Search - Carla Bozulich :: Evangelista

A broken beauty pervades.

Aquarius Records | San Francisco | 06/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wow, this new album from Ms Bozulich is her darkest yet. With members of Godspeed You Black Emperor, A Silver Mt. Zion, Gowns, Black Ox Orkestar and Mae-Shi in attendance, Evangelista find her exorcizing all of her demons. Her wails match those of the church organ with a fraction of Diamanda Galas' tormented severity -- which taking into consideration the extremities of Ms Galas is still quite potent. They perch atop a smoldering bed of strings and unsettling sounds that are reminiscent of Nurse With Wound's creaking ship on Salt Marie Celeste. Further on in the album things simmer down to a disintegrating lullaby pace as though all emotions and energies have been spent. A broken beauty pervades. Recommended."

Love and mercy

Sad Zoo | New York, NY | 07/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've loved Carla Bozulich's work forever - The Geraldine Fibbers, Scarnella, Ethyl Meatplow, her solo work - and this is my favorite work of hers. In fact, it's the cumulation of her work including her recent performance art work. Dense, evocative... even without the vocals, this album would be mesmerizing. Carla co-produced the record with Shahzad Ismaily, and even though Efrim from Godspeed You! Black Emperor recorded most of it, Carla had final cut and final say on everything. She's a master of expressing visual images through sound and lyrics, going back to Lillybelle and The French Song with The Geraldine Fibbers. Here, you can hear the inside of a creaky country church, feel pulses beating, rain falling, lightning flashing and for a weird moment you can almost hear the sun rising. But there are vocals, and they are filled with pain and pathos, love and passion. The album begins with a nearly ten-minute song in the form of a sermon. The evangelista presents an epilogue in which she promises to free people of the sorrows and lies that drag them down. The rest of the song cycle fulfills the process through cathartis. It is grown-up stuff about real pain and real experience with love and loss. And it is genuinely good for what ails an aching heart. A record I'll pull out every time my heart breaks. Beautiful stuff."

Baptism by the light of Hell's glowing coals

Pharoah S. Wail | Inner Space | 05/05/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album is intensely visual. I exercised patience last year so I waited on this one so it could be on my Christmas list. On the one hand, thank goodness I received it. On the other, "waiting" was a bonehead maneuver. I'm trying not to say anything here that may make someone come to think of this as an album in the "a collection of songs" sense. After the first time I listened to this, I was just like "good lord what just happened?"... and I mean that in a good way. I didn't listen to it very often for those first few months I had it. Like I said, it's not just a cd with some songs on it. Evangelista is an event.



Track one was initially (for me), and remains, the pinnacle of the album. The pictures in my mind when I listen to this track... indescribable. There is a scope and size to this track that is Beyond. Track 1 could and should be made into a movie. It is THAT big. I don't mean an action-packed Hollywood rave-up. There is what's been described as the boat noise, but I don't get any nautical feelings at all during any of this album. Track 1 is satan's cowboy preacher preparing you for what she possesses. This is Carla as the Hell Plains Drifter, but no scene of a blood-red western town has the power of inner destruction inherent to this track. Most importantly though is that this isn't a put-on. This isn't like the fake evil of bad metal. This is the emotional honesty of feeling trapped in darkness.



One thing that has changed for me is that now I can't spread out my listenings anymore. Evangelista is still an event, but it's one I'm craving so often that I've given in to it. I loved Carla before, but this... if she has more of this inside her... I can only wait and wonder "what's next?". She's often times not "singing" on this album in the way she does (did) with the Geraldine Fibbers or Scarnella, but the vocalizations here... the preaching... it is, for me, monstrously powerful stuff. Her voice is incredible.



My review focused on the first track, but there is indeed much more. That track though... it fully wraps the hellish blanket of the Evangelista around you, and from then on out it's a murky world of fear and foggy beauty. I'm giving this 4 stars for no other reason than this is a new pinnacle for Carla. She seems to have stepped into a whole new (or long trapped) part of herself. I'm saving that 5th star just because I bet she's going to surpass even this in the future.



(2/8/08 edit: I've disliked my 4 stars for this review ever since I posted it. This is 1 of my favorite albums of all time. I stand by my assertion that it's a new pinnacle for Carla, but witholding a star based on what may or may not be around the corner is ridiculous. This is some of the best money I ever spent on a cd. 5 stars all the way. Also remember, depending on when you read this, either her upcoming, current or previous album is now under the Evangelista moniker. A "Carla Bozulich" search of this site does not catch Hello, Voyager."