"No, nobody can own me.
This is my only authority.
My, my body is mine - to poison.
It is my gift for the killers to cut open."
-- Unwoman, "For the Killers"

Artist(s): Unwoman

Album: The Fires I Started

The recently released album by the Bay Area's own Unwoman, cellist and vocalist extraordinaire.

My Thoughts: A little dark cabaret, a little steampunk, a little political, a little electro, a little mythic, a little academic, a little war-torn, a little romantic, and a whole lot of wit, Unwoman (a.k.a. Erica Mulkey) can only be described as an entity of innumerable and far-reaching talents.

I actually regret to say that I only recently allowed myself to fall prey to her musical charms. To think of all the time I've clearly wasted!

For those who haven't heard Unwoman's music before... well, she's fairly difficult to pigeon-hole, to be honest (see above). Obviously, there's all that cello, sometimes with languid electro-synth tracks and other times with harsh heavy beats mixed in to add to the other-worldliness... Or perhaps "other-timeliness" is a better description. Meanwhile, her vocal stylings occasionally remind me of Miranda Sex Garden's Katharine Blake, but with less ethereal, fairy-tale subject matter and more heavy-breathed, film-noir allure.

Ultimately, this inability to pin her down is one of the things I like best about Unwoman's work so far. To call her fascinatingly anachronistic would be fitting - if only one could tell which direction and how far she has been displaced in time, so that we knew whether to mourn for a past forever lost or to yearn for a future we shall never see.

Highlights: The Fires I Started is a rich tapestry of aural delights. Picking out a few individual pieces on other albums is usually a good way to get a feel for the artist. But, in this case, each piece is a thing unto itself - highlighting one or another feels almost counterproductive, misrepresenting the immense range that is the complete album.

Of course, that is unacceptable; thus I shall endeavor to represent some of my particular favorites well and, hopefully, entice you, dear readers, as I have been enticed.

"The Future, the Boot" - Drawing its inspiration (and its chorus) from Orwell's infamous quote about the future involving "a boot stamping on a human face - forever", this jaunty tune plays with the idea of turning the other cheek and making beauty from horror in an attempt to subvert the assumed inevitability of such a future - "when life throws you sarin, you sing a sweet serenade", she trills wittily. Of course, even our singer seems to question whether this will really be all that effective in changing anything, asking "is there something bigger to believe in - to unite us under".

"The Heroine" - A poignant song of disappointment, it tells the tale of a war-time performer awaiting her beau/belle to appear at her underground performance in a locked-down city (I always imagine somewhere in WWII Nazi-occupied France in my own mind's eye, though the actual location is never said). The desired, though, never arrives, leaving our heartbroken performer to recognize that her beloved is either "a coward or could never love me or you have fallen to the enemy" - none of which, understandably, console her. All the other guests have appeared - but not her lover, who has, in one fashion or another, failed her.

"Siren Ship" - This piece, ostensibly about a defenseless treasure ship inviting pirates in order to entrap them, strikes me as a witty and pretty sea shanty. Of course, its elegant and cunning innuendos suggest a devious and extremely sensual (no, really, this song seriously turns me on) metaphor concerning a seductive and supposedly vulnerable beauty who lures her lovers to their emotional ruin. "Your type can never resist my call. I have been so many conquerors' downfall..."

"Star-Crossed" - This is one of the pieces where Unwoman's vocals seem most reminiscent of Katharine Blake. Elegant and slightly static-y, it has a fuzzy, unreal quality - as if playing from a dirty disc on an overused Victrola. I'm still not entirely sure what the song is about - or if it's about anything at all, really. But there's something about it's lilting, dream-like ambiance and soldierly drum-beat that really flows through the listener.

Final Thoughts: The Fires I Started is a mix of so many different elements that it defies any true classification and certainly anything resembling convention. A gem of independent music-making, it is atmospheric, alluring, and highly addicting (I suggest that Unwoman be forced to put warning labels on it).

If you don't believe me, go to Unwoman's website and listen to this or any of her other albums she has there for free. She also subscribes to the "pay what you want" model of music-vending, meaning that if you want to own some of her music and are a little strapped, she'll generally accept what you think is fair for most of her albums (and she doesn't skimp, either - other than the "singles", most of her albums seem to sit at a solid 15 or 16 songs).

I, of course, recommend throwing as much money at her as you can manage, either for one of her albums or during one of her crowd-funding endeavors.

I also recommend attending the CD-release party for the Fires I Started on Wednesday, Sept. 19th, 2012 (that's in two days, my darklings), so that you can see this siren perform in person. Details to be found HERE.

-- Mr. M.

That glorious goth-pop deviant diva strikes again with her latest album release.

My Thoughts: I was first acquainted with the music of Emilie Autumn sometime back in 2010 with her Opheliac album that sort of took the goth-pop world by storm.

The best way I've been able to describe her singing is: "she's what you'd get if Tori Amos and Annie Lennox had a mad-science love-child who would occasionally forget everything she'd ever been taught about singing and musical theory from her mothers."

And once I got to see her perform live, I realized I needed to add in the codicil of: "Oh, and she studied performance and art at the University of GaGa."

While you might think that these sound like criticisms, they're really not. I honestly consider them to be some amazing endorsements (especially considering that I put so much time and thought into trying to conceptualize that whole origin story in my head... I don't spend this much time thinking about things I don't really enjoy).

So with the release of Fight Like a Girl, I was pleased to see that Ms. Autumn kept enough of what attracted me and so many others in the first place to maintain a sense of musical continuity. But I was also pleased to see that she delved into even deeper and darker territory than she did in Opheliac. She's embraced the "Victorian mad-woman" persona, and, while the extremity of the topic might appear dated, much of it is actually quite a timely criticism concerning the still-rampant stigmatization of women and the mentally ill despite our supposedly "modern sensibilities".

Though that might be me reading entirely too much into the motives of someone who just likes to make beautifully dark and disturbing music.

Highlights: Fight Like a Girl strikes me as almost a concept album, in the vein of Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime and Styx's Kilroy Was Here. There's a distinct sense of there being an underlying story to the progression of the music throughout the album - though the actual story itself isn't entirely clear. Of course, that sort of makes sense when we're talking about madness and insane asylums, so maybe it really is a concept album in the true sense and I just haven't listened enough to really pick it out yet.

My favorite selections from the album consist of:

"Take the Pill" - a slightly industrial piece channeling the most "Annie Lennox" elements of Ms. Autumn's musical persona. Some pretty intense targeting of the modern "pill culture", highlighting the growing "take this mind-altering pill to treat the side-effects of this other psychotropic pill" and the lack of questioning of the so-called "experts" who just keep prescribing more medications.

"Girls! Girls! Girls!" - No, this isn't a cover of the classic Motley Crue song of the same name (though, I'll admit to hoping for that a little). More of a carnival-esque ditty mocking of the old "circus freakshows" with the "freaks" being women committed to an asylum for things ranging from actual mental illness to such troublesome issues as free thinking and sexual desire (the deviants!).

Final Thoughts: A fine album taking a darkly sarcastic poke at a lot of truly disturbing topics. As I mentioned before, there seems to be a highlighting of some still extremely archaic views in modern culture concerning women and mental illness.

That being said, Ms. Autumn doesn't let the subject matter interfere with the wit and elegance (and sometimes shock) of her presentation. So if you really enjoyed Opheliac but wanted a little more coherence, Fight Like a Girl delivers a much more solid and still darker presentation than the previous album. Which, being me, is exactly what I was glad to hear.

P.S. Emilie Autumn is performing in both Oakland and Sacramento in October (the 17th and 18th, respectively). It looks like the regular pre-sale tickets are sold out, but it seems some of the VIP packages are still available for those with unnatural urges (and enough spare cash). Check out the One-Time Events page for a link to get the most updated details.

-- Mr. M.