*U.K. first pressing.
Contains 14 tracks total.
Country: Australia
Genre: Ethereal Wave
Label Number: CAD 404 CD
© 1984-1986 4AD
Early punk backgrounds and the like behind them, Perry and Gerrard
created a striking, dour landmark in early-'80s atmospherics on their
first, self-titled effort. Bearing much more resemblance to the
similarly gripping, dark early work of bands like the Cocteau Twins and the Cure
than to the later fusions of music that would come to characterize the
duo's sound, Dead Can Dance is as goth as it gets in many places. Perry and Gerrard's
wonderful vocal work -- his rich, warm tones and her unearthly,
multi-octave exaltations -- are already fairly well established, but
serve different purposes here. Thick, shimmering guitar and rumbling
bass/drum/drum machine patterns practically scream their sonic
connections to the likes of Robin Guthrie and Robert Smith,
but they still sound pretty darn good for all that. When they stretch
that sound to try for a more distinct, unique result, the results are
astonishing. Gerrard
is the major beneficiary here -- "Frontier" explicitly experiments with
tribal percussion, resulting in an excellent combination of her singing
and the rushed music. Then there's the astonishing "Ocean," where
guitar and chiming bells and other rhythmic sounds provide the bed for
one of her trademark -- and quite, quite lovely -- vocal excursions into
the realm of glossolalia. Perry
in contrast tends to be matched with the more straightforward numbers
of digital processing and thick, moody guitar surge. The album ends on a
fantastic high note -- "Musica Eternal," featuring a slowly
increasing-in-volume combination of hammered dulcimer, low bass tones,
and Gerrard's soaring vocals. As an indicator of where the band was going, it's perfect.
tags: dead can dance, dead can dance album, 1984, flac,
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