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As One Aflame Laid Bare By Desire
Black Tape for a Blue Girl
As One Aflame Laid Bare By Desire
Genres: Alternative Rock, New Age, Pop, Rock
 
  •  Track Listings (13) - Disc #1

While Saturday Night Live's "Goth Talk" sketch has all but shattered the pretensions of those living after midnight, the music's emotional impetus remains undisturbed, if As One Aflame be admitted as evidence. The Projekt ...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Black Tape for a Blue Girl
Title: As One Aflame Laid Bare By Desire
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Label: Projekt Records
Original Release Date: 1/12/1999
Release Date: 1/12/1999
Genres: Alternative Rock, New Age, Pop, Rock
Style: Goth & Industrial
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 617026008622

Synopsis

Amazon.com
While Saturday Night Live's "Goth Talk" sketch has all but shattered the pretensions of those living after midnight, the music's emotional impetus remains undisturbed, if As One Aflame be admitted as evidence. The Projekt label has been long dedicated to ethereal sounds, releasing albums that combine the placid spirituality of New Age with the vampiric night music of goth since 1986. Label founder and Black Tape "electronics" guru Sam Rosenthal works with a revolving cast (a bit like Ivo Watts-Russell's work at 4AD with This Mortal Coil but with increased involvement). The melancholy streak permeates all 71 minutes. Longing and desire are brought to obsessive degrees (lyric inspiration includes Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs and Baudelaire's "Windows," for starters); the music echoes these sentiments. Excessive swaths of reverb heighten the otherworldly effect for the choirlike vocal ensemble and stretch the flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and harmonium notes to infinity. Piano chords signal doom. The perfect soundtrack for those trapped in their room staring at candles. --Rob O'Connor

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CD Reviews

Gloomy ethereal that is not for everyone
swordofset | NYC | 07/05/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)

"BTFABG's work is definitely an aquired taste. Their pretensious, artsy leanings can be off-putting to some as can the bleakness of their sound. However, when they strike the right balance, BTFABG can create some really great stuff. In my opinion, the less Oscar vocals, the better. Black Tape's best stuff is ethereal, moody, contemplative and quite beautiful. Some if it can be reminiscent of This Mortal Coil's work (in style), some of it similar to darker moodier New Age/Vidna Obmana type work (whom Sam did a collaboration with once. An excellent CD by the way). I don't care what anybody says, I happen to like that stuff and I enjoy melodramatic, dark music. To me, I don't need a band to have so called "redeeming" values in the their work. I don't see optimism as being either a "redeeming" value or a negative one. It just is. If you want optimism put some other band in your player. That's what I do. When I'm in the mood for a more bleak and serious tone, I put in Black Tape or other stuff like them. Everything has it's place and purpose. Just because a work of art is pessimistic does not mean it does not have "redeeming" quality. As for the band being too artsy and literate..well, I see both sides of this arguement. I mean with a name like Black Tape For A Blue Girl, you should know what you are in for....a little pretensiousness is bound to be evident. However it's a sad sad commentary on American culture that when someone is literate and has a knowledge of art and they show it because that is what they are genuinely interested in, they get put down or dismissed as being too "artsy".That being said a lot of Goth music can be a little too melodramatic at times, too over the top and I tend to like those bands that don't cross that line into excessivness. That's why a lot of Black Tape's work is hit and miss. At their worst they can be unintentionally comical, at their best they are entrancing and beautiful. This release is one of the latter and well worth getting."
Positively Haunting
David N. VanMeter | Hilliard, OH United States | 12/01/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)

"I listened to this three times in a single afternoon. I found the music to be the most haunting I have ever heard. I bought it on a whim and I am hooked."
One for the heart
C Upton | Fairfax, VA | 01/17/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Lush, gorgeous, passionate. The latest album from Black Tape for a Blue Girl explores and bares emotions in a personal manner like few others dare to. Black Tape's gothic/etherial style has never been more accessible, but the insight offered by Sam Rosenthal's lyrics is powerful and runs deep. The music makes one realize just what the term "achingly beautiful" means. Light candles and prepare to be swept off your feet."