DCD

Dark, heavenly, ethereal, and other worldly. That's not an easy combination to master, yet since from Dead Can Dance's beginning as a raw post-punk goth band, that's what Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry have done.

No band has had a more fascinating evolution than DCD. Maybe that explains my addiction to them (naw).

Although DCD broke up in 1998, they reunited in 2005 for a tour (no new music) and recently their entire back catalog has been re-mastered. This is headphone, mindful immersion music. So DCD isn't rare, hard to find or obscure. Just unique, unequaled and worthy of buying. I picked these 3 albums because they seem to track their career better than any "Best of" can.

Dead Can Dance: Dead Can Dance 1984

01 The Fatal Impact
02 The Trial
04 Fortune
05 Ocean
06 East of Eden
07 Threshold
08 A Passage in Time
09 Wild in the Woods
10 Musica Eternal
11 Carnival of Light
12 In Power We Entrust the Love Advocated
13 The Arcane
14 Flowers of the Sea

The Children's Toy (unreleased)

Dead Can Dance: Into the Labyrinth 1993

01 Yulunga (Spirit Dance)
02 The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove
03 The Wind That Shakes the Barley
04 The Carnival Is Over
05 Ariadne
06 Saldek
07 Towards the Within
08 Bird
09 Tell Me About the Forest (You Once Called Home)
10 The Spider's Stratagem
11 Spirit
12 Emmeleia
13 How Fortunate the Man With None

"Listening to Dead Can Dance is a transcendental experience. Enriched with dedications to the living Gaia, their creations subsist in natural and other worldly realms. Initially crafting songs which augmented their Australian roots with Gothic and Renaissance traditions, the group have since grown to encompass a hybrid of global sounds. On Spiritchaser the enchanted souls of founding members Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard shine in this, their most ethereal LP to date. Whereas earlier endeavors succumbed to genres grounded in eras of the past and non-Western present, it's immediately apparent that this album has loftier aspirations. Hypnotically threaded with traditional and electronic instruments, the exorcism of each song touches upon the universal essence beyond. While Gerrard's heavenly vocals are used primarily for instrumental effect, Perry's fertile lyricism both compliments her efforts and expresses the spiritual associations related to the album's title and meaning. Intrinsically delivered with shamanistic connectivity, the sensations ritualize the modern mortal." --Lucas Hilbert (Amazon)

Dead Can Dance: Spiritchaser 1996

01 Nierika
02 Song Of The Stars
03 Indus
04 Song Of The Dispossessed
05 Dedcace Outo
06 The Snake And The Moon
07 Song Of The Nile
08 Devorzhum