Current 93 are an English experimental music group, working since the early 1980s in folk-based musical forms. The band was founded in 1982 by David Tibet, who has been Current 93's only constant
member. Tibet has been the only constant member in the group, though Steven Stapleton (of Nurse with Wound) has appeared on nearly every Current 93 release. Michael Cashmore has also been a constant contributor since Thunder Perfect Mind. Douglas P. of Death in June has played on well over a dozen Current 93 releases, and Steve Ignorant of Crass (using the name Stephen Intelligent), Boyd Rice, runologist Freya Aswynn, Nick Cave, Björk, Andrew W.K., Anohni, Baby Dee, Will Oldham, Ben Chasny, Rose McDowall, Hank Williams III have also lent their talents over the years.
Current 93 have released over twenty albums and many singles as well. Much of Current 93's early work was similar to late 1970s and early 1980s industrial music: abrasive tape loops, droning synthesizer noises and Tibet's distorted, excoriating vocals.
Tibet's lyrics have been fairly consistent, regardless of delivery: The earlier recordings reflect his
preoccupation with death, Christ, mysticism, Aleister Crowley (Tibet borrowed the term "93 Current" from Crowley – the 93 Current being the current of Thelema or Agape), Tibetan Buddhism, Gnosticism, runes, swastikas, Noddy, The Wicker Man, and a variety of occult notions. The later to present-day period of Current 93's recordings increasingly reflect Tibet's interest in Christian mysticism and apocalypse. Tibet has stated that he identifies as a Christian.
[With a glut of industrial-pop hybrids on the market in the 1980s and '90s, several bands stayed true to the experimental nature of early industrial music. The Psychic TV axis alone spawned many creative artists, including Current 93's David Tibet, who blends Gothic chanting and haunting atmospherics with industrial noisescapes courtesy of tape loops and synthesizers on one hand and genre blurring Gothic
folk on the other. Though Tibet doesn't quite have bandmates, he frequently works with a core of collaborators including ex-Psychic TV compatriot John Balance (more famous for his work with Peter Christopherson in Coil); Fritz Haaman, formerly of 23 Skidoo (like PTV an offshoot of the most influential of the early industrial acts, Throbbing Gristle); Steven Stapleton of Nurse with Wound fame; Rose McDowall of Strawberry Switchblade; and Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, also a former member of Psychic TV. Steven Stapleton is probably the most frequent member, appearing on virtually all Current 93 releases -- a favor which David Tibet returns by working with Stapleton on most projects by Nurse with Wound.
The trio of Tibet, Balance, and Haaman debuted in 1983 by recording the single "Lashtah" for Laylah
Records. Until the end of the '80s, Tibet -- utilizing the various lineups -- recorded at a frenetic pace, issuing more than two albums per year for both Laylah and the Maldoror label. By the '90s, Tibet's output and style changed slightly: his productivity slowed somewhat, and the sound grew more subdued, encompassing acoustic folk in its most sinister permutations. Productivity picked up in the 2000s with more Current 93 material being recorded and reissued. Tibet also designed a bottle label for the Absinthe liquor company in 2005. 2006 saw the release of both Black Ships Ate the Sky and Sleep Has His House on Durtro Records, followed by Inmost Light in April 2007.
A new Tibet side project, Myrninerest was formed with some of Current 93's collaborators including
Blackshaw, and Andrew Liles. Their debut, "Jhonn," Uttered Babylon, was recorded in memory of Jhonn Balance of Coil and released in 2012. In the fall of 2018, the band issued The Light Is Leaving Us All via the Spheres.
Biography by John Bush]
THUNDER PERFECT MIND
Thunder Perfect Mind is an album by the English experimental group Current 93, released on 28 July 1992. It contains two tracks based on the Gnostic poem The Thunder, Perfect Mind, which also gave the album its name. Thunder Perfect Mind has a companion album by the same name recorded by Nurse With Wound, released at the same time, though the two albums have little in common with each other musically.
The album is one of David Tibet's more personal records, with several songs dedicated to friends, colleagues and people he had met. "All The Stars Are Dead Now" consists of a startling prophecy given to Tibet one night by the Planh of William Blake, while the epic "Hitler As Kalki (SDM)" is dedicated to "my father, who fought Hitler." The liner notes indicate that some believed Hitler was Kalki, the tenth and final incarnation of Vishnu, who would destroy the cosmos upon a white horse at the end of each world cycle.
1992's THUNDER PERFECT MIND sees Current 93 leader David Tibet turning toward a self-styled
strain of pagan-Christian gnosticism (the title is from a Gnostic poem), and a fascination with the folk traditions of the British Isles. Every armchair theologist must have her exegesis, and THUNDER PERFECT MIND is the fundamental volume of Current 93's curious catechism. Tibet dissects imagery from Judeo-Christian, occult, Druid, and Eastern dogma, framed by a fragile skein of 12-string guitars, hand drums, harp, strings, and woodwinds.
His distinctively intoned song-poems are a complex framework for C93's Byzantine iconography.
Rose McDowall's wraithlike backing vocals, the presence of Death In June's dour Douglas P., and such apocalyptic pronouncements as "Rosy Star Tears from Heaven," "All the Stars are Dead Now," and "Hitler as Kalki (SDM)," raise the requisite goosebumps. THUNDER PERFECT MIND is singular, magical, and magnificent. It's where The Incredible String Band's bucolic whimsy meets forgotten apocryphal lore and the insinuating sonic sorcery of David Tibet's co-conspirator, Nurse With Wound's Steven Stapleton.
Current 93 – Thunder Perfect Mind
Label: Durtro – DURTRO JNANA 1979CD, Jnana Records – DURTRO JNANA 1979CD
Format: 2 × CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered 2005
Country: US
Released: 1992
Genre: Rock
Style: Neofolk, Experimental
DISC 1. THUNDER PRFECT MIND
01. A Beginning (Voice – Shirley Collins) 0:44
02. The Descent Of Long Satan And Babylon 3:00
03. A Sadness Song 4:14
04. A Song For Douglas After He's Dead (Guitar [Harmonic] – David Kenny) 4:58
05. In The Heart Of The Wood And What I Found There 2:50
06. Mary Waits In Silence 2:56
07. A Silence Song (Cello – Sarah Bradshaw) 5:27
08. A Lament For My Suzanne (Guitar [Harmonic] – David Kenny) 4:20
09. Riverdeadbank (Lead Vocals – Renate Birulf) 3:46
10. All The Stars Are Dead Now (Backing Vocals – Renate Birulf) 9:06
11. Rosy Star Tears From Heaven 3:05
12. When The May Rain Comes (Bass – David Kenny, Lyrics By – Unknown Artis, tWritten-By – Sand) 3:24
13. Thunder Perfect Mind I (Lyrics By – Unknown Artist) 5:05
14. Thunder Perfect Mind II (Lyrics By – Unknown Artist) 2:21
15. Hitler As Kalki (SDM) (Bass – Karl Blake, Guitar [Feedback] – David Kenny, Guitar, Dulcimer [Electric] – Nick Saloman [Bevis Frond] - Guitar) 16:28
KALKI
Kalki (a.k.a. Kalkin) is the tenth and final avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, who will appear at the end of the present Kali Yuga age to punish the wicked, reward the good, and inaugurate the Satya Yuga age of sacrifice and dharma. It is also believed that Kalki will kill the demon Kali.
Kalki is described in the Puranas as the avatar who rejuvenates existence by ending the darkest and destructive period to remove adharma and ushering in the Satya Yuga, while riding a white horse with a fiery sword. The description and details of Kalki are different among various Puranas. Kalki is also found in Buddhist texts: For example the Kalachakra-Tantra of Tibetan Buddhism.
16. A Sadness Song 4:40
17. An Ending 2:21
MP3 @ 320 Size: 188 MB
FLAC Size: 485 MB
DISC 2. THE THUNDER: PERFECT MIND
01. Suzanne: She And I In Darkness We Lay And Lie 4:26
02. Red House 0:28
03. Our Lady Of Horsies 6:34
04. Anyway, People Die 1:46
05. Silence As Christine 2:24
06. Maldoror Is Ded Ded Ded (Backing Vocals [Uncredited] – John Balance) 12:10
07. They Return To Their Earth 6:18
08. In Sadness Sang (Lead Vocals – Rose McDowall) 4:19
09. ´Khor Ba´i Nyes Dmigs 1:28
10. Lament For Her 3:59
11. A Song For Douglas After He's Dead 6:14
12. They Return To Their Earth (For My Christ Thorn) 6:52
13. A Song For Douglas After He's Dead (Rebirth) 5:43
MP3 @ 320 Size: 153 MB
FLAC Size: 390 MB
PERSONNEL
David Michael Tibet – vocals
Andria Degens, Simon Norris - Artwork [Statues Of Kalki Supplied By]
Edward Ka-Spel - Bells
David Kenny - Engineer
Douglas P. - Guitar, Percussion [Hand]
Michael Cashmore - Guitar, Producer
Steven Stapleton - Guitar, Vocals, Mixed By, Producer
Nick Saloman [Bevis Frind] – Electric dulcimer, acoustic and electric guitar (track 15)
James Malindaine-Lafayette - Harp (tracks: 1-4, 1-8, 1-15)
Louis Wain - Illustration [Cat Drawings]
David Tibet - Lyrics (tracks: 1-1 to 1-11, 1-15 to 2-13)
Denis Blackham - Mastered
Music By – Current 93 (tracks: 1-1 to 1-11, 1-13 to 2-13)
James Mannox - Percussion
Photography By [Cover] – Ruth Bayer
Joolie Wood - Violin, Tin Whistle, Clarinet, Recorder
John Balance - Vocals (tracks: 1-4, 1-8, 1-11, 1-12)
Notes
Thunder Perfect Mind was mixed, engineered and produced at Topic Studios, North London, between September 1990 and February 1992.
The Thunder: Perfect Mind: tracks 1 to 8 recorded during the Thunder Perfect Mind sessions. All these tracks subsequently appeared on the "Emblems" and "Calling For Vanished Faces" compilations, with the exception of "Red House".
Tracks 9 to 13 recorded live in Amiens, La Lune Des Pirates, 15 XII 1990 and was previously released on the album "As The World Disappears...".
THE DISCENT OF LONG SATAN AND BABYLON LYRICS
Long Satan and Babylon are walking
They're talking of fire and of ice
Of the silence that stalks in the forest
And a Christ spun out of the worlds
Long Satan and Babylon are moving
Through a world ripped away from its centre
They shear through the rushes
They follow the night night night night
They want want want want want want
Everything
Long Satan and Babylon are rushing
They are hurtling away
From the centre of things
They are running from the inside
The wind cries full and in them
Cuts through their emptiness
Hoof on stone
Claw against sun
Where to look in an unknown
Where to search in the vast whole
Piggy-back cross oh piggy-black cross
Into the silence thundering
As they only hear the silence
They do not hear the pain
But Christ sees everything
The little children are falling
They'll topple till the end of the world
Long Satan and Babylon keep running
Through a universe empty of sound
Though the world makes dark shadows
You must look in your heart
In the dark
You must look in your heart