the scavenger bride, by Black Tape For A Blue Girl

the scavenger bride

by Black Tape For A Blue Girl

supported by

Scott This album contains an entire world to become immersed in. Elysabeth's singing in Bastille Day is phenomenal--it's one of the most affecting songs I have ever heard. Favorite track: bastille day, 1961.

rikm A longtime personal favorite in the Black Tape for a Blue Girl catalogue, "The Scavenger Bride" is a truly impressive release, deeply evocative and powerfully emotional.

Highly recommended...

more...

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$6 USD
A 12" felt slipmat for your turntable!

ships out within 4 days

Purchasable with gift card

$9 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
• On Greece's THE CIRCLE MUSIC label
• Limited to 250 copies
• New Mastering by George Emmanuel (Pentagram Studio)
• 4-page lyric insert
• 180 grams
• First time on vinyl

Includes unlimited streaming of the scavenger bride via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

shipping out on or around December 15, 2022

edition of 250 45 remaining

Purchasable with gift card

$27 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
• On Greece's THE CIRCLE MUSIC label
• Limited to 250 copies
• New Mastering by George Emmanuel (Pentagram Studio)
• 4-page lyric insert
• 180 grams
• First time on vinyl

Includes unlimited streaming of the scavenger bride via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

shipping out on or around December 15, 2022

edition of 250 39 remaining

Purchasable with gift card

$27 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
CD in jewel box with 20-page booklet, inside O-card slipcase

Includes unlimited streaming of the scavenger bride via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

edition of 20

Purchasable with gift card

$15 USD or more
Patron

Join now to receive all the new music Black Tape For A Blue Girl creates, including 11 back-catalog releases, delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android. You’ll also get access to supporter-only exclusives. Learn more.

Join Now $5 USD/month or more

	1.	the scavenger bride 02:45
	2.	kinski 03:30
	3.	all my lovers 04:02
	4.	shadow of a doubt 02:32
	5.	the doorkeeper 01:17
	6.	floats in the updrafts 01:36
	7.	a livery of bachelors 04:20
	8.	das liselottenbett 02:42
	9.	the lie which refuses to die 02:49
	10.	the scavenger’s daughter 08:04
	11.	like a dog/letter to brod 10:27
	12.	the whipper 01:22
	13.	bastille day, 1961 05:48

about

“Like Dead Can Dance, black tape for a blue girl dramatically flirts with symphonic decay.” The Philadelphia City Paper
___________________________________________________
2022 album description

With a career spanning nearly four decades, Black Tape For A Blue Girl follows songwriter Sam Rosenthal's exploration of brooding, organic electronics and heartfelt strings that mesh with deeply revealing lyrics and darkly textured, dramatic vocal performances. It's striking to see his muse and inspiration flower on their eighth release, 2002’s classic THE SCAVENGER BRIDE.. The metaphoric tale of a bride and her suitors inform the ethereal gothic stylings that make the band one of the originators of the American darkwave scene.

Live performance of the album’s lead track, “All My Lovers,” at 2003’s Wave Gotik Treffen: https://youtu.be/JsHlz9-FC5s

Alternative Press #168 (July 2002), Mark Burbey: This Kafkaesque disc avoids concept-album pitfalls to emerge as a true work of art. | 9 out of 10 | Listening to THE SCAVENGER BRIDE is like sitting in a cathedral of mindful gloom, feeling at once melancholy and reassured. Rosenthal continues to be inspired by the art of Marcel Duchamp, while author Franz Kafka serves as muse for this concept album set in 1913 Prague. The title track is a cinematic overture, a portent of the artful blending of goth, ambient and chamber music to follow. Rich, timeless vocals by Elysabeth Grant, Bret Helm (Audra), and Athan Maroulis (Spahn Ranch, NOIR) breathe dark life into the passionate lyrics, but it’s the instrumental passages that burrow deep with the greatest poignancy. Comparisons with Dead Can Dance have become tiresome and inaccurate, for what Rosenthal is doing here is more original and singular in its ability to touch the listener both emotionally and intellectually.

Indie For Bunnies Italy (April 2022). Rosenthal's humble Black Tape For A Blue Girl is one of the cult groups of the American darkwave scene, born from the intersection of early gothic, the ethereal dream-pop of the Cocteau Twins and the classical aesthetics of chamber music. Active since the mid-1980s and authors of over 14 albums, they can boast of being, together with Dead Can Dance, the pioneers of an ancestral and ritualistic undercurrent that still counts legions of fans and followers. Rosenthal's gothic romanticism, full of symphonic accents and neoclassical, reaches a formal peak, an epitaph full of awareness and fragility, love and disintegration.

Rosenthal's pensive electronics and revelatory songwriting has made fans of director David Lynch, former adult actress Sasha Grey, writers Poppy Z. Brite and Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan. Supporters regularly tell Rosenthal it was the emotional and personal connection to the music they felt during times of stress and personal crisis that knit them to the band's moving sound.

"Twenty years since I released THE SCAVENGER BRIDE,” Sam reflects. “So much time has passed, so many things have changed. And yet the music exists just as strong and relevant today as those many years ago. This album contains one of our most popular tracks, ‘All my lovers’ as well as a range of lovely ethereal and neoclassical music. I can’t wait to hear Elysabeth, Bret, and Athan’s vocals on the vinyl format. That will be beautiful. The bride remains timeless and eternal, as she always was.”

___________________________________________________
2002 album description

Sixteen years after its debut, black tape for a blue girl is one of the most successful and beloved bands within the ethereal gothic genre, while also engaging fans of elegant, artistic music. Their eighth release is a lovingly crafted concept album set in 1913 Prague; guest appearances from members of Unto Ashes, Audra, Judith, Spahn Ranch and a former member of Rasputina enliven the thirteen bewitching tracks. This album is like nothing you’ve heard before, yet these emotionally intense songs are classic black tape for a blue girl.

All Music Guide, Ned Raggett:
In part an extension of Black Tape’s previous album As One Aflame, Laid Bare by Desire, thanks to the continued inspiration of Marcel Duchamp, the excellent and captivating The Scavenger Bride is the first record by Sam Rosenthal and company explicitly conceived and performed as a uniform piece. It’s a concept album, though without the baggage that such a term normally brings, thanks to the varied performances throughout the record tied into the overall Black Tape aesthetic. Noted Czech author Franz Kafka is perhaps the key source for The Scavenger Bride‘s tale of a woman and her past lovers, while everyone from actor Klaus Kinski to Sonic Youth also provides some of the artistic focus for Rosenthal. Indeed, one of the highlights is “Shadow of a Doubt,” one of Sonic Youth ‘s finest early numbers, its breathless, nerve-tingling energy beautifully translated into a combination of piano, drums, viola and vocals, the last two delivered with dramatic panache by new member Elysabeth Grant. The core band of five this time features Rosenthal and returning members Feuer and Richards on flute and violin respectively, rounded out by cellist Julia Kent and Grant – interestingly, long time vocalist Oscar Herrera doesn’t feature once on the record. With the drowned, cascading wash of sound familiar from Black Tape in general achieving a new strength on songs like “The Scavenger’s Daughter” and “Das Liselottenbett,” the band is further assisted by a slew of fellow Projekt artists and similarly minded souls. Michael Laird from Unto Ashes adds dashes of medieval dance turns via percussion and mandolin throughout – check out the entrancing “All My Lovers,” also featuring Audra’s Bret Helm backing Grant on vocals – while Steve Roach, Athan Maroulis from Spahn Ranch, Martin Bowes from Attrition and Christopher David from Judith further add to the album’s serenely mysterious flow. Keep an ear out for Helm’s lead turn on “The Lie Which Refuses to Die,” which uses seemingly mundane imagery in quite a striking fashion.

credits

released April 5, 2002

European LP ordering:

- Marbled (Black & Blue) Vinyl (Limited to 250 copies):
thecirclemusic.gr/product/black-tape-for-a-blue-girl-the-scavenger-bride-limited-marbled-blue-black-vinyl-250-copies/
- Marbled (Gold & White) Vinyl (Limited to 250 copies):
thecirclemusic.gr/product/black-tape-for-a-blue-girl-the-scavenger-bride-limited-marbled-gold-white-vinyl-250-copies/

license

about

Black Tape For A Blue Girl Portland, Oregon

Black Tape For A Blue Girl creates darkwave, ethereal, neoclassical, ambient, goth albums. This page also includes my ambient/electronic music, as well as side-projects. Thanks for listening. Sam

Patrons receive exclusive music: blacktapeforabluegirl.bandcamp.com/patron

Formed in 1986 ... more

Recommendations

discography

The Chaos Serpent Single

Apr 2022
The Cleft Serpent

Oct 2021
The Instrumental Serpent

Oct 2021
A Chaos of Desire (2022 Remaster)

Mar 2021
Eating Rose Petals (free!)

Nov 2020
Tim, where are you now?

Sep 2020
Live KSBR 1987

Jul 2020
Sunwashed evening fire

Jun 2020
Highlights (name-your-price)

Mar 2020
the gesture of history

Aug 2019
To touch the milky way

Oct 2018
Journey to Aktehi

Oct 2017
Isotope

Aug 2017
Blood on the snow

Jan 2017
These fleeting moments

Aug 2016
Limitless (ep)

Jun 2016
the "Bike Shop" EP

Apr 2016
Across a thousand blades (demos+live)

Oct 2015
Monolith

Apr 2015
Monolith (addendum)

Apr 2015
The Collection (Free!)

Aug 2014
Tenderotics

Feb 2013
Archive 01

Oct 2012
Forbidden Colours

Oct 2012
The Passage

Nov 2011
Knock Three Times (2010 live with Nicki Jaine)

Jul 2010
10 Neurotics

Aug 2009
The Pleasures Everlasting (ep)

Aug 2008
The best of (deluxe: 2008+1991)

Jul 2008
Anthology Archive

Jun 2008
POD

Jun 2007
Halo Star (deluxe - Disc 2)

Nov 2004
Halo Star

Aug 2004
with a million tear-stained memories (2CD)

Dec 2003
Black Tape For A Blue Girl sampler 2002

Jun 2002
the scavenger bride

Apr 2002
As One Aflame Laid Bare By Desire (Deluxe)

Jun 1999
Kickstarter Holiday EP

Nov 1996
With my Sorrows (2012)

Oct 1996
Remnants of a deeper purity

Jun 1996
the first pain to linger (maxi)

Apr 1996
Of these reminders

Nov 1994
This lush garden within

Apr 1993
Terrace of Memories

Apr 1992
A chaos of desire

Mar 1991
Ashes in the brittle air

Aug 1989
ashes in the brittle air (2020 remaster)

May 1989
Mesmerized by the sirens

Oct 1988
Before the buildings fell

Aug 1986
The Rope (deluxe)

Aug 1986
Tanzmusik

Mar 1985
The Sleep of Reason (remastered)

Aug 1984
Round Trip

Feb 1984
the gesture of history (preview)

Feb 1919

contact / help

Contact Black Tape For A Blue Girl

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

Black Tape For A Blue Girl recommends:

Tim, where are you now?
by Sam Rosenthal & Projekt Artists

My collaboration with Projekt electronic artists Black Tape For A Blue Girl
go to album
MIX TAPE 4 MATT (name your price)
by Sam Rosenthal

This is a mix tape of Black Tape For A Blue Girl songs I created to go along with my erotic novel, Rye. Black Tape For A Blue Girl
go to album

If you like Black Tape For A Blue Girl, you may also like:

This Place To Be
by Steve Roach

supported by 36 fans who also own “the scavenger bride”

Another of my favorites to calm my mind. It takes me to another place slow my racing thoughts tgoodge
go to album
Charms (best of 98-13) (name-your-price)
by Falling You

supported by 34 fans who also own “the scavenger bride”

Collecting work spread over the first fifteen years of Falling You, "Charms" is an excellent overview and introduction to the project's outstanding back catalog of releases. There is magic and wonder in these songs, alchemical delights to be discovered and savored over repeated listens... rikm
go to album
A NDO C Y
by Hauschka

New tunes sit next to remixes (including one by Devendra Banhart), plus a bonus 40-minute live performance. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 7, 2015
go to album
Fate In Seven Lessons
by Cold Cave

Wesley Eisold returns with his first Cold Cave effort in over a decade, filled to the brim with darkwave-y, club-ready murk. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 16, 2021
go to album

Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Oakland producer Mejiwahn chats about his breezy and transportive LP.

listen now