Your Lungs and Your Tongues

クレプスキュールのユーロ・ポップ感覚と4ADの幽玄なゴス感覚を併せ持つグラスゴーのVazz。ドラム・マシーン、ギター、ベース、そしてAnna Howsonの氷のような歌声を武器にOrange Juice, Josef K, Aztec Cameraといったポップ・シーンにダークなテイストを提供していました。今作は1986年にリリースされたミニ・アルバムの40周年記念エディションで、Cathexis recordings の全音源をコンパイルし未発表を収録。

Vazz formed in Glasgow during the early 80s, and initially consisted of vocalist/lyricist Anna Howson and multi-instrumentalist Hugh Small. With Howsons ethereal harmonies floating over Smalls sparse drum machines and mysterious guitar hooks, the duos music fell somewhere between coldwave, post-punk, and dream pop. The five-song mini-album Your Lungs and Your Tongues (released in 1986 by Cathexis Recordings, also home to records by Fini Tribe and Pink Industry) was one of a handful of vinyl releases the pair made before splitting up near the end of the decade. As Small resurfaced during the 2010s with solo piano and ambient compositions, Vazzs scant 80s discography was rediscovered and revived in several different configurations by the Forced Nostalgia and Stroom labels. Numero Groups 2025 LP edition of Your Lungs and Your Tongues appends the original five-song release with tracks from the groups two 1987 singles, as well as "Solitary Sun," a 1983 song previously unearthed on the Vazz compilation Submerged Vessels and Other Stories. This set begins with "Breath," originally the final song on the 1986 record, and it makes a perfect introduction to the groups sound, repeating intriguing lyrics like "the city has sighed" and "you cant move anymore" as the backing vocals expand and become more ghostly. "Your Final Word" has a bit more of an urgent, danceable rhythm, while "Pearls" is closer to anthemic post-punk. The clinking drum machines and heavenly vocals of "Bleached White Skin" are a bit more in line with early Cocteau Twins. "Silver," with its sly clarinet line and hand percussion, and the lighter, strummier "For a Reason" both suggest a darker version of 80s Everything But the Girl. Over cascades of acoustic guitars, the lyrics of "Feverpitch" are among the duos most assured and uplifting. Vazzs songs are definitely growers, and their music haunts and intrigues in all the right ways. ~ Paul Simpson