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seedarklyxeroWelcome to SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies:
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
It's Mother's Day and I've just the apropos cover for today's Second Sunday Slowly feature:
Sonik Foundry - Mama (Genesis)
When last we left Phil Collins, he had taken a hiatus from Genesis to work on solo material. Soon after his return to the band, they quickly recorded a couple albums. Their twelfth album, which was self-titled and released in October 1983, included one of their biggest hits: Mama.
The track is often interpreted wrongly as being about abortion. Collins has clarified in the past that it is actually inspired from actor David Niven's memoir, The Moon's A Balloon. In the book, one of the stories Niven tells about his teenage years details his infatuation and sexual exploits with an older prostitute who did not reciprocate his affections. In the song, the character's fixation on the woman takes on an even more sinister declaration as he calls her, Mama.
Musically the track is as disturbing as it is lyrically. Its distorted and discordant percussive rhythm is said to have been developed from the same techniques used by Collins and Peter Gabriel on the track Intruder. (We will revisit that in a future blog.) And its synthesized melodies are simultaneously ethereal and weighted with a foreboding sense of torment. Then, as if in exclamation of perverse angst, Collin's barks out a baleful laugh and pained groan. It was inspired by Melle Mel's signature laugh from the Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five song, The Message.
Fast forward to August 2010 - I was DJing a benefit event in Boston and EBM-industrialists Sonik Foundry took the stage. I didn't know much about them and honestly wasn't paying much attention through most of their set. Until they started playing Mama. So. Good. I was mesmerized.
How I remember what came next may be faulty. I approached lead singer, Nikademus Deflaminis, and (in my memory of our exchange) I'd swear he had told me they had not yet recorded the cover.
However, a review of several sources on their discography shows that Mama was included on their second release, a six-track EP titled The Epiphany, which was put out in June, only a month before. Maybe I misheard and they were just sold out of the EP at the time?
In any case, their cover has a slightly harder edge and adds a distinctive syncopation to the rhythm. In most respects it preserves the structure and feel of the original, though it's definitely harsher and heavier at its core.
I have on occasion joked that the members of Genesis were all but one childhood trauma away from being goth (or at least possibly emo) and this track is an excellent example of why.
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Planning for a Third Sunday Throwback to the 20th century, but depending on how my research goes I might push it back to a Fourth Sunday Flashback and go completely sideways next week. We'll see.
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
I spin tonight in Cambridge!
Details and links for that and the rest of my schedule can be found on my website. Click through. ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
May 01 - 9th Evolution - Bela Lugosi's Dead (Bauhaus)
Apr 24 - Sebastian Komor - Game Of Thrones Theme(Ramin Djawadi)
Apr 17 - Snake River Conspiracy - Love Song (The Cure)
Apr 10 - PRIMA PRIMO - Cornflake Girl (Tori Amos)
Apr 03 - Go Fight - I Have A Devil In Me (Big Foot Chester)
Directory of All DisCOVERies
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
It's Mother's Day and I've just the apropos cover for today's Second Sunday Slowly feature:
Sonik Foundry - Mama (Genesis)
When last we left Phil Collins, he had taken a hiatus from Genesis to work on solo material. Soon after his return to the band, they quickly recorded a couple albums. Their twelfth album, which was self-titled and released in October 1983, included one of their biggest hits: Mama.
The track is often interpreted wrongly as being about abortion. Collins has clarified in the past that it is actually inspired from actor David Niven's memoir, The Moon's A Balloon. In the book, one of the stories Niven tells about his teenage years details his infatuation and sexual exploits with an older prostitute who did not reciprocate his affections. In the song, the character's fixation on the woman takes on an even more sinister declaration as he calls her, Mama.
Musically the track is as disturbing as it is lyrically. Its distorted and discordant percussive rhythm is said to have been developed from the same techniques used by Collins and Peter Gabriel on the track Intruder. (We will revisit that in a future blog.) And its synthesized melodies are simultaneously ethereal and weighted with a foreboding sense of torment. Then, as if in exclamation of perverse angst, Collin's barks out a baleful laugh and pained groan. It was inspired by Melle Mel's signature laugh from the Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five song, The Message.
Fast forward to August 2010 - I was DJing a benefit event in Boston and EBM-industrialists Sonik Foundry took the stage. I didn't know much about them and honestly wasn't paying much attention through most of their set. Until they started playing Mama. So. Good. I was mesmerized.
How I remember what came next may be faulty. I approached lead singer, Nikademus Deflaminis, and (in my memory of our exchange) I'd swear he had told me they had not yet recorded the cover.
However, a review of several sources on their discography shows that Mama was included on their second release, a six-track EP titled The Epiphany, which was put out in June, only a month before. Maybe I misheard and they were just sold out of the EP at the time?
In any case, their cover has a slightly harder edge and adds a distinctive syncopation to the rhythm. In most respects it preserves the structure and feel of the original, though it's definitely harsher and heavier at its core.
I have on occasion joked that the members of Genesis were all but one childhood trauma away from being goth (or at least possibly emo) and this track is an excellent example of why.
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Planning for a Third Sunday Throwback to the 20th century, but depending on how my research goes I might push it back to a Fourth Sunday Flashback and go completely sideways next week. We'll see.
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
I spin tonight in Cambridge!
Details and links for that and the rest of my schedule can be found on my website. Click through. ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
May 01 - 9th Evolution - Bela Lugosi's Dead (Bauhaus)
Apr 24 - Sebastian Komor - Game Of Thrones Theme(Ramin Djawadi)
Apr 17 - Snake River Conspiracy - Love Song (The Cure)
Apr 10 - PRIMA PRIMO - Cornflake Girl (Tori Amos)
Apr 03 - Go Fight - I Have A Devil In Me (Big Foot Chester)
Directory of All DisCOVERies