Siouxsie Sunday: 'Hái!' by The Creatures

After releasing their fantastic 1999 album Anima Animus, there was a lot going on for Siouxsie and Budgie aka The Creatures. The duo released not one but two live recordings (titled Zulu and Sequins In The Sun) exclusively via their official fan club Gifthorse while also releasing a remix album Hybrids which featured remixes of their Anima Animus era tracks done by other artists. Furthermore, they released a compilation album that brought together their 1998 EP Eraser Cut and several B-sides from this era. Then, in 2002, Universal Music released a remastered compilation album of some of the Banshees' greatest hits (The Best of Siouxsie and the Banshees); subsequently, the core trio of the Banshees (Siouxsie, Severin & Budgie) plus guitarist Knox Chandler - who had played both with the Banshees (as their last guitarist) and The Creatures - reunited for the critically praised brief Seven Year Itch tour. A live album The Seven Year Itch was compiled of two of these gigs and released both as a CD and a DVD.

It was however made clear that the reunion was only meant to be temporary and less than 24 hours after the final Banshees gig, Siouxsie and Budgie were already in the studio recording new material for a forthcoming Creatures album. Fulfilling a long-time dream, the duo collaborated with ex-Kodo drummer Leonard Eto. The album was recorded in two parts: the main percussion was recorded as a spontaneous between Budgie and Eto drum duet - that's right, all the drumming you hear on the album is improvised! - and the rest of the material was added after The Creatures had returned to Europe.

Siouxsie Sunday: 'Anima Animus' by The Creatures

After Siouxsie and the Banshees split up in 1996, The Creatures (Siouxsie and Budgie's another band) were already composing material for a new record. The album, titled Anima Animus, is Siouxsie's first LP since 1995's The Rapture and comprises ten tracks. Leftover songs from the recording sessions saw the light of day either as B-sides for single releases or on Eraser Cut, an EP that heralded the actual album release.

The Eraser Cut served as a teaser of what was to come: while Budgie's percussion is still the driving force here, gone is the tribal feel of their previous LPs Boomerang and especially the highly experimental Feast. The Creatures had come up with a new sound that was less about exotica and more about electronica. Indeed, their new material was a fascinating blend of ominous synths and acoustic instruments, although Budgie's trademark marimbas still make occasional appearances. Another new element in a way was Siouxsie's voice: as seen in the live clips from the Banshees' shows during the mid-1990s, Siouxsie was occasionally struggling when performing their older material since her singing voice had started to show signs of change, deepening and lowering in register. These songs, however, were written for Siouxsie's changed vocal range so they showcase new sides of her distinctive voice.

Siouxsie Sunday: 'Eraser Cut' by The Creatures

Siouxsie and the Banshees' recording career came to an end with 1995' The Rapture with the band splitting up the following year. As a result, Siouxsie and Budgie's side project The Creatures became the duo's full-time band. The two actually started recording new Creatures material before the Banshees split up so even if the latter hadn't disbanded, a hiatus would've been coming, similar to when The Creatures recorded their previous LPs Feast and Boomerang.

During these sessions the duo recorded a lot of tracks and not all made it to their upcoming album, Anima Animus. Some songs were released as B-sides for following single releases, while the rest were treated with an EP release. The EP, titled Eraser Cut (an anagram of 'Creatures') was released in 1998 and consisted of four tracks. Preceding the album whose recording sessions they were taken from, the songs provided their listeners a taster of what was to come. 

Siouxsie Sunday: 'Boomerang' by The Creatures

After Siouxsie and the Banshees had released their 1988 masterpiece Peepshow and finished with the subsequent promotion tour, the band decided to take a break. This, of course, was not to say that they'd take a complete year-off from the music biz, but rather simply signified another resurfacing of Siouxsie and Budgie's experimental side project The Creatures.

Ever since The Creatures came to be, it was clear that the project was never intended to rival the Banshees, but rather just provide the duo with a means to fulfil their more experimental side. (The Creatures did find their own success: their debut EP Wild Things, Feast single "Miss The Girl" and stand-alone single "Right Now" peaked at #24, #21 and #14 in the UK singles chart - with the latter staying in the charts for 10 weeks! - while Feast itself peaked at #17 in the UK album charts.) So apparently even the eccentricity of the Banshees wasn't enough for the two of them! That's how the project came to be in the first place: their debut EP was inspired by a leftover demo from the Juju sessions. While Juju was arguably a rather tribal album, the demo track "But Not Them" took the tribal feel to another level, consisting merely of vocals accompanied by percussion.

Boomerang was The Creatures' first LP since 1983's Feast, a tropical experiment characterised by the duo's distinctive percussion-driven sound. While Feast was written and recorded in Hawaii, which was reflected in the soundscape of the album, for the creating process of Boomerang they rented a stone barn in Andalusia, Spain. Stylistically there was a lot of development in the duo's sound: both the range of the instruments they used and the influences they drew from broadened. They incorporated brass arrangements (in the vein of "Right Now") and experimented with exotica with amazing results. Fun fact: the artwork for the album was photographed by Anton Corbijn (who's done everyone from David Bowie and Depeche Mode to Björk and U2) and while he became famous for his black-and-white photography, the Boomerang era pictures he took of The Creatures marked the first time he chose to photograph artists in colour.

Siouxsie Sunday: 'Feast' by The Creatures

The John McGeoch era of the Banshees (Kaleidoscope in 1980, Juju in 1981 and A Kiss In The Dreamhouse in 1982) is seen by many as a golden age for the group. Indeed, the Banshees created some of their most essential work during that time, most notably the Juju album which helped to carve out a whole new genre. However, as Siouxsie herself once said during her Dreamshow concert, nothing lasts forever - and especially the good things. The Banshees had hard luck with guitarists, even with McGeoch, their most celebrated one: he was struggling with alcoholism and once even collapsed onstage during a concert. He was subsequently hospitalised and soon after, fired. Robert Smith of The Cure was re-recruited as a guitarist, something he had done already back in 1979 after the band split up while promoting Join Hands.

After finishing the tour, the band members engaged in separate side projects: Siouxsie and Budgie as The Creatures and Severin and Smith as The Glove, a psychedelic music project. Siouxsie and Budgie decided to select the place where they'd record the first Creatures LP by randomly placing a pin on a world map. They ended up recording the album in Hawaii and absorbed a lot of influences from the local scenery while writing the songs there. The Creatures' debut EP Wild Things proved that the duo was anything but predictable, and the statement was further strengthened by their highly experimental Feast LP.

Siouxsie Sunday: 'Wild Things' by The Creatures

It's Sunday again and surely by now you know what that means: it's Siouxsie time! This Sunday's also the first time that a non-Banshee album makes an appearance in this review series. That's correct: this time the review is instead of an album (or actually, an EP) by The Creatures who were a splinter group of the Banshees. During their Juju sessions Siouxsie and Budgie (the singer and the drummer, respectively) experimented on creating a track with only drums and vocals. The outcome was "But Not Them", which made occasional appearances in The Banshees' setlists (even despite being left out of the album) but more importantly, ignited a spark to create more material like that. The Creatures was born.

It's Siouxsie Sunday!

Now, if you're reading (and hopefully also following) this blog, the chances are that you are a music lover yourself. And if you're a music lover, it is highly likely that you have a favourite band or a favourite singer too. That one artist or act that will always have a special place in your heart, the one whose music you'll always return to, time after time. I most certainly do. And that musician is Siouxsie Sioux.

Siouxsie, born Susan Janet Ballion, is an English singer-songwriter, who's most famous for having been the frontwoman of post-punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees. With the Banshees she recorded 11 studio albums between 1978 and 1996. Even though the '80s revival in the mid-2000s wasn't quite as favourable to Siouxsie as they were to many of her peers - such as Joy Division, The Cure and The Smiths - and no such hype was built around the Banshees, she's every bit as iconic as the frontmen of the aforementioned bands (Ian Curtis, Robert Smith, Morrissey). Widely recognised as one of the most significant British rock singers - especially of the female ones - she has had a huge impact on other musicians, and has been praised and considered influential by everyone from Radiohead, U2 and Red Hot Chili Peppers to PJ Harvey, Santigold, Gossip and Shirley Manson of Garbage, not to mention the previously mentioned Robert Smith and Morrissey or Tricky and Massive Attack - post-punk had a great impact on the trip-hop movement. Quite some names right there.