Desire Rites
Iceflower/Trisol TRI 302CD
Released October 2007
Tracklisting: River Sheaf • Learn some sense, Howden • My prize, my punishment • Rite of amends • Rite against the right • Missolonghi sky • Come to my bed • All-encompassing rite • Rite for the unfulfilled • A modern hymn for the religious • Turn the power • Communication Rite • Desire rite
Use the player below to listen to a track from ‘Desire Rites’:
Buy the CD: SOLD OUT
Buy as a download from iTunes: 
Lyrics for this album: click here
This album came out in 2007, through Iceflower/Trisol, my last release with them. It’s just me on the album, looping and layering, no guests. It’s a pretty personal album, more like a series of mini-rants, though with its softer moments too. Rhythm is a more central element than on many previous Sieben albums, and it’s got a heavier bass presence. I added bass guitar to the looped beats and bass to help achieve this.
One of the softer songs, ‘Rite of amends’, seems to be a popular one live, and I play this and ‘Desire rite’ quite often still. ‘My prize, my punishment’ also raises the odd eyebrow to the right audience. And ‘Rite against the right’ gets some good play on Last.fm.
This album has sold out, but is available for digital download via iTunes. At some point I will re-release it through Redroom.
Here’s what I wrote back then:
River Sheaf: Out with the old (sounds) and in with the new. There was no irony in the lyrics here when I first started the album, this the first song lyric I started from. But it soon dawned on me that this album was moving in an altogether different direction (lyrically, and to some extent musically) and I went with it.
Learn some sense, Howden: We all want that to happen… Sometimes I have a tendency to let the wrong things wash over me. And no that’s not a guitar in there—it’s a distorted violin pluck with a hint of octave-down ;-)
My prize, my punishment: Ah, traditional rhyming couplets. Sometimes things just aren’t what they seem. Or they were actually staring you in the face from the start, but you chose not to see them.
Rite of amends: You do love wrong, and it bites you back. Oh yes.
Rite against the right: I don’t think this needs any explanation.
Missolonghi sky: Originally written for the Post Romantic Empire release ‘Writ in Water’. I re-recorded this track because it fitted perfectly to the desire theme of the album. There are some lines lifted from Byron’s work, letters, and reputed comments. And some contorted for my own purposes.
All-encompassing rite: When love, lust, passion, fun and joy take you over. And your head knows it is right too.
Rite for the unfulfilled: It has been much-neglected, the Ode to the wanker. Dan did actually change the projection room reels for forty years. And never got his Beryl. What I like most about this story is that he just left one day when he retired, and left his box, his altar there in the projection room.
A modern hymn for the religious: Ah, pish, I’m just playing. Whatever happened to calling people nincompoops?
Turn the power: Go on, turn it off for a bit. Might as well finish listening to the album though…
Communication rite: A modern hymn, a modern ritual. The new ‘I'm not your friend anymore’.
Desire rite:
Given to me
I lust for you, just for you
Sent for me
I lust for you, just for you
Me be me, and you be you
Let two be one, two be two
Let all we are be what we do
Let two be one, let two be two
Take from me, sent for you
Lust for me
Take from me, sent for you
Just for me
Let two be one, let two be two
Let all we are be what we do
Let two be one, two be two
Me be me, and you be you
Reviews
“Album des Monats (Album of the month)”
Orkus magazine, Germany, November 2007
“You haven’t heard Matt Howden like this before. ‘Desire Rites’ starts off like many of the Sieben mastermind’s previous albums with ‘River Sheaf’, a flowery prayer to nature crooned over soft violin loops, but midway into the song, Howden interrupts himself with an ejaculation of “Oh, fuck this!” and launches into “Learn Some Sense, Howden”, all comic self-recrimination put to intense rhythms and driving violins, setting the stage for the rest of the album by bidding farewell to animistic metaphor and pleading for straight speech. The comic moments don’t stop here; ‘A Modern Hymn for the Religious’ is merely 30 seconds of bass-heavy violin drone and the phrase ‘There is no god’. But the real power of ‘Desire Rites’ is its unadorned emotional honesty and an exquisite anger that’s a bit of a surprise for an artist better known for concept albums about wildflowers and the Druidic alphabet. ‘Rite Against the Right’ denounces the fascist wing of the dark folk movement, “Using symbols to shock/Because your music is piss-poor”, and if the exuberant cursing on ‘My Prize, My Punishment’ is delightful in its cleverness (”You swore you’d fuck me, fuck me up/Now I’m just fucked off, not fucked up like you”), there’s real vitriol in lines like “You virulent cancer – infecting canker”. It’s brilliantly juxtaposed with ‘Rite of Amends’, one of this album’s softest notes, all tiptoeing fiddle and regretful reflection. If ‘Desire Rites’ is a thematic departure from previous Sieben albums, it’s equally a musical departure. Though the album was recorded without Howden's regular percussionist, Jason White, it’s perhaps the most rhythmically-oriented Sieben release to date, and Howden manages to wring a massive amount of ‘drum’ sounds from the violin alone, building multiple layers of thumps and scrapes and taps and skitters into a complete rhythm section on ‘All-Encompassing Rite’ and ‘Missolonghi Sky’. The beats complement the album’s emotional immediacy, giving an earthy backbone to ‘Turn the Power’ and its entreaties for a more fully-realized life. This isn’t like other Sieben albums; you can’t put this on and drift off into fairyland. You can get up and dance, you can listen intently, or you can shut it off, but this is an album for waking up, not going to sleep. 4/5”
Matthew Johnson, ReGen magazine, USA, March 2008
“Concept albums. We’re all familiar with them. Matt Howden is too. His previous reviewed releases, ‘Sex And Wildflowers’ and ‘Ogham Inside The Night’ were both concept albums. ‘Desire Rites’ is too; an album filled with rites, as well visible from the album titles. ‘Desire Rites’ is filled with personal opinions on current developments, as well as songs about personal experiences. It starts out with ‘River Sheaf’, which has a rather traditional folk feeling to it, unlike the rest of the album. Matt probably thought so too, and breaks off the song after not even two minutes, and barely six lines of text, with a nice “Oh, fuck this”.
What’s special about this album is that, with the exception of vocals and the bass guitar, all the music is made with the violin. Through different techniques, such as scratching the bridge of the violin with a two day old stubble beard, Matt creates truly wonderful musical arrangements. Other techniques include tapping the body of the violin and scraping the strings with fingernails. How’s that for some nice experimentation?
Let’s lift out a few songs, starting with ‘Rite Of Amends’. It’s a very relaxed song, in which you can hear clearly different techniques Matt uses; playing it normal, but also plucking the strings. Add to that some dark bass guitar, introspective lyrics and Matt’s very enjoyable voice, and you have a really wonderful song. You know what? Matt has actually put the song online for everyone to enjoy, so go on, download ‘Rite Of Amends’, and experience its beauty.
Heading to the latter half of the album, where some my favorite tracks of this album are located. Track ten is only 27 seconds in length, and ends with the very true sentence ‘There is no god’. Next up is a track with very simple but, again, true lyrics. It’s about turning off the power. Just for once. There is much more to do in life than spending your days using electronic devices. ‘Communication Rite’ utilizes modern internet phenomena in its lyrics. The whole song is a rather sarcastic one about current online communication tools, especially myspace and youtube. It is, indeed, ‘safe to turn your computer off’.
The album comes in a two panel digipak with a 24 paged booklet that includes all the lyrics, and an introduction to the album. What more can one ask for? This is a wonderful and complete album, and very different than any of the neofolk albums you are probably used to. There is indeed no acoustic guitar and no overused theme in the lyrics. Truly a fresh wind. If you ever have the chance to see Matt live, do so. I know I am on the 25th this month.”
ChAwech, Heathen Harvest, USA, Apr 2008
“In the summertime, I go to a fair number of pagan camps, and at some of these camps there is (quick, ring the News of the World!) a certain amount of nudity. Depending on how parky it is, obviously. I don’t much mind one way or the other, but it’s been my disappointing experience that the people you really want to take their clothes off never do. It’s never the fit-looking young goth chicks in the waspies and long velvet skirts. No, it’s always the potbellied old beardos intent on frying their little bobbins to a crisp.
It’s a funny thing, but a similar law seems to apply in the music business. The people who choose to appear naked on the covers of their albums (Prince, G.G. Allin, John and Yoko) are never the ones you really wish would get their kit off (that wench from Kirlian Camera, for starters). Although credit where credit’s due, Cristina Martinez from Boss Hog was a notable exception, not averse to baring all for the greater good, just like Lady Godiva. Schwing!
Be that as it may, it takes balls to appear naked on your album cover. Thankfully, Matt Howden’s aren’t visible on the cover of ‘Desire Rites’ – he lies modestly in the position of a prehistoric burial, ogham forearm tattoo well to the fore. ‘Desire Rites’ is a very personal work, and you don’t even need to listen to it to work this out. Just check out the artwork. The super-elaborate packaging of last year’s Sieben album, High Broad Field, contained precisely zero photos of Matt Howden, whilst the sleeve of Desire Rites has seven, by my count, including three nude shots.
When I interviewed Matt earlier this year, he described the vision he had for this album:
“It’s going to be a fast one. It took me a year to write ‘Ogham Inside The Night’, and the same for ‘Sex and Wildflowers’, and for ‘High Broad Field’, but this is going to be a more instant, knock it down, knock it out as I see it there and then thing… It’s more immediate, and I'm trying to get different sounds out of the violin. It’s probably less melodic, it’s going to be more discordant, more of a heavy beat, more nightmarish. I'm just going to do it myself… the lyrics are too disgusting to put my daughter on it!”
This change of pace is signalled from the very start of the album. ‘River Sheaf’ opens in typical Sieben style, a plucked violin melody gradually swelling and building into a complex instrumentation of loops and rhapsodic lyrics, but a couple of minutes into the song, Matt screeches to a halt, mutters, “Oh, fuck this!” and launches into the urgent, driving rhythm of ‘Learn Some Sense, Howden’ (you see what I mean about this being personal?).
A handy technical note in the ‘Desire Rites’ booklet explains that all sounds on the album are created with Matt’s voice, his violin and a little bit of bass guitar. None of the guest vocalists, guitars, cajón percussion and whatnot of ‘High Broad Field’ and ‘Ogham Inside The Night’ – ‘Desire Rites’ is very much a one-man show. Now, it sounds like there are tablas, keyboards, electric guitars and all sorts of stuff on here, so cheers, Matt, for stopping me making a twat of myself by talking about them!
‘Rite Against The Right’ carries a blunt message:
You sad bands, you poor ‘Nazi’ boys
Using symbols to shock
Because your music is cock…
I don’t know if Matt had anybody specific in mind when he recorded this – presumably not Der Blutharsch or Sol Invictus, both of whom he’s worked with, and both of whom have been accused of fascistic proclivities – but it’s likely to ruffle a few feathers in the neo-folk scene. Nothing else on ‘Desire Rites’ is quite like this piece of agitprop, but there’s a overall feeling of restless energy, frustration, even anger, and a passionate desire to kick over the traces. A couple of songs last less than a minute, ‘Rite For The Unfulfilled’ is more like the gentle, lyrical Sieben of yore, whilst ‘Communication Rite’ is an almost Kraftwerk-like examination of MySpace, blogs, and the internet in general. Oh, and the album features quite a lot of swearing – Matt was quite right to keep his young daughter away from this project!
‘High Broad Field’ was an absolute masterpiece (check out my rave review just a couple of doors down from this piece) – lyrical, sweeping, rich in history and myth, and deliciously bawdy. The trouble with creating a masterpiece, of course, is following on from it. Matt Howden has sensibly decided to do something entirely different.
The comparison that kept occurring to me (and I’m aware that this may not mean much to a lot of Judas Kiss readers) is to Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’, the 1982 album he recorded by himself, on a four-track tape deck in his kitchen, without the E Street Band, in a state of depression. Like ‘Nebraska’, Desire Rites is personal, prickly, awkward, and just a bit bitter. It’s an intriguing piece of work, but people who are expecting another album like ‘High Broad Field’ will get a rude awakening. I don’t know what Matt Howden will do next, but expect the unexpected, he hasn’t got lazy and formulaic yet.
Simon Collins, Judas Kiss webzine, UK
Desire Rites video teaser now on YouTube
A short ‘Desire Rites’ video teaser by João Paulo Simões (who made the ‘High Broad Field’ film) is available on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUP1FZwAq6o
