Tesco
After three re-releases on the Swedish Fin De Siècle Media label, this time it's the German Tesco who get a chance to pay tribute to Contrastate. They do this by re-releasing Tesco cat# 010 under the same number. "A Live Coal Under The Ashes" goes way back to the early 90's but instead of the original CD + one sided 12" vinyl, we now have to be happy with the tracks from the CD and one extra - previously unreleased - track. Why the 20 minutes from the vinyl weren't included remains a mystery, but maybe in the future Tesco will release these ones too.
The five original tracks are all between 7 and 10 minutes, making the CD a nicely filled album. The added 'Death Follows The One Eyed Cow' is the only track under the 7 minute mark, but it was very well recovered and fits the complete recording very well.
Classical themes and rhythms are present in the first part of the title track, while the second part has more Eastern influences, drones and vocals. 'Breaking The Strawmen' is built from spoken word over experimental ambient, not unllike we could expect from the other English Gods O Yuki Conjugate.
'The Fingers Of My Foot' contains Tibetan throat singing and a stringed instrument and again we can hear the inflluences from the East. 'An End Marked By Pessimism' reminded me of tracks to be found at "Unnatural History part 1" by Coil; Mysterious sounds and trance inducing patterns and structures. And finally 'Death Follows The One Eyed Cow' integrates the experiments and mind tingling thoughts.
"A Live Coal Under The Ashes" is a very dynamic Contrastate album, covering many influences and styles. But even with these many styles the atmosphere remains very constant overall. A very good choice if you are planning to check out Contrastate and if (the noisey, experimental) Current 93 as well as Coil are in your collection. Contrastate will be your third 'C' of which you will be posessing more then one album.
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