Richard H Kirk: seven alter-egos and myriad styles

After paying the milkman, telling off the dog and taking a herbal medication, diurnal voyeurism commences: do pop-androids dream of Westworld in Technicolor? Many up‘n’coming artists claim that they gonna change the world but all their do is alter their own existence and spend more than two-thirds of their lives as ‘has-beens’. More ambitious hint at saving the world but we’re yet to witness music’s true power: if they could only save Wales… or, that should be whales? But how - by raping the archives, history?

Crooners of dubious sexuality, nympho-Lolitas of lip-syncing, soft porn-coated nostalgia of pop-vids by sexy minxes or something more substantial? If any is left around…

Richard H. Kirk has always known that flirting with a trice is a dead-end… If during his solo career and, before that with Cabaret Voltaire, Kirk has ever stood for anything - and we don’t assume to speak for him in any way, shape or dialect - it is anti-monetary pro-art movement with a vigorous doze of the main ingredient - expostulation.

Mr R. Kirk, in his many guises, hasn’t been a revolutionARTy per se but a conscientious objector. ‘Intone Unreleased Projects 1995/1997’, i.e. ‘iURP Vol 3’, is a collection of his unissued tracks from the period. The Third Man’s ‘This Pill’ glides in slowly, on a wing and a prayer. before picking up rhythm and handing it over for Sandoz’s muscle-grabbing ‘Exosceleton’.

Orchestra Terrestrial’s ’Alhambra’ is a moody atmo-piece that hovers like a confused soul over Styx before shifting into an anteroom of a Herculean Hall; the same alter-ego offers ‘Sons Of Harry Lime’ that gets even more pensive but morphs playfully into a dance floor filler. Dark Magus [‘Recidivist’] tenders more to industrial side of Kirk’s creativity, Destructive Impact’s ‘10:57 amt’ is a dreamer that segues into a bedroomy vibe of some Eastern promise.

Extended Family [‘The Future (Turn If Back)’ is a bleak-cum-rousing piece] and one more cut by Sandoz precede Nine Mile Dub’s ‘How Is It Possible?’, a track that couldn’t put a finer round-up point to a compilation of seven pseudonyms and myriad ideas.

Hot snakes, Retroman! Unterwelt remains a dope place.

8/10