Death In June – Misery And Purity

Robert Forbes
Death In June – Misery And Purity (1995)

Death In June – Misery And Purity é um livro sobre a banda inglesa de industrial e neofolk Death In June, formada em 1981 por Douglas Pearce e Tony Wakeford, que tinham tocado anteriormente nos Crisis. O autor afirma ter baseado a escrita em artigos seus anteriormente publicados nos fanzines Fractured e Impulse, e pretende fazer a história e uma interpretação pessoal dos DIJ até à data, finais de 1994, quando a edição de “Rose Clouds Of Holocaust” estava agendada e o alinhamento dos temas era já conhecido. Contém ainda uma listagem completa da discografia e um capítulo final dedicado aos Crisis. O livro é, portanto, uma história pormenorizada da banda, desde os seus inícios, com excertos de entrevistas dadas pelos músicos ao longo dos anos, citações da imprensa musical, reproduções fac-símile de artigos, folhetos e outro material impresso, a perspectiva do autor sobre o significado e contextualização das letras/poemas, sempre ambíguos e complexos, as capas dos discos e outros motivos de interesse em redor da banda. No fundo, o livro de um fan dirigido aos outros fans, mas feito com profissionalismo e esmero.

‘Fields Of Rape’ lost its sinister air for me on listening to the original version of this song on Current 93’s excellent “Dogs Blood Rising” LP which makes it quite clear that the word rape refers to the yellow Eurasian plant cultivated for its seeds and not the unlawful act of sexual intercourse against that person’s will. It’s not recorded anywhere how this particular collaboration between Tibet and Death In June came about, but I can only guess that Douglas P. had been so impressed by some of the lyrics to this song that he wanted to use them set to his own music. And while the version that appears on “Nada!” is not my favourite one, it is preferable to the original long industrial sounding nightmare as performed by Current 93. I’m unsure where Tibet drew inspiration for these lyrics, but a certain Isidore Ducasse is said to appear in the line up of C93 on “Dogs Blood Rising”. This in fact was the real name of Comte de Lautreamont who wrote the book “Maldoror”. It’s a real shot in the dark, but is ‘Fields Of Rape’ inspired in part by this book? 

[…] 

“Brown Book” seems much more sinister and darker than “The World That Summer” which might reflect Douglas P’s growing resignation and a preoccupation with death I believe he had at that time. Douglas P. said in Attitude Incertaine #1 that he feels a real repugnance for death. (The fanzine I think came out in 1988 but most of the interview revolves around “Brown Book”.) And partly because of this he started to feel very uneasy about the name Death In June simply because death is mentioned in it. Possibly a picture is starting to form for us of Douglas P’s state of mind during the recording of this LP. This preoccupation is possibly continued in the statement scratched into the end grooves “A holy death for Douglas” and in the first track on this LP, ‘Heilige Tod’ (Holy Death), which is just those two words repeated by Rose McDowall and John Balance without the accompaniment (or hindrance) of musical instruments. 

The predominant instrument throughout this LP is the acoustic guitar and there was a reason behind this new musical angle as Douglas P. explained in Fear And Loathing #9:- “I think that way it approaches the purity of what we want to do in a much better way.” That attaining of purity is unmistakable. In a French interview, Douglas P. remarked:- “I like the sound of misery and purity.” Both are to be found on “Brown Book”.