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Dopo gli anni degli esordi esoterici e sperimentali, i Current 93 di David Tibet diedero una svolta decisiva al loro corso creativo con "Swastikas for Noddy", un album controverso che ufficializzò i paradigmi della cosiddetta Chiesa dell'Apocalisse di Noddy e fece virare la musicalità del progetto verso il cosidetto apocalyptic folk. Il genere, detto per inciso, che dagli anni '90 in poi caratterizzò la galassia ruotante attorno a Tibet e ai vari colleghi del suo entourage ripulendo all'essenziale un sound fatto di chitarre acustiche, violini e flauti che in forma di ballad lascia spazio alle voci per cantare lunghe litanie.
In "Swastikas for Noddy" l'elemento esoterico permane più che altro nei testi e nelle filastrocche che intermezzano in vari momenti l'album, spesso con un tono più beffardo che realmente filologico. I riferimenti a Crowley e ad altre figure più o meno legate all'universo parallelo delle sette e dei movimenti alchemici diventano marcati, con tutta una serie di evidenze enigmatiche ed emblematiche che non lasciano capire quanto seria sia stata la fondazione della Chiesa di Noddy.
Si passa dalle schitarrate della oscura "Coal Black Smith" e della ridondante "Beau Soleil" - con trasversale riferimento a Bobby Beausoleil, uno dei personaggi chiave della setta Manson - alla ninna-nanna nichilista di "Since Yesterday" - già portata al successo negli anni '80 in versione pop dalle Strawberry Switchblade; e dai lamenti sperimentali di "Panzer Rune" ai sarcastici formulari cripitici di brevi rituali come "Valediction", fino alle volutamente infantili folkeggiate di "(Hey Ho) The Noddy (Oh)" o "Scarlet Woman", che sembrano quasi delle conte per giocare a nascondino. Il tutto con un condimento altalenante di arrangiamenti artigianali e minimalismi ossuti, che andarono a perfezionarsi negli album successivi, pur lasciando sempre un senso di incompiuto paraculistico che è diventato la vera cifra stilistica di David Tibet.
Certo è proprio in album successivi come il pregiato "Thunder Perfect Mind" che questa provocazione si diluisce e assume contorni più acculturati e poetici, lasciando alle spalle vagheggiamenti psico-politici in bilico tra serio e faceto. Un disco di svolta, questo "Swastikas", che ha pagato un prezzo alto per dare modo ai suoi creatori di traghettarsi verso un lido nuovo: lido che del resto ha garantito loro lunga sopravvivenza.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
03 North (00:40)
From the north
I call thee forth
O might Odin
Lord of the spear
Fettered by fear
Curse all those
Who do oppose our fight
Victory is near
Victory is near
05 Oh Coal Black Smith (05:29)
Oh she looked out of the window
As white as any milk
But he looked in the window
As black as any silk
"Hello hello hello hello
Hello you coal black smith
Oh what is your silly song?
You shall never change my maiden name
That I have kept so long
I'd rather die a maid, yes"
But then she said
"And be buried in my grave, yes"
And then she said
"That I'd have such a nasty
Husky, dusky, musty, funky
Coal black smith,
A maiden will I die"
Then she became a duck
A duck all on the stream
And he became a water dog
And fetched her back again
Then she became a hare
A hare all on the plain
And he became a greyhound dog
And fetched her back again
Then she became a fly
A fly all in the air
And he becamee a spider
And fetched her to his lair
And she became a corpse,
A corpse all In the ground
And he became the cold grey clay
And smothered her all around
11 Beausoleil (08:33)
(Monstrum in fronte, monstrum in animo.
Process, Process, slum full of fun)
Beausoleil, soleil soleil soleil soleil
Beausoleil, reaping Nirvana in a desert land
Beausoleil, Thine anger rising like a scorpion
Beausoleil, dune buggy baby on a fairground slide
Beausoleil, the taste of honey and the swirl of flies
Beausoleil, jackbooting wide-eyed in the widest pit
Beausoleil, looking at smiles and seeing nly grins
Beausoleil, did dead gods smell when the dog's blood rose
Beausoleil, now all Thine summers turn to menstrual winters
Beausoleil, kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill killy kill
Beausoleil, did dog's blood rise when the dead gods died
Beausoleil, beautiful sunshine whose shadow hides
Beausoleil, white brothers planting burning crosses
Beausoleil, the sharpest flavour is the one that stains
Beausoleil, when dog's blood rises does it also dance
Beausoleil, grey benediction of the Final Church
Beausoleil, it's just your habit of culling time
Beausoleil, a Death In June under a menstrual moon
Beausoleil, Scorpio Rising but the Light Bearer falls
Beausoleil, the squeaky laughter of a giddy world
Beausoleil, still waving black flags from a stubble field
Beausoleil, a maltese cross is pierced by the Blood of Christ
Beausoleil, hiding from cancer crabs and cracking jokes
Beausoleil, arson archbishop makes the deserts burn
Beausoleil, the dead are grateful -- all you need is love
Beausoleil, fat Buddhas smiling with the widest grin
Beausoleil, candy floss surgeon with the golden hair
Beausoleil, a brand new Process for a brand new age
Beausoleil, a black Messiah wearing buckskin boots
Beausoleil, assassin creepy-crawls through Hebron's Vale
Beausoleil, there's no business like the devil's business
Beausoleil, another martyr for the Noddy Apocalypse
Beausoleil, que sera, sera
Beausoleil, we want to sink into the deepest basin
Beausoleil, fils de perdition, Luciferens
Beausoleil, 7 and 7 is the hidden key
Beausoleil, a train to Clarkesville in the menstrual night
Beausoleil, Disneyland darkens with your Armageddon smile
Beausoleil, sangs rGyas chos dang tsogs kyi mChog rNams la
Beausoleil, you hide your candle on Golgotha's hill
15 Since Yesterday (04:03)
Just close your eyes
And then remember
The thoughts
You've locked away
When tomorrow comes
You'll wish
You had today
And as we sit here alone
Looking for a reason to go on
I's so clear that all We have now
Are our thoughts of yesterday
If You're still there
When it's all over
I'm scared
I'll have to say
That a part of You
Has gone
Since yesterday
And as we sit here alone
Looking for a reason to go on
I's so clear that all We have now
Are our thoughts of yesterday well maybe
This could be
The ending
With nothing
Left of You
A hundred wishes
Couldn't say
I don't want to...
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