ABSTRACT
Goth’s poster band, the Cure, featured foppish front man Robert Smith, whose circular guitar riffs provided an intensely brooding matrix for Smith’s wry, self-absorbed lyrics (perhaps best exemplified by Standing on a Beach, Elektra 60477,1986), which attracted considerable criticism for the inclusion of the track, “Killing an Arab”). The Cocteau Twins, built around Elizabeth’s Fraser’s coloratura vocalizing, created darkly atmospheric soundscapes from drum machines and treated guitars and keyboards. Their Heaven or Las Vegas (4 A.D. 93669; 1990) represented a high water-mark for the genre. Other notable goth acts included Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Joy Division (who morphed into techno juggernauts New Order when singer Ian Curtis committed suicide in May 1980), the arty ensemble Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees (whose limited songwriting skills were offset by an unerring talent for reinterpreting other artists’ material), Lush, the mildly psychedelic Sisters of Mercy, and hardcore exemplars. [Romanowski and George-Warren 1995.]
FRANK HOFFMANN
Begun in 1978 by George Dickey in New York City, Gothic continues to specialize in organ music recorded in a variety of different locales all over the world, performed by a number of fine artists, including Frederick Swann and Joan Lippincott. As such, the often state-of-the-art transcriptions released by the company eventually included a huge number of organ performances on instruments that would not ordinarily have received such wide exposure. In September of 2001, Loft Recordings purchased the company. Loft has been in business since 1997, and like Gothic, it specializes in high quality organ and choral recordings. Loft is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and continues to develop the Gothic label and retain its identity. [Website: https://www.gothicrecords.com./]
HOWARD FERSTLER
