Those of you who come down early to our club nights will have heard the music in what I gently like to call the 'Bohemia Lounge'. That is music to build up the atmosphere of the night and which I feel would not be out of place in some dark and smoky cellar in 1920's Bohemian Paris. There has been one song that I've played every month for the last few months as I think it fits that image more than any other and that has been 'Evil Night Together' by Jill Tracy. Even before I knew what Jill looked like I could picture her cigarette holder in one hand, glass of wine (or maybe absinthe) in the other singing this beautiful and twisted torch song in such a smokey dive bar. So, after having had countless (well I could have counted if I'd really thought about it at the time) people asking me about the song, I should do Jill justice and review her album 'The Diabolical Streak' of which 'Evil Night Together' is just one of many sublime songs.

I start with a confession, I stole the idea of setting the mood at Club Bohemia by opening with Evil Night Together from Jill. For you see, she likewise begins this album with it. It's a clever & astute move, drawing you breathless and lustfully into her dark and sinister world; and it's a world unlike any other, for despite all the comparisons I could make (Edward Gorey & The Tiger Lillies, Tim Burton, Nick Cave writing true murder ballads for Nico), she is nonetheless quite unique. Her music is incredibly filmic in quality (indeed her previous album "into the land of phantoms" was a score for F.W. Murnan's silent 1922 vampire classic, Nosferatu) and so this album continues in that dark and seedy vein, but this time she's telling her own macabre and bloody tales.

'Evil Night Together' seems set in America's dark days of bootlegging and sinister gangland murders. She imagines the scenes of living in these sordid days and nights; criminals doing their evil deeds, watching as bodies are pulled from the rivers, and the dirt of prison cells for those not fortunate enough to escape the corrupt police. The backing from the Malcontent Orchestra buils up so much atmosphere that it makes you feel like you are really there, shivers down your spine as you walk down some dark puddle filled alley not knowing who or what could jump out at you at any moment. More death awaits in 'Fine Art Of Poisoning', Jills' study of this quaint form of quietly removing ones enemies over the millenia. Like poison itself her voice crawls snakelike under your skin leaving you feeling violated and poisoned yourself. With her rattlesnake bite you sit there paralysed as her spell overpowers and listen with guilty pleasure as she describes different methods of poisoning "quicksilver in a ruby ring, two lumps or three, i have always adored bergamot tea". There's little chance for redemption in 'Pulling Your Insides Out', another tale to leave the bitter taste of blood in your mouth. More mental torture than physical though as she fights against the hollowness of society as it tries to blind us by putting a bright and cheerful cover on top of the dirty reality...

the more the diamond glitters
the more it can decieve
the truth lay in the treasure
of what we disbelieve

Throughout these sinister tales, the rather brilliant Malcontent Orchestra build up the suspense and create shadows for Jill to hide and let her sybillant voice sneak out and surprise. It's a masterful way to build up suspense and works perfectly. The nearest I can come in sound to it is Rasputina or (adm