Current 93 – Swastikas For Noddy

I bought it when it came out. Just because i loved the cover. The initial shock of the first listening never faded. It will remain my favorite C93 LP ever. Not a single useless second here. The sonic nightmare it is creating will remain unique, and i don't know any other recording going that far into such hilarious, fierce and exhilarating soundscape. Pretty much like a Bosch painting, there's of course too much to handle at once. This is why it's a life-long enjoyable album. You will always find something new in it. Even if i know it by heart after all these years...
It's the record that brought me to magick artists like Freya Aswynn, Boyd Rice, Rose McDowell and Douglas Pierce, so i owe this LP a lot.
And every time i listen to it, i also need to listen to Death in June "Wall of Sacrifice". For me, both LPs are intimately connected.

Hard to describe the impact this album had on us State-side ex-suburbanites. THIS is what I think of when I think of Current 93. I am astounded at the meager attention here. This is an outsider trove. Much love!!

Whilst folky elements had been creeping into Current 93's sound since David Tibet discovered the music of Shirley Collins, Swastikas for Noddy was something pretty different for the group. Other than the six minute industrial sound collage 'Panzer Rune' (completely out of place, even on a disted album like this), traces of the earlier experimental, post-industrial sound the band was known for are notable only by their absence.

To call Swastikas for Noddy a folk album is possibly doing it too much justice. Certainly Douglas P's acoustic guitar strum is the most prominent sound, Freya Aswynn brings in Nordic folk elements, and the first full track, 'Oh Coal Black Smith', is an interpretation of a traditional song. Yet drum machines, spoken word elements from experimental sound artist and man of controversial opinions Boyd Rice, music boxes, nursery rhymes, covers of pop songs and what sounds like a children's TV theme (plus the aforementioned Panzer Rune) all find their way into the mix.

To be honest, calling Swastikas for Noddy an album is probably doing it too much justice. The record is a mess, with only a handful of proper songs slotted between various sketches and half-finished ideas, wordless chants, daft a capella interludes and other barmy nonsense. Half of the tracks are comprised of two totally unrelated sections. In of production quality, there is none. Everything here is effectively presented as a demo: badly mixed, badly recorded. Spoken elements recorded at completely different fidelity to the rest of the music are slotted awkwardly into the middle of songs. Tibet and Rose McDowall sing out of tune with each other on more than one occasion. Aswynn's voice is absolutely horrible.

Despite that, the album is undeniably a LOT of fun. This is an album named after a hallucination David Tibet had in which Noddy was crucified on a giant swastika. He later renamed it to '...Goddy' after he decided that Noddy was an incarnation of some deity or other. The inner sleeve has Tibet in leather tros and a Noddy vest posing in a graveyard. The album is daft. Absolutely, utterly daft. If the music were actually better, it'd be a five star work of outsider art genius. As it is, I pop it on once in a while for a laugh, because although it's kind of rubbish, it really is a lot of fun.

Take a look at davidtibet.com (note the date this message is posted) and see the remastered reissue of this and "Crooked Crosses..." as a double LP, not listed here yet.

Upon listening to this classic album after so many years, I can't help noticing how different it sounds to my ears today. Its charm still comes from the impression you get that this is the recording of a group of "apocalyptic folks", meeting one night in the woods, singing and playing whatever came spontaneously out of their hands and mouths, with hardly any music skill involved. Probably, things went exactly this way. "Swastikas For Noddy" is a patchwork of moments and raw emotions, there's hardly anything you could call a song. Yes, you got "Oh Coal Black Smith" and two covers, even a Death In June tune, as for the rest, it's some odd and disturbing litanies or rigmaroles. Still, a classic in its genre, and still today spawning endless copycats in the so-called neofolk genre.

This version of the album sounds like it was mastered pretty poorly. It distorts quite often and the volume seems to pulse during some of the louder parts. It doesn't sound as if "Tibet 93" and Douglas P. were very experienced producers at the time. This is an essential item for any Current 93 collectors, but don't expect it to sound the same as the CD copy. That said, I couldn't be happier with it myself.