Crook Brian / Renderers: This World Just Eats Me Up Alive

While recording a group of songs that would end up being part of This World Just Eats Me Up Alive Brian Crook took a break outside with his bandmates. A small girl nearby ran up to a woman saying Mommy mommy Theres a vampire here The mother asked how the girl knew it was a vampire and the girl said He talks like this and proceeded to do a growling impression of a New Zealand accent. At the time Brian was in a dark suit and had super long hair and was playing badminton. Crooks new solo album comprises eight years of recording so perhaps his undead appearance is not surprising it comprises a span of inspiration that seems almost vampiric with themes suggested by Greek mythology a favorite 1960s author to the abstract electronics of Aphex Twin and Arca as influences. The album came together in parts slowly assembled with various contributors and recording locations the earliest trace having lyrical origins from 1991 and was done during during sessions for The Terminals Crooks other band you can also add NZ legends Scorched Earth Policy and Flies Inside The Sun to that list. A near decade provides a lot of material for reflective songwriting. In Crooks revelations about life in New Zealand and his tenebrous lyrical style there is more than a touch of comedy albeit of a blackly humorous South Island New Zealand nature. The lyrics and music come from a similar place as New Zealand painters Bill Hammond and Tony de Latour evoking a kind of ceremonial primitivism.

1.1 Black Mariah
1.2 Dragged Both Ways
1.3 This World Just Eats Me Up
1.4 The Smoking Singularity
1.5 Sissyphus
1.6 Poisoning the Well
1.7 Joyce Carol Oates


H 0.16
W 12.33
L 12.37