Re: and industrial/gothic

[GAronoff <GAronoff...>]

I'm not familiar with Voltaire's music but based on the description below, he 
and the music sound interesting.  Wasn't there a post a few months ago about 
a Jewish Mexican Goth cd?

Gideon

PRO83 Voltaire The Devil's Bris CD1998

Tracks: 1.Ex Lover's Lover 2.Anniversary 3.Parade 4.The Man Upstairs 5.They 
Know Me 6.Oweee 7.Snakes 8.Ravens Land 9.The Chosen 10.All The Way Down 
11.When You're Evil 12.Shalom 

Something wicked this way comes. Direct from the underground New York Goth 
scene comes this strange brew of gypsy violins, driving rhythms, sardonic wit 
and turn-of-the-century mayhem. Combining beautiful old-world melodies with 
viciously sarcastic lyrics, Wagnerian bravado with Brechtian allure, Voltaire 
has crafted twelve songs of love, loss, revenge and dismemberment sure to 
bring a smile to even the darkest of souls. 

Other Meaty Morsels:

* Voltaire's "other job" is as a director and stop-motion animator, producing 
eye-catching, darkly morbid station IDs for MTV, USA Network, The Sci-Fi 
Channel and numerous TV commercials. The Sci-Fi Channel spot featured his 
song, "When You're Evil," and prompted thousands of email inquiries to the 
Sci-Fi Channel and Voltaire websites.

* The Devil's Bris is produced by Richard Fortus (guitarist of Love Spit 
Love) and features musicians whose past credentials include work with John 
Cage, Elliot Sharp, David Byrne, Anthony Braxton and Enya.

* Voltaire is a staple of the New York City goth club scene and performs 
regularly there. Voltaire has opened for Projekt's black tape for a blue girl 
on several recent east coast tour dates and will be taking part in "The 
Projekt Festival," a touring road show this summer with shows in Chicago, New 
York City and Philadelphia.

* Voltaire illustrates/writes the Chi-Chian comic book (on Sirius). Another 
Voltaire illustrated/written comic book, Oh My Goth (also on Sirius), is the 
graphic novel of Voltaire's musician character, and will be released 
simultaneously with The Devil's Bris. 

and more to digest . . . 

Voltaire is a singer/songwriter whose music has its roots deeply imbedded in 
European folk music. His songs speak of love and, most often, the loss 
thereof with the added twist of how best to seek revenge on the ones who have 
hurt you. Lyrically, he explores and reveals those moments of vulnerability 
most would rather not discuss and exploits with childish abandon those 
fleeting streaks of cruelty we all feel but choose not to act upon or even 
mention. 

Voltaire's live shows, whether solo or with his skeletal orchestra, are 
highly theatrical -full of props and stories. The visual quality of his 
performances is not surprising; Voltaire has been directing commercials and 
animating short films for the last ten years. He's best known for his 
Hieronymous Bosch inspired station ID's for MTV. 

Inspired by the films of Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th 
Voyage of Sinbad), Voltaire began animating at the age of ten on a super8 
camera. At that time, he says, "no three dimensional object was safe. My 
brother's action figures, my sister's dolls, silverware, etc . . . If it was 
missing, chances were that it was in the basement in front of my camera." 

Eventually, piecing together snippets of information from fanzines, he was 
able to teach himself how to make foam rubber animation models and animate 
them with fluidity and realism. The films of his childhood landed him his 
first directing job in 1988. That project was the classic MTV ID called 
"MTV-Bosch." The stop-motion tour of the hellish "Garden of Earthly Delights" 
went on to win several awards including a Broadcast Design Award and helped 
to establish Voltaire's style of animation. 

His strange stew of gothic darkness, baroque lushness and whimsical 
surrealism has been seen in a score of television commercials for clients 
such as Cartoon Network, USA and The Sci-Fi Channel. His short films which he 
describes as being "an opportunity for me to be as strange and demented as I 
care to be," have been seen at animation festivals around the world, 
including the sinister "Rakthavira" which toured as part of Expanded 
Entertainment's Too Outrageous Animation. 

Presently, Voltaire is teaching stop-motion at The School of Visual Arts in 
New York and continues to direct and animate for television, when not touring 
with his band. 

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+