[Can Dead Still Dance?] -- An important moment in the history of post-punk and goth rock occurred forty years ago this week: Dead Can Dance released their eponymous debut album (stylized as ΔΞΛΔ CΛΝ ΔΛΝCΞ). This record was not my first introduction to Dead Can Dance. No, that did not come until 1987 with the release of Lonely Is an Eyesore, a compilation from 4AD. Dead Can Dance made two contributions to that record, one of which was the demo version of "Frontier," a track that does appear on 1984's Dead Can Dance. So, I may not have been with them from the start, but I did my due diligence and backtracked my way to this week's featured Flashback.
On their debut, Dead Can Dance really wear their influences on their collective sleeves. You can hear aspects of Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, and the Cure, among others, in these tracks. I don't know if this record is a mish mash of those influences, but don't think Dead Can Dance is straight up copying them. If anything, they are aiming for the same atmosphere, and getting pretty close. Dead Can Dance, the album, is the band's only truly goth rock release. And while their later, more developed sound does differ from this opening salvo, it was an organic development rather than a true departure, at least in my opinion.
This record had no singles, and, as far as I can tell, it did not chart. Also, there are no music videos per se, so the embedded playlist below is just the audio from the original release's ten tracks. But I tracked down two visuals for you. First, there is a 1984 soundcheck of Dead Can Dance playing "The Trial." And there was a video for "Frontier" from the aforementioned Lonely is an Eyesore compilation.
In their 2014 book, Pop Pagans: Paganism and Popular Music, Donna Weston and Andy Bennett quote Dead Can Dance's website regarding the reason for the band's name and this album:
To understand why we chose the name, think of the transformation of inanimacy to animacy. Think of the processes concerning life from death and death into life. So many people missed the inherent symbolic intention of the work, and assumed that we must be "morbid gothic types".
Let's listen for "the inherent symbolic intention" of ΔΞΛΔ CΛΝ ΔΛΝCΞ, shall we?
Flashback: Dead Can Dance (February 27, 1984)
And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.
I'll see you in seven!
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