Heartland

If Eldritch is The Sisters then why does the music change in style with each new band. It would appear as if he doesn't write any of the music and relys heavily on transient musicians to create a platform for him to sing from.
The sound of Gary Marx
The sound of That Guitarist
The sound of Jim Steinman
The sound of James/Bruhn & Brucheno

Or does it just appear this way to me?

I wouldn't put it that way, really. Every artist has phases in his artistical life, as has Eldo...

Of course he has been influenced by his collaborators, but that doesn't make what he's reached less, I think...

And the many different styles is actually one of the reasons I love the Sisters so much notworthy:

Obviousman wrote:I wouldn't put it that way, really. Every artist has phases in his artistical life, as has Eldo...

And the many different styles is actually one of the reasons I love the Sisters so much notworthy:

Exactly. That's my opinion.

It's what makes him brilliant. Eldo doesn't accept too much influence by other band members. Tony James tried it and Hussey (Garden of Delight for example) as well. Eldo always did and does it his way.

Looking for inspiration and finding it, it's hard to imagine that one is not influenced by someone. It's the difference in style that makes him a great artist!

Voilà.
And besides, there's also a phenomenon called "development" or "evolvement". I'd even go as far as facing the possibility of Eldritch choosing certain musicians for the specific sound they provide, because he wants an album/song/tour to sound in a certain way.

I don't think the style has changed that much - the guitar parts might have but the song structure is the same as always...
I still wish they'd get a bass player in and move away from the power-chords, it does make everything sound a bit samey.

a.r.kane wrote:...relys heavily on transient musicians..

Has he been playing with that busker from under the railway bridge again?

I can see the song writing bit, but the lyrics are genuinely von - stuff.

a.r.kane wrote:If Eldritch is The Sisters then why does the music change in style with each new band. It would appear as if he doesn't write any of the music and relys heavily on transient musicians to create a platform for him to sing from.
The sound of Gary Marx
The sound of That Guitarist
The sound of Jim Steinman
The sound of James/Bruhn & Brucheno

Or does it just appear this way to me?

its an interesting point and one i've wondered myself over the years, and the shifting line-ups and changing sounds.

the way its always seemed to me though is that no matter what style it his, all their songs still have the underlying feeling that its been "touched by the hand of von". you can always feel his influence on and in the material, no matter what the wider look, attitude & sound of the band is. he still seems to be "in" the music.

i think thats reason i'm still a fan - because its his influence i like. there's something about the way (even other peoples') songs come out when they have been fed through the "eldritch filter" that almost always grabs me

that said, i dont really like the first single. but now i think about it i dont see much von in there. a lot of groovy punk and proto-punk references, quite a bit of the fledgling marx, and ok, maybe the merest hint of an eldritch trying to get out, but von's "touch"is by no means stamped all over it as it is in something like body electric, and everything since.

@ czuczu: "that busker from under the railway bridge"? thats not as far from the truth as you'd like it to be, i fear

Personally, I think the influence of the 'sound' of James, Bruhn and Bricheno was negligible, at least in terms of recorded output. The best songs on Vision Thing are those written solely by Von, and most of Bruhn's co-written songs I could take or leave. The influence of Steinman on Floodland was also pretty slim - he produced one and a half songs, but again for me the melancholy 'sound' of that album is better captured by the Flood songs, and Driven Like the Snow.

I'd accept what you say about Hussey and Marx - they both had a great influence on the sound of the Sisters at the time. However, I would STILL say that the best early material was written and produced by Von alone.

I don't know..

Last night whilst burning the remnants of my CD collection onto MP3 I put both Some Boys.. .and the Under The Gun single onto my laptop..


In terms of production, I personally reckon that Alice 1993 was the pinnacle of the Sisters "sound" per se..

fine, it's a reworking but it hints at would could have been/might yet come..

It was definitely closer to the "industrial groove machine" ideal than anything else they've put it..

Mind you, I haven't seem them live in donkies so I can't really say anything about the new live sound, but live and on record are always different..

Gottdammerung wrote:...Alice 1993...

fine, it's a reworking but it hints at would could have been/might yet come..

It was definitely closer to the "industrial groove machine" ideal than anything else they've put it..

i'd agree. alice 93 is the nearest thing commited to vinyl/tape/cd that there is to the current sisters (live) sound.

a.r.kane wrote:If Eldritch is The Sisters then why does the music change in style with each new band. It would appear as if he doesn't write any of the music and relys heavily on transient musicians to create a platform for him to sing from.
The sound of Gary Marx
The sound of That Guitarist
The sound of Jim Steinman
The sound of James/Bruhn & Brucheno

Or does it just appear this way to me?

I don't see the logic in the point about Steinman ... forgetting More, which came later, he only produced a track and a half on Floodland. Clearly the ideas that came to full fruition on that album are already in evidence on Gift and the Floodland demos. Can we therefore conclude that Floodland is the true Eldritch sound since it had no, or little, influence from collaborators?

I don't think so. I agree with the others who have posted along the lines of there being an AE touch to all Sisters material. The furthest I feel Sisters songs ever deviated from that (not counting The Damage Done record) is Side A of FALAA. Even there, I don't think that Hussey's influence overrides the Sisters sound; clearly he was working within parameters already defined ... by you know who.

Still nothing wrong with playing Devil's Advocate.

Gottdammerung wrote: In terms of production, I personally reckon that Alice 1993 was the pinnacle of the Sisters "sound" per se..

Absolutely stonking, isn't it?

this corrosion and dominion with steinman's input would sound very lacklustre. all the interesting bits were his idea...

Gottdammerung wrote:alice 93 is the nearest thing commited to vinyl/tape/cd that there is to the current sisters (live) sound.

Very true!
But it's also the most pointless thing they've ever released... It's got a warmer mix than the original but the guitars are so weedy & anonymous...
Bizarrely (and I know it's wrong ) I prefer TOL92 to the original & the 91-92 is still my favourite live era

Here's a poser though - if The Sissies are just Eldritch, how come 90% of their cover versions sound spot-on regardless of who's playing them and who originally wrote them?

Quiff Boy wrote:this corrosion and dominion with steinman's input would sound very lacklustre. all the interesting bits were his idea...

Says a man who's heard the original version of This Corrosion?

no, but i've heard the dominion demos and they're nowhere near as interesting as the finished product.

and i've read about what steinman's input was to this corrision, and which bits were his idea... and i think it would be just another ordinary song, albeit quite a funky one, without his inspiration of adding OTT multitracked choirs, chanting, ooh-ing and a wailing eddie martinez-geeeeetar solo

Obviousman wrote:I wouldn't put it that way, really. Every artist has phases in his artistical life, as has Eldo...

Of course he has been influenced by his collaborators, but that doesn't make what he's reached less, I think...

And the many different styles is actually one of the reasons I love the Sisters so much notworthy:

What he said.

Quiff Boy wrote:

no, but i've heard the dominion demos and they're nowhere near as interesting as the finished product.

and i've read about what steinman's input was to this corrision, and which bits were his idea... and i think it would be just another ordinary song, albeit quite a funky one, without his inspiration of adding OTT multitracked choirs, chanting, ooh-ing and a wailing eddie martinez-geeeeetar solo

It's a good point, tend to agree that you can certainly hear through most tracks, but also, part of the skill of the artist is in choosing the right producer to help dig out the best from the material and add their touch too. Perhaps this is part of the current (assuming there even is one) problem is the fees required for a producer these days?

I've heard the Sisters being described in (recent years) by one music journalist, as doing Cover Versions of themselves....

To be honest I think that's a load of toss. All bands evolve and sound different form when they first started out. Eldritch has always said he's proffered studio work to playing live. That's because he's a techie geek and likes to play with new technology; and knowing what an arrogant SOB he is, I'm sure he simply views new musicians as being new bits of equipment to play with....lol

*OH THE POWER!*

Byron wrote:I've heard the Sisters being described in (recent years) by one music journalist, as doing Cover Versions of themselves....

is this not in fact a reference to recent live interpretations of old songs e.g slow body electric (which i'm yet to hear if some kind soul would like to point me in the right direction), the "thrash" amphetamine logic and marian, the bizarre detonation blvd/dr.jeep segue, the new (now old!) FALAA, etc.?

Do The Sisters Exist?

No and yes.

eastmidswhizzkid wrote:

Byron wrote:I've heard the Sisters being described in (recent years) by one music journalist, as doing Cover Versions of themselves....

is this not in fact a reference to recent live interpretations of old songs e.g slow body electric (which i'm yet to hear if some kind soul would like to point me in the right direction), the "thrash" amphetamine logic and marian, the bizarre detonation blvd/dr.jeep segue, the new (now old!) FALAA, etc.?

To be honest I can't remember where i read it.

nick the stripper wrote:

Do The Sisters Exist?

No and yes.

If you're correct, this gives serious weight to the suggestion that Schrödinger's cat was in fact Spiggy

nick the stripper wrote:Do The Sisters Exist?

I hope so - just bought mine their Christmas presents.