DEAD VOICES ON AIR
Dadu
(eMERGENCY heARTS/UMP)
Its not often that I get sent actual physical copies of releases, so when Hong Kong label UMP insisted on doing so for this co-release with Texas label eMERGENCY heARTS, run by Scott Crow, who we have come across before in OL, it was a welcome change from the usual digital shotgun approach taken by most labels/PR.
The product itself is nothing short of amazing, with an immaculately designed CD accompanied by 12 CD sized cards of artwork and slogans backed with inflammatory statements such as "Quit quitting" and "Capitalism has failed us".
'Dead Voices on Air' is Mark Spybey's experimental and industrial project formed after his departure from Zoviet France when he relocated to Vancouver. He is hugely prolific and has collaborated with a ton of artists, appearing on over 50 albums over a five-year period as well as being in Download with cEvin Key (Skinny Puppy). So he knows what he is doing, and that vast experience shows on Dadu, which could equally well be called Dada, as it shares much with that art movement, morphing and evolving over three tracks into a master class in creating shifting soundscapes.
Anything that pushes and challenges like Dead Voices on Air do is to be applauded in the bland musical universe we live in. "We are working class and embrace the term artist" they declare. On the destruction of a listed industrial building called The Dorman Long Tower by corrupt developers, they shout "Built by Heroes, Destroyed By Clowns".
I do love a good slogan.
Essential Information
Dadu is available on Bandcamp from Emergency Hearts here
