PETER MURPHY launches new record label Silver Shade Records

PETER MURPHY <strong>launches new record label Silver Shade Records</strong>

First two releases: ‘Peter Live – Vol One – Covers’ & ‘Peter Live – Vol Two – The Blender Theater NYC 2008’

To be released June 21st via Cadiz Music HERE:

‘Volume One Covers’ features a version of ‘Hurt’ by Nine Inch Nails featuring Trent Reznor on piano

pic – Jolene Siana

One of the icons of the post-punk years, Peter Murphy fronted the dark art house crew Bauhaus. His charismatic, devilish and dangerous personae, combined with his stunning voice and razor-sharp cheekbones, saw him become one of the pin-ups for what was to be mislabelled Goth. 

Post Bauhaus, he released a series of acclaimed solo albums and fronted the band on their intermittent back-from-the-dead reunions before the band collapsed in 2023.

Bauhaus were never short of giving a nod to their mentors with several well-executed covers that they made their own. The singer continues this tradition with ‘Peter Live – Vol One – Covers’, the

first of two albums for his own new Silver Shade label, showcasing his own solo interpretations. The albums are prefaced with ‘Peter Live’.  ‘Peter Live – Vol One – Covers’ and ‘Peter Live – Vol Two – The Blender Theater NYC 2008’. Silver Shade will release his live concerts and re-issue solo albums in future times.

There is more to a cover version than copying it note for note, and the ever-astute vocalist gets to the heart of the art of darkness of these songs by unzipping them inside out whilst giving a nod to the music that made him what he is.

He stamps his own authority all over them, from a thrilling take on Iggy’s ‘Funtime’ to a dramatic version of ‘Hurt’. There is a terrifying, sparse dynamic take on Pere Ubu’s iconic ‘Final Solution’ and a stomping and powerful nod to Howard Devoto’s Magazine with a brilliant take on their ‘The Light Pours Out Of Me’.

Theatrical embraces of Elvis’s ‘Love Me Tender’ and Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ underline the eclectic spirit of Peter’s musical journey and, of course, being one of the generation of the children of Ziggy, there is the Bowie moment on the stunning take on David’s first hit, ‘Space Oddity’ that adds to the song’s sense of unease and isolation. 

The album concludes with ‘Hurt’ with the song’s writer Trent Reznor (NIN) playing the piano and Peter re-claiming the song from Johnny Cash’s version for power and emotion. 

Peter Murphy: “There’s no point in covering a song unless of course it’s got you somewhere in there. To have chosen ‘Purple Rain’ was at the time of the general expectation that I would opt for some lame purposely naff ‘alternative’ song was and is a stroke of genius in action. The audio might be wanting on a couple of songs, but if that puts you off, then go and listen to any of the thousand mediocre songs of some tiresome star.”   

The second release, ‘Peter Live Vol Two Blender Theater NYC 2008’, is an unreleased concert from the Blender Theatre at Gramercy on 27th June 2008 and Peter and the band are in shimmering form.

Includes Bauhaus and Peter’s career spanning solo highlights such as ‘Cuts you Up’, ‘I’ll Fall With Your Knife’, ‘Crystal Wrists’ and ‘Gliding Like a Whale’. 

The two albums are snapshots of something special, something spiritual and are full of a musical imagination creating hypnotic takes on key songs from Peter’s life. The live edge adds a frisson of excitement, and the iconic frontman proves he is far from undead with some of the best vocals of his long career in these two snapshots that harbingers further musical missives from the archive.

Peter Live – Vol One – Covers 

CADIZLP269 Sleeve artwork features original painting by Peter. Golden nugget coloured vinyl, limited edition. Embossed sleeve. 

Pre-order HERE:

Find Peter Murphy online HERE:

The Hillbilly Moon Explosion – The Sparky Sessions (Jungle Records)

The Hillbilly Moon Explosion – The Sparky Sessions (Jungle Records)

Never mind Brexit this is the European Union, in session the Hillbilly Moon Explosion features two Englishmen currently residing in Switzerland A French Drummer and one Italian/Swiss to round it off oh and a guest from Deepest darkest Welsh Wales. Mixing up an eclectic blend of Roots Rock and Roll, some Dark Rock, a punk attitude at times with a healthy or should that be unhealthy dose of Rockabilly and throw in some swing, soul, ska, garage and pop  – I kid you not this really is a melting pot that can go anywhere they like and still come out sounding cohesive and well, bloody magic.

The ‘Sparky Sessions’ is the bands seventh album, yup I know what you’re thinking, I wasn’t sure how many I have either; a few but seven is remarkable. A band this good can’t go under the mainstream radar for so long (when I say so long the sixteen million views on youtube aren’t all bots I guess).  When I say mainstream, I mean I told a few people who I was listening to and they shrugged their shoulders, these are people who listen to a lot of underground music of all persuasions and they’d never heard the band.  So strap yourselves in and join me on a journey into the magic sprinkled ‘Sparky Sessions’ courtesy of The Hillbilly Moon Explosion.

What we have here is a whole long player of duets featuring the guest vocals of the one and only Mark Phillips he of the Demented Are Go parish here in South Wales. After dueting on the murder ballad from 2011’s ‘Beg Steal Or Borrow’ to be fair nobody in their right mind would have mixed the oil and water of Phillips vocal style with that of Emanuela Hutters – but it works and the choice of songs is inspired.  Forget Cave and Minogue or Jagger and Turner – its Phillips and Hutter that have the magic. This whole record will testify that from the rockers to the sultry smoldering murder ballads this is an exceptional piece of work. A magnificent eleven that is weaved into an exceptional record that is one of the finest I’ve heard all year thus far,  one I’m sure will be carried triumphantly into the end of year best of – easily.

 

The covers are stunning but the original songs stand shoulder to shoulder alongside such classics as ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ and ‘Baby I Love You’.  A total of seven new songs were recorded along with the four that had previously seen the light of day of the originals ‘Black Ghost’ builds and builds into a cacophony but it’s not the jarring racket but a harnessed noise that builds to an awesome climax.

 

It’s a bold and brave offering that has more than a sprinkling of magic throughout Hutter has a voice that can melt the ice caps of the north pole and Sparky has the vocal cords to rival a drilling from Thors hammer and put together it’s a beautiful thing brothers and sister trust me. ‘Northern Crown’ is smokey whilst ‘Jackson’ is just a total fuckin’ killer version.  I must have heard about a million covers of this one and this Hillbilly Moon Explosion take is head and shoulders the best yet even better than Carter and Cash in Fulsome Prison.  They absolutely take ownership and just kill it stone dead – sublime. and to end with that Murder Ballad ‘My Love For Evermore’ is still a spine-tingling classic that just works.

If there’s a better record released this month then I need to hear it but I seriously doubt it, folks, this is my album of the month maybe album of the summer – let’s see. Enough waffle from me pick it up and let the music do the talking this one just won’t shut up!  I only hope that this won’t be the end and one day like Skywalker on that mountain the Hillbilly Moon Explosion will come calling and Sparky will hear that call and once again record some new songs together but if that never happens (never say never) thank God we have this collection to live with. Love Songs And Murder Ballads a near-perfect collision of beauty and the beast, light and darkness.  Just buy it!

Author: Dom Daley

 

Buy the Sparky Sessions Here