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November 1996, The Rough Guide to Rock
Formed Portsmouth, England, 1988.
Emerging apparently from nowhere at the tail end of the decade, The Cranes for a while seemed to perfectly encapsulate the twin tendencies of 80s art-rock: the foreboding industrial noise of bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Swans and The Young Gods; and the ethereal vocal explorations of the likes of Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance. At their best The Cranes made music so startlingly alien that it was impossible to tell if they were closer to the elegant bird or the ugly machine of their namesakes.
The band formed in Portsmouth around the partnership of brother and sister Jim and Alison Shaw, combining his multi-instrumental talents with her unsettling childlike vocal style. Their earliest work, the cassette-only Fuse (1988), was recorded on the lowest of budgets, and thus only did partial justice to their potential with its harsh rhythms and indistinct cries and whispers. The pair were able to develop their sound substantially, with the backing of local label Bite Back!, for their first vinyl outing in 1989, the mini-LP Self-Non-Self. In a far more confident recording than Fuse, Jim's instrumentation carved out a mechanistic labyrinth of noise, constantly on the verge of overwhelming Alison's inarticulations of distress and abandon.
The album received favourable attention from the national music press, and the band gained further exposure with a radio session for John Peel. Their critical adulation owed much to the way their sound contrasted with the unrelieved ordinariness of the Madchester/baggy aesthetic which dominated the UK indie scene of the time. The Cranes were not ashamed to produce art at a time when the idea was at its least fashionable.
Following the success of Self-Non-Self Jim and Alison consolidated the band with two guitarists from the Portsmouth scene, Mark Francome and Matt Cope, and signed to larger indie label Dedicated. Over the period 1990-91 they released four EPs - Inescapable, Espero, Adoration and Tomorrow's Tears - which contained some of their best work. Songs like "Inescapable" and "Sixth of May" emulated the geometric beauty of an Escher print, while the use of piano on "Adoration" and "Tomorrow's Tears" suggested some kind of autistic torch song.
This string of EPs led up to The Cranes' first full album, Wings of Joy (1991), which slightly lightened the tone of their material with strings and hints of classical guitar. The exception was "Starblood", long a live favourite, and a truly crushing piece of music. Wings of Joy achieved considerable indie chart success, and drew the attention of alternative stadium rockers The Cure, who invited The Cranes to support them on a US tour, offering exposure to a largely new audience.
Touring with The Cure proved to be an unfortunately influential experience for the band, and the subsequent LP, Forever (1992), saw them moving towards the kind of Goth-like territory Robert Smith's men had long made their own. While the tremulous ballads, like "Cloudless" and "Rainbows," were as perfect as ever, the note of menace was no longer there. This seemed to be reinforced with the "Jewel" single, which, though released in multiple remixes (by Robert Smith, Jim Foetus and 4AD boss Ivo Watts-Russell), largely missed out on the experimental possibilities of the exercise.
Cranes tracks had previously been used to accompany a TV documentary and a perfume advertisement, and in 1994 this direction was continued when they provided the soundtrack for a British film Scarborough Ahoy!, which was voted best student film at Cannes. This work ran in parallel with the recording of Loved (1994), an album very similar in tone to Forever, somehow too comfortable, though containing some echoes of the clang of old on "Rêverie".
Self-Non-Self (1989; Bite Back!). 'Nothing to fear, nothing to fear' croons Alison Shaw on "Joy Lies Within", like she's singing a nursery rhyme in hell. From the dysfunctional beauty of its sleeve to the claustrophobic construction of its soundscape, Self-Non-Self is an immaculately self-contained debut. Uneasy listening.
Tomorrow's Tears (1991; Dedicated). All four of the early Dedicated EPs present The Cranes at their height, but Tomorrow's Tears shades it because it includes "Sixth of May," probably the best song they ever recorded.
Wings of Joy (1991; Dedicated). Not as gripping as the EPs which preceded it, but nevertheless a fairly impressive collection, with Alison's vocals coming more to the fore.
Reviewed by Ian Canadine
© The Rough Guide To Rock 1996
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