This album is my sleeper pick of the year, or at least it's in the running. Darling Kandie is the duo of Groovie Mann from My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult and William Tucker.
Originally I was going to write this as a tribute/memorium for Tucker, but I felt that would downplay the recording itself. I will say that if you are even a marginal fan of industrial music, I promise you were, at some time, touched by this man's work. Also known as Amber, he was involved with many projects you've enjoyed, including but definitely not limited to: Pigface, the Revolting Cocks, Ministry, KMFDM, Chris Connelly, Chemlab and was even a member of one of Invisible Records first bands, Leather Studded Diaphragm. He also toured with the Thrill Kill Kult.
A paragraph in the liner notes gives you this tidbit of info:
"The tracks included in this release are among the last works
of William Tucker. They were recorded in 1998 and 1999 as
rough demos for a collaborative project with Groovie Mann.
Unfortunately, the project was never completed. Nevertheless,
these rough mixes are a testament to William's sonic brilliance
and quirky sense of humor."
With that said, onto the music...
For those of you that were, or still are, fans of the early Thrill Kill Kult recordings, the influence of Groovie Mann is rather obvious. A raw early TKK sound prevails throughout the disc. Samples from old flicks, lyrics involving sex, scandal, drugs and as usual, secret adventures fill the album.
The sounds of Groovie Mann's vision for a movie about life with 'the Kult' seem to continue in "people next door." It starts with the director's cue at the start, "Roll It!" and goes all the way through to the 'Untitled End.'
Though this 8 song album contains a few danceable tracks, the atmospheric sounds of a weird, dark and dirty fantasy lounge surround you...a place where all the best and worst of the world's miscreants congregate. The title track seems to feed us pieces of this idea without any lyrics, only samples. Horns wail and the drums click off an old 4/4 industrial beat on a few tracks, while some meander with cinematic drama and strolling bits of keyboard melodies.
The first track, "Cobra Kiss," introduces us to some of the characters in this scene. Plus it shows us samples of some of the sin, vice and actions found within it. A sample screams "What an empty generation!" but seems to only point out how one can make quick judgements before delving into the mind behind such activities.
A favorite track of mine would be "Secret Ceremony." Too slow for a dancey club tune, it's Tucker's guitar that is the subtle, backbone piece of this one. The trodding rhythm of the drums is only a trimming for the dreamy scenery that Tucker lays out in this "dream slow, dream fast" song. But, the finishing samples clue us in, just as the first track preached, things are not always as they seem..."This is not a dream, this is really happening!"
Next comes the title track. Driven by a slow and dark, almost hip hop like beat, the samples ask the industrial equivilant of "can't we all just get along?" Though one may see "a freak," if you were to really get to know these strange neighbors, we all are one. We can get along in an amazing way, if you just looked beyond the scarification, the crazy piercings, the drug adled conversations, the drive to find the next high and sex stories that would never be allowed in Penthouse Forum, maybe we're more alike than you want to admit...which is not all that bad a thing.
"Open your mind to me."
"This is your eternity."
"We need a new unity."
"Family."
"I'm you and your me."
"One spirit, one will."
It's all good...if you let it be.
The following track seems to come straight from outtakes of "Sexplosion." I didn't want to compare this with actual songs or albums from either musicians' past, but "Randy Road" is such an overtly loungey and sex-laden track, it's hard for me not to hear a similarity...which is all good in my book. Plus it asks the age old question, "Did you know that bad girls go to hell?"
The photo work for the cd comes to us thanks to Groovie Mann himself, including the cover photo seen above. And "Younglam," one of the most fun tracks on the album, seems to be a tribute to the models used for the album's art. These "Polysexual Stardust Aliens" also known as the Ultramodels (check out the Ultramodel website here) might just be the perfect visual construct of a member in this scene (notice I didn't say the "typical" member...i'm pretty sure there is no 'typical' member of such a scene). Tales of sex and unknown sexes fill this bass driven track all about groovin' with the best of 'em!
"Weeee arrrre Younglam!"
The final track is another slow one all about life after death. Do we go to heaven and what will be there if we make it that far? Once again a tale told (or more like a question asked) using only samples, no lyrics at all. Seemingly a "Jacob's Ladder" style tale of heaven being what you make it.
"In heaven everything is..."
We love you william, and miss you and thank you for the wonderful pieces of your life that you did feel the need to leave for our enjoyment.
All I can add is after I got this cd, it stayed in my cd player at home for an entire month. The only time it did come out was to take it to the club or the radio station for mass consumption. Go get it now! You can find it at the Underground Inc. Website! There is also a link to the Invisible Records website on our links page, they're partners with Underground Inc.
Tucker also did some collaborative work with Padraic Ogl in Thanatos, as well as on the recently released new project called IllegalTeenageBikini. More on this can be found at the Projekt website, which is also on our links page.
Keep an eye out for the new Pigface album which Groovie Mann worked on as well. It is said to be available in late January 2003. Info on this is also available on the Invisible records website.
