Elteto.net

 A magical journey to another dimension in music

One challenge about organizing my massive music collection is making sure each song has embedded album cover art. The tiny visual accompaniment offers little enhancement to the audio, but I like to keep my files consistent and tagged in detail. When I got to The Birthday Massacre  songs, just out of curiosity I checked on Amazon.com to see if they had the CD. I was surprised to find both their albums for sale on the site.

I first heard of The Birthday Massacre  when they were called Imagica , a name they had to surrender to avoid conflict with an already existing use of it. It was the summer of 2002, and I was browsing mp3.com to discover new music by independent musicians. (A secondary incentive for me venturing on the site was to make a point that I was staying away from records published by major labels. Yes, I am the guy with the “Trespassers, terrorists, and members of the RIAA will be shot on sight” sign posted on his front lawn.) At the time, mp3.com had an overwhelming amount of artists offering thousands of free songs. Certainly, there were numerous homebrew projects crafted on a home computer using what sounded like an entry level Casio keyboard as the sole instrument on the whole production, but nevertheless, the spirit of musical expression was omnipresent.

I bumped into Imagica ’s page, which had three of their songs available for online listening. The first one I clicked on was “To Die For”, and in less than a minute I was sold. At the time, the band was preparing to publish their first full album, Nothing and Nowhere. Naturally, I could not wait that long, so I circumvented the streaming-only mode of mp3.com and downloaded the three teaser files. Considering that I have bought every Birthday Massacre  album in both CD and download format, I believe under the circumstances, it was very fair use. I pre-ordered the CD, express shipping, straight from Canada, from a smaller independent distributor there. Much in the same manner as the French had schooled us Americans on how to make a good movie when Brotherhood of the Wolf had hit our theaters, here I was wondering if Canadians were about to deliver another serious lesson, this time in music.

I had not been so enthusiastic about music since discovering Pink Floyd as I was when I finally got to play Nothing and Nowhere. I suspect some of my fellow Floyd fans may offer opposition to my opinion, primarily based on their perceived simplicity of BM’s music, but comparing a band to Floyd is a high praise of musical quality, and it also compliments the British masters to set them as the standard to which all other “mortal” musicians are measured against.

Interesting enough, BM’s music is not overwhelmingly revolutionary or original. Before I get massacred (no pun intended) by the fan club, let me expand on that. The appeal is in the delicate blending of familiar styles into something refreshing and rejuvenating. The songs are average “radio-length”, never being close to pushing the limits of boredom. As in the story about blind men touching an elephant and perceiving it to be different objects based on what part of the creature they feel, BM listeners may each find something different in the group’s music they can feel familiar with and enjoy, based on their personal preferences, tastes, and experiences. Are there touches of plain old simplistic teen pop to take care of catchiness? Yes, certainly, but not any more than guitar riffs reminiscent of The Sisters of Mercy ’s Vision Thing album, Floydish textures, new age synths, and 80’s fantasy motifs; the list goes on. Of course, throwing all kinds of ingredients in the blender does not guarantee a tasty treat; one has to know just how much of and how potent of each ingredient must go in for that perfect blend. BM has nailed its aural recipe to a level of rare musical delicacy with precision instrumentals and with Chibi’s vocals completing the works with ethereal sweetness.

“How could they follow up on such a well-crafted album?”, I wondered throughout the months and years, until Violet was released in 2004. I was overseas at the time in a place where the postal service was a donkey, with express mail turning speed up a notch by using camels, but thanks to satellite technology, I was able to purchase the whole album in a downloadable format. For the sake of truth it must be said that Violet was more of an EP, with a few instrumental pieces acting as transitions warming the listener up to the next song, but the magic was there to thrill yet again, satisfying all my expectations, with “Lovers End” and “Holiday” even far surpassing them. Just to mention a few highlights: it is absolutely pleasing to hear Chibi’s various vocal talents ranging from styles in the spirit of “sweet little girl playing with dolls in her cute little room” to “angry goth chick screaming”, the guitar riffs on “Lovers End”, and the synth progression accompanying the verses on “Holiday”. I recall the best fantasy movies I have ever seen, wishing they had scores in the same musical dimension. If nothing else, the hope remains that in the tradition of Toto, The Birthday Massacre will experiment with science-fiction or fantasy scores.

BM's success has not gone unnoticed. Just like with various military services in the "everybody wants to be like Mike" spirit striving to reach the ultimate level of U. S. Marine-ness, (not a chance), the "onslaught" of Massacre spin-offs has already begun, right down to mimicking the band's appearance, album covers, and  their music, naturally. Guys and gals, this "Goth-ish dudes and the one pale-faced Goth chick singer" formula just cannot possibly work for ALL of you! If you are talented, try the boy band route; the "genre", if I even dare to call it one, evidently needs all the help it can get...

Talking about looks, the band’s pictures on the Net reveal what most people would deem as “Goth” appearance. While the listener can pick up Goth touches in BM’s music, it should be far from anyone to pronounce them Goths, as the band draws a fine line between their magical atmosphere and the macabre vampire/funeral/halloween themes of stock Goth bands.Especially when listening to the lyrics, which are simple yet expressive, sort of dreamy, steering the BM experience into otherworldly landscapes and enchanted fairy tale dimensions, where the listener never feels alone in the breezy, starry, violet-black-blue night.