Mute Rec.
Diamanda Galas : Litanies of Satan (GR,1984)****°
Mute Rec.Diamanda Galas : The Divine Punishment (GR,1986)***°°
Mute Rec.Diamanda Galas : Saint of The Pit (GR,1988)*****
Mute Rec.Diamanda Galas : You must be certain of the Devil (GR,1988)*****
Mute Rec.Diamanda Galas : The Singer (GR,1992)****°
Diamanda Galas started singing for contemporary cmposers like Xenakis. One LP with these recording is difficult to find and was never re-released. Our radiostation was one of the first to embrace her talents. "Litanies of Satan" and adaptation of Beadelaire into music is combined with an abstract scream-based masterpiece, which sounds somewhat like a pig being burned alive. Extreme and powerful. When I played it for a friend at one evening at the first scream (I played it slower speed too) we both saw the same second a dark lady citing in an empty chair. Scarry. Her trilogy followed hereafter is a must-have heard. There is nothing like this and never will be. It is a well focused vocally expressive musical translations of dark passages from literature (part 1), the Bible (part 2), and is night club related (part 3). The singer is powerful gospel. I regret having sold the live recording from that period. I though it had little to add to the previous recordings, but one track with powerful bass actually also should not be missed. All this work has an extreme powerful focus. After this I didn't feel the same strength any more, so I skipped the other works so far.
Voices which Diamanda Galas recommends :
"La Lupe. She was a great singer of salsa music from Cuba. Castro kicked her out of Cuba because he thought she was obscene. She would sing and pull her clothes off and scream at the same time -- an incredible sense of timing, a great improviser. Ghena Dimitrova, a great opera singer from Bulgaria; flamenco singer Camaron de las Islas; Oum Kalthoum is one of my all-time favorites; Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle. There's nothing half-assed about them. And let's not forget Ethel Merman. There's a woman who sang seven shows a week for a thousand years."
