Ducks Battle Satan

I was having a drink with a newly acquired friend that I’ve met through the kindy our kids go to. We got onto the subject of music and I told him about this blog. His taste is pretty mainstream and it’s always awkward trying to explain to someone why noise is so special and the sort of records that I review here.  He’s an ex-pat New Zealander so in order to find mutual ground I told him how much I loved the Dead C. “Those old guys?” he said “Jesus. Are they still around.” We then moved onto the topic of the dearth of new ideas in music and left the topic of the Dead C hanging. In many ways the point he was trying to make is proven with Patience. There are no startling new ideas on this record. This is classic Dead C, but it still absolutely shits all over much else of what is being released at the moment.

On October 12th this gets released. If you are a follower of this band you will know that there is no other band that sounds like the Dead C. Whether they’re doing Sonic Youth style avant rock, experimental improv or extended lo-fi jams they still sound like the Dead C. Dead C records have this foggy, lo-fi beauty to them – like three blokes one day sat in someone’s garage and fire up the tape recorder. This is part of their charm and without it the band wouldn’t be the same.

After the excellent career spanning Vain, Erudite and Stupid compilation the band seemed to get a new lease of life. Besides some vinyl reissues of some long out of print records, the Dead C as a creative unit picked up momentum again. Their first original release on Ba Da Bing was Future Artists which was probably one of their most difficult listens. Secret Earth came out a year or so later with a more song orientated approach combined with stacks of classic Dead C moments and Michael Morley’s distinctive moan. Patience follows a similar path to Secret Earth – extended, droning, avant-rock jams, but on Patience the vocals are left out of  the mix. It is a bit more difficult than Secret Earth but a much easier to listen to than Future Artists. In many ways this might be the most social record they’re done in a while whilst keeping all of their difficult lo-fi charm.

If you are a Dead C fan then I am preaching to the converted – I guarantee that you’ll love it. For those that have never heard the band, this is as good a place as any to start. A fantastic record in any language.

This entry was posted on September 13, 2010 at 4:30 am and is filed under Music, noise, The Dead C with tags Music, noise, The Dead C. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.