See Through My Eyes

Cindytalk - Janey's Love

So it's 1988 or so and I'm in Kettle's Yard Gallery. I notice a video installation by Ivan Unwin, a disturbing piece involving a slo-mo rag and bandage figure in a rocking chair going back and forth until it falls over. The title underneath indicates the music is by Cindytalk. The sound is turned down. I ask the attendant if she can turn it up. "No". she says. "It's broken." I can tell she's lying. I walk away, imagining the music I am not allowed to hear and feeding on her obvious hostility to it.

It's coming up to 20 years since I first heard Cindytalk and I remain unsurprised by how some people react to a band I love dearly. Even the goths I knew hated them. I think they were scared. What is it they hear?

The same thing as I do. An unsettling intent. Something they don't want. Quite right, too. Either this answers something inside you or it most definitely does not. It pulled me in when I was 15 and I'm not out yet. Why should I want to get out?

There are about a dozen tracks I could have chosen, but I've gone for one from the 1988 album "In This World".
Cindytalk go from violent noise to near silent piano pieces, so don't go getting the idea that it's all like this.
All of it is beautiful.


Buy - It's sadly all deleted now so best keep an eye on ebay
Visit - Cindytalk
An excellent articles section with essays from the likes of Robert Fisk and John Pilger.

And a message to Gordon Sharp, should he happen to pass by - thanks.
More, please, but in your own time.

Mike.