Jarboe And Lary Seven – Beautiful People Ltd

Beautiful People Ltd is a challenging, ultimately addictive album. This collaboration with Lary Seven does not resemble Jarboe’s solo work or that with World Of Skin or Swans. It’s claimed that no instruments were conventionally employed to create the haunting textures.

The childhood theme weaves through Bebe Marie, Coruscation, Liquid Bebe Psychedelia, My Bruise, I Know You Don't Like Me, Newborn Child, Show and I Feel Pretty. These tracks represent numerous distinct styles and/or contradictory emotions although loss of innocence marks the darker ones.

'It's OK to be afraid,' Jarboe soothes ‘Bebe Marie’ over intricate percussive patterns, glockenspiel and reverberating chimes. The vocals alternate between spoken word and delicate phonation in the upper registers. One gets the impression of walking down a dark tunnel which is collapsing behind you.

Then you emerge onto a scene of children playing a ritualistic circle game. Jarboe’s lilting contralto intones a hypnotic folk/gospel chant to harpsichord and handclaps. Sinister and compelling, A Coruscation warns of cult mind control in a manner that parodies the vocal and rhythmic techniques employed by mind manipulators. "Give up your religion, come along with me now, your mysticism" and it sounds simultaneously rousing and eerie.

The tale of Bebe Marie resumes in ‘Liquid Bebe Psychedelia’, mournful now despite the enchanting mid-tempo pop arrangement with its fuller instrumentation, undulating rhythm and choral vocals. This track is characteristic of the entire album; upfront many sound like lovely simple tunes but unease is always near. Not so ‘My Bruise’ where it hits you in the face. A choir of squawking crows welcomes the listener to the abyss, a recital with a harp interlude. Then the deathly voice again, chilling in its resignation amidst the dark consorts.

Still in the childhood milieu, ‘I Know You Don't Like Me’ is a melodious, minimalist nursery rhyme. This brief moment of innocence about unreciprocated love might also be a send-up of the music hall genre. The dreamy ‘Newborn Child’ evokes the image of Nico as soprano humming a lullaby to her harmonium.

In lighter vein, a phone conversation between a stalker and a teenaged girl introduces Bernstein/Sondheim's ‘I Feel Pretty’. The flamboyant, exuberant vocal delivery with its tonal gymnastics, skittering percussion, bleeps, raucous guitars and mock jazzy feel raises a smile so the concluding burst of laughter is infectious.

Amongst the extra tracks, the semi-instrumental Danse Dementia's has complex percussive patterns and spacey wordless vocals, whilst ‘No’ has hardcore industrial percussion with muffled sighs, whispers and no's. Atmospheric ambient introduces ‘L.S.B.’ where an intriguing call-and-response develops between the torch song voice and the instruments.

Exquisite percussion adorns the album throughout but particularly so on ‘The Witch.’ Shimmering vocals, vocalising and whispers mingle with sitar, xylophone, chimes and pitches, bringing to mind the ghost of Cathy in Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights.

‘No Mix’ approaches Swans terrain in its stomping metallic beat and machine like vocal modality. Whereas ‘Warm Liquid Event’ is a sensuous mid tempo pop ballad, the ‘Warm Liquid Pleasure Mix’ merges reverb, echo, laughter, edgy percussion and mesmerising chanting into a hypnotic loop. Only about 5/6ths of the way does it start to resemble the opening track.

The vocals of ‘Suicide Song Mix’ has something of ‘I Feel Pretty’ and ‘I Know You Don't Like Me’ but the chaotic arrangement cleverly incorporates gurgling, bursts of laughter, croaking and spoken vocals. Somehow it all comes together

A thunderous stampede opens ‘Badge of Courage Mix’, soon joined by propulsive percussion, resonant flutes, bells, whistling and a well timed repeating reed or chime sound. A charming arrangement which appropriately ends in applause.

The brooding ‘Unravelling Thread Mix’ is equally appealing. A variety of ominous voices and eerie echoes frame Jarboe's spoken poem. Some voices are slowed down, some in foreign languages, and they fade in and out of the atmospheric rumbling, tinkling, whirrs, drones and other metallic / industrial emanations.

The unlisted mystery track 20 is related to number 14, the melodious techno pop Volcanic Ash Mix which resembles a track on the Swans album Soundtracks for the Blind.

Perfect cohesion characterizes this work of such impressive stylistic diversity: breezy pop, techno, electro, tribal and industrial collages, folk, spoken poems, lullabies, nursery rhymes, experimental and ambient pieces.