Lahka Muza – Performance (DVD – eXcentriX Records)
Genre/Influences: Gothic, dark-wave, ritual-wave.
Background/Info: Lahka Muza is a Slovakian formation that was set up in 1984 in the now gone Czechoslovakia. The band went through numerous line-up changes, but Gudrun Snake and 677 both remain the leading members of the crew. They don’t release new work on regular basis, but can already look back on 8 full length albums plus one album with their side-project Hieros Gamos. “Performance” is a DVD mainly revealing live material and a few clips plus a picture gallery.
Content: The main part of the DVD features a live performance that was given in Bratislava in 2013 revealing several songs from their last studio album “Byť Tvojím Zrkadlom” (cf. “To Be Your Mirror”). The music can be defined as gothic with a kind of ethereal and ritual element on top. One of the main characteristics and forces of the band remain the enigmatic vocals of Gudrun Snake. Live she’s dressed like a leather-diva. I don’t know if she’s a severe Mistress, but her bewitching vocals and the dark gothic sound create a dangerous, sensual rite. One of the song reveals a female performer with a fetish look.
The live performance remains rather sober revealing a high degree of concentration of the members consisting of both core members plus a female bass player and a drummer.
We next get a few tracks from the early years (1993) logically revealing songs from the first work. The image was different and Gudrun here reminds me of Siouxsie Sioux while the music remains pretty recognizable.
+ + + : Lahka Muza remains a single experience in music revealing a sensual and mysterious gothic sound carried by the enigmatic and mystical vocals of the singer/diva. This DVD is an opportunity to get an idea about the kind of live shows of the band. It looks sexy and yet sober leaving the audience with their perverted imagination. I think it’s a good idea to have shown a current live performance next to a few early live extracts. The DVD will hold you in its grip for nearly 2 hours.
– – – : One of my only regrets is the rather soft vision of fetishism and s/m that has been shown on stage. It however remains one of the band’s main elements from the image and that’s why I expected some more ‘explicit’ passages.
Conclusion: I already knew the sound of Lahka Muza and now got an idea of their live performances. I had a ‘harder’ idea of this band in mind although their music remains a fascinating and mysterious rite throughout our own fantasies.
Best songs: “When Dreams Were Screaming”, “Naplnenie”.
Rate: (7½).
Band & Label: www.lahkamuza.net / www.facebook.com/Lahka–Muza–projekt–Hieros–Gamos-103368653072959 / www.facebook.com/gudrun.snake
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