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| Evidence celebrates the 13th anniversary of the genesis of Sublimatus with a definitive nine-song collection of tracks. The first three were re-recorded with her current line-up, and the remainder were extracted from the band�s Whore of Babylon, Magic(k); Will the Key or Desire=Fear CDs. Orgone Accumulator was unrepresented. Zena's live ensemble consists of Everette Zxui on bass, Gordon Odegaard on guitar and Cameron on percussion. Making guest appearances on the CD are Dave Turcotte and Stu Griffett on drums and Daniel Wintermans (of head/phone/over/tone) on guitar. Sublimatus is currently set to embark on a Canadian East Coast tour, armed with ample supplies of Evidence. The idea for a compilation or retrospective CD was conceived by Robert Croft (www.skydragoncentre.org) in Hamilton, Ontario, and Walter G. Peter, who produced this CD and is a long-time devotee of the Sublimatus principle. Bandleader Zena Hagerty (dubbed by writer Bruce Mowat as the Queen of Underground Music in Hamilton) is a former native of Nova Scotia, who cultivates her Celtic roots and pagan influences to create a techno-gothic musical signature. She's obviously comfortable in a recording environment and knows better than to stray from the boundaries of her vocal range, which makes the songs all that much more pleasing. Because it's a compilation CD, it's not really clear to me how much technical work Walter G. Peter had to put into it, but he wisely makes no attempt to exaggerate or embellish the musical concepts beyond what was originally devised by Mitch Fury. Although I hadn't previously heard any of Zena's music, it sounded strangely familiar to me despite her vocal resemblances to Jane Siberry, Johnette Napolitano (Concrete Blond) and even punk pioneer Patti Smith (the latter most strikingly on "Burning the Fire"). I actually felt goose-bumps the first time I heard the phantasmically wavering vocals on "Majik Will Find Me". This ominous masterpiece of musical suspense from Zena's collaborative efforts with Mitch Fury and Andras Hornic also reminded me of a track called "Hitchhiker" from a duo known as Lamp (with Jim Luscombe on guitar). The well-enunciated but cryptic lyrics are nevertheless emotionally evocative and open to interpretation, particularly on the thought-provoking "Under Attack", which could be referring to anything from pregnancy to menopause to ordinary paranoia. I am at a loss to comprehend the disjointed lyrical phrases, which only increases their mystical effect. Anyone who got a psychological jolt from "Steven" (on Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare), Audience's "House on the Hill" or most of Pink Floyd's The Wall would probably prefer the latter half of this CD because the instrumentation there is much more intense, in contrast to the more vocally oriented and far less dramatic first half. This cross-section of past music from Sublimatus is certainly fascinating enough to encourage a much deeper investigation of Hamilton's High Priestess of Harmony. |
| EVIDENCE - SUBLIMATUS |
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