Dead Can Dance - Appreciation Thread

As a teenager, I was obsessed with this band in the late 80s (along with fellow 4AD artists, Cocteau Twins). I think it was also the artwork that made a big impression on me. It seemed so exotic at the time. Still, great music that holds up well today.

Dead Can dance are one of those bands (who for me, at least) I just cannot pick one album above others.

And those covers...

Anyone else still like them?

Yes, I also started listening to them in my teenage years with the Serpent's Egg being the first album I got. And I still do listen to them and have the latest album. Good music for traveling, sitting on a bus or train and watching the landscape go by.

*appreciates furiously*

for a long while and for some stupid reason, i thought their name meant a dance of a can (like a can of some food) that is dead. it hit me after about 5 years of being their fan that their name means that dead (people) can dance.

If I remember correctly the name actually means that dead, as in non-living, objects can dance. Like musical instruments can create music. It was mentioned in some interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1LHkjwzMio

Recorded live at The Mayfair Theatre, Santa Monica, California, 1993/94

The Host Of Seraphim - Featured in the 1993 film, Baraka.

That last video is fucked. Hence the Laurie Anderson 'O Superman' remark on YouTube.

Try again.

Where should I start?

  On 1/23/2017 at 3:16 AM, Extralife said:

Where should I start?

Their discog is wholly worth scaling from the very base. Start with the self-titled LP, a lost post-punk masterpiece:

The kind of Gothic, medieval-inflected work they became known for started to develop thereafter and (depending on who you ask) peaked with The Serpent's Egg:

In a retrospective review, AllMusic said, "Perry and Gerrard continued to experiment and improve with The Serpent's Egg, as much a leap forward as Spleen and Ideal was some years previously", heaping particular praise on the album opener "The Host of Seraphim", which it called "so jaw-droppingly good that almost the only reaction is sheer awe".

There is no other band like them.

Def appreciated and loved. I think I became curious after I heard a sample (from "Persian Love Song") in Delerium's album Karma. I didn't get to them via the FSOL route (that came later, so I was delighted the first time I heard Papua New Guinea).

"Host of Seraphim" is a one of a kind track, very very powerful stuff. IMO their whole discography I think is worth checking out though. Into The Labyrinth and Towards The Within are other highlights I'd like to point out, and Spleen and Ideal is one of my favorite records ever. Every track drips in atmosphere. It's more than just the reverb.

I remember that it took a while for me to warm up to Perry's voice but it suits the music just as much as Gerrard's. It's a great, weird marriage of distance and gravity, like some ghost of a wizard.

Edit: Not DCD, but this is a nice guest appearance

best band. no real weak spots in discography.

some favs from each album:

(usually would have been host but i guess that one can be considered covered :P)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eQItnQv1lU

They wrote and released a new track at the end of last year to commemorate a Greek City called Eleusis:

This is as good sign as any that a new album could be materialising at some point...

  On 1/23/2017 at 10:46 AM, Goiter Sanchez said:

They wrote and released a new track at the end of last year to commemorate a Greek City called Eleusis:

 

 

This is as good sign as any that a new album could be materialising at some point...

i still haven't even heard anastasis, maybe i'll take this thread as occasion to do some catching up... certainly getting into the mood while typing, more hits spring to mind:

I need to spend more time with their discography. Only really listened to Serpent's Egg and Spiritchaser, but I dig 'em both quite a bit.

Love this band!  If anything, I don't listen to them enough.  Well keen on a Cocteau Twin discussion at some stage as well.

  On 1/25/2017 at 3:55 AM, Haste said:

Well keen on a Cocteau Twin discussion at some stage as well.

There's a topic for that as well ;)

https://forum.watmm.com/topic/73086-cocteau-twins-appreciation-thread/

  On 1/25/2017 at 6:39 AM, Goiter Sanchez said:

 

  On 1/25/2017 at 3:55 AM, Haste said:

Well keen on a Cocteau Twin discussion at some stage as well.

There's a topic for that as well ;)

 

https://forum.watmm.com/topic/73086-cocteau-twins-appreciation-thread/

 

Goddamit, I even replied to that one as well. 

Still, alot has happened since 2015.  A LOT.

I always mean to get into this band more, I do like them(like most 4AD acts of the same era) but the problem is I have to been in a pretty bleak mood to connect with the music, - especially the later stuff which is even more austere. Its not the sort of stuff you can listen to on a sunny day after a couple of bowls.

their mood is kind of a combination of Cocteau Twins, Popul Vuh and Zoviet*France. early stuff is kind of post punky, then later stuff lots of sepulchral chanting and ethnic percussion. need to give them another go.

Balancing on the edge of ultra-cheese, but I loved some of their work back in the day. Thank to Burzum's lovely shitty MIDI albums plugging "Within the Realm of the Dying Sun". Also:

Also thanks to this track for laying the foundation of the later Ulver sound (cemented by their own cover of it):

  On 1/25/2017 at 12:58 PM, Herr Jan said:

Balancing on the edge of ultra-cheese, but I loved some of their work back in the day. Thank to Burzum's lovely shitty MIDI albums plugging "Within the Realm of the Dying Sun".

  On 4/23/2018 at 12:18 AM, Goiter Sanchez said:

 

oh shit, nice. it's been a while

Always liked Lisa Gerard's songs with Dead Can Dance. She also had some bangers with This Mortal Coil.