Blue Plate Special: The Creatures
Formed in London in 1981 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and drummer Budgie as a drums-and-voice side project from Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Creatures built songs by foregrounding rhythm and leaving deliberate space around the vocal. Early work culminated in Feast (1983), recorded on Oʻahu; the arrangements fold in ambient surf, chant textures, and springy tom-toms, giving the record a humid, open-air feel. Even the single “Miss the Girl” sits on hand-drummed patterns and clipped marimba-like figures, with the vocal cutting cleanly through the mix—less a wall of sound, more a room with the windows open.
Six years later, Boomerang (1989) relocates the scene to a stone barn in Jerez, Spain: brass sections and flamenco colors move through airier mic placements while Budgie’s “Spanish-tribal-jazz” pulse carries the record. Anton Corbijn’s first use of color for musician photography matches the music’s dust-and-copper palette, and contemporary reviews noted the album’s use of space and its mix of heat and restraint. The late-’90s Anima Animus tightens into urban, chrome-bright arrangements, followed by Hái! (2003), whose taiko-driven pieces draw on sessions with Kodo alumnus Leonard Eto—ceremonial in shape, drum-forward, with Siouxsie’s voice placed like a single spotlight. Across the catalog, the duo’s aesthetic is consistent: percussion as architecture, voice as the central figure, and production choices that let location and atmosphere do visible work.
Some of my favorites from their limited catalog:
Fury Eyes – from the album Boomerang (1989)
Mad Eyed Screamer – from the EP Wild Things (1981)
Standing There – from the album Boomerang (1989)
Gecko – from the album Feast (1983)
Godzilla (Budgie’s Tokyo Fist Mix) – from the album Hái! (2003)
Say – from the album Anima Animus (1999)
Miss The Girl – from the album Feast (1983)
Prettiest Thing (Howie B’s Hormonal Mix) – from the album Hybrids (1999)
