Featuring the triple voices of Katherine Blake, Kelly McCusker and Jocelyn West, the first Miranda Sex Garden contained precisely that: their three voices singing 17th Century traditional songs without the bother of a backing band. Now twenty five a capella songs may not be your normal cup of tea (unless you happen to be one of those people tuning to the lower end of the FM band), but these classically trained voices are very beautiful and make for one decent background album on a late night. Or provide something to play when your snooty, highbrow in-laws come over to visit.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 10/1998

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An EP derived from the Madra CD and three remixes of the track. The original version is an a capella version while the other three are various techno-ambient remixes. This EP would have been better served by including one remix with the original version, plus a couple other unreleased tracks as the listener will get very weary by the last track.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 10/1998

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An absolutely stunning piece of work that defies any sort of typical record reviewer's stock genre comments. Miranda Sex Garden, essentially Katharine Blake's brainchild, is not your typical modern rock outfit; rather, these people are composers of avant garde music that uses classical and traditional influences that touch base on gothic influences. The three voices of Blake, McKevitt, and McCusker weave and float in ethereal waves of beauty and precision while the music alternates from a capella (as on the brief opener "Lovely Joan") to eerie somber gothic rock ("fear") to something that is just exotic and sensual ("Blue Light"). This is music suitable for late night diversions into dreamland. Very exquisite.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 03/1998

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The juxtapostition of ethereal and haunting female voices with occasional cacaphonous industrial tinged avant garde rock was obviously something that not nearly enough people have pursued, just judging the by the results of this particular piece of work. Continuing on that procress of adding harder influences into their style, the Garden only becomes a more enticing place to spend time. I am especially fond of the tribalistic drumming that marks both "Ardera Sempre" and "Sunshine" as it makes the voices of Katharine Blake, Kelly McCusker and Donna McKevitt more of a stark counterpoint. The usage of instrumentation not normally found in this sort of music actually suggest the band could be a viable counterpoint to the Legendary Pink Dots (and thus should appeal to fans fo that outfit). Very chilling, moving, and infectious.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 03/1998

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Featuring three songs from Fairytales of Slavery, this EP demonstrates the many moods of Miranda Sex Garden, from the relentless aggression mixed with those ethereal light vocals as well as the more subdued sonic pieces like "Freezing". However, this little EP demonstrates one of my biggest gripes about singles: rather than just release three songs that can be found on a full-length, why not add in a couple unreleased tracks to make it worth buying? This smacks of a record company's desire to live inside your piggy bank. Proceed directly to the full-length and skip this entirely.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 11/1998

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