Here's a really interesting album that I found while doing some research on Alastair Galbraith a few days back. Knowing nothing about the New Zealand music scene, I'd never heard of the Dead C, other than Alastair Galbraith worked with them a few times, and that was good enough for me.
Man...they're good. If you're a fan of Flipper, I'm guessing that The Dead C will be right up your alley. A beautiful noise band, and that's always a good trait. Here's hoping you folks like this as much as we do.
From AllMusic:
While just about all of their albums are winners, for many fans "Harsh 70s Reality" is the unquestioned best Dead C release, a fact it's hard to argue with. Art and sheer rock power collide beautifully on this album, which transforms murky noise and open-ended jams into serenely chaotic wonder. That may sound like a strange assessment, but "Harsh 70s Reality" is as ambient as it is feedback-riddled, and the creative threesome behind it all know just how to balance everything out. "Driver UFO," the 22-minute-long opener, demonstrates this knack quite well, with a gentle keyboard part emerging halfway through against the rumbling hum and scrape of the guitars. It's arguably also the most song-oriented album from the group in a traditional sense, though the usual combination of recording approach and performance isn't exactly going to win over the VH1 audience. When the three add in vocals to the mayhem, everything sounds even more distanced and unsettling. Thus, on "Sky" the lead vocal sounds like the singer is on the verge of collapse and the backing shouts hollow and creepy, even as the main riff makes for one of the band's most accessible efforts. "Constellation," one of the most violent numbers (though as ever the quality of the recording makes it feel more gauzy and interesting), benefits even further from the gently deadpan vocal, like Sonic Youth but not so concerned about making things clear. One of the funnier moments comes with the start of the audibly from-the-other-side-of-the-venue live recording "Suffer Bomb Damage," especially since Robbie Yeats sounds like he's about to break into War's "Lowrider." Though "Harsh 70s Reality" is available on CD, the original vinyl is worth seeking out for the extra two tracks that couldn't fit on the digital format, especially the astonishing "Shark."
Technical Information:
Artist: The Dead C.
Album: Harsh 70's Reality
Year: 1992
Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: EAC split tracks + .cue
Avg. bitrate: 657 kb/s
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Channels: 2
File size: 343 MB
Length: 1:13:05
Tracklisting:
01. Driver U.F.O. (22:31)
02. Sky (3:48)
03. Love (12:01)
04. Suffer Bomb Damage (3:47)
05. Sea is Violet (7:54)
06. Constellation (6:42)
07. Basehart (6:55)
08. Hope (9:28)
Harsh 70's Reality Megaupload Link