Sunday 28 September 2014

The Dead C ‎– "Runway" (Precious Metal ‎– PM1) 1989




Now we're back on a guitar noise improv kick, I can put up some Dead C. The perfect example of minimalist maximalism in the long drawn out death throes of rock. This is rocks Battle of Berlin,one last prolonged scream before it finally died and finally became just entertainment.

The Dead C are, of course, not dead; in fact they are still churning out barrel loads of the same weedy transistor frying no-fi tuneless racket that they always did.

For me, the 'Runway' cassette is their most perfect manifestation of their carelessly crafted sound. A Dead C member was once asked how is it that their tunes are recorded so badly; he replied that “those recordings are in fact very good recordings of what the group actually sound like”. It takes a real effort to sound so bad,and its getting harder by the day, with all this easily available technology, ironing out every glitch. It used to be difficult to get a perfectly recorded sound, now its almost impossible to get a crap sound. The Dead C is a reaction against the homogenisation of this planet. When they started, inspired by a few seconds from the Outro of 'Expressway to yr Skull” by Sonic Youth, New Zealand was considered an isolated outpost where nothing of interest could possibly lurk. This was an obvious advantage,as there was no possibility of a career in pop music in such a place, so why not do whatever you wanted, no matter how unappealing to the general public.

The ten untitled tracks on this cassette are formless, non-fi, sizzling and fizzing non musical atrocities based in the classic rock group format of Guitar, Bass and Drums. We even have a pop single for track 2, admittedly a single fed through a lawnmower with a failing motor, nevertheless a submerged,red zone,overloaded two chord classic. There's even some plunderphonia hidden amongst the hiss,and the drones,and the slack buzzing strings; when we get some clear sounding US metal record being sampled by placing the needle randomly upon its atrocious grooves.Another comment on the death of the R'N'R dream?

If you like the smell of low budget electronics smoking under the strain of a detuned Jandekian guitar being fed through 'em like a catheter along a urethra, recorded in a vast empty sports hall, then this is the group for you. Like the Fall, they are always different, always the same.

Track Listing:

Side A 5 Untitled tracks
Side B 5 more Untitled tracks.

DOWNLOAD from the runway ready for take off HERE!
or
DOWNLOAD from runway 2 HERE!

8 comments:

Michael said...

Great stuff, Jonny.
You should try to find the LP 1918! by Campingsex. That´s a great record, too. I cannot digitalise LPs, unfortunately, otherwise it would be a pleasure for me to send it to you.(I´ll ask a friend to do it).
Campingsex is one of the first bands of the great Max Müller, whose brother Wolfgang was in Die Tödliche Doris.
His next band was (and still is!) called Mutter. Their 1st record is highly recommended too! It has the best record title EVER:"Ich schäme mich Gedanken zu haben, die andere Menschen in ihrer Würde verletzen" .It means something like "I am ashamed of having thoughts that hurt other people´s dignity"
BEst,
Michael

Jonny Zchivago said...

Hi Michael,
i have 1914 by Camping Sex; its the kind of music i often play for entertainment. Great band name.
Not heard any Mutter, but i concur, a fine Lp title,even in the english.
Cheers,
JZ

Michael said...

You play Camping Sex for entertainment? Great :) (not a great surprise, though)
Why doesn´t my local radio station?
You seem to be a VOD- member, don´t you? I´ll try and find a way to get Mutter to you.
Thanks for all the great work here.
Best,

Jonny Zchivago said...

Yes ,its the era when i had money to burn,so i was immersed in noisey guitar music.If they sang in german all the better,so naturally this album was a target.So this is my Pop basically,its normal for me.
No, not a VOD member.But a great thing it is indeed. I am now poor so can't afford their packages.(boo-hoo)

Michael said...

Me too, it´s a shame, he´s making great relases still and for reasonable prices, too. but I cannot afford a membership anymore.

Anonymous said...

Hiya Johnny, I was hoping to DL this but Mega says I need a "data encryption key" (nope, me neither) to do so, can you help? Believe it or not I actually own an original copy of this cassette (purchased c/o the great Fisheye distro if you remember that?) but it's so scarce nowadays that I'm scared to play it in case my ancient Sherwood deck chews it to bits! Cheers, etc LORA T x

Jonny Zchivago said...

Hi Lora,
Have you tried the alternative link for google Drive underneath the mega one,which i'm gonna delete now? i've lost my password to Mega,i think my old computer has the cookie for it.
Yes its rare, even rare than it was when it was released.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Mr. Z! Have you just added that second link or was I too blind to spot it first time around (new reading glasses for me then)? Thanks, and keep on thrashing away with the blog, it's one of the best on the 'net nowadays. LORA T x