Artist description In the realm of gothic music, there is a fine line between the artists who create beauty and the artists who create pretention. Black Tape for a Blue Girl treads this line carefully and emerges as one of the most emotionally sincere bands of the genre. With lyrics reading like an aural diary pressed to one's ear, Sam Rosenthal opens up the human soul and bares its bones to the world. And when laid across a bed of sound, the result writhes and sings itself to life, a new musical creature to believe and understand.

Music Style Gothic, Ethereal, Darkwave

Artist History Started in 1986 during a move to California, Black Tape for a Blue Girl was formed as a way for the artist to bring out what had been held internally, and turn it into art. Since then, that music has grown into a full-fledged band, whose members revolve around Rosenthal's subtle electronic foundation, in which their instruments bathe. Strings drift in and out of waves of sound on one song, the faint strummings of guitar are barely audible in another. Voices and flutes turn into an ocean themselves, drifting across musical landscapes that read like a silent movie. Bringing his lyrics to life are a slew of voices which churn the words into genuine emotion, doing everything from floating them on ethereal spirits, to stinging them with furious growls. The band's work has slowly evolved over the years, changing styles from heavily textured ambiance to the starker, more instrument-reliant melodies. Strengthening the music were the live excursions, each tour bringing new singers together with old tunes. Female live singers brought new perceptions to songs that were originally recorded for a male, joining the viewpoints and vocals into a refreshing androgyny. But the main link through the tunes, old or new, are the lyrics that accompanied the sound, words that are strong enough to be read as a separate entity from the music. For the past fourteen years, Black Tape for a Blue Girl has been consistently making beautiful music that reaches either side of the romantic spectrum. For the cynic, it is a numb comfort. For the dreamer, it is a blueprint for what they yearn to achieve. But for all, it touches the heart, offering one of the more understandable perceptions of love at its most passionate, harshly realistic and still achingly ideal. It's all too rare for a band to be in touch with such emotions...

Group Members Sam Rosenthal, Vicki Richards, Lisa Feuer, Elysabeth Grant

Albums The Rope (1986), Mesmerized by the Sirens (1987), Ashes in the Brittle Air (1989), A Chaos of Desire (1991), This Lush Garden Within (1993), Remnants of a Deeper Purity (1996), As One Aflame Laid Bare By Desire (1999), The Scavenger Bride (2002)

Location Long Island City, New York - USA

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