Harsh 70's Reality CD

The Dead C | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 5, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Siltbreeze Records
• ASIN: B000007NOM
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #419,323 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Epochal record of post-1986 NZ experimental rock, December 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Harsh 70's Reality CD (Audio CD)

Even condensed onto one CD (it was originally a dbl-LP) this rec. stands as the most definitive statement of DC's quiet stand at the pinnacle of the celebrated nz scene. Straddling the mangled abject pop-folk of the Eusa Kills LP (probably the best place to start if you're a pop fan and can find it) and the psychotic mosquito drones of Iannis Xenakis when his studio craps out and he has to record on his walkman (a la Bruce Russell's solo project A Handful of Dust), this whole record has the kind of sheer momentum which only an exceptional band can muster. Hard to think of a band outside of the jazz idiom where three such distinct musical personalities have combined to make such a world-defining space of their own. If this sounds even remotely interesting, don't hesitate.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the microphone is broken, September 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Harsh 70's Reality CD (Audio CD)

with an overall creepy feel and stunning range of the dead c. vocabulary, this fabulous cd demands an emphatic 'thumbs up' to anyone disturbed enough to appreciate "noise" that "rocks".

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't get your hopes up too high, October 18, 2005

By 

John L Murphy "Fionnchú" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Harsh 70's Reality CD (Audio CD)

Given that I spent more $$ to get a used copy of this very rare oop release than I ever spent before on a single-disc CD, this did not exactly set me on fire once I played it. Still, respected savants like Steven Malkmus anointed this as a holy grail replica, so I figured I had to track it down. It's pretty much dominated by processed noise-rock, if in (except track one) shorter fashion.

Three songs were left off that appear on the vinyl, unfortunately. These may have salvaged what I hear from these eight CD features as too-lazy an attempt at art-rock meets sonic mayhem. It takes too few risks to be noticed or admired. Outtakes from this album, by the way for completists, appear on the wonderfully titled "Peace Love Hope et al." odds-and-sods collection from Shock Records that appeared in 1997/8. I am patient with this type of calculated casualness belying meditated planning, but the results this time for The Dead C don't pack the same concentrated pleasure that I find on their other discs. Repeated listenings have not opened up any light into the murky and half-scratched depths of this album.

The Dead C shone on the earlier, more rough-hewn nearly folk/Eno meets The Fall/Stooges/Sonic Youth/Can attack of their previous Eusa Kills album, or such harmony beneath the disruption on later work like New Electric Music. Instead, the appealing half-hour rumbling saunter of "Driver UFO" gives way to ramshackle songs that fail to live up to whatever expectations that caused me to spend a lot of dough on these songs. If you want to hear Dead C at their best, try the other albums I mentioned as well as Tusk, which probably best blends their disparate influences.