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!