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"Through the Gash" is the newest CD that Hannah Fury has unleashed on the public. The lovely musician from Philadelphia has another full length and two eps under her (no-doubt frilly) belt, but none of them compare to this excellent recording.
Fury comes from the alluring tradition of talented women who, by turns, tease and molest their keyboards. Not that she's a traditionalist. Yes you can hear the ghosts of Siouxsie at her orchestral-goth best and of that Queen Mother of somber piano pop: Kate Bush. But Fury is in her own personal territory. She's not aping either of those artists and to bring up Tori Amos is pointless. Amos never sounded this warm and so honestly open and exposed. Hannah may be haunted, but it's not by other artists.
Yet, as the cover of the album illustrates, Fury is past her exposure. Her wounds are stitched up, if not completely healed. "Through the Gash" isn't the manic howl of a wounded animal it is the reflective work of a survivor on the mend. The impressive part is that she must have sewn those sutures herself. Since this album was "Written, performed, engineered & produced" by Fury a little self surgery doesn't seem out of the question. "Through the Gash" doesn't refer to something invading her it refers to her getting through the wound.
Musically Hannah has moved away from the romantigoth of her early work. There is still some nice piano work on this collection but there is also electronic keyboards and some savory 60's sounding organ. It's not just her keyboards that are electronic. The CD is bristling with drum machine beats and churning with studio effects. These songs are so sweetly self-indulgent that it's obvious that Fury fell in love with the studio, that she made love to the recording process. She was teasing and molesting the studio as well as her piano. But she did so without ending up with something so processed it comes across as heartless "product".
The humanization of the studio lays partly with her roots as a melodic and moody balladeer but most of it is her skill with the recording process. She knows how to soften the edges, how to layer her vocals for natural harmony, she knows well enough to leave those empty moments that seem natural. She doesn't feel the need to hit us over the head with a constant barrage of sound. The album never lets up, though. Even when it's quiet there's something swirling around.
The swirling isn't just a goth swirly, it's older than that. Perhaps it's the presence of the nostalgia organ on several of the songs but there's almost a psychedelic feel here. Her vocals, her instruments, her themes flow and twist through your brain catching on thorns of synapse. The occasional circus sample further evokes the Doors or even the Strangler's "Golden Brown". Still "Through the Gash" isn't so much a retro album as lost in time, or dischronically out of time.
Hannah Fury recorded this herself, on her own label, and the outcome is oustanding. It's another bit of evidence against artists signing to big labels. Other than marketing what are they really offering most musicians? Fury doesn't need their help and she doesn't need ours. She just needs an audience so she can show off her scars.
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Hannah Fury:
http://www.myspace.com/hannahfury
Mellow Traumatic:
http://www.mellowtraumatic.com/recordings.html
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