''Double Vulgar'' is the second album by

Thighpaulsandra Timothy Lewis – best known by the stage name Thighpaulsandra – is a Welsh experimental musician and multi-instrumentalist, known mostly for performing on synthesizers and keyboards. He began his career working with Julian Cope in the late ...

. The album is notable for its packaging: the artwork consists of sexually explicit, homoerotic imagery featuring bondage and

edgeplay In BDSM, edgeplay is a subjective term for activity (sexual or mentally manipulative) that may challenge the conventional safe, sane and consensual ("SSC") scheme; if one is aware of the risks and consequences and is willing to accept them, th ...

, and was initially refused by several printers. The lyrical content was also controversial: "His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales Breaches Reality" was written as a dedication to

Charles, Prince of Wales Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, a ...

, if he were to ever have sexual relations with one of his sons, while most of the other lyrics describe several equally explicit situations. "The Bush Administration Project" notably contains the line "And I am splashed with semen", sung by Thighpaulsandra's mother,

contralto A contralto () is a classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range is the lowest of their voice type, voice types. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare, similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to ...

Dorothy Lewis. The album expanded upon Thighpaulsandra's already extensive instrumental palette, including an

autoharp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of t ...

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-turned crank, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin (or nyckelharpa) bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar ...

and the rare

photoelectric The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons from a material caused by electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light. Electrons emitted in this manner are called photoelectrons. The phenomenon is studied in condensed matter physic ...

ANS synthesizer The ANS synthesizer is a photoelectronic musical instrument created by Russian engineer Evgeny Murzin from 1937 to 1957. The technological basis of his invention was the method of graphical sound recording used in cinematography (developed in R ...

, which allows one to synthesize sounds from artificially drawn soundwaves and images. Other non-musical instruments include a

scraper Scrape, scraper or scraping may refer to: Biology and medicine * Abrasion (medical), a type of injury * Scraper (biology), grazer-scraper, a water animal that feeds on stones and other substrates by grazing algae, microorganism and other matter ...

, heard at the end of "Double Vulgar"; and a large wheel similar to the one found on the

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

'' Wheel of Fortune'', found in the basement of a church, that forms the basis of "He Tastes of the Sea".

Track listing

Personnel

– vocals,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

, harpsichord, synthesizers, pianorgan,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

, backing vocals on "Slammer";

on "On the Horns of Magda Reuth"; shortwave radio on "The Circumcision of Christ" * Martin Schellard – guitars; bass on "Slammer", "The Circumcision of Christ" and "Double Vulgar"; computers on "Double Vulgar" *

Siôn Orgon Sion is a name used in Wales and in other nations. Welsh name Siôn () or Sion is a Welsh form of the Anglo-Norman ''Jean'', pronounced in English similarly to the Irish name Seán. Notable people with the Welsh name include: People with the sur ...

– drums; vocals on "The Bush Administration Project", "Slammer" and "Double Vulgar";

gong A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...

s and backing vocals on "Double Vulgar"; clapping on "Slammer"; bells on "On the Horns of Magda Reuth"; singing bowls on "The Circumcision of Christ" * Dorothy Lewis – vocals on "The Bush Administration Project" and "Double Vulgar" * Dan Greensmith – backing vocals on "Slammer" and "Double Vulgar" * Rob Greensmith – clapping on "Slammer"; backing vocals on "The Circumcision of Christ" and "Double Vulgar" * The Boy Anal –

VCS3 The VCS 3 (or VCS3; an initialism for ''Voltage Controlled Studio, version #3'') is a portable analogue synthesizer with a flexible modular voice architecture introduced by Electronic Music Studios (EMS) in 1969. EMS released the product ...

on "Slammer";

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''vo''ice and en''coder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder wa ...

on "On the Horns of Magda Reuth"; synthesizers on "The Circumcision of Christ"; backing vocals on "Double Vulgar" * Cliff Stapleton –

on "On the Horns of Magda Reuth" * Frank Norton –

on "Double Vulgar" *

Ossian Brown Ossian Brown (born 3 April 1969) is an English musician and artist, most notable for being a member of the groups Coil and Cyclobe. He joined Coil in 1999 and remained with them until the band's cessation following the death of singer John B ...

– "Wheel of fortune" on "He Tastes of the Sea" *

John Balance Geoffrey Nigel Laurence Rushton (16 February 1962 – 13 November 2004), better known under the pseudonyms John Balance or the later variation Jhonn Balance, was an English musician, occultist, artist and poet. He was best known as a co-founder ...

– "Wheel of fortune" on "He Tastes of the Sea" *

Butros Müller-Staal Boutros, Botros or Butrus () is the Arabic form of the name ''Peter'', derived from Greek (''Petros''). It is generally used as a male given name, but may also be used as a surname. Notable persons with the name Boutros or variants include: Gi ...

– bass drum on "His Royal Highness…"

References

discogs.com entry
{{Authority control Thighpaulsandra albums 2003 albums