The 1985 Listening Post - Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal

Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal

#469/1102

November 25 1985

Dead Can Dance

Spleen and Ideal

Genre: Dark Wave

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Circumradiant Dawn

Ascension

When I was in college a bunch of us to movement classes off site. We paid hard earned money to be exposed to ridiculous amounts of pain designed to break us down and build us back up. A lot of it was for stamina, I think. I never really understood it. It was called Alexander Technique. I hated Alexander and his technique and none of it ever helped me in my acting pursuits. 

I think these teachers of “experimental theater” were just making shit up as they went along.

The music they would play was ambient or dark or it was weirdly droning or it was Penguin Cafe Orchestra. 

They didn’t play Dead Can Dance but I think they would have liked to. 

Instead I just think I want to stand, with my feet pointed inward, arch my back, stretch my arms behind me like a plane, jut out my jaw and hold it until I pass out. 

On the flip side, I did need some music to meditate to/fall asleep to and I’ve played Music for Airports so much that Eno could put an addition to his house with my streams so I tried this album and, boom, I was out by track 5. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/spleen-and-ideal-remastered/277711135

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? 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dead-can-dance-remastered/277711211