Streaming at blacktape bandcamp page, Spotify, YouTube, etc.Black Tape For A Blue Girl’s classic Remnants of a Deeper Purity is now available to pre-order on vinyl at the band’s Bandcamp page!
Genres: Ethereal, darkwave, neo-classical
RIYL: This Mortal Coil, Dead Can Dance, Gavin Bryars
• 2025 vinyl 2LP re-release in beautiful hand-poured edition. Each one is unique.
• Orange Rust Swirl, 140 gram.
• Limited to 500.
• 4-page insert w/lyrics & candid photos.
• Remastered from original DAT?mixes.
• Their 1996 breakthrough album with over 18,000 sold.
Achingly beautiful neo-classical, ethereal, darkwave with long deep tones, intense vocals and rich cello and violin arrangements. Twenty-nine years since its release, Remnants is the timeless work of poets of the broken spirit; it explores the contours of the human soul in a flawless alchemical fusion of sad and majestic heartbreaking beauty.
Mesmerizing & melancholy.
The 77-minute album is Blacktape’s breakthrough masterpiece: exquisite and stunning. Wrapped up in the emotions of betrayal and salvation, searching for the deeper fragments — somewhere between sadness and hope — Sam’s words and harmonies weave a soft, opaque veil over a world where feeling is foremost, emotions on the surface, the heart laid bare.
Intense vocals from Oscar and angelic vocals from Lucian grace the rich cello and violin arrangements of Vicki and Mera; together with Sam’s electronics they reveal a deeply contemplative and passionate world lavishly illustrated with layers of liquid harmonics.
Remnants of a deeper purity is a collection of tales: tales of betrayal, hope, love lost, and love found. By its very nature, Remnants is a breathtaking, lush, and beautifully presented piece of art. Its dense, thick refrains invite deep listenings to get to its pure seductive delights.
What did the press say?
The Washington Post: Devotees of more upscale forms of bombast may scoff at goth (or “darkwave”), but there’s little on black tape for a blue girl’s REMNANTS OF A DEEPER PURITY that’s more lugubrious than a typical passage from Berlioz or Richard Strauss. Indeed, the 22-minute “For You Will Burn Your Wings Upon the Sun” is very much the symphonic tone poem, all straining strings and morose melody. And, since the group has neither a bassist nor a drummer, there are none of those annoying rhythms to irk the symphonic buff. Despite the violin, cello and harmonium, this quintet is equally indebted to the moody late-’60s art-folk of Leonard Cohen and Pearls Before Swine. Unfortunately, songwriter Sam Rosenthal has none of Cohen’s literary prowess. His lyrics read like a cross between Victorian doggerel and literary soft porn: “If only I could capture the essence of purity/ Reawaken me, entranced by flesh and lace.” Clearly, it’s just as well that such compositions as “Fin de Siecle” and the title song consist primarily of crypto-classical flourishes and pseudo-churchly vocal arrangements.
The Philadelphia City Paper: Like Dead Can Dance, black tape for a blue girl dramatically flirts with symphonic decay.
Onda Rock, Italy: PIETRA MILIARE… the category in which we put albums we consider historical masterpieces, something that has been very important for the development of a genre or for music history… Rosenthal’s compositions, in fact, seem to reveal the intensity and eternity of the fire that stirs beneath the seemingly placid surface of reality. The song form, then, is dissolved by the apocalyptic swirl of a musical format that derives, by successive syntheses, from the perfect interpenetration of dark sensibility and the austerity of classical chamber music. On this basic canvas, the solemn voices of singers Oscar Herrera and Lucian Casselman, wonderfully at home in these blinding scores of the unknown, are inserted. REMNANTS OF A DEEPER PURITY is a striking, majestic, unforgettable album.
musictap.net: black tape for a blue girl is best described as the poets of the broken spirit, musically and lyrically exploring the heart of the human soul in all of its unavoidable sadness. That may sound like depressing stuff but it is far from it. The quest for the elements of love, of faith and faithfulness, and the essence of happiness as if they were concrete rather than the abstract rudiments of humankind, has been the unrequited search of all time. Given the absolute heartbreak of desire and free will, with all of its choices, most of which bode badly, it is little wonder that the great authors, painters, and composers of all time have devoted lives to the sad song of impossibility with the brush of possibility somewhere hidden. blacktape explores these dark corners of deception, betrayal, love, hope, and rebirth perhaps more adroitly than any other band. The revisitation of black tape for a blue girl’s greatest achievement is a great cause for celebration. Works such as are found on this 2CD 10th Anniversary reissue of the classic REMNANTS OF A DEEPER PURITY are priceless.
huh magazine: The ethereal, romantic sounds of REMNANTS is their richest work so far: tapestries of melancholic, often neo-classical music manifest themselves amidst waves of Rosenthal’s lush keyboards, haunting strings and the vocals of Oscar & Lucian.
Magnet Magazine: These songs are remnants of universal feelings that accompany the experience of bonding with another human being and its aftermath – perhaps this is why the group has attained a strong cult following. ink19: Absolutely beautiful, bleeding emotion wonderfully portrayed.
THE BAND:
Oscar Herrera • vocals, guitar &?tambourine
Lucian Casselman • vocals
Vicki Richards • violin
Mera Roberts • cello
Sam Rosenthal • harmonium & electronics
TRACKS:
A 1 Redefine Pure Faith • 2 Fin De Siécle • 3 With My Sorrows
B 1 For You Will Burn Your Wings Upon The Sun
C 1 Wings Tattered, Fallen • 2 Fitful • 3 Remnants Of A Deeper Purity
D 1 Again, To Drift (For Veronika) • 2 I Have No More Answers