The Comedy of Errors: His Royal Fume - Cut to Heal (29 June 1992)

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The 7-inch single which this track was taken from was named by Peel as his favourite from a selection of records which he had recently been sent from Belgium.  Cut to Heal has one foot standing in 80s indie music with its ringing guitars, chime bar percussion and crisp drumming, but its other foot stands in the 90s grunge scene with a lyric that offers comfort and empathy with self-harmers everywhere.  Vocalist, Patrick Provoost doesn’t try to shred his vocal cords or go for an Oostkamp Kurt Cobain vibe and is so much more effective as a result.

His Royal Fume’s sound is one of clean surfaces hiding festering wounds underneath.  An Armani suit worn over lacerations, cuts and bruises.  It all sounds very jangly and upbeat - the b-side, So Confused is even more euphorically depressed about life - but the worldview expressed here is unremittingly grim.  Even worse, it offers no apparent hope that things will improve.  The only way to feel good is to hurt, so much so that the mocking refrains of “better better” in the fadeout sound like the psirens of self-harm calling Provoost towards the rocks of jagged glass with which he will cut away his pain.  Horrible message.  Great record.

Advice on breaking the cycle of self-harm

More on His Royal Fume at Cloudberry Cake Proselytism V.3

Video courtesy of Peter Vanlandschoot (bassist with His Royal Fume)