Cabaret

This week's cabaret CDs reviewed

LARRY BEAU

I Dream Of Tiger Rose★★★

Like a stray from the nether regions of Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire, Larry Beau inhabits a gothic underworld where decadence, lust and horror vie with one another for his, and our, attentions. I Dream Of Tiger Rosesucceeds Beau's 2005 debut, Peepshow Stars, and is a heady amalgam of high-camp cabaret and doleful balladry. His declamatory singing style is perfectly pitched to the velveteen-curtained psychosis of Fetishes & Fashion-kicks, and the murderous tale that is Sex Without a Faceallows him to give full rein to his sense of the absurd. The spirit of 1930s Berlin is everywhere, even in Beau's sole cover: a heart-stopping take on Blind Lemon Jefferson's See that My Grave Is Kept Clean. Arrangements are suitably florid for this nocturnal excursion into the unknown. www.myspace.com/ larrybeau.

Download track: Misery Hill