release date: Jun. 1993
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,26]
producer: Julian Cope
label: Ma-Gog - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: [see Skellington 1] [from Skellington 2] 13. "Electrical Stormgirl" - 16. "I've Got My T.V. & My Pills" - 25. "London Underground"
9th studio album by Julian Cope chronologically following Jehovakill (Oct. '92) with certain reservations, as the album here contains the entire original lo-fi album Skellington from '89 in its original version and in addition to that, the continuation Skellington 2 or: Skellington 2: He's Back... and This Time It's Personal! All 25 tracks are contained on a single CD with a total playing time of just over 71 minutes. As the first part, Skellington 2 was also recorded over just two days and here released on Cope's own company Ma-Gog. However, the most recent release with Cope is the album Rite (Feb. '93), credited Cope & Donald Ross Skinner.
Musically, it's 'just' more of the same - mainly Cope alone accompanied by acoustic guitar and with contributions from Donald Ross Skinner and Mark 'Rooster' Cosby in a mix of folk rock and psychedelic folk with tracks of varying length - however, half of the songs are just under two minutes.
The album was re-released in '99 on Cope's label, the former Ma-Gog Records, now Head Heritage, under the name Ye Skellington Chronicles [except one track of more than 8 minutes with a slightly different style containing more distinct krautrock and space rock, and instead added a newer live track and an uncredited version of "Trampolene"]. In 2018, Skellington 3 followed ('only' with twelve new tracks) with the subtitle "The All-New 21st Century Adventures of Skellington" as the provisional end of the Skellington series.
The album serves as an example of Cope's idea of creating music in the moment as flowing ideas and musical improvs - which you will also find on Rite - but it is rather far from contemporary albums like Jehovakill (1992) and Autogeddon (1994). The second part of the "Skellington" series is, albeit recorded in the same spirit, an even more experimental continuation, which probably appeals more to hardcore fans.
This album can't be recommended as a start, but it contains quite fine moments.
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| Skellington 2: He's Back... |
