Schrei X Live [Live]

Diamanda Galas | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 22, 1996)
• Original Release Date: October 22, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Mute U.S.
• ASIN: B000003Z4Q
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #372,443 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ambient Diamanda, May 17, 2002

By 

Snow Leopard (Urbana, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Schrei X Live (Audio CD)

This is an exceptionally good album to play as background noise--and I mean that literally; elevator music for the insane asylum.

It's not that it doesn't bear close scrutiny. As usual, Galas has unleashed another psychological assault on us that is without peer in non-classical music anywhere that I know of. Consider the last track, "Hee Shock Die". At first glance, it is 7 minutes of Galas auditioning for (and being a shoe-in) for the next cackling witch role in some Hollywood movie. It's all the more surprising, since Galas laughing, however sarcastically, is a rare thing to hear in her music. The only discernible words, meanwhile, are "Okay go" and "Kick my head." Then more of that, now a bit disturbing, laughter. What a chilling shock it is to realize that one is actually hearing 3 people in a room, two of which are torturing the third, and laughing, laughing, laughing as they do. Yikes. And for those who think that Galas is just randomly laughing, note the modulations of the laughter--from the "Deliverance"-style inbred hickness on the one hand, to the hints of Nazi German laughter and the Japanese or Vietnamese POW camp laughter. These details are there if you can stand to listen closely.

Only Diamanda Galas can take us to such places; at least, I know of no one else who does. And not because she is morbid or fixated, focussing on a creature trapped in a space and repeatedly subjected to torture, as the liner notes tell us, but because those darkest corridors of the human psyche are still at work in other countries and in our backyard. And are, moreover, at the heart of the human condition, as the quotation from Job reminds us as well, since in one sense we are all creatures trapped in the cage of the earth, that are repeatedly subjected to tortures. The fact that Galas depicts this, and transforms it into art and artistic expression is, by the way, the refutation of the apparent hopelessness of our condition. As always, her work is about overcoming, creating meaning out of senseless suffering, and so forth.

Meanwhile, I still like to listen to this, one of Galas' most challenging works, as background screams. My mood doesn't call for this often, of course, but when it does, only Diamanda'll do.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do be careful..., August 3, 2003

By 

Thomas (Kelso, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Schrei X Live (Audio CD)

Make no mistake, this is a totally mindblowing record. More proof that Ms. Galas is an incredibly gifted vocalist, and more proof that she has a knack for capturing the psyche's state in horrible situations... but let me warn you now, while it says "Play At Maximum Volume" on the liner TURN YOUR STEREO DOWN DURING TRACK 8 !!!! It blew out my speakers, and it will do it to yours. I looked at the levels on various equipment and Track 8 (Hepar) slams them to the maximum and keeps them there. BE WARNED.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tortured, Tormented- A Pleasure To Listen To, June 11, 2000

By 

JJB - See all my reviews

This review is from: Schrei X Live (Audio CD)

Once again the amazing vocal talent of Diamanda Galas presents the listener with a challenging work. There are no real songs in a traditional sense but musical movements of the mind communicating with the vocal cords. The use of vocal processing, especially reverb and delay, is ingenious. Not only do the effects enhance but they also assist in carrying the work, adding space and an air of clausterphobia, to its inevitable violent conclusion.

The listener is subjected to the most contorted and abusive shrieks that one can imagine. At times gentle and others sounding like a horde of various animals being beaten with hammers.

This recording is as near as a well connected mind can come to being in the state of disconnection.

Truly, a beautiful display of what the human voice can achieve.