Dead Can Dance
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SACD Reissues - Part II - Dead Can Dance Album Review
Album Review
The second phase of the DCD story continues (see Dead Can Dance - SACD Reissues for the first part of this story) with their most productive and challenging period - and also their most beautiful...
The Serpents Egg
10 tracks at under 40 minutes and every second sends a chill down the spine. This was the duo's most introspective work and still sounds alarmingly fresh and stunning 20 years later - a totally timeless smorgasbord of accapella chants, hurdy gurdy drones and dramatic symphonies that got them unfairly tagged with the terms 'neo-classical' and 'ethereal'. The latter is something I would never level at DCD especially on this album. "The Host Of The Seraphim" is enough to send anyone scampering off to start writing their will such is its power and latent intensity. It is also the most used piece of their music for soundtrack infills (T3 Rise Of The Machines, Baraka and The Mist) and sets the scene for the album. Interspersed with short choral vignettes a la Bulgarian voices, the album also draws heavily on Brendan Perry's lush vocals on the still and seething "Severance", the filmic and cyclical "In The Kingdom Of The Blind .." and the almost upbeat sleigh-ride of "Ullyses". Only "Chant Of The Paladin" fails to ignite the flames of interest but really this is an essential addition to anyone's musical collection.
Rating: 4/5
Aion
The follow-up to 'Serpent's Egg' was seen as a step back for the band by many critics who just didn't get the link between the folk influence and what DCD were about. I have always seen them as a world-music act rather than indie, regardless of being signed to the enigmatic 4AD. 'Aion' can be summed up in one historical reference - medieval. Think garlands, lutes, feast days, banqueting and dark,dark storms - it's all there and more as highlighted on "Salterello", "Radharc" and "The Arrival & The Reunion". Solace and desperation iare represented on the mournful "Song Of The Sybil" and "The End Of Words", while Perry again hits the descriptive spot with "Fortune Presents Gifts.." and the rattling, seismic rumble of "Black Sun". Although the latter half of the album treads a sorrow-filled path, 'Aion' stands up as a fairly solid set and contains one obvious choice for repeat play, "As The Bell Rings.." sung by Lisa Gerrard with full bagpipe regalia.
Rating: 4/5
Into The Labyrinth
The triumphant double album set from 1993 was DCD's first foray into the album charts but was as far away from commercial music as you could wish them to be. Drawing titles from Greek mythology ("Emmeleia", "Ariadne" and "Towards The Within"), the duo put aside their personal differences and recorded an amazing collection of exorcised demons and a blank canvas, coloured by ethnicity and imagination. There were also some cracking Perry compositions that served to promote them in the US of all places. "The Ubiquitous Mr Lovegrove" almost had a chorus (heaven forbid) but was still dressed with remarkable arrangements and sinister lyrics. But the most moving and personal was his peaen to watching the circus as a child, "The Carnival is Over" with some quite eye-watering melodies - the equal of their very best work. Another totally stunning song was the cover of the Irish lament, "The Wind That Shakes The Barley" - the sort of song you can play to a group of rabid, fighting teenagers safely in the knowledge some of them would stop in their tracks for a few seconds (ah well, we can dream). Aside from the rather drawn out closer, "How Fortunate The Man With None", it all gels perfectly and you would have to have a heart of rock to not warm to this album.
Rating: 4.5/5
Towards The Within
A live set that more than qualifies as a 'greatest hits' collection with plenty of new songs, including the appealing cover version of "I Am Stretched On Your Grave" and Turkish / Moroccan-flavoured songs, "Rakim" and "Oman". Recorded in one take at the now-demolished Mayfair, Santa Monica it shows what a formidable force DCD were live, causing grown men to blub like over-thrown kings as they assaulted the senses with ear-splitting regularity and spine-tingling monotony but all for the right reasons. Also here is the bewilderingly lovely "Sanvean", later to appear on Lisa's solo set, "The Mirror Pool" and the 5th series of 'West Wing', dramatically applied to a funeral scene in the first episode. Although their most obvious studio songs were assembled for the retrospective set "Wake", I think this is a far more worthy collection.
Rating: 4/5
Spiritchaser
Their last album reached number 43, their highest position, which seems a little unjustified as it is not their greatest hour by any means. Gathering a little from each of their previous albums influences, it sounds rather disjointed and less magical when compared to their late 80's and early 90's output. Add in some Native American and Indian ingredients and it feels like the duo couldn't decide which path to take. But it does have some very moving and beautiful passages as you would expect with "Song Of The Stars" and the jaw-dropping "Devorzhum" bolstering the weaker tracks. However for sheer, filmic and startling resonance check out the epic "Indus" - a soundtrack to a Palin documentary across the Sahara or the Tibetan mountains if ever I heard one.
Rating: 3.5/5
Whew!!
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