DAWN

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.)