Originally issued on the Some Bizarre label in 1990, Barbed Wire Slides by Vicious Circle is a nice example of the dreampop/shoegaze/ethnic fusion/dark ambient/experimental music that was in fashion during the 80s and early 90s. Think about a mix of Coil, Dead Can Dance, Vox Populi! and Cocteau Twins. Vicious Circle consisted of Lucie Dehli and Stephan Ink, a duo that also performed under the name View and is now active as Elephant Leaf. The striking thing about Barbed Wire Slides is that it sounds as a unique piece of music, call it simply different. They had their influences, like any other band, but managed to create something truly singular. From psychedelic industrial-tinged sounds to classical arrangements, Barbed Wire Slides combines them into a conjuring set of songs. Repetitive, mechanical percussive sounds and grand, low synth tones contrast with the flute and Lucie Dehli's delicate, childlike voice on "Underground extasy". Lucie's way of singing relies less on any recognizable text than on the subjective sounds and textures of verbalized emotions, as one can hear on the seraphic "Родилась Слепой" and the equally heavenly, darkly mysterious "Что". This mesmeric style comes forward in a more threatening way on "No rest". The ethereal "Indolence chronique" sends shivers down your spine. "Bliss" contains world music as well as a refined industrial undertone. "Resistance" comes close to the dreampop style of Cocteau Twins, "Ceilings" is elegantly militant. The brittle, melancholic "Heures perdues" (previously unreleased) is the graceful closer of this 2010 re-issue of a magnificent album that has a bewitching charm.
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