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March 28, 2024, 04:32:06 PM

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Lingua Ignota's obliterative female vengeance

Started by alan nagsworth, April 09, 2019, 10:50:08 AM

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alan nagsworth

I'm going to see this lady perform tonight, and my friend has been banging on about her for ages, so yesterday I finally gave her album All Bitches Die a listen. People have been touting it as "extreme noise" which for a while was quite off-putting to me, as I find a lot of that stuff highly pretentious and completely fucking boring (I know a bunch of people in local DIY noise scenes - some of it's great, but a lot of it is piss) and so when I got stuck into this yesterday, I was pleased to discover that describing it as such only scratches the surface of what lies within. Not only that, but as a whole, this thing is just about as uncompromising, embittered and fucking breathtaking as a piece of music can be.

All Bitches Die is a kick, a bite, a slash and a scream out from a place of deep trauma. Ignota has been physically, verbally and psychologically abused by a number of male partners in her life, and rather than getting on with her life as a victim by "being nice and getting a hobby", which she says 'enforces patriarchal models of civilised femininity', she creates this music which depicts her as a scornful creature of biblical proportion, laying to waste all in her path.

Ignota is a classically trained singer, and her voice is as stunning and beguiling as it is genuinely terrifying, singing in liturgical and sometimes folk stylings across scorched, barren piano tracks. These passages ride searing alongside those of harsh noise and experimental sound, a striking landscape of fury that broods, burns and punishes.

To call this level of catharsis exhilarating would be an understatement. It's a powerful, overwhelming piece of work, and above all else, it's completely fucking harrowing. Lingua Ignota is a nightmarish vision wearing a cloak of all her tormentors, sliced to ribbons and sewn together. When the reprise of opening track "Woe to All (On the Day of My Wrath)" surges back up, it feels like I can see it, towering over me in an incomprehensible form. During the final track "Holy is the Name (Of My Ruthless Axe)", I damn near cried at the power behind its somber restraint.

Overall, as a statement of abuse survival, this is a sobering and awe-inspiring record. Even though the way it deals with its trauma differs from that of Hannah Gadsby's "Nanette", I'd say the emotional impact it had on me was extremely similar. This is vital stuff, and Lingua Ignota is a force to be reckoned with. Go listen to this in its entirety.

Twit 2


jobotic

Blimey, will check this out definitely. Thanks.

alan nagsworth

Missed her set last night because in an extremely depressive state and I couldn't handle the thought of leaving the house or even my bed but I'm reliably informed that she was brilliant.

I'm four listens into this thing now and I've not been this deeply affected by a piece of music in a long time. It's so evocative that every word she sings paints a grizzly image in the mind. Fucking crucially important art.

Yep love it...listened to the thing in its entirety whilst assuming the foetal position on my unmade mattress in the dark...which is the only way to do it really I think. The last song I cant imagine being anywhere near as painful and heartwrenching or epiphanous without enduring everything thats gone before. It evoked the feeling of enduring a sombre and violent opera in an alternate but familiar universe. The glowingly obvious frame of reference and an indisputable influence is Diamanda Galas...but this feels a lot more focussed and wholly/holy-realised than much of Galas's body of desolation.

This woman has felt pain and anger at being brutalised and used and kicked to the dirt and all that pain spews out of her throughout the recording, sometimes in terrifying uninhibited screams and sometimes in gospel-like flourishes of melody

I would love to see her live and know that I will one day. Utmost thanks for introducing me to this brah.

alan nagsworth

Quote from: Misspent Boners on April 10, 2019, 04:15:00 PM
The last song I cant imagine being anywhere near as painful and heartwrenching or epiphanous without enduring everything thats gone before. It evoked the feeling of enduring a sombre and violent opera in an alternate but familiar universe.

Completely agree. Then again, and I hope this doesn't count as some form of appropriation, but the reason it hit me so hard is not just because of how visceral her expression and her depiction is, but also just like on behalf of my gender it makes me so ashamed and upset. It breaks my heart, but women like her are shaping the future so it also makes me swell with some sort of hope, too.

Chriddof

I haven't yet heard it, but from the various descriptions of it that I've read, I'm glad an album like this exists. The noise / industrial scene has needed something along these lines to give it a good boot up the arse - a massive corrective to the ancient, pathetic and cowardly old bollocks peddled by Whitehouse, et al.

jobotic

Had a listen tonight - fucking hell, and the last song is almost the most unlistenable. Brilliant.

There's some performances on youtube too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcsvb_8fZYo


alan nagsworth

This marvellous mad bastard artist is touring again, including three dates at the end of September/start of October. Got a ticket for her London show and I'm very fucking excited about it.

sevendaughters

she's playing the venue in Paris the night after my band, I can leave her a message if you like.

sevendaughters

I do quite like LI, missed this thread, like Prurient meets Enya at a Chelsea Wolfe appreciation night.

alan nagsworth

Yeah if you could tell her she can scream abuse at my genitals any day that would be great ta

New album imminent as well; and a coupla new tunes from it all ready on Spotty Fi

Dirty Boy

This album is extraordinary by the way. I heard about it through an interview with Daughters who are big fans (and possibly friends).

samadriel

Great stuff, thanks for the heads up, nags.

alan nagsworth

Quote from: samadriel on July 13, 2019, 12:22:10 PM
Great stuff, thanks for the heads up, nags.

your avatar/caption makes me laugh every time i see it

samadriel

Psst, 'Caligula' is out. I haven't yet enjoyed it as much as, say, 'All Bitches Die', it doesn't seem as interesting to me, but it's early days, I'm sure it'll sink in.

Shaky

Jesus, I wasn't familiar with this lady before but just had a few listens to Caligula. Astonishing.

Clownbaby


Dannyhood91

I saw her live in Manchester. I was peng af.

alan nagsworth

Yeah I copped her playing recently too, she was brilliant. Another gig I was very grateful for a crowd being totally awed and intimidated to silence. She was swinging off the lighting rig and forcing herself into the crowd to stand on a chair and just scream her head off, whole thing was breathtaking.

sevendaughters

I left her a message (paraphrase: Alan Nags off CaB really likes you Lingua) but no reply yet.

Cuellar

Good thread - All Bitches Die is a powerful listen.

alan nagsworth

That lyric on the final track - "All my rapists lie beside me / All my rapists cold and grey" is utterly chilling and sobering. Not often I'll find myself so shook by a record as I was by this thing.

Funnily enough I gave Caligula a listen and wasn't really all that dazzled by it. I really need to give it another listen soon.

Cuellar

I've only just listened to All Bitches Die thanks to this thread, and it's an incredibly difficult album to listen to. It's disturbing and brilliant. I don't know if I can listen to it again. Not so soon, anyway. Which is frustrating because I really want to.

Cuellar

I've decided that the most upsetting thing on CALIGULA is that fucking sample of Lars Ulrich (apparently) talking and smacking his lips loudly while eating on SORROW! SORROW! SORROW!. Absolutely fucking appalling.