On November 1st, 1986 Clan of Xymox released their second studio album Medusa.
Previously, Clan of Xymox’s 1985 self-titled debut LP took their label 4AD by storm, issuing a much more club-minded shade of The Cure’s heady gloom. On their second record, however, the band truly come into their own with warmer synth textures, shimmering guitars, ambient interludes, and some of the most well-crafted tracks recorded in the era. Each track is a mini-masterpiece, and songs such as “Louise” and “Back Door”, are darkwave classics.
Together the core songwriting trio of Ronny Moorings, Anka Wolbert, Pieter Nooten, along with guitarist Frank Weyzig created one of the definitive goth records of all time and earned in spades their spot in music history by having the term darkwave coined by John Peel himself in describing their dark and melancholic sound.
In an interview with Post-Punk.com Bassist Anka Wolbert explained the songwriting behind one of the album tracks, “Masquerade”:
“Masquerade” was the first song I wrote entirely by myself. These were the early days of computer programming. We had just made the progression from the Commodore 64 to the Atari ST, the first home computer with integrated MIDI support, and I played and programmed each and every note. It’s obviously a pretty sad song, but dreamy too? I’ve always been fascinated by the layers of conscious and subconscious parts of people’s behaviour when connecting to each other. And how difficult it can be. Your first relationships can be pretty overwhelming. What is you, what is the other, how much do you allow to be seen by the other, and vice versa. What makes it frightening. What hurts.”
For more information on the making of Medusa, listen to our interview with Ronny Moorings below:
Tracklist:
1. “Theme I”
2. “Medusa”
3. “Michelle”
4. “Theme II”
5. “Louise”
6. “Lorretine”
7. “Agonised by Love”
8. “Masquerade”
9. “After the Call”
10. “Back Door”
