Psychic TV - Kondole / Dead Cat (2018)

Kondole/Dead Cat is an expanded edition of Psychic TV's Kondole album, which included material intended as film soundtracks. The only film that seems to have been completed is Dead Cat, which is included as a DVD in this set, marking the film's first-ever commercial release. The album's three pieces each clock in at exactly 23 minutes (a number of extreme significance to Psychic TV and Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth), adding up to 69 minutes total, and all three pieces were recorded on January 23 during three different years. The liner notes explain in great detail how the group became interested in the intelligence of dolphins and whales, and how they helped support efforts to protect the sea creatures. "Thee Whale" (recorded in 1988) is a lush, hypnotic piece with sampled whale songs and rhythms which approach house music, but barely resemble the sample-heavy, club-driven acid house that the group would soon dive into headlong. Instead, this feels much more spiritual, tribal, and celestial. "Thee Shadow Creatures" (created in 1993 for that year's Silent Records edition of the album) includes more sampled nature sounds as well as a submerged, distorted tribal drum loop similar to Muslimgauze, all covered by swarming noises and echo effects, which often seem to imitate whale calls. That leaves "Dead Cat," which was recorded in 1989, after techno producer Fred Giannelli joined Psychic TV. However, this piece is even further removed from dance music than the others on the album, sounding closer to Coil's most daring sonic experiments. A loop that sounds like a revving motorcycle continually circles around, occasionally punctuated by hard, earth-shaking slams and noises that sound like the desperate cries of a dolphin's wail underneath. The film itself is filled with entirely different (but equally disturbing) imagery which has nothing to do with dolphins or whales, but as a piece of music, it's a powerful statement expressing human sympathy and compassion for other beings that coexist on this planet. The set also includes a previously unissued 48-minute version of "Dead Cat," but to be frank, the shorter version gets the point across just fine.