It's cliched and a bit too easy to praise the early-90s output of cacophonous New Zealand eccentrics the Dead C. It's also more than deserved. Tonight I listened to 1992's Clyma Est Mort. From the Fall-derived cover art on, it's probably their least careful, most tossed-off album. It's also truly remarkable. At times it resembles the Sightings, Growing, and (for a brief minute) the Tower Recordings. Even having heard all of those bands for years now, Clyma Est Mort still impresses me, perhaps more than any of them... only it's not a mix-up of those bands by methodical record-collector fans. It predates them all, from 1992! Its purposeful and well-considered (but still chaotic) diversity reminds me a bit of Meat Puppets II, though the two records are obviously quite different. To continue rambling about a band who certainly still receive their due feels like an unnecessary exercise, so I'll stop here.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
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3 comments:
Me and the Dead C have never been friends. One of those bands people with taste like, people who boughttheir records on vinyl at Ajax, but when I go to listen to it I can't connect to it. Dead C cacophony just doesn't please my ear, or it hasn't in the past, but based on your praise, I'll give it a shot again if I come across it.
Now, The Pin Group for the win.
The Dead C are not a friendly listen, and I could see a non-fan remaining a non-fan after countless listens. I do want to point out that these records are beautiful despite their darkness and oddity, where much more accessible records strike me as far less beautiful (purely subjective notion of beauty, I'm aware, but one I'll stick by).
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