The Sporting Life was released in 1994 by Diamanda Galas, along with John Paul Jones. Now, he's the multi-instrumentalist from Led Zeppelin, apparently, but to most of us he's a very talented guitarist. You can, however, include bassist, keyboardist, mandolinist… well, these 'ist's are becoming tiresome. Let's quote what Wikipedia says he can play, right here right now, at the beginning of 2010. That would be bass, guitar, keyboard, mandolin, guitar, koto, lap steel guitar, autoharp, ukelele, sitar, cello, continuum and recorder.
Diamanda Galas, on the other hand, plays piano like you wouldn't believe, and sings like an angel. I may need to remind you that Lucifer, too, was an angel. Diamanda's voice is an instrument controlled only by Diamanda herself. It swoops and hollers, screams and dives. It's been recorded doing such things, and surely by now you're hunting on iTunes for examples of this. If not, if you're worried about your ability to survive even a short burst of Diamanda's vocal gymnastics then you want the softer side of Diamanda. It exists. Find Erasure's 'Rock Me Gently', or 'Angel', where she provides the most sublime background vocals, so unsimilar to what might be expected from human vocal chords that we think it may even be synths. Sorcerer Sound did Erasure proud.
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