“Mad Girls Love Song” heaves its way into your heart from moment one, a disconcerting and inverted take on the idea that romanticism must be universally palatable to be fully comprehended and embraced. Not so with Mortuus Auris and the Black Hand, UK sound artist Peter Taylor’s main recording moniker. Taylor instead embraces the noxious qualities of sentiment, the gurgling churn of guts and fluids, the cockeyed, misfiring synapses that spark to life in the midst of unusual social circumstances. Are these good things? I can’t believe you’re asking me that. Your experience will be your guide.
Tristimania borrows its name from the book by Jay Griffiths, whose subtitle, A Diary of Manic Depression, illuminates the MAbH album and also Taylor’s own internal struggles. “It documents my constant battle with anxiety, mania and depression,” he candidly admits, and, much like his other work as MAbH, Tristimania plays like a travelogue through his personal warzones. Good news, though: “I am exiting a very dark run of events,” a statement that points to hope in the future, a “lightening” of situations, a dissipation of distress. I’m banking on that.
Still, as Taylor processes, “mad girls” still appear, as do terms such as “freak,” “desire,” “protest,” and “regret,” terms not uncommon to this situation. But the MAbH temperament breaks through the dourness of these, synthesizers propelling a level mood, as if all were merely observable signposts along the road to diagnosis and recovery. To paraphrase PiL, may the zone rise with you, and here you can join Taylor to meet it gladly and vibe off into the infinite future. Sure, there’ll be ups and downs, but maybe we can be prepared for them. Tristimania will help with that.
For the geeks: Tristimania CDs are hand-made, coming housed in recycled cardboard, art stock paper and … elephant dung liner notes? (I’m gonna be honest, I washed my hands after reading that. Don’t tell me about the sterilization process.) Edition of ten, although this was a nice surprise:
Thanks Peter!
More about: Mortuus Auris and the Black Hand
