Intimate Obsessions – From Erebus to Hades
INTIMATE OBSESSIONS
From Erebus to Hades (1985, Third Mind Records)
Tracklist:
1) State of Mind
2) Death Con
3) Erebus to Hades
4) Assassin
5) Andante con Moto
Lineup:
Tim Read – Cello
Curtis Schwartz – Synthetizers
Christopher Read – Synthetizers
Intimate Obsessions are a electronic music / new-wave band of the
’80s from UK. They released a minialbum, From Erebus to Hades, a 12?
single, Assassin, and they have appeared in a couple of compilations in
the late ’80s.
The material is varied and original: from the dissonant and groovy
opener “State of Mind” to the classical-like instrumental track that
closes the album “Andante con Moto”, the duo demostrates to have talent,
hooks and variety in songwriting.
Their sound is claustophobical, paranoid and ethereal. As you may have
guessed reading the lineup, the music is entirely synth driven. That
doesn’t mean that the music is dull, on the contrary, like i stated
before, this mini-lp shows a lot of variety in it’s short playtime. We
range from classical and dissonant wave sound (for example, the opener),
from ethereal and gloomy songs about mental suffering and death-like
states (the very atmospheric semi-spoken “death con” and the obsessive
title track), from pure groovy and danceable paranoia (“assassin”, one
of the best efforts of this minilp which even includes some samples
regarding Kennedy’s assassination), to classical-like instrumental music
(the closing track).
If you like new wave and electronic music with dark tones you can’t miss
this little gem. It’s such a pity that this band hasn’t produced some
more material in it’s very short career and it’s reclusion into more or
less total obscurity is very sad. However, this is one of the pros of
the modern internet: you can discover about very obscure material if you
know how to make a proper search.
Sadly i haven’t managed to listen to the Assassin 12?, which is
composed by two versions of the “assassin” song (the original and a
remix) and two version of the “why can’t I” (original and extended mix)
song, which is not included on the “from Erebus to Hades” minilp.
However, i managed to listen to the original mix of the unreleased song
from a compilation.It has a groovy, upbeat and very classic bass-driven
wave sound, with a very nice claustrophobic and psychedelic feeling
which is one of the trademarks of this band. If you have a copy of the
Assassin 12? (digital of physical) please let me know. Thumbs up!
SELECTED TRACKS
Death Con
Assassin