NEUROSIS & JARBOE © 2003 $15.00

THE WIRE
Issue 239 January 2004

http://www.thewire.co.uk/

Since the dissolution of Swans in 1998, composer, pianist, producer and pioneer Internet artist The Living Jarboe has been collaborating with San Francisco's foremost proponents of operatic guitar, Neurosis. Neurosis & Jarboe adds to Jarboe's discography of more than 50 collaborative projects, and precedes next month's release, Men, which will feature an electric array of 'duets' with male artists such as Jim Thirlwell, Alan Sparhawk and David J. Judging by Jarboe's latest performance, these guys should feel like they are lining up for the firing squad, ready to be beaten into submission. With Neurosis she's at her most visceral, triumphant and vicious.

When two spheres overlap, the resulting eclipse emphasizes the most striking< and powerful characteristics of each body. On Neurosis & Jarboe, it feels as though all musicians involved are unleashing the fiery core of their creativity. The opening "Within" begins with an apocalyptic drumbeat and a siren of stinging keyboards. Jarboe spills a thrilling, terrifying sentence over and over : "I tell you, if God wants to take me, He will- He's COMING", before exploding into a long spell of percussive heavy panting. Except, sounding like she's expelling inner demons, Jarboe's panting couldn't have been more antipathetic to the sexual breathiness heard on so many other contemporary records.

There is something wonderfully unnerving about Jarboe, always an intense and provocative performer, who commands the complete attention of her audience. her powerful live presence survives the transfer to record; Neurosis & Jarboe swallows you whole and spits you right back out. This album contains some of the most harrowing sounds yet from either artists, and their collaboration adds up to something very special indeed.

- by Mia Clarke