''Dark Continent'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Wall of Voodoo Wall of Voodoo was an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, United States. Though largely an underground act for the majority of its existence, the band came to prominence when its 1982 single "Mexican Radio" became a hit on MTV an ...

, released in 1981 by I.R.S. Records. Early live versions of four songs ("Red Light", "Animal Day", "Back in Flesh" and "Call Box (1-2-3)") are featured on the compilation '' The Index Masters''.

Reception

In a 1981

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...

review, Jon Young said, " is deadpan opus is either a joke or just another pretentious search for meaning." He continued, "Wall of Voodoo will need a better sense of the absurd to attain true strangeness. Here they just don't go far enough." In a later review from ''The Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records'' (1983), Young stated that ''Dark Continent'' displayed "more polish" than the band's debut EP and benefited from "colorfully morose guitar and keyboards." In a retrospective review, Greg Adams of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

declared ''Dark Continent'' to be Wall of Voodoo's greatest album, pointing to the uniformly strong songwriting and the intensely original voice and style. Conversely,

Geoff Barton Geoff Barton (born July 1955) is a British journalist who founded the heavy metal magazine ''Kerrang!'' and was an editor of ''Sounds'' music magazine. He joined ''Sounds'' at the age of 19 after completing a journalism course at the London Col ...

of ''

Classic Rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

'' magazine opined that the first two Wall of Voodoo albums did not age well; he found Ridgway's singing style "intensely irritating" and the music "too clever-clever for comfort." ''Dark Continent'' reached number 177 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart.

Promotion

A music video was produced for the song "Call Box (1-2-3)". The band performed "Back in Flesh" in the 1981 concert film ''

Urgh! A Music War ''Urgh! A Music War'' is a 1982 British concert film featuring performances by punk rock, new wave, and post-punk bands and artists. Filmed in August to September 1980 it was directed by Derek Burbidge and produced by Michael White and Lynd ...

''.

Reissues

The album was first issued on CD by

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

in 1992. In 2009, Australian label

Raven Records Raven Records was an Australian record label that specialised in retrospectives and reissues or recordings by American, British and Australian artists. Raven Records was established in 1979 by Glenn A. Baker, Kevin Mueller and Peter Shillito ...

reissued ''Dark Continent'' and the second Wall of Voodoo album, '' Call of the West'', together on one CD, featuring a full color booklet with liner notes by

Ian McFarlane Ian McFarlane (born 1959) is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the '' Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop'' (1999), which was updated for a second edition in 2017. As a journalist ...

. Both albums were digitally

remaster Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used. Mastering A ...

ed.

Track listing

All tracks written by Wall of Voodoo. ;Side one # "Red Light" – 3:08 # "Two Minutes Till Lunch" – 2:55 # "Animal Day" – 3:13 # "Full of Tension" – 2:14 # "Me and My Dad" – 3:20 # "Back in Flesh" – 3:42 ;Side two # "Tse Tse Fly" – 4:46 # "Call Box (1-2-3)" – 2:32 # "This Way Out" – 3:56 # "Good Times" – 2:29 # "Crack the Bell" – 3:33

Personnel

Wall of Voodoo * Stanard Ridgway – vocals, keyboards, harmonica *

Marc Moreland Marc Moreland (January 8, 1958 – March 13, 2002) was an American rock musician. He was the former guitarist for rock band Wall of Voodoo, punk band The Skulls, and rock bands Pretty and Twisted and Department of Crooks. He also released a solo ...

– guitar *

Bruce Moreland Bruce "Ravens" Moreland (born January 22, 1959) is an American rock musician and songwriter. He has worked with such bands as Wall of Voodoo (with his brother Marc Moreland), The Weirdos, Nervous Gender, and Concrete Blonde among others. As of 2 ...

– bass guitar, keyboards *Chas Gray – keyboards, synthesizers *

Joe Nanini Oliver Joseph Nanini (1955 – December 4, 2000) was an American rock drummer, most famous for being the percussionist and a founding member of new wave group Wall of Voodoo during their heyday in the 1980s. He was known for playing with pots, ...

– drums, percussion Technical *Jim Hill – co-producer, co-engineer *Paul McKenna – co-producer, co-engineer *

– co-producer *Kirk Ferraioli – assistant engineer *Scott Lindgren – photographs *Phillip Culp – art direction, design

References

External links

Raven Records page for ''Dark Continent'' / ''Call of the West''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dark Continent (Album) Wall of Voodoo albums 1981 debut albums I.R.S. Records albums