Burial Hex/ Zola Jesus

Up to date, as ever.

Well, more or less what he said. Had this split album kicking around for a bit and didn't really give it a fair shot but it's actually pretty great, especially the Zola Jesus side; very creepy headphone music (ideal for marking student essays, as it happens). She even gets the title right (I worry about song titles in these genres) - Julius and Ethel has an easy-going horror about it, that works well in an understated don't-mention-the-chasm-of-demons kind of way. Implied horror. Unforced. Unless of course it's about Julius Caesar and Ethel Merman, in which case I'm utterly bereft.

I guess Plague Mass era Diamanda Galas might be somewhere near the mark sonically - though Zola Jesus is not such an eruption, it doesn't obliterate, which makes it much easier to listen to. I mean, how often do you play your Diamanda Galas records these days? I know you've got them somewhere. Under the bed, gathering T-cells.

This is my kind of wailing, as Barrymore might have said.

But no, it's not as creepy as that.