| Black Tape For A Blue Girl — These Fleeting Moments (August 12, 2016) |
Black Tape For A Blue Girl — These Fleeting Moments 
•→ The last recorded music of the band was “10 Neurotics”, released in 2009. Black Tape for a Blue Girl is an American Darkwave band formed in 1986 by Projekt Records’ founder Sam Rosenthal. Their music takes on elements of darkwave, ethereal, ambient, dark cabaret, and neoclassical music. Director David Lynch, alt–Porn actress Sasha Grey and writer Poppy Z. Brite are some of the band’s more well–known fans.
Location: Portland, Oregon
Genre: Electronic, Neo–Classical, Darkwave
Album release: August 12, 2016
Record Label: Metropolis Records
Duration: 70:11
Tracks:
01. The Vastness of Life 17:42
02. Limitless 3:21
03. One Promised Love 4:29
04. Bike Shop/Absolute Zero 3:08
05. Affinity 3:12
06. Please Don’t Go 3:57
07. Six Thirteen 4:44
08. Zug Köln 4:08
09. Meditation On The Skeleton 9:46
10. Desert Rat–Kangaroo 3:08
11. She’s Gone 4:03
12. She Ran So Far Away That She No Longer Can Be Found 4:26
13. You’re Inside Me 4:07
Personnel:
•→ Oscar Herrera • vocals
•→ Danielle Herrera • vocals
•→ Brian Viglione • drums
•→ Sam Rosenthal • electronics, acoustic guitar
with
•→ Chase Dobson • electric guitars & bass, 2 & 3
•→ Oscar • acoustic guitar, 4
Review
Christopher Nosnibor, 10 August 2016
•→ It’s been a full thirty years since Sam Rosenthal began operating as Black Tape for a Blue Girl. Over that time, there have been ten albums showcasing ethereal, gothic (in the theatrical, brooding sense, rather than goth–rock sense) and dark ambient sounds which established them as pioneers of American darkwave. Perhaps it’s because of their vanguard position that they’ve maintained a relatively modest cult status in the shade of various associated acts and artists they’ve influenced.
•→ These Fleeting Moments, their first album in seven years and released to coincide with their thirtieth anniversary, sees the return of original vocalist Oscar Herrera, after a seventeen–year hiatus from music. It’s perhaps fitting, then, that the album represents something of a return to the roots of Black Tape for a Blue Girl, a name which conjures uncomfortable images while simultaneously evoking doomed romance and the extremities of twisted devotion.
•→ Opening the album with a seventeen–minute behemoth is a pretty bold move. ‘The Vastness of Life’ encapsulates its own essence within its title: a track that builds from a brooding neofolk strum and drifts through a succession of transitions through weeping string and passages and segments of wispy, ethereal ambience, it’s an epic journey which is practically an album in its own right. The twin vocalists emote achingly and pour every last drop of soul into these rarefied moments. Where could any album go from there? With the exception of ‘Meditation on the Skeleton’, with its ten–minute running time, the remaining twelve tracks are relatively concise, with ‘Limitless’ a quintessential example of the 90s goth darkwave sound as exemplified by the likes of Every New Dead Ghost and Suspiria: fractal Cure–esque guitars reverberate around cold synths by way of a backdrop to a melodramatic baritone vocal delivery. But neither track individually represents These Fleeting Moments as a whole. In fact, no one track does, and the album’s diversity is quite something, spanning shoegaze and folk and neoclassical, often simultaneously.
•→ Much of the instrumentation is organic and natural–sounding, with piano and strings at the heart of many of the compositions. These are used to diverse effect, from the sparse, haunting moorlands of ‘Please Don’t Go’ to the insistent throb of ‘Six Thirteen’. But for all the range, all of the grace and elegance, a darkness hangs over every piece: ‘Bike Shop’ is no whimsical indie pop ditty, and elsewhere, ‘You’re Inside Me’ invites comparisons to both Scott Walker and Marc Almond, and ‘Zug Ko–In’ is a slow–turning hypnotic track which calls to mind both The Doors and more recent Swans and features a soaring guitar solo.
•→ It’s an album which is more exploratory and expressive than linear: the track flow together to form a much greater whole, forging a work that’s immersive and meditative. Yes, it’s an album one listens to, and it’s not one to dip in and out of or select highlight tracks from: rather, it’s an album to make time stand still and to get lost in. •→ https://auralaggravation.com/
Description:
•→ On their 30th anniversary, Black Tape For A Blue Girl returns to their evocative ethereal, neoclassical, gothic roots with an album exploring the existential predicaments of time’s passage, choices questioned, and loves lost. Original vocalist Oscar Herrera rejoins the band after a 17–year absence. His darkly dramatic vocals are complemented by Dani Herrera’s emotional and heartfelt voice, Nick Shadow’s visceral viola, Brian Viglione’s driving drums, and band–founder Sam Rosenthal’s pensive electronics and revelatory songwriting.
•→ These Fleeting Moments, their 11th studio release, is 70 minutes of powerful, gorgeously yearning tracks born from the same place as their 90s classics Remnants of a Deeper Purity and A Chaos of Desire.
•→ “For this album,” Sam says, “I picked up threads of our 90s sound. I wrote those intense, passionate songs that Oscar delivers so wonderfully. Adding Nick’s breathtaking strings atop my synth–horn and electronic textures, and writing 25 minutes of instrumentals, really brings this album back to the essential Blacktape sound.”
•→ Oscar’s involvement is more than a nostalgic appearance — he sings seven songs. Accompanying Oscar is his daughter Dani, who was not even a year old when the band recorded their 1986 debut, The Rope. Her lead vocals on four tracks bring an absorbing intermingling of voices to this release. At times Dani’s singing carries a youthful, breathy softness, such as on the brokenheartedness of “She’s gone.” “She wasn’t the first girl to dump me, but she dumped me on the phone, and it brought out all these old feelings. Who would love me and just drop me unless I didn’t deserve love. Unless I didn’t deserve love.”
•→ The band boldly opens the album with “The vastness of life,” a 17–minute five–part epic reminiscent of Remnants’ “For you will burn your wings upon the sun.” It’s an expressive track — powerfully solemn, stirringly elegant and evocative — drifting between defiant, resigned and striking vocal sections and floating ambient passages. The lyrics explore the album’s theme: questions about life choices, our personal story, and if we have the courage to live in service to our ideals.
•→ The album’s lyrics range from emotionally wrought to delicately sensitive, detailing fears of revealing the true self, betrayal of one’s body in the hands of a lover’s promises, contemplating our interconnectedness to others, or poking fun at mankind’s belief that we are more important than other animals.
•→ Sam continues, “The fleetingness of time has become part of the questions I am asking. We are finite in our being but infinite in our hopes and longings. Life will pass us in an instant, and I ask myself if I am courageously living my true self in the world? Or are we all a bit hunched over, hiding from the possibilities?”
•→ After three decades recording music and running the Projekt record label, Sam drew upon internationally–acclaimed talent to record the album. Guest musicians include The Dresden Dolls’ drummer Brian Viglione, SoulWhirlingSomewhere’s vocalist Michael Plaster, and electronic solo artists Erik Wøllo and Mark Seelig. Newcomer Chase Dobson adds guitars and bass.
•→ In the catchiest track, the luxuriant “Limitless,” Oscar sings, “I shine, I glow, I venture into the darkness in search of the essential.” Sam’s thought–provoking lyrics invite self–examination without becoming too weighty — the earnest themes explored on the album have a palatable sense of optimism in the face of adversity and are buoyed by the ebb and flow of the band’s superb performances. Indeed, These Fleeting Moments finishes on a high note, a song sung from father to son on the elder’s death bed; even in that, there is the suggestion that a way through can be found by remembering that “the most beautiful moments remain so dear to us.”
•→ Original vocalist Oscar Herrera rejoins the band after a 17–year absence. His darkly dramatic vocals soar on These Fleeting Moments, their 11th studio release. Oscar’s involvement is more than a nostalgic appearance — he sings seven songs. Accompanying Oscar is his daughter Dani, who was not even a year old when the band recorded their 1986 debut, The Rope. The new album’s lyrics range from emotionally wrought to delicately sensitive, detailing fears of revealing the true self, betrayal of one’s body in the hands of a lover’s promises, asking if we have the courage to live in service to our ideals, or poking fun at mankind’s belief that we are more important than other animals. This is 70 minutes of powerful, gorgeously yearning tracks born from the same place as their 90s classics Remnants of a Deeper Purity and A Chaos of Desire.
Bandcamp: https://blacktapeforabluegirl.bandcamp.com/track/these-fleeting-moments
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Blacktapeforabluegirl
Website: http://blacktapeforabluegirl.com/
© Touring Band: Valerie, Athan & Sam
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| Black Tape For A Blue Girl — These Fleeting Moments (August 12, 2016) |
Location: Portland, Oregon
Genre: Electronic, Neo–Classical, Darkwave
Album release: August 12, 2016
Record Label: Metropolis Records
Duration: 70:11
Tracks:
01. The Vastness of Life 17:42
02. Limitless 3:21
03. One Promised Love 4:29
04. Bike Shop/Absolute Zero 3:08
05. Affinity 3:12
06. Please Don’t Go 3:57
07. Six Thirteen 4:44
08. Zug Köln 4:08
09. Meditation On The Skeleton 9:46
10. Desert Rat–Kangaroo 3:08
11. She’s Gone 4:03
12. She Ran So Far Away That She No Longer Can Be Found 4:26
13. You’re Inside Me 4:07
Personnel:
•→ Oscar Herrera • vocals
•→ Danielle Herrera • vocals
•→ Brian Viglione • drums
•→ Sam Rosenthal • electronics, acoustic guitar
with
•→ Chase Dobson • electric guitars & bass, 2 & 3
•→ Oscar • acoustic guitar, 4
Review
Christopher Nosnibor, 10 August 2016
•→ It’s been a full thirty years since Sam Rosenthal began operating as Black Tape for a Blue Girl. Over that time, there have been ten albums showcasing ethereal, gothic (in the theatrical, brooding sense, rather than goth–rock sense) and dark ambient sounds which established them as pioneers of American darkwave. Perhaps it’s because of their vanguard position that they’ve maintained a relatively modest cult status in the shade of various associated acts and artists they’ve influenced.
•→ These Fleeting Moments, their first album in seven years and released to coincide with their thirtieth anniversary, sees the return of original vocalist Oscar Herrera, after a seventeen–year hiatus from music. It’s perhaps fitting, then, that the album represents something of a return to the roots of Black Tape for a Blue Girl, a name which conjures uncomfortable images while simultaneously evoking doomed romance and the extremities of twisted devotion.
•→ Opening the album with a seventeen–minute behemoth is a pretty bold move. ‘The Vastness of Life’ encapsulates its own essence within its title: a track that builds from a brooding neofolk strum and drifts through a succession of transitions through weeping string and passages and segments of wispy, ethereal ambience, it’s an epic journey which is practically an album in its own right. The twin vocalists emote achingly and pour every last drop of soul into these rarefied moments. Where could any album go from there? With the exception of ‘Meditation on the Skeleton’, with its ten–minute running time, the remaining twelve tracks are relatively concise, with ‘Limitless’ a quintessential example of the 90s goth darkwave sound as exemplified by the likes of Every New Dead Ghost and Suspiria: fractal Cure–esque guitars reverberate around cold synths by way of a backdrop to a melodramatic baritone vocal delivery. But neither track individually represents These Fleeting Moments as a whole. In fact, no one track does, and the album’s diversity is quite something, spanning shoegaze and folk and neoclassical, often simultaneously.
•→ Much of the instrumentation is organic and natural–sounding, with piano and strings at the heart of many of the compositions. These are used to diverse effect, from the sparse, haunting moorlands of ‘Please Don’t Go’ to the insistent throb of ‘Six Thirteen’. But for all the range, all of the grace and elegance, a darkness hangs over every piece: ‘Bike Shop’ is no whimsical indie pop ditty, and elsewhere, ‘You’re Inside Me’ invites comparisons to both Scott Walker and Marc Almond, and ‘Zug Ko–In’ is a slow–turning hypnotic track which calls to mind both The Doors and more recent Swans and features a soaring guitar solo.
•→ It’s an album which is more exploratory and expressive than linear: the track flow together to form a much greater whole, forging a work that’s immersive and meditative. Yes, it’s an album one listens to, and it’s not one to dip in and out of or select highlight tracks from: rather, it’s an album to make time stand still and to get lost in. •→ https://auralaggravation.com/
Description:
•→ On their 30th anniversary, Black Tape For A Blue Girl returns to their evocative ethereal, neoclassical, gothic roots with an album exploring the existential predicaments of time’s passage, choices questioned, and loves lost. Original vocalist Oscar Herrera rejoins the band after a 17–year absence. His darkly dramatic vocals are complemented by Dani Herrera’s emotional and heartfelt voice, Nick Shadow’s visceral viola, Brian Viglione’s driving drums, and band–founder Sam Rosenthal’s pensive electronics and revelatory songwriting.
•→ These Fleeting Moments, their 11th studio release, is 70 minutes of powerful, gorgeously yearning tracks born from the same place as their 90s classics Remnants of a Deeper Purity and A Chaos of Desire.
•→ “For this album,” Sam says, “I picked up threads of our 90s sound. I wrote those intense, passionate songs that Oscar delivers so wonderfully. Adding Nick’s breathtaking strings atop my synth–horn and electronic textures, and writing 25 minutes of instrumentals, really brings this album back to the essential Blacktape sound.”
•→ Oscar’s involvement is more than a nostalgic appearance — he sings seven songs. Accompanying Oscar is his daughter Dani, who was not even a year old when the band recorded their 1986 debut, The Rope. Her lead vocals on four tracks bring an absorbing intermingling of voices to this release. At times Dani’s singing carries a youthful, breathy softness, such as on the brokenheartedness of “She’s gone.” “She wasn’t the first girl to dump me, but she dumped me on the phone, and it brought out all these old feelings. Who would love me and just drop me unless I didn’t deserve love. Unless I didn’t deserve love.”
•→ The band boldly opens the album with “The vastness of life,” a 17–minute five–part epic reminiscent of Remnants’ “For you will burn your wings upon the sun.” It’s an expressive track — powerfully solemn, stirringly elegant and evocative — drifting between defiant, resigned and striking vocal sections and floating ambient passages. The lyrics explore the album’s theme: questions about life choices, our personal story, and if we have the courage to live in service to our ideals.
•→ The album’s lyrics range from emotionally wrought to delicately sensitive, detailing fears of revealing the true self, betrayal of one’s body in the hands of a lover’s promises, contemplating our interconnectedness to others, or poking fun at mankind’s belief that we are more important than other animals.
•→ Sam continues, “The fleetingness of time has become part of the questions I am asking. We are finite in our being but infinite in our hopes and longings. Life will pass us in an instant, and I ask myself if I am courageously living my true self in the world? Or are we all a bit hunched over, hiding from the possibilities?”
•→ After three decades recording music and running the Projekt record label, Sam drew upon internationally–acclaimed talent to record the album. Guest musicians include The Dresden Dolls’ drummer Brian Viglione, SoulWhirlingSomewhere’s vocalist Michael Plaster, and electronic solo artists Erik Wøllo and Mark Seelig. Newcomer Chase Dobson adds guitars and bass.
•→ In the catchiest track, the luxuriant “Limitless,” Oscar sings, “I shine, I glow, I venture into the darkness in search of the essential.” Sam’s thought–provoking lyrics invite self–examination without becoming too weighty — the earnest themes explored on the album have a palatable sense of optimism in the face of adversity and are buoyed by the ebb and flow of the band’s superb performances. Indeed, These Fleeting Moments finishes on a high note, a song sung from father to son on the elder’s death bed; even in that, there is the suggestion that a way through can be found by remembering that “the most beautiful moments remain so dear to us.”
•→ Original vocalist Oscar Herrera rejoins the band after a 17–year absence. His darkly dramatic vocals soar on These Fleeting Moments, their 11th studio release. Oscar’s involvement is more than a nostalgic appearance — he sings seven songs. Accompanying Oscar is his daughter Dani, who was not even a year old when the band recorded their 1986 debut, The Rope. The new album’s lyrics range from emotionally wrought to delicately sensitive, detailing fears of revealing the true self, betrayal of one’s body in the hands of a lover’s promises, asking if we have the courage to live in service to our ideals, or poking fun at mankind’s belief that we are more important than other animals. This is 70 minutes of powerful, gorgeously yearning tracks born from the same place as their 90s classics Remnants of a Deeper Purity and A Chaos of Desire.
Bandcamp: https://blacktapeforabluegirl.bandcamp.com/track/these-fleeting-moments
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Blacktapeforabluegirl
Website: http://blacktapeforabluegirl.com/
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