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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 one of my hopes that the covers I feature here on this blog provide a gateway for readers to find even more music of interest by investigating each artists' offerings. That's especially true for this Second Sunday Slowly edition. Today's featured dark downtempo cover is part of a chæritæble cæuse to benefit one of the industrial scene's hardest working artists who is currently struggling to cover the cost of his immediate family's medical expenses.:
Skold - Pale As Chalk (Leæther Strip)
Swedish industrial artist Claus Larsen has been producing music since the age of 14, primarily with his project Leæther Strip, but also with Klutæ, Am Tierpark, Mirland/Larsen, Sequential Access, The Stricken, and a number of other collaborations and projects. He's recorded an impressive array of original material along with well over 50 covers of songs by Kraftwerk, Mark Snow, Die Krupps, Pink Floyd, The Cure*, Soft Cell*, AC/DC, Dead Can Dance, New Order, The Human League*, Depeche Mode*, The Beloved, Siouxsie and The Banshees*, Cher, Fad Gadget, Judas Priest, P. J. Harvey, Yaz, Dead or Alive*, David Bowie, Merle Travis, The Normal*, Devo, Bronski Beat, Simple Minds*, Sex Pistols, Nena, DAF, Adam & the Ants, and a lot more. (*Denotes multiple covers) He has recently reported working on a cover of Skinny Puppy's Far Too Frail.
Spæctator, Larsen's entirely original 2016 Leæther Strip album, was written during a time of extraordinary emotional hardship due to the ongoing health problems of his husband, Kurt Grünewald Hansen, and the death of his mother. The album features White As Chalk, a track he calls "the most important song I’ve composed so far." He wrote the song only a day after his mother died, detailing his feelings of seeking her acceptance but ultimately never receiving it. In one interview he states, "It’s a song explaining to my mother how I felt as a kid; a very personal song, but it was a song that I needed to get out of my system. It was also the hardest song for me to record. I broke down several times during the production."
Though his mother has gone, his husband's overall health has not improved greatly since the album's recording and treatments for Hansen's condition have been difficult and painful while the couple await scheduling for operations that could help. This is said to have impacted Larsen's ability to tour and make new music, though to look at his past few years he has still managed to do both more impressively than some with less challenging circumstances.
Tom Shear of Assemblage 23 and Larsen's long time associate Michelle Molitor took note of this hardship and initiated an effort to help. In addition to setting up a GoFundMe page, the two worked with Jonathan Kaplan (for all the emptiness), John R. Mirland (LÆBEL, Am Tierpark, Mirland/Larsen, Mirland) and Troy Hilton (DSOL Productions) to organize 24 different bands and artists to provide tracks for a compilation called Heærts Combine, released in March, with all proceeds going to the couple's health and living expenses. Contributing artists include Die Krupps, Psyche, Stoneburner, Ego Likeness, Ludovico Technique, Caustic, Birmingham 6, and more. Mirland has said there were even more volunteers that couldn't be included due to time constraints. After being let in on the project, Larsen also contributed a Leæther Strip song he recorded after the death of David Bowie, which became the opening and 25th track for the album.
The next track is a downtempo cover of White As Chalk as done by fellow Swedish industrial rocker Tim Sköld (formerly of Marilyn Manson, KMFDM, et.al.). Sköld stated early 90's Leæther Strip was particularly influential for him but also noted a recent review of Leæther Strip's latest works encouraged him to look into this track. He said in an interview that White As Chalk "struck me as a very genuine piece and I immediately had a version for me in mind. It wasn’t until later I found out that Claus wrote the song the day his mother died." Sköld "strips" the industrial "leæther" out of the track to expose a haunting and emotional gothic dirge hidden within. The rest of the album is mostly original tracks or remixes, excepting two additional covers: for all the emptiness with the Gothsicles doing Jonny McGovern's Texting On The Dancefloor and Stoneburner offering Download's Glassblower. But Sköld's choice and placement on the collection truly sets the tone and deepens the understanding and connection to the importance of this effort.
The couple has spent the year feeling ghosted and put off by doctors while they wait for updates on when they can proceed with several necessary surgeries. In August they finally got Hansen scheduled for a thyroid operation, happening later this month, which is a necessary step before he can get a kidney transplant (which is being donated by Larsen himself.) Even through all that, Larsen continues to think of others and has recently contributed a track to Synthcore Dreams Compilation and Comic Book Volume 1: Record Deal of the Apocalypse, benefiting Darkest Before Dawn, a suicide prevention charity, and due out this November.
I don't usually say, "go buy this;" it's kind of implied that you can if you like the featured track of the week. But I will say this time, even if the cover or the original doesn't strike you, please click through the Bandcamp link and explore more of Larsen's music to find something that might and consider giving them some support.
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
My intent for the Third Sunday Throwback to the 20th century was to focus on a cover of a track that was originally tribute to a dancer/choreography who recently passed away. Quality and lack of suitable source has forced me to abandon that plan for now, but we will still go back in time and could possibly end up adjacent to that influence. (The vagary is valid, I promise.)
Feel free to tell me what you think about today's cover! Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Sep 02 - Bestial Mouths - Being Boiled (The Human League)
Aug 26 - 4X4: Suzi Quatro/J.G. Thirlwell/Soft Lighting/Norman Sane - Warm Leatherette (The Normal)
Aug 19 - Billy Idol - [I Forgot] To Be A [Your] Lover (William Bell)
Aug 12 - Noctronyx - Wreath of Barbs (:wumpscut:)
Aug 05 - Das Projekt - Monday, Monday (The Mamas & The Papas)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
It's one of my hopes that the covers I feature here on this blog provide a gateway for readers to find even more music of interest by investigating each artists' offerings. That's especially true for this Second Sunday Slowly edition. Today's featured dark downtempo cover is part of a chæritæble cæuse to benefit one of the industrial scene's hardest working artists who is currently struggling to cover the cost of his immediate family's medical expenses.:
Skold - Pale As Chalk (Leæther Strip)
Swedish industrial artist Claus Larsen has been producing music since the age of 14, primarily with his project Leæther Strip, but also with Klutæ, Am Tierpark, Mirland/Larsen, Sequential Access, The Stricken, and a number of other collaborations and projects. He's recorded an impressive array of original material along with well over 50 covers of songs by Kraftwerk, Mark Snow, Die Krupps, Pink Floyd, The Cure*, Soft Cell*, AC/DC, Dead Can Dance, New Order, The Human League*, Depeche Mode*, The Beloved, Siouxsie and The Banshees*, Cher, Fad Gadget, Judas Priest, P. J. Harvey, Yaz, Dead or Alive*, David Bowie, Merle Travis, The Normal*, Devo, Bronski Beat, Simple Minds*, Sex Pistols, Nena, DAF, Adam & the Ants, and a lot more. (*Denotes multiple covers) He has recently reported working on a cover of Skinny Puppy's Far Too Frail.
Spæctator, Larsen's entirely original 2016 Leæther Strip album, was written during a time of extraordinary emotional hardship due to the ongoing health problems of his husband, Kurt Grünewald Hansen, and the death of his mother. The album features White As Chalk, a track he calls "the most important song I’ve composed so far." He wrote the song only a day after his mother died, detailing his feelings of seeking her acceptance but ultimately never receiving it. In one interview he states, "It’s a song explaining to my mother how I felt as a kid; a very personal song, but it was a song that I needed to get out of my system. It was also the hardest song for me to record. I broke down several times during the production."
Though his mother has gone, his husband's overall health has not improved greatly since the album's recording and treatments for Hansen's condition have been difficult and painful while the couple await scheduling for operations that could help. This is said to have impacted Larsen's ability to tour and make new music, though to look at his past few years he has still managed to do both more impressively than some with less challenging circumstances.
Tom Shear of Assemblage 23 and Larsen's long time associate Michelle Molitor took note of this hardship and initiated an effort to help. In addition to setting up a GoFundMe page, the two worked with Jonathan Kaplan (for all the emptiness), John R. Mirland (LÆBEL, Am Tierpark, Mirland/Larsen, Mirland) and Troy Hilton (DSOL Productions) to organize 24 different bands and artists to provide tracks for a compilation called Heærts Combine, released in March, with all proceeds going to the couple's health and living expenses. Contributing artists include Die Krupps, Psyche, Stoneburner, Ego Likeness, Ludovico Technique, Caustic, Birmingham 6, and more. Mirland has said there were even more volunteers that couldn't be included due to time constraints. After being let in on the project, Larsen also contributed a Leæther Strip song he recorded after the death of David Bowie, which became the opening and 25th track for the album.
The next track is a downtempo cover of White As Chalk as done by fellow Swedish industrial rocker Tim Sköld (formerly of Marilyn Manson, KMFDM, et.al.). Sköld stated early 90's Leæther Strip was particularly influential for him but also noted a recent review of Leæther Strip's latest works encouraged him to look into this track. He said in an interview that White As Chalk "struck me as a very genuine piece and I immediately had a version for me in mind. It wasn’t until later I found out that Claus wrote the song the day his mother died." Sköld "strips" the industrial "leæther" out of the track to expose a haunting and emotional gothic dirge hidden within. The rest of the album is mostly original tracks or remixes, excepting two additional covers: for all the emptiness with the Gothsicles doing Jonny McGovern's Texting On The Dancefloor and Stoneburner offering Download's Glassblower. But Sköld's choice and placement on the collection truly sets the tone and deepens the understanding and connection to the importance of this effort.
The couple has spent the year feeling ghosted and put off by doctors while they wait for updates on when they can proceed with several necessary surgeries. In August they finally got Hansen scheduled for a thyroid operation, happening later this month, which is a necessary step before he can get a kidney transplant (which is being donated by Larsen himself.) Even through all that, Larsen continues to think of others and has recently contributed a track to Synthcore Dreams Compilation and Comic Book Volume 1: Record Deal of the Apocalypse, benefiting Darkest Before Dawn, a suicide prevention charity, and due out this November.
I don't usually say, "go buy this;" it's kind of implied that you can if you like the featured track of the week. But I will say this time, even if the cover or the original doesn't strike you, please click through the Bandcamp link and explore more of Larsen's music to find something that might and consider giving them some support.
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
My intent for the Third Sunday Throwback to the 20th century was to focus on a cover of a track that was originally tribute to a dancer/choreography who recently passed away. Quality and lack of suitable source has forced me to abandon that plan for now, but we will still go back in time and could possibly end up adjacent to that influence. (The vagary is valid, I promise.)
Feel free to tell me what you think about today's cover! Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Sep 02 - Bestial Mouths - Being Boiled (The Human League)
Aug 26 - 4X4: Suzi Quatro/J.G. Thirlwell/Soft Lighting/Norman Sane - Warm Leatherette (The Normal)
Aug 19 - Billy Idol - [I Forgot] To Be A [Your] Lover (William Bell)
Aug 12 - Noctronyx - Wreath of Barbs (:wumpscut:)
Aug 05 - Das Projekt - Monday, Monday (The Mamas & The Papas)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies