Dead Can Dance: Dead Can Dance [4AD]

Why you'll love it

This 4AD reissue comes with a heavy-stock printed inner sleeve. It's the record that introduced Lisa Gerrard's otherworldly voice and Brendan Perry's rich baritone, and set the duo on the path to becoming one of 4AD's defining acts.

This edition

• Heavyweight printed inner sleeve
• Lyrics included

About the album

Dead Can Dance started out in Melbourne in 1981, but it took a move to London and a deal with 4AD to get the first album made. The cover, a ritual mask from New Guinea, tells you straight away this is going somewhere other than the usual post-punk haunts. Perry and Gerrard wrote and produced every track themselves.

Perry and Gerrard split the vocals, his deep and steady, hers soaring and often wordless, over chiming guitars and rolling tribal drums. "The Fatal Impact" opens in a cloud of rhythm and atmosphere, "Frontier" is a hypnotic, percussion-driven chant led by Gerrard, "Ocean" glistens, and "East of Eden" and "A Passage in Time" hint at the grander music to come.

Goth fans claimed it first, but the band's later journeys into medieval, Middle Eastern and world music all set off from here. It's also proof that two people with very different voices can share a band for decades, which is more than can be said for most flatshares. Fans of their 4AD neighbours Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil will feel right at home.

Also at Kops: more Dead Can Dance on vinyl · browse Industrial & Goth

Tracklist

Listen

On 4AD (cat# CAD 3622), a reissue of the 1984 album.