Barbelith Underground > Radio & Music > Mikelangelo & The Black Sea Gentlemen

We’ll skirt around the Isle of Lamentation
And drop anchor at the port of Damnation
We’ll drink our fill, then head off again,
Across the sea like buccaneers, you and I.
And the gentlemen all sing hey-ho la-da-di-da-do.

Let’s face it: with lyrics like these there’s no way that this band couldn’t be great. Rothkoid introduced me to these guys when I was hanging out with him in Sydney last month and I’m a convert. Their second album Journey Through The Land of Shadows is out now and it’s superb.

They’re sort of along the lines of Nick Cave or Tom Waits I suppose. Songs about going to sea (as above), songs about meeting Satan’s daughter at the Turkish baths (“Sodomy is not just for animals/ human flesh is not just for cannibals”), songs about cats drowning in Spanish seas (“I took some wood and some nails and I built a small boat/ I tied barrels full of wine on the side on which to float./ My cat he was so happy he did a jig across the deck/ His gut was full of wine; he slipped and broke his neck”). All genius.

They play jaunty ballads with snappy lyrics, but with an eastern European travelling circus flavour, employing plenty of violin and clarinet. Perhaps a European version of Firewater with Blixa singing and Waits on clarinet. With plenty of band-added la la las. What more could anyone want?

Check out their website here. You can listen to a bunch of songs on the site, although the quality is a bit shit for some reason. (The CD is well recorded, not to worry) My personal recommendation is “Formidable Marinade”.

They’re playing the Edinburgh festival this year so I’ll definitely be going to see them, and no doubt they’ll be playing other dates in the UK so keep an eye out.

And if you want a much better write-up than I’ve just given, check out Rothkoid’s review here.