What they’re saying:
In 1978, Siouxsie and the Banshees declared `We don't see
ourselves in the same context as other rock'n'roll bands.' A decade later, and
in the stark aftermath of a devastating storm, the band retreated to a
17th-century mansion house in the deracinated Sussex countryside to write their
ninth studio album, Peepshow. Here, the band absorbed the bygone, rural
atmosphere and its inspirational mise en scene, thus framing the record
cinematically, as Siouxsie Sioux recalled, `It was as if we were doing the
whole thing on the set of The Wicker Man'.
Samantha Bennett looks at how Siouxsie and the Banshees' Peepshow
is better understood in the context of film and film music (as opposed to
popular music studies or, indeed, the works of other rock'n'roll bands).
Drawing upon more than one hundred films and film scores, this book focuses on
Peepshow's deeply embedded historical and aesthetic (para)cinematic influences:
How is each track a reflection of genre film? Who are the various featured
protagonists? And how does Peepshow's diverse orchestration, complex musical
forms, atypical narratives and evocative soundscapes reveal an inherently
cinematic record?
Ultimately, Peepshow can be read as a soundtrack to all the films
Siouxsie and the Banshees ever saw. Or perhaps it was the soundtrack to the
greatest film they never made.
Samantha Bennett is a sound recordist, guitarist, and Associate
Professor in Music at the Australian National University, Australia. She is
widely published in the areas of popular music sound recording, technology and
production.
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