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Trance to the Sun
Spiders, Aether, and Rain: The Finest Works of Trance to the Sun

Projekt Records

Posted: Tuesday, January 15, 2008
By: Vlad McNeally

In many ways, the '90s was the crest of the American gothic music wave; Switchblade Symphony devoured the scene, touring festivals actually existed, and Projekt and Cleopatra reigned like record label royalty... and then there were underground cult legends like Trance to the Sun. Formed in 1990 by Ashkelon Sain, their sound remains quite hard to pinpoint or even compare. Certainly, nodes of the hazy glossolalia of Cocteau Twins are present, the swampy atmosphere of the Switchblade sisters, and even the stark shadows of Bauhaus come to mind when sampling their eclectic tangle. However, their gloom is certainly all their own and thus perhaps through Spiders, Aether, and Rain, one can glean why Projekt exhumed this retrospective more than half a decade after their demise.

Unlike many of the contemporaries, TttS' eclectic sound aims for mystery over acceptability, and while a rainy dreariness is omnipresent, there is a variety within its monochrome shades. "Thistle Lurid" burbles to life, its heart a fluttering and elastic baritone arpeggio. Ensconced in a bank of smoke-machine fog, a flash of guitar fireworks through the gloom, revealing a murmuring bass guitar and brusque militant snare machine. Despite its dirge gait, vocalist Ingrid Blue sneers and snaps through her angry poetry, yet even she finds a bit of harmonic solace in its swaying breezy chorus. Shouldering a steady drum machine click and swish cadence, in "Execution of the Stars," Blue's lyrical accusations resemble the sneers of Christian Death's figurehead Rozz Williams, and with each disenchanted turn of the phrase, depressed bass guitar and clattering drum machine wisps halfheartedly echo her poison. Then there's the sprawling, 10-minute epic, "Spider Planet." As if entranced, Blue lilts questioning and psychedelic to an aloof guitar’s fluid thrum as a percussive ghost faintly scratches at its walls. Amidst its breadth, occasional instrumental movements occur; from acoustic guitar strums to flanged snare comets, they keep it from falling into pure freeform poetry. In terms of atmosphere alone, "August Rain V.1" does a wondrous job at illustrating its title. Brushes graze a drum's face while guitar swirls pensive like an opium den vision. Somewhere in its depths, bass murmurs, overtaken by the brittle grace of sighing synthetic spirits. Finally, TttS are for a moment possessed by The Cocteau Twins for a cover of "When Mama Was Moth." While mirroring the dreamy peculiarities of this venerable act via Blue's unintelligible child-like lilt, its baritone cathedral bell, flat kettle drum rolls, and murderous synth breaks lend the piece enough of TttS' signature drama to render it a rather interesting interpretation.

Surprisingly, despite being fronted by three separate vocalists and written across a decade, Spiders, Aether, and Rain feels more like a solid, varied album than a smattering of archival samples. Certainly, these peculiar and twisted thoughts are more of a challenge than some may accept, but for those aware of their revelation, this compilation will undoubtedly bring back those memories of when gothic music thought itself to be dark and mysterious rather than simple dance or rock music.