Black Needle Noise with Jennie Vee – Heaven

Jennie Vee is one of our favourite singers. Whether playing alongside Courtney Love or warming up for Echo & The Bunnymen, Vee is the picture of East Village glam (even if she is on the left coast these days). Her own material is fabulous dreampop, and she takes a great picture. On top of that, she’s Canadian by birth, has a Scottish last name and boasts Finnish roots that once provided the name for her early punk act.

What were the odds, then, that she would connect with John Fryer for his Black Needle Noise project? The spiritual successor to This Mortal Coil, BNN is the acid that eats metal, the enzyme that dissolves flesh, and the vapour that swallows light. Fryer, who is best known for his production and mixing work (yeah, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, He Said – his name is on all of your records), has been talent-spotting singers for the BNN collaborations, so it’s our good fortune that they have come together for “Heaven.”

Fryer’s instrumental track grinds in the lower registers; lifted only partially into the light by the doom-gloom vocals of Vee. This is one of the darkest BNN tracks to date, and it is spellbinding in its intensity. Don’t listen while operating heavy machinery – there is no need, since they are already doing that, and it can’t be safe.