by Diamanda Galas (Mute STUMM 205 2CD)

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'My voice was given to me as an instrument of inspiration for my friends,' Diamanda Galas, never lost for a line, once said, 'and a tool in the torture and destruction of my enemies.' Nor is it an idle threat. In the mouth of Galas, utterances assume a dreadful weight worthy of the Greek tragedies of her ancestors.

But then her subject matter has always been tragedy - and Defixiones especially so. A massive song cycle - others include Plague Mass and La Serpenta Canta - Defixiones is her furious howl for the victims of the Armenian genocides, killed between 1914 and 1923. Though specific, it's also a work that wants us to make links to other genocides.

A Galas work is explosive, in the sense that sound expands with violent, physical emotion. …