Artist Biography
by Fred Thomas
Long-running New Zealand trio the Dead C were early
pioneers of noise rock, stretching traditional guitar and drum
instrumentation into contained explosions of bleary improvisation and
lo-fi recording. Active since 1986, the group quickly developed a
signature sound based around meandering, blown-out approaches to more
conventional rock sounds, crafting a catalog of records that obscured
melodies deep beneath walls of murk, feedback, and otherworldly noise.
Records from the Dead C's '90s catalog like
Trapdoor Fucking Exit and
The White House
helped define a movement of home-recorded experimental artists and
would prove influential on the next several generations of sound
deconstructionists. The group remained productive without pause
throughout the '90s, 2000s, and 2010s, releasing new material every few
years with adventurous indie labels like Siltbreeze and Ba Da Bing.
Later albums tended more toward instrumental pieces, but the band's
sound stayed remarkably consistent, with latter-day albums like
Armed Courage continuing the otherworldly tones they started with.
The Dead C was formed in 1986 in Dunedin, New Zealand by guitarist/vocalist
Michael Morley, ex-
Verlaines drummer
Robbie Yeats, and guitarist/vocalist
Bruce Russell, who also ran the
Xpressway
label. Early on, the trio developed a drony, protracted approach to the
trappings of rock music, releasing their feedback-heavy lo-fi
recordings first on limited-run cassettes. Their first widely available
albums were put out by Kiwi pop flagship label Flying Nun. The label,
mostly known for downtuned indie pop acts like
the Clean and
the Bats released the Dead C's
DR503 in 1988 as well as 1989's follow-up
Eusa Kills.
This was a highly active period for the band and before 1989 was over,
they would begin a long-running relationship with Philadelphia-based
fringe label Siltbreeze by releasing
Helen Said This,
a mini-album with two side-long jams. The band was still releasing
cassette-only albums at a steady clip, recording live shows, practices,
and other less traditional takes on what could constitute an album, and
releasing that material to a growing international fan base. Key
releases from the band's early-'90s output included 1992's dense
double-LP
Harsh 70's Reality, an edited collection of live recordings released the same year called
Clyma Est Mort, the shiftless and meandering 1993 release
The Operation of the Sonne, and 1995's somewhat more structured collection of wintery meditations
The White House,
all released through Siltbreeze. By this point, the band were playing
their first gigs outside of New Zealand, with short tours of the United
States. Members of the group were also busy with side projects,
including
Morley's solo moniker Gate (which had been up and running almost as long as the Dead C) and
a Handful of Dust,
Russell's abstract duo with
Alastair Galbraith. Other side projects also formed around the nucleus of the trio, including
2 Foot Flame (a trio that joined
Morley with
Mecca Normal vocalist
Jean Smith and New Zealand songwriter
Peter Jefferies),
Cobweb Iris,
Brown Velvet Couch, and collaborations with members of
Sonic Youth. Live album
Repent surfaced in 1996 and the following year the band issued sixth album
Tusk.
This would be the last release the band would issue with Siltbreeze,
and it also marked a relative slowdown to their high-volume
productivity, as their next album wouldn't arrive until 2000 in the form
of a self-titled double-CD collection of sessions conducted from
1995-1999. This eponymous album was released on the group's newly minted
Language Recordings label. Their second album on the label was 2002's
New Electric Music. Issued in 2003,
The Damned
found a more widespread American release via the Starlight Furniture
label. Around this time, the band embarked on their first-ever tours of
Europe, playing a festival in Scotland in 2004 and dropping by the U.K.
in 2006 for an appearance at All Tomorrow’s Parties. A 2005 12" with
African percussion ensemble
Konono No. 1 was released as the 18th volume of FatCat Records' Split Series.
The Dead C
began a long-running relationship with American label Ba Da Bing, which
released "Relax Fallujah - Hell Has Come" (a 7" of early recordings)
and the double-CD compilation
Vain, Erudite and Stupid, which spanned their entire career up to that point. A split LP with
Hi God People on the Nervous Jerk label also appeared in 2006.
The Dead C's first albums for Ba Da Bing were
Future Artists in 2007 and
Secret Earth in 2008. These were followed in 2010 by the new album
Patience and reissues
Clyma Est Mort/Tentative Power and
Dead Sea Perform M Harris. Thirteenth proper album
Armed Courage, consisting of two side-long tracks, appeared in 2013, as did a split LP with
Rangda.
The four-LP live box set The Twelfth Spectacle was issued by Grapefruit
Records in 2014. A limited 7" single titled "Palisades" was released by
I Dischi Del Barone in 2015. The five-song double album
Trouble appeared on Ba Da Bing in 2016 and in 2019, over 30 years into their career, the band's 15th album arrived in the form of
Rare Ravers.
