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 Alan Wilder was a member of Depeche Mode from their second album onwards until his unexpected departure after the Devotional Tour in the 90's and has been instrumental (sorry) in helping develop and hone their sound.
Both during his tenure with Depeche Mode and latterly on his own, he has had a side 'project' under the Recoil monicker which has produced a number of stunning but increasingly dark and disturbing albums. Each one uses a number of different guest musicians and vocalists, so even within a single album there are many different styles, but all have that unmistakable attention to sonic synth detail that he is so good at.
His prime collaborators on Liquid are performance poets Nicole Blackman and Samantha Coerbell and Diamanda Galas whom I'd previously only come across on The Tube many years ago as she shrieked for 5 minutes whilst wandering around a gothic looking set.
The tracks
1.: Black Box (part 1). The opening track has a heavily accented male talkover, a collage of jet sounds, timpanis and alternating slow synth strings and driving rythyms. The words describe a plane crash and the song is directly lifted from Wilder's own experience in Scotland when a military jet crashed near him and describes the last moments of the two pilots and their thoughts. The track effectively book-ends the album although a far longer and to my mind far superior version appears on one of the Recoil singles as a 'b-side'.
2.: Want. My favourite track on the album. Again, more of a spoken piece with a seductive female voice c/o Nicole Blackman, icon of the North American Goth ,scene listing all the things she wants. No, not Jimmy Choo shoes but revenge, annihilation and torture. A typical line being 'I want to keep you alive so there is always the possibility of murder, later'. A driving drum track and background whispers and echoed effects and long slow pad sounds build up to chord changes that almost invariably make my spine tingle. Pure perfection.
3.: Jezebel. This could almost be a Moby track and is effectively a reading of the biblical story with a delivery like an old style preacher. Again, a perfectly crafted set of background rhythms and sounds make this another stand-out on the album.
4.: Breath Control. A truly dark tale of a 'nice girl' and a 'nice gentleman' who get together and after a while his sexual requests become darker and more depraved. A slower paced number with slow low dusky female vocals telling the story whereby the tables are turned and she becomes darker and more demanding than he could have envisaged.
5.: Last Call For Liquid Courage. A slightly jazzy feeling track with Hammond organ mixing with harder sounds as another female vocalist tells the story. Not one of the stronger tracks though and one I usually skip.
6.: Strange Hours. Another track which doesn't really work for me. Sort of Moby meets soulful moanings with a predictable drum track. Goes nowhere really.
7.: Vertigen. Slow building mood music that initially barely registers but by the end makes you want to go back and listen again as it build with chord changes, various sampled vocal snippets in different languages and styles - almost religious sounding chanting and wailing.
8.: Supreme. Another stand-out track for me albeit a rather depressing one, about a teenage girl with baby and her low life 'boyfriend' 'Supreme' who turns up every afternoon to pat the kids head, demands a beer and an afternoon of sex until the girls mother comes home and throws him out. The track just oozes hopelessness, non existent expectations from life with the poor girl taking any 'affection' she can get. When Supreme goes to jail she only finds out a week later when he calls to check on his boy. The trademark Wilder chord changes, wonderfully varied drums and dark story makes this both enthralling and depressing in turns.
9.: Chrome. Slow-medium paced track with sounds of cameras and words like 'wanting a girl who can suck the chrome'. The whispered yet hate filled female vocal line really carries the lyrics and tale and adds a real impact.
10.: Black Box (part 2). Things close with the tail end of Black Box - more of the same really, just two halves of one longer piece.
11.: Strange Hours (video/CD) Same as the track - just a bonus video for suitably equipped PCs
Whilst there are a couple of weaker tracks, the album as a whole stands up well and the tracks that excel are so good they completely nullify any issues with the less strong ones.
I once spent an entire day with 'Want' on repeat and never got bored with the dark madness and spine tingling chords. Maybe I need help though!
I played a couple of tracks from this album to a synth music mad friend who promptly went out and bought the entire Recoil back catalogue which probably tells you something.
Every Recoil Album is significantly different to the previous although this one is perhaps a more logical extension of the last style wise. It is though by far the most accomplished yet.
If you like Depeche Mode or similar dark/gothic tinged synth music, you'll probably go for this album in a major way. Don't buy it if you're after happy boppy tunes but if you want shivers and thought provoking stories combined with a degree of sonic craftsmanship that is alas all too rare, then I can't recommend this album highly enough.
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