Herve Vincenti and
Philippe Petit's collective group retains its neo-no wave/industrial clatter on
From Beyond Love, again recruiting a variety of guest vocalists track for track to extend the feeling of a decentralized, ever-shifting effort. "The Drone from Beyond Love" features
Battle of Mice/
Made Out of Babies'
Julie Christmas, whose clear but still subtly nervous/lost-child tones nicely contrast the bass-led dramatics of the performers.
Pantaleimon sings lead on "Sleepwalker," her wordless hums and echoed, strong, but still gentle pronouncements floating on a busy arrangement that consists of a swirl of melodies and solos, and builds to a dramatic climax of four repeated patterns -- and all without ever raising her voice. "Finzione" is the shortest track, with Cosey Fanni Tutti delivering quiet thoughts over
Sun Ra's kind of cosmic big-band jazz -- gone ambient. In contrast to the heavily female-led album,
Wire's
Graham Lewis brings his familiar, precise tones to "Bugged," his own air of calm matching another busy but never explosive arrangement, church organs leading the breaks. Meanwhile the concluding "Hurt Is Where the Home Is" brings together one hell of a coed vocal duo --
Lydia Lunch and
Oxbow's
Eugene Robinson. For the first seven minutes, it sounds like nothing but a lengthy build-up to an explosion as tense performances and parallel vocals intertwine around each other, but then there's the addition of a slow, almost easygoing groove, even as things continue to scream and scrape in the background. From there, it's everything from restrained near-ambience to what sounds like a screeching violin solo over same, as
Robinson and
Lunch contribute their individual takes. ~ Ned Raggett