Thunder Perfect Mind [Extra tracks]

Current 93 | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 31, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 1992
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Extra tracks
• Label: Durtro / Jnana
• ASIN: B0009F4462
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,254 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an album of fragile, crystalline perfection, March 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Thunder Perfect Mind (Audio CD)

Current 93 are, in my opinion, the best band working, possibly ever. David Tibet takes the excessively prolific aesthetic of Psychic TV several steps further. Not only does he release a ton of music, but he releases a ton of GOOD music, which is more difficult. Really, I can't think of a band with more truly great albums than Current 93. That said, Thunder Perfect Mind stands out even in Tibet's catalogue. Stated simply this is perfect music. When I first heard this, I knew I was hearing the music I had been searching years for. Everything on this album is right, lyrics, arrangements, performance, vocal deliveries, everything. It also marks a sort of end of an era for Current 93, being the last recording to feature longtime contributors Douglas P and Rose McDowall (although Rose has continued to perform live with Tibet) and the first to feature Michael Cashmore, who has had much to do with the band's sound since. It also marks a sort of end to Tibet's more epic songwriting styles, soon to be replaced by much more personal material. When it came out, Thunder Perfect Mind seemed to represent an unreachable peak for Current 93. Then came "Of Ruine," and the peak was reached once again. Brilliant.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of the best, August 30, 2000

By 

Dave Lang (Coburg, VIC Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thunder Perfect Mind (Audio CD)

Current 93 are admittedly an aquired taste. I myself do not like a good third of their material, but when they're on, they're on, and this is about as ON as they've ever gotten. Taking a huge musical swing with '88's "Earth Covers Earth" (also a C93 high point), where inwhich they dropped their creepy industrial tag only to steep themselves in a kind of strange, mystical folk netherworld inspired by the likes of the Incredible String Band, Comus and Shirley/Dolly Collins, the band was well traversed in the given genre by 1992 to make their masterpiece. This is it. Featuring the usual suspects of Balance/Wood/Stapleton/McDowall, etc., as well as the likes of Nick Saloman (that's Bevis Frond to you, sir), David Tibet has successfully created a simply mesmerising collection of songs that play on all the best aspects of his talents: the ability to tell creepy stories with a melodic, enchanting, yet often melancholy backdrop by his cohorts. "A Sadness Song" is probably the best song he's ever done, and the 10+ minute track, "Hitler as Kalki", contains some stunning psych guitar work from Mr. Saloman. "Thunder Perfect Mind" contains next to none of the insane ranting nor vapid pretensions that marr certain other C93 releases, and all that talk of them being "gothic masters" (and I loathe "gothic" music) is pure baloney: this is pure psychedelia the way it should be: a head trip without the drugs, just the sounds.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What an Album., February 7, 2004

By 

IcemanJ (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Thunder Perfect Mind (Audio CD)

Containing nothing more than a frightened, innocent looking cat on the cover, I think this album contains some of the best simple, dark, sad folk songs and a few strange, experimental ones. I should probably be saying things like "this is Current 93's highest point of their career," or "their best album by far", but I don't know for sure since the only other one I have so far is "All the Pretty Little Horses" - I'm having a little trouble obtaining more of their albums. This album is very diverse and solid, with 16 tracks, 78 minutes of music, and 15 people contributing things, complete with pictures of all of them. Instrumentation Includes: *takes a deep breath* 6 vocalists, 5 guitarists, 2 bassists, corrugations (samples), "smokes," percussion, hand percussion, violin, tin whistle, clarinet, recorder, harp, electric dulcimer, cello, and bells.

It starts off with a very short instrumental, which sounds so medieval-like, but in a very warm, countryside kind of way... then it goes into "The Descent of Long Satan and Babylon," a fairly short and basic song. Next comes "A Sadness Song," one of my favorites. The acoustic melody is just so dark, calm, and satisfying, and after a while, the recorder is added to the song, along with female backing vocals adding more color and atmosphere. "A Song for Douglas After He's Dead" is complete with a pleasant medieval-sounding harp; this song really sounds like something you'd hear while exploring a castle in England in the 1500's. "In the heart of the wood and what I found there" starts off with the same melody as the first track, and turns out to be one of the best songs (I say that a lot though) that gradually picks up tempo and has a great flowing acoustic melody. "A Silence Song" is maybe my favorite song on the album, starting off very calmly, with one of the best cascading and soft acoustic melodies, along with cello, forming a very dark, lonely, and calm atmosphere, isolating the listener from reality. It's truly one of the most epic and inspiring songs I've ever heard, but in a subtle way, not lengthy or melodramatic by any means. "A Lament for My Suzanne" has more of those super light and fluffy vocals by Rose McDowell, and consists mainly of harp, no guitar. Harp should be used instead of guitar more often - it's very pleasant, yet melancholy. "Riverdeadbank" is one of the calmest songs; it has unique low-pitched female vocals and a very restrained violin loop in the background.

"All the Stars are Dead Now" begins some slightly strange and experimental songs. It starts off with a breif "big-band" type intro, with trumpets and everything, which is even more bizarre juxtaposed to the song before it. Most of the song has very bizarre sounding electronically distorted echoes on Tibet's voice, and he must say the word "dead" about 200 times, along with very strange, unsettling lyrics. The constant, repetitive acoustic guitar melody is very good, and when the recorder comes into the song though, it is so good. "Rosy Star Tears from Heaven" has more of the same vocals, but much more obvious, and almost frightening. Halfway through the song, you can hear the strange, raspy voice transform into a soft female voice, and they go through the same series of lyrics. This then transforms into "When the May Rain Comes" with a very nice intro that sounds good because its kind of "back to normal" after two strange songs. This sounds almost like a children's or fairytale song, with slightly southern-US sounding guitar work. "Thunder Perfect Mind I" & II are more on the experimental side, comparatively ambient and frightening, and pretty interesting. "Hitler as Kalki" is 16 and a half minutes long, and not one of my favorites, although it's not too bad. It starts off very slowly, and in my opinion, is quite tiresome in its entirety. The album concludes with "A Sad Sadness Song," sort of a reprise of track 4, changing aspects of it to make it sound the most depressing possible. The guitars are more distant and blurred together; the recorder melody is extremely distant and barely audible, and the vocals are handled by the same female on "Riverdeadbank" with the same style: very hopeless, low-pitched, lonely, and echoed. "A Sad Sadness Song" Indeed - the perfect way to close the album.

This is by far one of my favorite Folk-Noir CDs so far (Probably third right now, who knows, I may consider it my favorite someday), it definitely is one of those albums that has a distinct sound that just cannot be found anywhere else, and can never be outdone by themselves or anyone else.