The Creatures "Hái!" (2003)

Hái!

release date: Oct. 20, 2003

format: digital

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]

producer: The Creatures

label: Instinct / Sioux Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Say Yes!" - 4. "Godzilla!" - 5. "Imagoró" - 6. "Tourniquet"

4th and final studio album by the duo The Creatures - consisting of Siouxsie Sioux and her husband Budgie (aka Peter Clarke) following 4½ years after the acclaimed Anima Animus (1999). Siouxsie and the Banshees, in which both played, disbanded in 1996, but in 2002 the group reconvened for an abbreviated world tour, which resulted in the live album The Seven Year Itch - Live (May 2003), the final concert being played in Tokyo, after which Siouxsie and Budgie took the opportunity to stick around to record studio improvisations with taiko drummer Leonard Eto of the Japanese instrumental group Kodō, with whom Budgie had long wanted to play. Later in France, sequences from the recordings were mixed with Sioux's vocals, and a number of tracks were selected for the album here. Hai! exists in a variety of versions and may often be found as a double album - in vinyl edition with the same tracks as here on single CD, or as a 2CD version, where the album's second disc is dedicated instrumental versions of the standard album, but it's also released with the standard CD and a DVD of the full-length Tokyo improv with Budgie and Eto. The album was also reissued in 2004 with three bonus tracks.

Musically, the album is possibly the band's most experimental, where familiar styles are hard to pinpoint. In a way it follows the recipe from the band's debut album Feast (1983) by being created in the encounter with another culture, and by trying to include this encounter in the music - and at the same time it's also a return to a more organic sound without the use of electronic instruments. Here, traditional pop structures are layered on top of Budgie and Eto's percussion / drums session, where a Japanese tradition clearly shines through. The focus is not on radio-friendly hits, but rather with respect for tradition and musical improvisation as a focal point. Nevertheless, they have succeeded in creating nine distinctly different compositions, each with their own individual expression and temperament.

The album garnered positive reviews despite the fact that it landed at number #157 on the UK albums chart. The track "Godzilla!" was released as the only single from the album a week before the actual album release.

Much to normal procedure regarding album releases by The Creatures, this one is filled with complex compositions as a very original release that sounds like nothing else and still manages to present music as something other than the usual radio-friendly muzak - reminding us of other radio-friendly tones. It is music on its own terms and something that demands the presence of a listener. My first few listens were special experiences, where the music contained good elements but felt distant. After several examinations, the ears and brain may have adjusted to the specialty - the original blend, and the music became present and almost intrusively intense. It's hard to pick the best tracks, because the album is great as a whole more than anything else.

In 2004, Siouxsie Sioux undertook an acclaimed solo tour - accompanied by Budgie and guitarist Knox Chandler of The Banshees - featuring tracks from both The Creatures and Siouxsie and the Banshees' back catalogue, which was released on film DVD under the title Dreamshow (2005). In 2007, Sioux announced that she and Budgie (Peter Clarke) had separated, which also meant an end to The Creature's career, and the same year Sioux released her (so far) only solo album, Mantaray.

The Creatures "Anima Animus" (1999)

Anima Animus

release date: Feb. 15, 1999

format: cd

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,66]

producer: The Creatures

label: Sioux Records / PIAS - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "2nd Floor" (video) - 2. "Disconnected" - 4. "Take Mine" - 5. "Say" - 7. "Prettiest Thing" (live) - 8. "Exterminating Angel" (live) - 9. "Another Planet"

3rd studio album by The Creatures (Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie) released a little more than 9 years following the sophomore Boomerang (Nov. 1989) is issued on the newly established Sioux Records. The album appears to have been more or less ready to be recorded in '96, but after Siouxsie and the Banshees were released from their contract with Polydor, that also had meant a farewell for The Creatures on the label, and the duo were therefore effectively without a record deal and established in '98 the company Sioux Records only for their own releases.

A lot has clearly happened since the duo's most recent album, and although the duo experimented with electronic beats early on, Anima Animus marks a clear transition from a mainly organic sound to more pure electronic-founded music. There are still ties to a strong rhythm section with percussion as the basic structure and the sound of the marimba, but there has also been room for the inclusion of electric guitar - here handled by Psychedelic Fur's tour guitarist Knox Chandler, who also happened to play on the live tour after the album The Rapture (1995) by Siouxsie and the Banshees, just as he's also found on the same band's live album The Seven Year Itch - Live (2003). Despite the use of a vast variety of instrumentation, it's still unmistakable characteristics of The Creatures' musical universe. There is an austerity and simplicity about the compositions - they often contain progressive structures and patterns, and percussion and drums can indicate quite complex patterns, but the overall experience is that of a flow of simplicity. Perhaps because the rhythm section alone takes up a major part of the overall picture, and then there is always room for Sioux's original vocal, which lift and create a harmonic link.

The album came out to positive reviews, but simply missed a larger audience - perhaps also as a result of the band no longer being cared for by the interests of a major record company. The three singles, tracks #1, #5 and #7 were released without charting higher than No. #72 ("Say").

Anima Animus is a quite fine album where Budgie once again is left room to demonstrate his skills as an percussionist equilibrist and where Sioux also impresses with one of her finest vocal performances. PJ Harvey, for example, has included the album on her top-10 list of the best albums of '99.

The album is no less than the very best in the discography of The Creatures.

[ allmusic.com 3 / 5, The Times, Uncut 4 / 5 stars ]

The Creatures "Boomerang" (1989)

Boomerang

release date: Nov. 6, 1989

format: digital

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,44]

producer: Mike Hedges, The Creatures

label: Polydor / Wonderland - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Standing There" - 3. "Pity" - 4. "Killing Time" - 7. "Pluto Drive" - 10. "Fury Eyes" (single remix version) - 13. "Simoom"

2nd studio album by The Creatures following nearly 6½ years after the debut Feast (May '83) and 1 year after the most recent album Peepshow by Siouxsie and the Banshess, and they are all three albums with producer Mike Hedges as co-producer. The Creatures still only consist of Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie.

Musically, Boomerang continues in the footsteps of Feast with a mix of world music, mainly spun around the style of exotica with the use of various percussion instruments. The album doesn't have the same focus on the incorporation of natural sounds as found on the debut, but in place of an inspiration of sounds originating in Hawaii, the music here is based on Iberian-inspired music with elements from flamenco and Spanish jazz, and the album is also partly recorded in Andalucia.

As the debut, this was generally met by positive reviews, but without the band winning any further popularity. The tracks #1 and #10 were selected for singles releases, although, unable to match the previous positions on the singles chart. However, the track "Killing Time" was later 'adopted' and often played by Siouxsie and the Banshees at live concerts, as well as Jeff Buckley succesfully made a live cover of the song.

Boomerang has more of an art pop feel to it and it reaches more towards recognisable mainstream music structures without impressing altogether. Still, the album rises above the purely curious and wins after multiple spins, where several tracks appear as more solid and sonically simple compositions than found on Feast.

After this, The Creatures continued as a project, but it was nine years before the duo released their next follow-up, Anima Animus (Feb. 1999).

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, NME, Record Mirror 4 / 5 stars ]

The Creatures "Feast" (1983)

Feast [debut]

release date: May 20, 1983

format: vinyl (SHELP 1) / digital

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,12]

producer: Mike Hedges, The Creatures

label: Wonderland / Polydor - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: A) 3. "Ice House" - 4. "Dancing on Glass" - 5. "Gecko" - - B) 2. "Festival of Colours" - 3. "Miss the Girl"

Studio album debut by the duo The Creatures, consisting of Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie, vocalist and drummer respectively in Siouxsie and the Banshees (SATB). The album is the first on newly formed label Wonderland (started by SATB) and it's produced by Mike Hedges, previously credited as sound engineer on A Kiss in the Dreamhouse (1982) by SATB, and as a producer already a high-profile name within the post-punk-related scene, where in '82-83 he produced for e.g. The Cure, Associates, The Beat, and The Undertones.

Musically, The Creatures are naturally closely related to SATB, but it's still a radically more experimental soundscape that you hear on Feast, with its distinct mix of the special easy-listening style of exotica with remnants and touches from exotic world music (here musically inspired by sounds and music from Hawaii) and art pop, and where more traditional rock instruments such as electric guitar and bass are replaced by that of percussion - instruments such as xylophone, pipe bells, vibraphone, marimba and the like, and with the incorporation of natural sounds (the special exotica impression) and vocal. Rumour has it that Sioux and Budgie used a globe before they had the tracks for the album - they spun the globe and with eyes closed one of them used a finger to stop spinning the globe, thus pointing at a random place which happened to be (close to) Hawaii - that approach then was the starting point for the music. The two traveled to the American state to find inspiration for the album, which in this way was given natural sound patterns and a distinctly exotic touch.

The album garnered good reviews and landed a nice 17th place on the UK albums chart, although part of the album's success is probably due to the familiarity of Siouxsie and the Banshees and the fact that Polydor saw the duo as potential hitmakers and spent some financial resources to help promote the band. And precisely to this notion, Feast doesn't exactly contain notable single hits. "Miss the Girl" was selected for sole single release and the track peaked at No. #21 on the singles chart. Two months later, The Creatures released "Right Now" as a single - a cover track originally from 1962 with music by Herbie Mann and lyrics by Carl Sigman, as song which is probably best known in Mel Tormé's version from the same year. That single became The Creatures' highest-charting single peaking at number #14 in the UK (none of the band's later releases charted similarly). Despite good reviews, where the duo garnered great praise for originality, I personally don't think that the album is all that convincing. Sioux sounds like herself, which is a quality in itself, and Budgie is an excellent percussionist who gets an opportunity to show his worth, but as a whole the album is more of an interesting curiosity with great originality than being close to a real masterpiece.

Mostly for collectors and fans of Siouxsie and the Banshees.

[ allmusic.com, Record Mirror 4 / 5 stars ]