It was back in 2010, over at the original and long-lost blog, when a guest posting from Mr John Greer recalled him seeing The Freeze, a duo formed in the late 70s, and consisting of Gordon Sharp and David Clancy whose music was a mix of glam, punk and art rock with small dollop of Goth.
They were from Linlithgow, which is some 20 minutes west of Edinburgh and is very much a commuter town thanks to it being on the main Glasgow – Edinburgh railway line and close to the M9 motorway which links Edinburgh with Stirling. As Mr Greer recalled, Gordon more often than not performed in women’s clothing and provoked all sorts of audience reactions, particularly at the gigs played across what constituted Scotland’s pub circuit, with many of the venues being located in some of the roughest blue-collar communities of the country, in an era when there was a huge amount of tolerance of anything that wasn’t regarded as ‘normal’.
The Freeze broke up in 1982, with a legacy of two 7″ singles and loads of memories for those who were lucky enough to see them play live. The duo, however, continued to work together, forming Cindytalk and relocating to London. What now follows is lifted from a bio penned by Paul Simpson over at allmusic and info on the wiki page devoted to Cindytalk.
Cindytalk is a long-running experimental music project that formed in 1982. Since its inception, the sole constant member of the group has been Gordon Sharp, a transgender vocalist/poet/musician who also goes by the name Cinder. The group’s work has ranged from harsh, volatile post-punk and industrial to dark ambient and noisy drone, often laced with field recordings and constantly in a state of decay or fragmentation.
Initially appearing on British label Midnight Music during the 1980s, Cindytalk has released the bulk of its 21st century output on Peter Rehberg‘s acclaimed Editions Mego. While attending college during the mid-’70s, Sharp formed punk band the Freeze with fellow student David Clancy, releasing two singles and opening for many punk and new wave bands. After John Peel heard their music and wanted them to record a session for his radio show, Sharp and Clancy moved to London and began using the name Cindytalk. Sharp appeared on the Cocteau Twins‘ first Peel session, and 4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell invited him to appear on the debut EP and full-length by This Mortal Coil.
John Byrne joined Cindytalk, and the group released the debut album Camouflage Heart in 1984, to some critical acclaim in the UK music press. Shortly after Camouflage Heart, David Clancy left the band and was replaced by brother/sister team Alex and Debbie Wright. The colossal In This World was recorded over the next three years: two albums of the same name released simultaneously, the first of which was a broken and noisy affair, while the second was an album of creaky ambience featuring Cinder’s improvised piano experiments.
I’ve one track by Cindytalk, courtesy of its inclusion on the Big Gold Dreams box set, and it’s from In This World, the 1988 release mentioned above. It’s a far from easy listen. It’s also almost seven minutes long…….
mp3: Cindytalk – The Beginning Of Wisdom
There have been 11 further albums since then, with the most recent being 2022’s Subterminal, released on the UK indie label, False Walls.
JC
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 