Dead Can Dance "ANASTASIS" (2012)

So this is now streaming on the DCD website: http://www.deadcandance.com/

Just noticed that myself!

oh shit, the lyrics to the first song are terrible.

"return of the she-king" lives up to the promise of its awesome name, however. and a duet! they don't do that very often.

cover typeface is great..

...the cover photo reminds me of the creatures Boomerang album, but in black and white... is it a corbijn image too?

enjoying Opium: very hypnotic

cool, looking forward to hearing this.

*phew*

Just completed one of the most intense interviews I've ever done! Namely with Lisa Gerrard herself, looking ahead to a Pitchfork feature. She is one passionate, focused person about her art and how she engages with it and what it means.

did you interject occasionally in a sonorous baritone? p.s. i am looking forward to that piece.

Very occasionally, and presumably sonorously.

there was another recent interview with her posted online where the interviewer asks her one question and gets like a massive wall of text in response. I was thinking "easiest interview ever."

still jealous though.

Haha this is not that far removed.

Annnnnd here you go! My interview with Lisa Gerrard:

http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/8903-dead-can-dance/

Good work, mr. Ned!

Pleasantly surprised by the album as well - all solid tracks that fit together well.

Bands that break up and get back together again, I can get with that. But bands that get together after farewell tours? Penalty box for you, Dead Can Dance.

I saw Perry several months back with Robin Guthrie. There were, like, 100 people there.

They never did a farewell tour.

Annnnnd hot on the heels of my interview with them -- my review of the album, also for Pitchfork!

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16906-anastasis/

They totally did a farewell tour!

Or maybe it's just a matter of semantics, but the band "disbanded" back in 2005.

Well, as Lisa said in the interview:

We're not doing this for the money-- I could earn much better money elsewhere. It's about the fact that when we got back together, Brendan contacted me during the [2006-2007 Australian] bushfires and I just thought, "Why are we not working together?" Us working together is not a formula. It's always experimental, we never know what's going to happen. No one gave us any provisions and we still don't have them.

Whatever else, I can see the bushfires as prompting at least a 'hey how are you doing' call, they were pretty awful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006-07_Australian_bushfire_season

That's why it's just a matter of semantics. Is any break-up permanent? Everyone seems to reunite, eventually. Even bands where almost everyone is dead. Like, I know why they got back together again. Getting back together again makes more sense than breaking up in the first place!

I don't know... I feel like if they had wanted any of their tours to be farewell tours, they would have called them farewell tours. They've always seemed quite deliberate with their choice of words. And they disbanded in 1998, not 2005. That's why the 2005 tour was such a shock, on top of the fact that it didn't involve a new album or even the promise of one.

PS excellent interview, Ned. Seems like all you have to do is ask a good question and then get out of her way!

Haha exactly. One of the easiest interviews I've ever done!

Apparently, on this particular track, Gerrard used a language she devised as a child. It seems like a growing trend, as new/spiritual artists like the beautiful Chinese pop/electro diva Sa Ding Ding also sing in languages of their own making.

http://www.fempop.com/2012/08/09/dead-can-dance-launch-world-tour/

I love this reviewer for working Sa Dingding into a Dead Can Dance review.

Isn't there a whole chapter about that in Manic Pop Thrill, with a kind of feminist angle where women necessarily must invent their own languages to express their viewpoints because English too wholly belongs to dudes, particularly in the rock canon?

Has anyone seen the tour yet?

I peeked at the set list... v. excited. Going to see them next week in Denver!

I think I prefer keeping the setlist a surprise, but I would like to hear general thoughts though. I'm seeing them at the end of the month in Montréal, can't wait!

not to be a downer (~30 posts and only one snark?!?!?) but i thought the album was a touch disappointing. lush, gorgeously recorded, not like it sucked or anything.. but i didn't feel particularly inspired to relisten once i made it(1) through the first time. seems like they're treading old ground, and not in a way that makes me care any more. too bad, i was excited to hear they had a new album out :(

they're playing my hometown but a month too early for me to see them! too bad, i'd totally go check em out even if their latest album isn't my fave ever and stuff

I like it. Not very original, but the songs are good. Much better than Spiritchaser.

xpost -- initially I felt like you! But this is definitely an album that grows on you -- give it a couple more chances. You'll be surprised at how it starts to feel more momentous and varied.

xpost Now this is totally potato/potatoh, but I thought the 2005 tour was more or less presented as a one-off reunion, which is what made it such a nice surprise, and exciting to see (it was a great show). Like I said, no band is ever permanently broken up, apparently, but I was under the impression DCD was pretty much done as much as any band can be done. Like others have said, it certainly felt like a farewell tour. But hey, I'm glad to have them back.

did no one else almost immediately think "Cirque du Soleil" upon playing this album

Hahah.

I have a friend who listens almost exclusively to Lorena McKennitt and Cirque du Soleil soundtracks who I think will fucking love the shit out of this

then again, I also thought he's love Bat For Lashes and was super wrong about that so we'll see

btw I am enjoying this album immensely, I just can't believe no one else is visualizing tiny women on 10-foot unicycles juggling teacups and teapots onto their heads (nb: that is an actual CdS act from Totem)

I agree, and I was also wondering to myself if I would be listening to it if it weren't Dead Can Dance. But like Ned said it does grow on you, and their voices alone make this in another league than any other "world music" act (which is kind of what they've become).

They've been heading in this direction for like ten years, though. She's moving more towards her ghost hiding in the attic style of whispery moans, and he's mining some deep, grim singer/songwriter thing (his voice getting increasingly awesome, too, culminating in this album). If you heard Ark, and you managed to get through the Black Opal... this is actually better than either of those, although I feel like the Perry tracks are much stronger here. Side two (Kiko through All in Good Time) holds up against anything from their last couple of albums, for me.

Yeah, that show killed.

saw them in Berkeley last weekend. was great. I am definitely not a super-fan or anything, but I recognized most of what they played, and their voices seem to be getting better with age. Really powerful singing from both of them. The show confirmed my suspicion that the production on their records don't do them justice.

kinda wondering if they're planning on filming the performance at the austin city limits venue here in austin... or any other shows on this tour.

I think they'd be crazy not to do some sort of concert DVD for sure. The mix of the new songs -- very strong stuff live -- and old favorites was well done, and Brendan's very much an understated raconteur live when he wants to be.

I think a key is that they are very comfortable with age, I sense. Like they know this is not only who they are but that they are able to draw on decades' worth of experience and ambition.

Anastasis is my first Dead Can Dance experience and I was pleasantly surprised, actually pretty much mindblown. I always had a bit of an aversion to them cos I thought they were just mere goths! Nobody ever told me they were goths with medieval percussion and folksy soundtrack qualities. I get the feeling I wont like their 80s/90s stuff as much as this.

you should try Aion, where they went nearly full-on medieval. my favourite.

Shows at Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, Chicago are usually free, so I told a friend I go to DCD tomorrow. Turns out it's $20 plus $10 fees just for the lawn, ugh. Anyone know if they'll sell lawn tix at the gate? I don't even like the new album. A friend said it sounds like Mannheim Steamroller Xmas musik, and he's kinda right.

Don't go to a show you already know you're not going to like, imho.

So helpful! I like their earlier stuff, and am sure they'll be fine live. I just didn't know it wasn't gonna be free when I told a friend I'd go, and I'm already paying for dinner.

Anyone seen them in the last few days? Wondering if they're changing the set list up at all.

I saw them on Friday and they were excellent, but don't expect to hear much from the first 5 albums. They played all the new album, one song each from Labyrinth, Towards The Within, Spiritchaser, something from the first This Mortal Coil album (!), a solo track or two each, and a cover of "Song To The Siren".
Both their voices sounded amazing, Brendan's even better than ever imo.

http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2012/08/25/concert-review-dead-can-dance-at-the-bell-centre-aug-24-2012/

And one from the Serpent's Egg : )

setlist from the chicago show here: http://www.brooklynvegan.com/chicago/2012/08/dead_can_dance_3.html

Rakim and the one from the Serpent's Egg were definite highlights of the show

I was skeptical of the additional female vocalist, but A. they've probably done it before I just didn't remember and B. it made Nierika sound totally out of this world.

I don't think I've ever seen them with a female back vocal but male yes. I also thought it was a bit distracting at first.
Yes they did play "The Host of Seraphim", how could I forget!!!

Saw them in Austin again last night, so I've been spinning Anastasis all day... I will say it again, side two of this album is all-time. So glad I got the chance to see it performed live. Brought a friend who hadn't really heard them before and she was blown away.