DEAD CAN DANCE

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Many of us progheads have a remembrance of DCD being some kind of Australian answer gothic post punk to Bauhaus and got associated with the so-called Cold Wave, especially once they'd relocated to London and became a duo, but this can apparently be applied only for their first album. Like many progheads, I heard of the group then, dispelled them as uninteresting and sort of forgot to check out their future records. I dare say, I'm not the only proghead having done so, as well.

But having recently reheard the debut album, graced with that bizarre semi-human semi-bird mask (seemingly of Maori or Melanesian origins), can say that at least, I wasn't wrong on my memories of post punk gothic, somewhere between Bauhaus, The Cure, a tad of Killing Joke as well (in their more industrial moments), and other early 80's new wave pop. So as I stand confirmed of my historical dislike of this album, one must recognize that they did their gothic rock rather well and could probably recommend this album as one of the top ten of its genre, but this is coming from a profane and uninitiated gothic relic. A relic whose list might just start with The Cult's debut album Love, BTW. Some of the quieter moments on this album have a certain kind of eerie beauty, especially with Lisa Gerard's voice (strangely under mixed as are most vocals on this album), but overall the 80's way of making music sweats out of every pore of this album, thus taking away a good part of its interest.

Please note that the Cd version of this album comes with their EP released later that year Garden Of The Arcane Delight, which globally sound very much like their debut album and therefore doesn't intrude on the original album. Of all DCD albums, this s/t one is the least likely to please the progheads, especially those that have a strong distaste for 80's new wave. Best avoided really!!

The eponymous debut of DCD will surely surprise and probably shock the majority of prog-heads present on this site. This is particularly true for those who still keep believing that punk killed prog and other nonsense... and who had serious difficulties to understand, appreciate and make a brave leap from the 1970s on to the 1980s. Instead of sticking with the long-time worn out formats of YES and GENESIS and following their traces in usually unconvicing and over-produced works of neo-prog, they seem to neglect that the real adventure lied elsewhere.

Post-punk, in general terms, provided a vast expansion of creative energy during the 1980s and was influential to many different sub-genres of so-called alternative rock, including some very experimental and avant-gardistic musical appearances (like later post rock). DCD were clearly a part of this scene, sharing the aesthetics of other important 4AD acts like COCTEAU TWINS, THIS MORTAL COIL and the likes. And yes, the influence of so-called gothic rock as defined by early JOY DIVISION, BAUHAUS or later THE CURE, was obvious.

Actually this was the last time DCD performed as a rock band in a conventional meaning of the word. Guitar, bass and drums are here, the beat is present.... but still, it is even here the atmosphere (very dark one, no doubt) that counts, and the sound textures that are more ear-catching. Vocals of Perry and Gerard are perhaps not sufficiantly used or performed on this album, but what we can hear is really unique style of Lisa Gerrard that she would perfect on later albums.

The opening instrumental The Fatal Impact presents the darkest side of DCD, with pulsing bass lines and noisy guitar chords - this is one of the defining moments of the duo. The Trial has the clearest post-punk remnants in the rhythm structure and guitar riffs and speed, while Frontier already contains sort of world fusion electronic-ambient textures and ethnic percussions followed by wonderful voice of Lisa -the style that was to characterise their later works. East of Eden brings a gentle melodic bass progression and is one of the least melancholic songs on the album. A Passage in Time is a brilliant piece with Perry's vocals and spacey guitar textures similar to those SIMPLE MINDS perfected on their early albums (up to Sparkle In The Rain, 1983).

During the 1980s many devout prog rockers simply failed to follow what was going on around them, desperately looking for YES, GENESIS or FLOYD to come up with something decent. Alas, we all know this did not happen, and the most of classic old prog bands produced nothing but garbage in this period. Experiencing the new wave/post punk boom in Yugoslavian music scene of the period, I was able to stay on both tracks - and trust me, the real progressive music (with lots of energy, fresh ideas, songwriting, concepts...) was to be found within the scene DEAD CAN DANCE participated in.

Many of you will probably dislike this album (and here I offer slightly different perspective from our distinguished collaborator Hughues ;)) and you have every right to feel that way. But, if you like the dark side of prog, be it in any various form like VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR, BLACK SABBATH, AMON DUUL II or PINK FLOYD, give it a try and listen to DCD! Then, you can judge yourself.

PERSONAL RATING: 4/5

P.A. RATING: 4/5

This is the debut album from Dead Can Dance and it´s a very different album compared to the rest of their discography. I was first introduced to Dead Can Dance in the early nineties when I heard Into the Labyrinth from 1993 which is their sixth album. Into the Labyrinth is a beautiful and varied album where you can hear all of the characteristica of Dead Can Dance. This means a godly production. Lots of ethnic female singing and instrumentation, Jim Morrison/ goth rock male vocals and simple yet elaborate compositions.

On this debut album the music has more in common with music like Joy Division, Fields of the Nephilim, Bauhaus and The Sisters of Mercy which means early eighties dark goth rock. It´s a style of music that I enjoy very much and I have lots of albums in my collection with bands like the above mentioned. Dead Can Dance is a bit different from those bands as the ethnic tendencies that they would fully develop on their later releases is also a part of their sound on this debut. This is what sets them apart from the many other bands that emerged in those dark eighties.

Dead Can Dance consists of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry who both contributes vocals on this album and Brendan also plays guitar. All other instruments are played by hired help. The most significant feature on this album is the use of a drum machine which some people find cold. I think the drum machine fits the music well even though I would also have prefered a real drummer. On the CD reissue of the album there are four bonus tracks from the 1984 EP Garden of the Arcane Delights which is a real treat as that EP is pretty hard to get. The EP songs add a great value to the original album as they are actually a bit more exciting than the material from the album. All songs are very good though and as the instrumental The Fatal Impact starts the album you´re in for a dark rock treaty. Personally I like the songs where Brendan Perry sings more than the songs where Lisa Gerrard has the lead role. Lisa has an outstanding voice but I´m not that excited about ethnic music in general and this doesn´t change my view on that.

The production is not very good. It´s very dark and the mix is strange but somehow it suits the music pretty well. Many of the aforementioned bands also had this kind of dark and muddy sound on their first couple of albums. It was just the way it was suppossed to sound back then. The sound hasn´t aged well though and stays firmly in the early eighties.

As a fan of Dead Can Dance this is an album you got to have of course, but for prog heads I would recommend starting with Into the Labyrinth and see if that one caught on before buying anything else by the band. This debut album is probably the last thing from Dead Can Dance that you would buy even as a fan. Well that sounds way to negative because I´m gonna give this album 3 stars because I enjoy it and there are some great songs here even though this is not the most progressive album on Prog Archives.

Before they entered the world of ethereal beauty, mysticism and ethnic music, Dead Can Dance debuted with a new wave album that was more similar to early Cocteau Twins then to any of their future albums. It is often discarded and pigeonholed as a less deserving work, but, while it didn't reach their unique vision yet, it is an entirely deserving album on its own and easily as strong as concurrent post punk albums from Siouxsie, the Cure and Bauhaus.

The production is the typical muddy gothic sound of the early 80's, with reverberating drums, thumping bass guitar and heavily processed guitar effects. A sound grounded in the spirit of the times and not the ageless ambience that Dead Can Dance had envisioned. I never had issues with it though and the 2008 re-issue sounds just great to me.

That being said, the song writing is of high standards. The vocals are the most striking feature, signalling a more relaxed and schooled approach to singing then the wild Brit-punk flavoured vocals of other new wave bands. It might make this album easier to stomach for progheads. Of course, if you're not receptive to the evolution music took in the 80's, you'll never like this. The tracks sung by Lisa Gerrard come closest to Dead Can Dance's later sound, Frontier, Ocean and Musica Eternal are striking examples of her mesmerizing vocals. Brendan Perry's soothing baritone offers a more worldly balance on songs like The Trial, Passage in Time and Wild In The Woods. On this album, his voice is generally more suited for the song material then Lisa's; on the more ethnic direction of later albums her voice would come to full blossom.

While this album has nothing to do with Prog Rock as such, it is equally innovating as the progressive music from the early 70's. In fact, I don't see new wave and prog as opposite entities but rather as different outcomes of the same principle: to expand and develop rock into new, exciting, non-conformist and original directions.

Just like prog, new wave became gradually more uninteresting as it became more successful and when bands stopped experimenting and referred to formulaic songwriting in order to obtain the 'correct' sound. That is not what would happen to Dead Can Dance though. Their history was one of continuing development, growth and unwavering work ethics. Not an album for people with 80's phobia. 4.5 stars, impressive debut.

In the early 90s, before prog's real resurgence stirred by the equivalent of animated whispers across the internet sea, this old prog fan had to content himself with reminiscences and the occasional echoes of world music influenced pop within earshot. So it was that in 1992 or so, I became exposed to DEAD CAN DANCE via a hip friend in a west end Vancouver apartment. I'm not sure how big a fan of the group he was other than a couple of contemporaneous albums, but if there is one thing a listen to their debut disk suggests, it's that, while we might not have acknowledged it in 1992, music reached a nadir 10 years prior and DCD was one of the groups to clean up its act and thrive.

This is emotionally and spiritually cold comfort with few exceptions, and those chiefly when the group sounds like the better acts of those dark days. A case in point is "A Passage in Time", which, as a 2nd rate SIMPLE MINDS, is a major highlight. It's fine to have muffled and robotic music if the voices aren't, or vice versa, or if you opt for unbroken doom and gloom like JOY DIVISION at their best. I'm sure those better versed in this era can pick out closer points of comparison, but it matters little. Even the common ancestors of the later DCD sound seem timid at this point, such as the undeveloped "Frontier".

In general, DCD are best here at their most ambient, in the eerie "Ocean" and "Musica Eternal", which help raise the bar sufficiently to, if not compensate for the utterly vapid majority of pieces, at least justify a tenuous hold on the second rung. Well, at this stage they pretty much got the dead part down pat.

Dead Can Dance's debut album is an experimentally minded goth rock album with a heavy dose of the dream pop approach of Cocteau Twins - particularly in those tracks where Lisa Gerrard takes the lead vocal. Like the Twins, who were stablemates of the band's at 4AD, the focus is on shimmering, layered guitar and on mysterious, esoteric vocals, creating an otherworldly and mysterious atmosphere which permeates the album. Though the medieval music influences which would come to distinguish them from the Twins was not yet a major factor in their music, Brendan Perry's lyrics allude to the occult ideas which would lead that development, and the album itself is a great companion piece to high-quality Cocteau Twins releases from the time.