Two girls...

...one shadowy, one missing.

Gentle Despite were on Sarah Records; beyond this, I know very little about them. I picked up their "Torment To Me" EP at the Matinee sale. The A side is nothing to write home about, but the B side is a piece of slow-burning loveliness.

A.C. Marias was (is?) Angela Conway, a video director associated with Wire; Bruce Gilbert was also involved in their album. It's minimal stuff - tick-tocking drum machines, effects-laden guitar loops, ghostly choirgirl vocals - and sometimes a little too somnolescent for its own good. There's some loveliness here, though.

Gentle Despite - Shadow of a Girl
A.C. Marias - One Of Our Girls Has Gone Missing

PS: while searching for an appropriate image for this post, I stumbled across this site, which appears to be the work of, um, invisible woman fetishists...