Glorious Din

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Listening to this record, I think of two things: 1) a lot of people say about Glorious Din, “they don’t think they’re joy division, they are Joy division” and 2) at the end of (or what turned out to be the end) of the only live performance I’ve seen of them- it was at the YMCA, I believe –the singer, Eric Cope, kicked over a Congo drum and started swinging a mike stand back and forth in such a manner that Einsturzende Neubauten would want him in their band, except that he wasn’t swinging it at the audience but at the other band members. A bunch of people leapt on him, de-milking him in the process, forming what we used to call in collage a ‘pigpile’ until he convinced them that he would be submissive for a while. They let him up and he we berserk again. Finally they dragged him out into the foyer, where he sat until I passed him on my way out. I remember thinking, “What the hell do you say to the guy? ‘Good show’?”
If any one out there knows if Ian Curtis used to do that, let me know. I never saw Joy Division, but I have they’re records and sure Eric sounds a bit like old Ian but the rest of the band doesn’t sound like JD at all. Paget’s guitar-playing remind me of Bruce Licher’s in savage republic, trebly or fuzzed out drones which evoke imagery of the desert and the orient. Pete H’s drumming, I don’t know, you might find something similar Peter Gabriel’s third Peter Gabriel album.
The cover graphics complement the music pretty well. Neat, precise, understated. No crashing cymbals or long cascading moans on this album, and you don’t expect them either. G. Din are much less concerned with industrial angst than JD were, so you can just forget about comparing them any more. Some of the more agrarian/third world/mystery and darkness songs are Water from the Temple, Insects, the title cut, and tenement roofs. Recommended.

-Seymour Grass,
Braver Magazine

Glorious Din
Leading Stolen Horses

With Leading Stolen Horses, Glorious Din succeed where many bands have failed- specifically, at taking inspiration from Joy Division and forming their own sound from it. The Joy Division influence is obvious, but something less personal than Ian Curtis’ shattering vision comes forth. Where Curtis captured the universal imagination through the telling of his own despair, Glorious Din evokes a wider rhythm, like the voice of a wandering people. This tribal sense flows through out the record, especially in the Arabic guitar style and chanting, muffled vocals. Somebody here has obviously been listening to religious music of various cultures, as the feeling of in vocation is strong in this music. The contemporary world is not completely abandoned- “stealing water from the temple” almost has the happy-western feel of love tractor- but the overall tone aim for a level more archetypical than most pop. When it works it hits a deep nerve, and it works most of the time. Leading Stolen Horses happens slowly. The music does it’s work like a good drug or a dream, never coming on to strong and leaving a mark on one’s consciousness long after it has been experienced.

-Ann Powers,
Calendar Magazine

Glorious Din Leading Stolen Horses
Insight Records

This eight song LP is the first one ever by the San Francisco based post-punk band Glorious Din. Glorious Din’s music is very stream lined and driving, with catchy, melodic and chorused bass hooks prominent in the mix, and a sparse, repetitive and haunting guitar overlay. The deep, low growl of lead singer Eric Cope is remnant of the late Ian Curtis of Joy Division, and comparisons of Glorious Din to Joy Division are inevitable. However, unlike some other post-punk bands, the riffs are not recycled; the songs are well written, very original and emotionally powerful. The music on Leading Stolen Horses conjures up melancholy; a gentle sadness and sorrow, rather than the violent nilism, harsh alienation and hopelessness more commonly found in this genre. Most of the songs are of a medium-fast tempo, with the important exceptions of the songs ‘cello tape’ and ‘insects’, the last two songs on sides one and two respectively. The album opens up with ‘Tenement Roofs’, which has some very nice bass harmonics above the bass riff, while a muted guitar strut helps drive the song percussively. ‘Water From The Temple’, has an almost tribal quality to the drumming. ‘Cello Tape’ is, in my opinion, Glorious Dins magnum opus, reflecting deep loneliness and need for friendship. Overall this album is well produced, and yet still has a very human feel to it. Leading Stolen Horses is a very promising debut from a band with great potential.

-Anatol Sucher,
Troubled Times

Leading Stolen Horses
Glorious Din
Insight Records

First, lets get some facts straight.
Rock ‘n’ Roll given 1: Glorious Din has been pegged along with the “raincoat brigade style”, you know: bands who sing about jumping off bridges when the rent’s overdue, and when the eviction notice comes in (Joy Division, Bauhaus, Public Image, “industrial noise” car bleeders like Throbbing Gristle, psychic TV). Not everybody’s cup of tea right?
Rock ‘n’ Roll given 2: Most of the “raincoat brigade ” bands have outlived their usefulness, either banging and farting like drill presses, or lapsing into musical comas (long before their audience’s did).
Rock ‘n’ Roll given 3: “Leading Stolen Horses” is probably the best album that Joy Division never made.
Rock ‘n’ Roll given 4: So what? Artistically that’s no crime and we’ve got a promising post-punk debut here. A winner in the Alienated Spike-Hair Young Artists Sweepstakes. Glorious Din’s secret weapon is the singer Eric Cope, whose growls and subterranean delivery recalls Jim Morrison minus the Jack Daniels, or Nick Cave on Tuinals. Maybe even a growling Ian Curtis, in tux and tails, trying out for the Metropolitan Opera.
Cope’s voice and Paget’s buzzing, mile-a-minute guitar knock you out when paired effectively, such as ..o Tape”, “Stolen Horses’” porky prime cut. Quiet acoustic guitar builds into Cope holding his notes, long enough to grow moss, while he spills out his visions of hard knocks, harsh realities: “Would it be worth to burn the city twice/when nothing is wrong/can’t blame you the feelings, the feelings/the feelings, the feelings are gone.” Doug Heeschen’s bass gooses the song onward, a lone voice of sanity in Glorious Din’s musical wilderness. A brief double-tracked vocal shoves the song to an unsettling climax, leaving one with a feeling of “No easy answers here.”
The title track also soar off my battered turntable, as Paget’s guitar hits a groove like a car trapped in a snowdrift. Lyrics are hard to decode but when Cope sings about “walls crashing in”, I’d look twice next time at my brand new split-level stucco booby-trap. As on other song Heeschen’s bass assume the dominant melodic role, while Paget’s guitar takes a definite back seat. This is where all the trouble starts, because post –punk dynamic need something to break up the constant repetitive melodies. Glorious Din’s music is tough to get a handle on, because no screams, solos, or rim shots break up the haze. I don’t know if it’s perversity or just plain reluctance, but I wish these guys would pull out all the stops more often, such as on “Insects”, where Pete H.’s drums spin the song into a dimension where nobody’s head stays on straight. Just when the droning guitar threatens to sink into monotony, the song kicks into over drive, a pleasant surprise to these ears. However, I’d like to hear this more often. “Tenement Roofs”, “Arrival”, “Water from the temple”, all zip past with out stroking my frontal lobes. Glorious Din pulls their punches when they should muss their gloves. Although the group plays tight and cohesive, it seems too restrained at times. I’m not advocating that Eric Cope and Co. go and buy 10 Marshall Amplifier cabinets: theirs so much power in these grooves, waiting to be unleashed. Let’s see what happens next time.
As for the Joy Division comparisons, which many have pinned on them, I see no real problems, and only to definite lifts: “Insects’” galloping drum rolls recall “Atrocity exhibition”, while “Sixth Pillar” reminds fans of “Disorder”. However Glorious Din’s approach is far more subterranean then Joy Division ever was, burrowing underneath the listeners consciousness for a subtler effect. If you only play Joy Division at midnight then this music’s for 3:00 am, when your coming down from the depression “Love Will Tear Us Apart” inflicts. There’s a big difference, believe me. Again, a little more energy should sink these bands next releases firmly under your skin, ready to blow your wig off.
Live they probably simmer like a firecracker, as this “Breaver” review indicates: “A bunch of people leapt on him, de-milking him in the process, forming what we used to call in collage a ‘pigpile’ until he convinced them that he would be submissive for a while. They let him up and he we berserk again. Finally they dragged him out into the foyer, where he sat until I passed him on my way out. I remember thinking, “What the hell do you say to the guy? ‘Good show’?”

By Ralph Heibutzki

Leading Stolen Horses
Glorious Din
Insight Records

Glorious Din hail from San Francisco, that city on the bay that most rockers connect to either the 60’s psychedelia of Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane or to the 80”s pop muzak of Journey or Huey Lewis. What most people don’t know is that there’s a growing and vital underground music scene in northern California that takes its influence from darker, less cosmetically appealing sources. Such at Glorious Din…
Leading Stolen Horses is Glorious Din’s first album for their hometown Insight Records and it is one spooky mo-fo piece of vinyl. Glorious Din walks the same broken city sidewalks and starlit, rain-slicked backstreets as society’s most disturbed poets and madmen. Heavily influenced by English, Doom-and-Gloom bands such as Joy Division and Throbbing Gristle, Glorious Din manages to work mainline rock sound into a convoluted, artistic statement without lapsing into the use of mere noise and volume to underline their statement of society’s ruin, (unlike, say Sonic Youth who, though a greatly talented group of players, tend to jerk off instead of stretching their abilities). The lyrical content of is either hidden in the mix or shouted above the instrumental cries and at its most disturbing, chills to the marrow. As I said, some of the materials here are down right spooky: “Cello Tape” and “Tenement Roofs” and the title cut come to mind. Underlying it all, however, is an optimistic tread that creates a glimmer of hope. Glorious Din are on the razor edge of the avant grade, sharing a heritage of genius and insight with such literary heroes as Artaud and Rimbaud.

-Keith A. Gordon,
THE METRO

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