Diamanda Galas, anyone?
 

Perhaps I just haven't been paying enough attention, but I've not seen anyone give any mention of Diamanda Galas on these forums, which surprises me somewhat given some of the other artists I have seen mentioned here. My personal favorite of hers, at this point, would be Defixiones: Will and Testament, Orders from the Dead, although tracks like Blind Man's Cry on the Red Death double-set are up there as well. On the Malediction & Prayer album she does a definitive version of Gloomy Sunday, the original version, though it sounds worlds better when she sings it live.

Re: Diamanda Galas, anyone?
 

I haven't heard any of the albums you mention, but years ago out of curiosity I bought a used copy of Plague Mass. Her vocalizings on that album are incredible but a bit too much for my tender sensibilities (and nerves, and eardrums). However, also out of curiosity, I bought a copy of The Sporting Life, her collaboration with John Paul Jones (formerly -- and futurely*?-- of Led Zeppelin), and found it quite listenable. Her vocalizings are just barely tamed enough to fit into the format of Jones's Zep-style rock, and frequently seem on the verge of anarchically blowing apart that format. I think it's very good, considered as a rock album, although I suppose it might be a disappointment to fans of her more extreme, avant-garde works.

My tastes in music are a bit middlebrow, I admit. I really like avant-garde stylings as long as they're mixed with more conventional, accessible forms. For instance, I like Brian Eno better than John Cage. And I like Sonic Youth better than Glenn Branca.


*I looked it up and "futurely" is a word (although now considered obsolete).

Re: Diamanda Galas, anyone?
 

I attended a performance of Diamanda Galas in Melbourne a number of years ago. The concert was memorable primarily because the event organizers thoroughly misrepresented the singer in their lead-up advertising . She was billed as a classical opera singer of rare talent -- all of which is true. However, they neglected to mention the nature of the material she would be performing.

I would say that ninety percent of the attending audience were expecting a conservative performance from the classical repertoire. What they got was a self-styled "vocal terrorist" who screamed lyrics from Baudelaire mingled with references to the holocaust (or perhaps my memory is embellishing, but you get the point)... in other words, these were not arias from The Magic Flute.

Ha! You really had to be there. People were appalled. There was much talk of damage done to eardrums. I recall her black lipstick and widow's peak, her ice-pale skin and hollow cheeks. And of course the "vocal terrorism" which was exactly that: a musical assault waged against the helplessly under-prepared, opera-going crowd. Long before the carnage had ended it seemed that at least half the audience had left the building.

As to whether Galas is "Ligottian': I think she lacks the requisite sense of humor. True, she is hugely gifted and her vision is dark -- but she lacks the playfulness, the joyful nothingness, that one finds in writers such as Ligotti, Nabokov and Bernhard. Takes herself far too seriously.

PS. Has anyone started a thread on the dark humor in Ligotti? One of my favorite examples:

"I thought as much. Look. I'm not interested in chit-chat here. I work on commission finding people like you. And I think you've got what it takes."
"For what?" I asked.
"Town management," he replied.
I finished off the last few spoonfuls of my soup. I wiped my mouth with a paper napkin. "Tell me more," I said.
It was either that or make an end of it.

This is piss-your-pants funny, and at the same time shudderingly bleak.

Re: Diamanda Galas, anyone?
 

I've listened to one of her albums and pretty much went through the same experience as Bleak&Icy...she's definitely an acquired taste to say the least

Re: Diamanda Galas, anyone?
 

I'm particularly fond of The Litanies of Satan and Plague Mass. Her more conventional works (relatively speaking) are interesting but it's Galas' more experimental pieces that I find most effective.

I wish she'd worked with Current 93 or in the early/mid eighties...

Re: Diamanda Galas, anyone?
 

I certainly agree, at least most of the time.

Diamanda Galas is, at times, a bitter pill to swallow. That is not an insult, though; Her work has a definite purpose, and under the right circumstances is quite effective. One just has to be in the mood, you know?

I'll admit, though, that I haven't listened to Ms. Galas' work for some time now. Perhaps a fresh listen to Litanies of Satan will change my mind...

Re: Diamanda Galas, anyone?
 

Thanks for mentioning Galas! I searched online and found some samples for those who are curious:

Re: Diamanda Galas, anyone?
 

Thank you for the link Paeng, I don't think songs like her rendition of 'gloomy sunday' are at all hard to swallow. Her voice is clearly incredible in a more traditional sense there, I just guess notoriety is a more swift road to fame than anything else and people will tend to be more pigeonholed for the more 'out there' things they do. A lot of her albums should be taken in context, her brother died of AIDS when there was considerably more paranoia over that, which was the basis behind some of her earlier 'Red Death' albums. She is Anatolian Greek, so there is no reason to expect 'Defixiones' , an album about the Greek/Armenian/ Assyrian genocides carried out during WWII, to be laced with humor.

I guess I got into some some very abrasive metal at very young age considering I lived and still live in an abrasively boring, pretty much all anglo town in the middle of Iowa, so vocals of what she is capable of don't get to me as much.

Re: Diamanda Galas, anyone?
 

On a second listen, I am enthralled, but still scared of this woman. Admittedly, I'm restarting my exploration with Plague Mass, but still... Marvellous. Disturbing as all hell.

Re: Diamanda Galas, anyone?
 

One of my favorite artists. Was lucky enough to catch an intimate performance of Schrei X when she was working on the piece at the Fleischer Art Memorial here in Philadelphia. I guess this was 15 years ago. She performed the piece in the Sanctuary of the building. Amazing work. I definitely prefer her "performance art" pieces over the traditional song work. I feel the performance pieces work on a more visceral level.

Re: Diamanda Galas, anyone?
 

Rennie,
Nice to see you here. I haven't seen you since i lived in Philly back in 90es. We used to see each other in that little shop with industrial music off the South Street.
I really like Diamanda Galas a lot as well.