Friday, January 25, 2019

The 1984 Listening Post - Dead Can Dance - Dead Can Dance

Dead Can Dance - Dead Can Dance

#37
February 27 1984
Dead Can Dance
Dead Can Dance
3 out of 5

What hath Joy Division wrought? 
They say that one Se Pistols show launched a 1000 bands. But two Joy Division records changed music, apparently. 
By “Frontier” I get a sense of what I think they want to be: Rhythmic background music to hedonistic rituals. Unfortunately at the moment I’m neither engaged in a Caligula like orgy nor am I entering a lifetime of servitude to a dark overlord so there’s not much need for this. 
But I’ll make a note of it cuz, bucket list. 
Unlike so many others none of the tracks last long enough for me to hate them. So, there’s that. In a theme that seems to be running rampant in this year, the production is muddy. Almost as if they keep mixing down to one track and bouncing to put more instrumentation layers in but the only thing that really cuts through is….
You guessed it…
The bass.
If you’re in the right mood for this, however, (zombie orgies notwithstanding) some of it (“Musica Eternal”) can be very effective. 

Man, how did so many groups like this get record contracts? Was there a yawning maw of rhythmic ambience yearning to be filled? 


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