Dead Can Dance - 'Wake (The Best Of...)' (4AD)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
This is a 'Wake', a memorial, a final celebratory look back at Dead Can Dance and all they gave in their fascinating 18-year lifespan. As with all wakes, you focus on the good side of the recently departed. So here, even if it's not the format that does the duo most justice, we have a 'Best Of', a hardly concise 2 hour summing up of the highlights of the career of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry.
It's a mesmerizing if hardly upbeat listen. At times, it feels as if you're being asked to mourn the loss of a band who by the sounds of things spend most of their time in mourning themselves. The words joyful, high spirits and gladness were not ones that ruled the music of Dead Can Dance. The focus is immovably set on the weird, the wonderful and the chillingly desolate right from the start of the otherworldly wails, moans and percussion of the very first Dead Can Dance recording, the demo of 'Frontier' that opens this compilation. In a very Cocteau Twins style, Gerrard's haunting siren-like lyrics are so indecipherable that they act for the most part as vital instrumental texture to Perry's stunning musical backdrops rather than conventional vocals. It's not a one-off thing either - every time she makes an appearance, it's with the same unforgettable tone. Very much a love it or hate it thing, yes, but undeniably remarkable.
Partner-in-crime Brendan Perry was also something of a revelation in front of a microphone. His warm but startling croon provides some of the most outstanding moments of this record, from the ominous beginnings of 'Anywhere Out Of The World' to the scarily brooding tones of 'In the Kingdom of The Blind, the One-Eyed Are Kings'.
Nothing about any of this smacks of the conservative, but at times it's just downright bizarre. Dead Can Dance drew from a breathtaking array of influences including post-punk, the middle east, Mediterranean, Africa and the renaissance to name but a few. Lack of vision isn't something you can call them up on that's for sure, but as with the unintentionally slightly comical medieval courtyard feel to the likes of a puzzling 'Saltarello', there are times when they take the leftfield just a little too far left.
The 'Best Of' format and sequencing of this album don't do the pair many favours. All tracks are indisputably sophisticated, but the wealth of ingenuity present in 'Wake' can leave the listener feeling a little overwhelmed at times. For the newcomer, this is by no means an easy listen. Persistence pays off though, the second of these two CDs featuring some of Dead Can Dance's most accessible moments, including the stunningly surreal 'The Carnival Is Over', which has to be heard to be believed, as well as the instantly impressive likes of 'Lotus Eaters', a touching 'Song Of The Nile' and, whisper this quietly, an even slightly unadventurous 'American Dreaming'.
So they're gone, seemingly never to return, and this is what they left. Dead Can Dance's swansong is thoroughly bizarre, at times intimidating and never once light-hearted, and there's no escaping that. It's also utterly absorbing with it.
Artists in this article: Dead Can Dance
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