Liquid

Recoil is what Alan Wilder has been doing with himself since leaving Depeche Mode in 1996. Recoil are not a proper band, as such: the name is a flag of convenience under which Wilder arrays a floating roster of collaborators. He is abetted this time by performance poets Nicole Blackman and Samantha Coerbell, shrieking diva Diamanda Galas, and one Rosa Torras, a Recoil fan from Barcelona who responded to Wilder's Internet appeal for recordings of people speaking in their native language. Between them, this unlikely collective have made a record that, while scarily cheerless, is not without a certain gloomy appeal. --Andrew Mueller