RECOIL - FAITH HEALER

Recoil is the project Alan Wilder from Depeche Mode started on the side.  Eventually, he left Depeche Mode and dedicated himself to Recoil.  This CD is the single for the track 'Faith Healer' from the "Bloodline" album.  The cut is a cover by a band from the 70's called The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.  I don't know anything about them and I haven't heard the original version.  This single is a typical UK release coming in a slim case.  If this single had a multiple release, I'm not aware of it.  To date, this is the only version of the single I've run across.  It includes 7 tracks, six of which are mixes.

Douglas McCarthy of Nitzer Ebb fame steps in to take lead vocals on this track.  He's performed on later Recoil tracks as well, making himself the one vocalist who seems to be a regular on the band's releases.

The first track is the album version of the song and from there the disc launches you into a weird collection of odd religious chanting and bizarre samples.  It reminds me heavily of Recoil's first release and the strange fanatical worship they sampled and included on there.  The mixes sometimes seem manic and rushed.  There are certain ones I quite like.  The Disbeliever Mix is deep and funky.  It starts off with a heavy beat and pulsing synth sounds vibrating all around.  It eventually breaks down into some odd sounding drum beats with old Atari computer game blips and bleeps sounding in the background.  I really like it.

The Barracuda Mix is the other mix I find groovy.  It mixes some piano over a slower mix that would feel right at home in a Vegas lounge late on a Friday night.  The mix is punctuated by a female vocalist who moans and grunts her way through the song.

Quite honestly, these mixes and the song itself create a marvelous tension in the listener.  It's sometimes hard to listen to just because everything seems to be going at once.  But in a way, that's the mania Wilder intended to create with the track.  He sees the music as an expression of the subject matter and takes special care to use sound to augment or create feelings you don't expect to have.  I think he's rather genius.  My final words:  A RARE SINGLE FROM AN UNDER-RATED AND MISUNDERSTOOD BAND.

RECOIL - FAITH HEALER
01. Faith Healer (LP Version)
02. Faith Healer (Trance Mix)
03. Faith Healer (Conspiracy Theory)
04. Faith Healer (Disbeliever Mix)
05. Faith Healer (Deformity)
06. Faith Healer (Barracuda Mix)
07. Faith Healer (Conspiracy 'Double Bullet' Theory)