A grand finale of a VOXstravaganza!
Theme: tribal(ish)
(did you forget, like me, just how good Animal Collective could be? how out...? Classic case of later parts of the discography erasing the early parts in the memory!)
An earlier version of the same song, titled "Chant"
Not sure there's even any "mouth" on this one but guessing there must be a trace
And finally - not really tribal, definitely primal - and most likely the very first 'extremism of the human voice' record I heard - Diamanda Galas, The Litanies of Satan - bought off the strength of a review by Barney Hoskyns or Chris Bohn, one or t'other, can't recall - Tried, once, listening to this in the dark - never made that mistake again.
Starting with the flipside which is even more deranged and un-defanged than the title track side
and the title track, but a live version, ripped from an old VHS it says
Actually, correction: it was a few years before buying Litanies of Satan that I had my initiation in extremism of the human voice - which, unless we're counting "Death Disco" - came courtesy Steve Micalef. Whose sprawling, indiscriminately acquired collection contained many surprises, but none more surprising than two ethnographic records: the Jeux Vocaux Des Inuits, which I think I included earlier, or at least some proximate examples of the genre, and then this one:
Which - I am afraid to say - we used to nickname "Venuzuelan Vomit" on account of the sleevenotes description of the retchings and snot dangling in long mucoid strings from the shaman's noses and chins, on account of the violent emetic effects of the ayahuasca potion they'd ingested. Used to play it at our student parties, we did.
Did not realise at the time that this album was actually recorded and released by David Toop, fearless ethnomusicological explorer of the Amazonian jungle.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Anyways, the Galas and Yanomamo between them make for rather a good soundtrack with which to memorialize a year that prompted almost uninterrupted gnashing 'n' wailing...
Here's hoping for a better 2015 for all of us.
Happy new year!