lipstick goth bands coming out of the woodwork. Miranda Sex Garden were one of the more unusual ones simply because they actually had some talent and seemed to be interested in evolving that talent and their image on a regular basis, at least for the first few years. This was their second studio album, and the one that really started them down the road of musical experimentation after a rather dull a cappella debut release.

My vague memories of the band are mostly around the sultry and rotating wave of females who made up most of the group’s membership. Also, the strings were a bit unusual at a time when most females in bands either stuck to fronting on vocals or played pedestrian keyboard riffs. These girls actually had some skills on their violins, violas and keyboards.

The themes and titles of most of these tracks are centered on that weird yet seductive world of cinematic horror that was also present in most of their live performances and occasional videos. The persistent feedback drones and malevolent chanting became a trademark that would pretty much mark the band throughout their existence. It was a role they played quite well, and the music had a tendency to get you into a trance at clubs or at home on dark weekend evenings.

The one track on this album that I could do without is “Open Eyes” simply because it seems to go on forever and has annoyingly repetitive lyrics that remind me of the stereotypical loud American who thinks he can make any non-English speaker understand him by simply repeating the same phrase over and over in an increasingly louder tone. We get the message already ladies – it just isn’t a very interesting one.

Otherwise this is a good album, not great and not really memorable but good enough at the time in which it was released. Better than two stars because I think there are people who will still find the band interesting even outside the context of nostalgia. But not more than three stars simply because the sound doesn’t age all that well, and I don’t find myself playing their music all that often and you probably won’t either. Recommended for goth types who don’t take themselves too seriously and prefer stick-on tattoos to real ones.

peace