Litanies of Satan

Diamanda Galas, Throbbing Gristle | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 31, 1995)
• Label: Fine Line Records
• ASIN: B000000IHK
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,422,176 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "I am not talking about steak....", April 11, 2001

By 

Eric McCalla "reviewboy" (Denver, COLORADO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Litanies of Satan (Audio CD)

If you are not familiar with Diamanda Galas' extraordinary vocal capabiities, this is the disc to introduce you to them. These 2 recordings, LITANIES OF SATAN and WILD WOMEN WITH STEAK KNIVES, were recorded in the early 80s in London. The background story behind the production of WWWSK is particularly interesting. Seek out a copy of Forced Exposure magazine from 1989. Diamanda's interview will give you so much insight into her creative processes. She talks about literally being awake for more than 24 hours, fueled by caffeine among other things, and laboring through the recording process for WWWSK with producer Dave Hunt in a freezing London basement. Sound boards crashing, microphones blowing out, and numerous re-takes are all in a normal day's "work" for Miss Galas. Best of all her sense of humor really comes through in her interviews.

WWWSK is an aural "exploration" for lack of a better word, of a woman in the throes of schizophrenia. Mixing glossolalia, reverb, spatial delay, signal processing, and multi-tracking, Galas brings out the many complex layers of this woman's psyche. There is much terror and humor in her "words", sometimes the two emotions colliding in the same sound-space. You will understand what I mean only upon hearing it numerous times. Each listening brings a new experience to the listener.

What is so amazing to me is that I have been playing this for more than 11 years, and it still sounds and is BEYOND the avant-garde in music. To call her art "music" is in many ways a disservice. What Galas does is so much more. Her compositions take the listener into places of the human experience most of us will never know. It is her unique ability to communicate psychological, emotional and psychical states of consciousness with such force and clarity that keeps her from being merely 'categorized' for the comfort of art and music critics alike.

She will continue to drag the art, music and social critics kicking and screaming into the future that is her particular style of Expressionism.

"O, Satan, prends pitie de ma longue misere..."

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Majestic and Grotesque -- A Great Place to Start, August 26, 2000

By 

Michael (Olympia, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Litanies of Satan (Audio CD)

This early work by Galas features two pieces, the magisterial "Litanies of Satan" that uses a text by Baudelaire for lyrics, and the hysterical (in both senses of the word) "Wild Women with Steak-Knives", aptly subtitled "The Homicidal Love-Song for Solo Scream". The two pieces taken together are an excellent example of Galas' vocal and compositional ability, though they do not showcase the piano-voice or rock-oriented compositions of some of her other work. "Litanies" is literally a tour of the Inferno, with all of the grandeur of Dante's national epic; "Wild Women" is nothing but bare, amplified voice in an empty room, howling -- disjointed, fragmented, schizophrenic and an incredibly impressive display of what Galas can do with her voice.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Litanies Of Satan ~ Diamanda Galas, February 24, 2002

By 

Thijs (Groesbeek, Gelderland Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Litanies of Satan (Audio CD)

Well, this is the weirdest record I own! Diamanda Galas has a voice that cannot be described. On this album there are two pieces, Wild Women With Steak-Knives and The Litanies of Satan. WWWSk features Galas screaming over and over like a madman. Her voices carries higher then I have ever heard! The Litanies Of Satan is a version of a poem by a French autor. This is a really creepy album, but if you like challenging art/music, this is the album for you!