I was originally going to post just the Current 93 tracks in which Jhonn Balance personally performed/participated, or was somehow associated with - but I figured you'd want to hear the entire album, too, so I collected all the albums with Balance's help here. Of course, every Current 93 release has quite an assortment of people contributing in every way possible, and their presence is very much appreciated.
1984; 2 tracks
This was Current 93's first album, and was reissued in 1986.
Qvis est iste qvi venit
Hee comes! Soone you shall see!
He is near...
...At the door
1990; 4 tracks
Original pressing of Live at Bar Maldoror, released in 1990.
Tracks 1 & 2 originally released on Mi-Mort Records release Live At Bar Maldoror in 1986. Tracks 3 & 4 originally released on NER compilation From Torture To Conscience in 1984. Performers include David Tibet, Steven Stapleton, John Murphy, Jhonn Balance, and John Fothergill.
Artwork by David Tibet.
WHEN IS A DOOR NOT A DOOR?
WHEN IT'S A DUCASSE
1992; 12 tracks
Information on individual track histories: Tracks 1-6 originally released on LP in 1988. Track 7 is an alternate version of Track 1. Tracks 9-10 were originally released on a Shock 7" and reissued with the adition of track 11 on the sampler "The Portable Altamont." Along with track 8, these 4 songs, recorded in Tokyo, were to have been on a Japanese Current 93 album; the album was never finished. Track 12 was recorded in 1985 as part of the "Killy Kill Killy" piece that was released on the Nightmare Culture mini-LP.
More info/pictures here.
FOR ROSY ABELISK
AND YOUR EYES SHALL TURN TO GLASS
1992; 17 tracks
This CD is a remixed, re-structured, and re-recorded version of the Swastikas For Noddy LP, which was released on L.A.Y.L.A.H. Anti Records in 1992.
1993; 17 tracks
Re-issue of the original CD (1988), remastered in 1993. In this release, however, all instances of 'Noddy' have been changed to 'Goddy'. Swastikas for Goddy can be described as the first full-length folk-style release by Current 93. It was referred to as "the pop album" when it came out.
"When all vegetation is covered by the flood there are now eyebrows on the face of the Waterworld."
- James Joyce, Finnegans Wake.
Artwork is "Bluebirds In The Spring" by Babs Santini.
1993; 28 tracks
Compilation made by David Tibet and Steven Stapleton of what they consider the best of the work of Current 93 between 1982 and 1992 - truly these were the menstrual years.
Disc I: Great Black Time
Tracks 1 and 11 - Dawn (CD) (DT, SS, DP, RM, JB)
Track 2 - Dogs Blood Rising (DT, SS, RW, NR, SI, I)
Track 3 - Live At Bar Maldoror (DT, SS, NR)
Track 4 - Nature Unveiled (DT, SS, M, Y, AA)
Track 5 - In Menstrual Night (DT, SS, DR, JB, RW, RM, HÖH, B, JB)
Track 6 - The Red Face Of God (DT, SS, RM, Dp, TW)
Tracks 7 and 8 - Imperium (DT)
Track 9 - Horsey
Track 10 - Christ And The Pale Queens Mighty In Sorrow (DT, SS, DP, RM, TW)
Track 12 - Dawn (LP) (DT, SS, RM, DP, JB)
Track 13 - Dawn (Single) (DT, SS, DP, RM, B).
Disc II: Mighty In Sorrow
Track 1 - Swastikas For Noddy (DT)
Tracks 2, 3, 9, 10, 13 and 14 - Unreleased songs / unused mixes from Thunder Perfect Mind (DT, DP, RM, SS, MC, JW, JM; NS plays guitar on 9; JML plays harp on 2 and 9; JB sings on 3)
Track 4 - Unreleased single by Michael Cashmore's Nature And Organisation (MC, DT)
Track 5 - Crooked Crosses For The Nodding God (DT, DP, SS, TW, RM)
Track 6 - Death In June and Current 93 split LP, 1888 (DT, DP, RM, TW)
Track 7 - Previously released as a free 7" single with Ptolemaic Terrascope magazine, and was recorded by DT with Magick Lantern Cycle during the recording of Horsey
Track 8 - Earth Covers Earth (RW, TW, RM)
Track 11 - Island by Current 93 / HÖH (DT, HÖH, CRL)
Track 12 - Thunder Perfect Mind (see above for line-up)
Track 15 - The Sadness of Things (album by Steven Stapleton and David Tibet) (SS, DT, JW).
Disc II
1993; 5 tracks
This is comprised of five tracks performed live by Current 93 in 1992 and 1993. Tracks 1 and 4 were recorded at the Chuch of St. Germain, Amiens, France on Halloween Night, 1992. Tracks 2 and 3 were recorded at the Walthamstow Royal Standard, London on July 30, 1992. Track 5 was recorded at the Passage de Nord-Ouest, Paris on January 5, 1993.
"Why then, Christ is everywhere, like the snow", he replied.
"Yes, everywhere we see the ice crystal's form. This immaculate pure ice world is a heavenly domain of Jesus. His Eye is the sparkled body of each lovely flake. His lush snow world is the white pastured field. The snow, the snow: lovely, lovely and cruel, cruel. Christ as the Comforter, Christ as the Spurner. Christ Ecstatic - and Christ Desolate."
"Why then, there are two Christs of which you speak. We cannot take the one without the other, I see. Thank you. I shall take both..."
- Extract from The Broken Heart Of Man.
Front cover design by Hildegard of Bingen.
"Since this New Year of 1993 I have been reflecting on questions people have asked me concerning the song Hitler As Kalki (SDM) and my views on Hitler. I am in no doubt: Hitler was Antichrist; Jesus killed Hitler - eventually... We can hope that it should have been much sooner, but for whatever reasons it was not to be. Unfortunately since Hitler's death, all around his cruel spirit lives and multiplies, and many antichrists now surround us. In the dark corners of the nightworld he and his followers wait, emerging once more and more into the day. I remember my father telling me of his experience as a member of the first British troops to enter the extermination camp of Belsen, and the hell on earth he found there. So then, perhaps this earth is hell, but it rests to us to ensure that we defend our own hearts against the call from the abyss. May all be happy; may all be aware. The Little Shining Man approaches. Terrify not Man, lest God terrify you."
David Tibet, London, January 10, 1993.
"Now I know that any human face, however vile, becomes the face of Christ when it is struck."
- Michel Tournier, The Erl-King.
1994; 3 tracks
"Sad Go Round" is a cover of a song by a band called the Groundhogs from the album Solid. The third track is meant to be the sequel to Coil's introduction to Horse Rotorvator.
"The biggest danger, that of losing oneself, can pass off in a world as quietly as if it were nothing; every loss, an arm, a leg, five dollar, a wife, etc., is bound to be noticed."
Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death.
WHICH SILENTLY, AND BY NONE SEEN
GROWS GREAT AND GREEN
1994; 3 tracks
In Menstrual Night was recorded in 1985.
"KillyKillKilly (A Fire Sermon)" represented the Current 93 side of the Nightmare Culture mini-album, shared with Coil under the name of Sickness of Snakes.
Six are the seats of living breath
The rest are as sharp sickles or the thorns of death
2001; 18 tracks
Live at the Union Chapel, London 1997. Uncredited performers include David Tibet, Jhonn Balance, Joolie Wood, Karl Blake, Michael Cashmore, and Rose McDowall.
2002; 4 tracks
Dawn was originally released in 1987 as an LP on Maldoror (MAL 093). When it was re-issued as one of the first Current 93 CDs by Durtro in 1989, an alternate version of 'Great Black Time' to that featured on the vinyl was mistakenly used. The master tape for the original song used on the vinyl has long since been lost. Consequently, it has been necessary for it to be transferred from a vinyl copy. Track 1 represents the CD version, track 3 the vinyl version. The version of "Maldoror Est Mort" was first released on the Mi-Mort cassette jointly shared by Current 93 and Nurse With Wound, and represented the earliest recording of that track. "A Day In Dogland" originally appeared on the L.A.Y.L.A.H. compilation album, The Fight Is On and was recorded shortly after Dogs Blood Rising. "Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus" was recorded during the Nature Unveiled sessions.
Current 93 at that time were composed of the following individuals: David Tibet, Steven Stapleton, John Fothergill, Annie Anxiety, Jhonn Balance (!!!), Douglas P., Rose McDowall, John Murphy, Roger Smith, Nick Rogers. They may or may not be present on these recordings.
2005; 4 tracks
"Dedicated to the Great Heart and Great Soul of our dearest friend Jhonn Balance
16 February 1962 to 13 November 2004
With burning sadness and with burning sorrow we remember You as:
kindest of men, funniest of men, most intuitive of men, most incisive of men, most generous of men
a great artist, a great voice, a great visionary, a great Soul and a great Heart
Finally you were overwhelmed by it all: by all the beauty and by all the pain
You perhaps never knew how much you were loved
Till we meet again as we know we will, our dearest friend, with love always to you dearest Geff, John, Jhonn
shape-shifter and joker, in angelic form now, playing with stars in the love of God."
- David Tibet and Steven Stapleton
All material remixed by Steven Stapleton from the In Menstrual Night LP/CD at Colin Potter's ICR Studios in Lancashire. Current 93 were, for the original Moonsongs: David Tibet, Steven Stapleton, Ruby Tabatha Wallis, Diana Rogerson, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, John Balance, Keiko Yoshido, Rose McDowall and Bee.
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