Diamanda Galas
A confrontational writer whose glass shattering, pristine vocals are derived from the Schrei (shriek) opera of German expressionism where ‘sounds become corporal and movements aural’. On stage this is achieved with the aid of four microphones and a system of delays and echoes. Galas is a classically trained Greek American who signed to Y Records in 1982, for which she recorded her debut, before moving on to Mute Records. Her self-titled 1984 album is typical, comprising two ‘endless plays of pain’. Panoptikon deals with Jeremy Bentham's harrowing prison regime, while Song From The Blood Of Those Murdered is dedicated to the Greek women killed by the Junta between 1967 and 1974. Galas went on to produce a series of albums dominated by her banshee-like delivery, rooted more in performance art than any notions of popular music.