A HISTORY OF MADNESS

This is the first Thinking Plague album I heard and whilst many people said get "In Extremis" first, and which I ordered first, but "A History of Madness" arrived first, I figured I'd listen to it minus any introduction to the band. I must say that I'm pleased to a great degree! There are some familiar nods to Henry Cow, Univers Zero and Frank Zappa somewhat, but for all it's similarities the music is quite original and Thinking Plague are very much what I hoped they would be. Throughout "A History of Madness" there is a pervading dark ambience which many describe as scary or frightening. However you wish to call it, Thinking Plague seem to 'own' the description on this wonderful album.

Mike Johnson's world vision is at once bleak and at times shocked, the way one might be if they saw a Lion capture and gore a Zebra while the person was waiting for a red light in the middle of the business district where they were going to work. There's a lot of that disreality in the sound and lyrics sung by Deborah Perry. What is especially interesting about her vocals are Johnson's odd counterpoint and heavily effected sounds below the clear lead voice. It is at once beautiful and oddly disturbing and that also is a good part of the mood of this album. As the listener you are in these odd dreamscapes that lull you into a quiet mood and hit you with a King Crimson like riff-o-rama with dueling instruments to hold the melody while none command it and find themselves in a merry-go-round of lead, counterpoint, second theme, and so on.

As you can imagine from what I've so far mentioned this is not a simple collection of happy fun-tunes. There is ordered confusion, interesting, and at times seemingly cheesy sounds which challenge our conception of what unique or good sounding instrumentation is. The ensemble playing is excellent and the varied timbres are often unique, and possibly something that some listeners might need more time getting used to than the sometimes atonal and jarring music bouyed by equal amounts of beautiful sounding and quietly passionate segments.

The lyrical content deals with alienation from various views, from one's self, from their government to the lies they grow up to accept yet realize what they are being asked to accept is in fact not sane. In this interesting way, and not at all cheesy or poorly presented in term of lyrics or the emotions or lack thereof, we witness the faces of madness.

Conceptually it's extremely well executed. Musically it is great to listen to with the sonic and playing being equally excellent compared to the lyrical themes.

There are a few compositional choices made that I can't figure out. That wouldn't make me drop it half a star on it's own, but the choices don't seem to necessarilly serve the song or segment the songs are ordered in. For example, there are some instant finishes that make me wonder why the instruments didn't even fade naturally. And I say this because almost everything else about this album is perfect, so when something seems out of place on such a killer set of songs and concept, that small issue gets (unfairly) amplified.

How do you decide whether to buy? Do you know and like bands like Univers Zero or Frank Zappa's less comic work? If yes, you'll be disposed towards liking "A History of Madness" Will you have the 55 minutes to sit with this album or are you conditioned to "songs?" If so, you may have problems as the structure here is album format and while certain parts organized into a "song" may be more appreciated than other sections, the concept of this work is listening, uninterrupted. If atonal or unusual (in rock music) type harmonies and timing annoy you be aware there are important sections of this album that feature such elements. If none of this bothers you get this CD. If some or all do it's between you and your maker, though I a strong believer on risk taking and this is an album worth taking a chance on.

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