Album Review: Candice Gordon, Garden of Beasts

Following on from her well-received, Shane MacGowan-produced EP, this long-awaited debut album from Dublin-born, Berlin-based Candice Gordon is – as its title implies – a dark, brooding and occasionally nightmarish affair.
Produced by labelmate AS Fanning, and mixed by Ingo Krauss (Swans, Iggy & The Stooges), Garden Of Beasts was recorded between a country house in Ireland and the legendary Funkhaus in Berlin. Musically, it presents an edgy and gothic sonic landscape, using a variety of synthetic and natural instruments, from Moogs to flutes and strings.
Sounding like a slightly deranged PJ Harvey, Gordon sings – and shrieks – at times like a woman possessed. Whatever about the beasts, the garden is already overgrown with thorns and brambles. A lesser talent could have made this sound like budget Hammer Horror, but Gordon has the bone-chilling ability to genuinely discomfit the listener. “All the things I was excited for/They don’t thrill me anymore/Nevermind I’m nobody,” she sings on first cut ‘Nobody’. On ‘Goddess of Mercy’, she intones, “When you stare into the void/The void stares into you.” Garden Of Beasts couldn’t possibly be filed under easy listening, but by any standards, it’s an accomplished and artful debut.