Two... Five... Zero... Zero... Zero... JIHAD
"Gift" was the first and only album by the Sisterhood. The Sisterhood were a pseudo-band formed by Andrew Eldritch after the first lineup of the Sisters of Mercy imploded in 1985. When Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams left the Sisters to do their own thing, their first project was a very short tour of Europe under the name the Sisterhood. Eldritch's immediate response was to dedicate two weeks to recording an album ironically called Gift and release it under the same name so he could sue Hussey at the same time they were already fighting over the rights to the SOM name. (Hussey and Co. were forced to rename themselves the Mission, which was fine and cool but the Americans already had a band called the Mission, which was bad.)
Musically, "Gift" is one of the least interesting things ever done by any member of the Sisters of Mercy, but it's not unlistenable. It is a full-length album consisting of five very long tracks of loopy electro/goth nonsense, of which three are fair to pretty good and two are just trash. One of the good ones is the VERY good "Giving Ground". The whole thing is done with a lot of sample loops and very basic drum machines, and sounds a lot like any mid-Eighties science fiction soundtrack. "Jihad" in particular sounds like somebody's bad idea of Fewteristic Music, at something like eleven minutes of techno slush.
Both Andrew Eldritch and James Ray are credited for vocals on Gift, and much noise has been made about the fact that Ray sounds uncannily like Eldritch (much like about a million other semi-talented Goth bands to come in the next ten years...) but there is also a rumour that Eldritch never sang at all on the album.
The other artists credited as "the Chorus of Vengeance" on this album are Lucas Fox, Alan Vela, and the Gun Club's Patricia Morrison, who was also part of the next Sisters of Mercy lineup. Doktor Avalanche is also credited, but for some reason none of the sampling machines are.
What you have lost can never be found
words are just dust in deserts of sound
everything is lost and your trust lies broken
and the truth is found...
Tracks:
- Jihad - a terrible track to open an album with, this "song" features the lyrics 'Two... Five... Zero... Zero... Zero... Jihad'. This may or may not have some meaning.
- Colours - eleven minutes later, the patient listener is rewarded with some decent music. A newly recorded version of this song was later used as one of two bonus tracks on the CD version of "Floodland".
- Giving Ground - best song on the album. Could easily have been another Floodland track.
- Finland Red, Egypt White - ACK! Another insult to listeners. The title refers to colours found on AK-47 ammunition in various countries. The track is just a man reading a lot of information from a manual about AK-47 rifles. From time to time, the words 'destroying personnel...' are repeated to give the song a semblance of deeper meaning. It doesn't work.
- Rain from Heaven - the only song on the album that features a full production with background singers and all, this is a nicely atmospheric track that really starts to develop the ideas presented in Floodland.
As the water flows over the bridge,
as we walk on the floodland,
as we walk on the water, we forget