The trouble with Vindicatrix is that it’s too dancey for the experimental crowd, too vocal for the dance crowd and too experimental to be pop music,” reasons youthful, London-based multi-instrumentalist David Aird, the man behind the moniker. It’s hardly troublesome to these ears: Vindicatrix is all these components and more, gloriously coalescing around the most unique voice in contemporary music.

 

Once the cavernous sub-bass and hypnotic kick drum finish moving molecules in the air, that unforgettable voice begins its journey through the innovative series of songs that comprise Die Alten Bosen Lieder (late 2009, roughly translated as The Old Wicked Songs), his first full release on the Mordant Music imprint. Little prepares you for his audacious baritone. It places him squarely in the pantheon of legendary performers like Billy Mackenzie (The Associates), David Sylvian (Japan) and Scott Walker – the MOR crooner turned avant-garde pioneer.

 

The Scott Walker comparison is the most relevant – and acknowledged by David in a flurry of emails around an enthusiastically received Vindicatrix performance in Berlin. The sonic palette of Die Alten Bosen Lieder (a CD and beautifully packaged 12” release now sold out at source but still available as a download) is thrillingly broad: haunting classical music beds down with subterranean bass frequencies and inventive electronics. And then there’s that voice. Voice as instrument. Voice as pure expression. Like Walker, anything is possible and often is in Vindicatrix’s soundscapes. The album is the youthful, more electronically savvy sibling of Walker’s groundbreaking releases Tilt and The Drift.

 

“I think the references to Scott Walker are inevitable and fair,” David admits. “Discovering Walker's music – particularly his later, more unhinged material – was important. I'd started out trying to follow in the seemingly defunct tradition of slightly ludicrous, marginal pop stars – Sylvian, Mackenzie, Ferry and so on – while attempting to shape the musical detritus available to the 21st century musician into a coherent frame for my efforts. Hearing the Walker Brothers' [1978] LP Nite Flights was one of those ‘Damn: he beat me to it!’ moments, but also wonderful and inspiring. My theory was that all my favourite singers started out trying to mimic someone else and failing – or in Billy Mackenzie's case surpassing – and I also realised my strength lies in my baritone range. I decided to just run with it. It's also a reaction to the overwrought, nasal voices we are subjected to by contemporary pop music.”

 

Enthusiasm for the more extreme vocalists of the Eighties aside, David’s love of current electronic music goes hand in hand with his appreciation of textures of classical music. “My listening habits mostly revolve around classical and electronic dance music. I listen to a lot of techno – which is maybe where my love of barely audible bass frequencies comes from. A lot of Die Alten Bosen Lieder is in considerable debt to Wolfgang Voigt and his Gas releases. As far as the classical music angle goes, apart from just borrowing textures, I love the art song tradition and I always aspire to have that kind of structure and formal unity in what I do.”

 

It’s fitting that David finds himself on the front line of Mordant Music. A musical guerrilla operation with ten adventurous years chalked up, the A&R ears of label head Ian Hicks (AKA Baron Mordant) are tuned into headier, heavier sounds. It’s not hard to join the dots between Vindicatrix and dubstep maverick Shackleton, who first unleashed his bass-heavy muse in a super-limited 7” on the label. Nestled on Mordant’s Picking O’er The Bones compilation, the Vindicatrix track Private Places is a great introduction to David’s alter ego, also taking on another life as a dual Mordant/Shackleton remix on the same CD. Haunting, propulsive and hysterical, the track is a gateway to the more expansive world of Die Alten Bosen Lieder.

 

Rather than fearing the remix, David is excited by its artistic possibility. “I think remixes are a wonderful tradition and unique to the post-12" world. It's a highly flexible medium for collaboration between recording artists who might not otherwise be able to work together. It requires neither discussion nor consent, necessarily. With the Private Places remix, I was delighted to see my original material taken in a direction I would never have considered.

 

“In my own music, I am constantly taking existing recordings and using them to my own ends, so I can hardly take issue with this approach. The way I see it, I can't afford a symphony orchestra, so why shouldn't I borrow Herbert von Karajan's? He's not likely to miss it. These sounds have been committed to recorded media now languishing in Walworth Road charity shops and are now part of the infinite palette of the amateur computer musician. I'd love to do more remixes myself. I really enjoyed doing a version of the Baron's Sirocco Swirl. As an ardent fan of the kick drum, it very much appeals.”

 

David has nothing but praise for his album’s home. “I can't really imagine a better label for Vindicatrix. The Baron is the best ally I could hope to have – a zealous supporter of what he puts out, willing to put himself out on a limb for something he believes in. Mordant also has a growing presence while still happily lurking somewhat on the shadowy borders.”

 

With profile raised by warm critical reception, David has ambitious plans for Vindicatrix in coming months, emerging from those shadowy borders. “I'm playing a couple of shows in Ireland and appearing on Resonance FM in early April. I'm trying to sort out some gigs in London too. The plan release-wise is for a series of 12”s leading up to an LP at some point, but all is still in flux.”

 

“The show tends to mutate a lot. I feel embarrassed about doing the same thing twice. It's always difficult bringing something that exists as a very constructed series of sounds into a live performance context. It's impossible to physically perform the music in a conventional sense, short of somehow assembling a large ensemble of extremely versatile and proficient musicians. So, I have to find alternative ways of presenting myself in relation to the music. In the past this has included projected visuals, costumes, gender ambiguity, percussion, shouting, multiple tape players and planted audience members. The only constant is myself, singing. I think the ideal is always to be sure of what to do next whilst never knowing in the slightest what will actually happen.”

 

The disclaimer on Vindicatrix’s MySpace page reads, “Price of admission: your mind.” Once you’ve revelled in David Aird’s sonic landscapes, you’ll agree that it’s a tiny price to pay for the unexpected.

 

For more information, see Mordant Music's website or Vindicatrix's myspace.