Miranda Sex Garden / A Collection

Miranda Sex Garden

One of the more interesting bands to come out of the early 90's, Miranda Sex Garden reshaped the sounds of bands such as Dead Can Dance by placing their classical influences heavily in the forefront. After their first release (which would normally be found in the "Classical" section at a music store), Madra, Miranda Sex Garden moved towards a darker, "gothic" sound with each subsequent release.



Miranda Sex Garden / Madra
Released 1991

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The group's first album consists of madrigals and traditional songs, most of them from the 18th century or earlier. A dance remix of one of the songs, "Gush Forth My Tears," became a surprise club hit. Musically, Madra is nothing more than the voices of Miranda Sex Garden in all their pristine clarity -- the album is completely a cappella. The vocals and material are exceptionally beautiful; Madra is a unique and refreshing listen. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide

Miranda Sex Garden / Iris EP
Released 1992

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"Iris" (1992) is a transitional album of capital importance for the band as they managed to develop here their own trademark sound. The almost unprecedented combination of classically trained vocalists and their instruments coupled with the abilities of new added musicians (Ben Golomstock on guitar and Trevor Sharpe on drums) produced, against all odds, hugely impressive achievements.

This mini-album is a little known masterpiece. An exquisite sample of lyrical and musical talent. The beginning of the record is conventional enough, a cover version of the traditional song "Lovely Joan". At this very point nothing really makes you suspect that the band was going to dramatically change their style that much with respect to "Madra", but suddenly the tranquil voices become progressively more and more menacing until exploding into a powerful climax of shouted lyrics. From then on, nothing was gonna be the same for this group. Theirs was a break with the past on behalf of risk. The real nature of Miranda Sex Garden's art, their true iconoclastic essence, had finally come into being for our listening pleasure. - Amazon.com Review by Stranger

Miranda Sex Garden / Suspiria
Released 1993

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The group's second full-length album finds Miranda Sex Garden going in a rock direction. Loud guitars and pounding drums mix with droning cellos and sawing violins on songs such as "Open Eyes." Even the group's vocal style is more pungent and aggressive, with the heretofore dulcet tones of the group now transformed into wild, banshee-like shrieks and snarls. Despite the radical changes in direction, the group still manages to create a powerful and individual album in Suspiria. Along with Madra, it's one of the group's best efforts. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide

Miranda Sex Garden / Fairytale of Slavery
Released 1994

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By the time of Fairytales of Slavery, the seemingly winsome trio had left their medieval a cappella roots long behind them, as the transformation apparent in following records had reached a new level of intensity. It didn't hurt that Alexander Hacke from Einstürzende Neubaten was producing; bandmate F.M. Einheit contributed some typically atypical percussion here and there to lend even more of an extreme stamp on the results. Swirling with a rampaging intensity right from the start thanks to "Cut" and in particular Trevor Sharpe's absolutely massive drumming work in partnership with Donna McKevitt's strings, Fairytales of Slavery is a lost delight of an album. Out of place in 1994's music scene and even more of a strange jewel when viewed at a distance, the only contemporaries for the group might well have been Cranes, but even that misses the essential differences between the two excellent bands. McKevitt and Katharine Blake aren't Alison Shaw, for one thing, their singing more straightforward and direct even when swathed in layers of music and stretched out syllable by syllable. Meanwhile, there's less fragile darkness in the band's collective work and more gripping, brisk assault, as "Cover My Face" and the ever-more-fired-up "Wheel" readily demonstrate (though "A Fairytale of Slavery" does come close to a very Cranes-like death-march-with-piano crawl). Elsewhere, songs like "Fly" and "Serial Angels" balance quiet parts with sudden, dramatic explosions. The twinkling delicacy of "The Wooden Boat" in particular catches the imagination, with Trevor Sharpe's percussion work again lending a hefty undertow, but without overpowering the song until the increasingly frenetic conclusion. Perhaps the best comparison in the end is to labelmates Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds -- gifted, intriguing lead singers with music able to work in both low-key and amped-up fashion. Points as well for the spectacular cover of the Brecht/Weill classic "Havana Lied," in the original German. - Ned Raggett, All Music Guide

Miranda Sex Garden / Carnival of Souls
Released 2000

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It's not as raw or unproduced-sounding as their last cd, the heavily Einstürzende Neubauten-influenced FAIRYTALES OF SLAVERY. No 9-minute instrumentals like on SUSPIRIA, either. But overall there's more great songs here than on both those albums combined. Much better production too. Singer Katherine Blake's voice is as seductive as usual. No more Donna McKevitt, though. So the madrigal-style harmonizing that was ever-present on previous releases is mostly absent. But you won't even notice Donna's gone, since Katherine sings so hypnotically. As you might expect in a Miranda Sex Garden cd, there's plenty of atmosphere, dramatically complex song structures, exotic percussion, and loads of spacey guitars and violins. And there's even a french horn on some of the songs. This one seems to have more "shoegazer"-style long blasts of sheer noise than previous albums, too. To me, the single 'Tonight' reminds me a little of a Portishead song. The wonderful 'Caravan' too. But most of the other songs are as loud and scary as anything they've ever recorded. (Well, there's nothing on here as scary as 'Play' from SUSPIRIA, but that'd be impossible to top). 'Broken Glass' is so gorgeous you'll want to put it on repeat-play forever. And 'Close to the Sky' is even greater, if that's possible. This is a near-perfect cd by a perfect band. I'm thrilled they've finally made an album that lives up to their well-deserved reputation as being one of the greatest live acts of our time. - Matthew Hall, Amazon.com review