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''Dead Can Dance'' is the debut studio album by Australian musical act Dead Can Dance. It was released on 27 February 1984 on the
4AD 4AD is a British record label owned by Beggars Group. It was founded in London under the name "Axis" (after the Hendrix album) by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD af ...
label.


Background

Dead Can Dance commented on their official website regarding the name of the band and 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".


Production

The album was recorded at Blackwing Studios. The musicians who performed on the album were Brendan Perry, Lisa Gerrard, Paul Erikson, James Pinker and Peter Ulrich. The instrumentation consisted of guitars, bass guitar and drums, with added percussion and the very distinct sound of the yangqin, as played by Gerrard.


Musical style

AllMusic commented on the album's sound: "Bearing much more resemblance to the similarly gripping, dark early work of bands like the
Cocteau Twins Cocteau Twins was a Scottish rock band active from 1979 to 1997. They were formed in Grangemouth by Robin Guthrie (guitars, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass), adding Elizabeth Fraser (vocals) in 1981 and replacing Heggie with multi-instrum ...
and the Cure than to the later fusions of music that would come to characterize the duo's sound, ''Dead Can Dance'' is as goth as it gets in many places".


Album cover

The album cover includes a photo of a piece of artwork from Papua New Guinea on the left side, and on the right, the characters "ΔΞΛΔ CΛΝ ΔΛΝCΞ", which aimed to visually resemble the title "DEAD CAN DANCE".


Release

The album was released by 4AD on 27 February 1984. Some editions included Dead Can Dance's next release, the EP ''
Garden of the Arcane Delights ''Garden of the Arcane Delights'' is the first extended play, EP by Australian band Dead Can Dance. It was released in August 1984 on record label 4AD. The tracks were later added to Dead Can Dance (album), Dead Can Dance's self-titled debut alb ...
'', added onto the end of the album.


Reception

In its retrospective review, AllMusic wrote that, with the album, "Perry and Gerrard created a striking, dour landmark in early-'80s atmospherics".


Touring

The band's touring was limited to Europe during this period.


Track listing


Release history


Personnel

Personnel adapted from ''Dead Can Dance'' liner notes. ;Dead Can Dance * Lisa Gerrard * Brendan Perry * Paul Erikson * James Pinker * Scott Roger * Peter Ulrich ;Production * John Fryer – production


References


External links

* * * {{Authority control Dead Can Dance albums 1984 debut albums Albums produced by John Fryer (producer) 4AD albums Ethereal wave albums Post-punk albums by Australian artists Gothic rock albums by Australian artists