The Dead Company - Damaged

Hear The Track Here

There was a time when true alternative musicians never stood a chance of being heard, now everyone and his brother is beating at our earholes, usually with the usual caterwauling and electronic flatulence. Ahhh, but you see, I've been around here for a long time and I remember some of those seeds being planted and one such was the infamous Dead Company. See, in my books there is experimental that is (usually) a series of happy aural accidents and then there is logical, reasoned mayhem just for the fukry of it. The Dead Company fall way to the right of the scale; a band you quite literally love or hate. Even they admit that their music is 'an assembly of noise which you either understand or you do not'

And don't be giving me that DOH! look...

TDC have changed over the years but the focus has generally been with jon bushaway, the main musical influence from the beginning. He is also, I'm certain, the man with the vision thing because despite changes what comes out of a Dead Company track is exactly what you would expect from them. Never a man to rush things, Mr Bushaway dawdles along, plucking our nerve endings with great delight; he's a great one for picking THE most discordant note for your mind to rest on while taking stock. While a lot of the appeal of previous Dead Company tracks was their combination of music and spoken word - especially delivering their own brand of bleakness, I've always had a liking for Jon's soundscapes and in truth, that's what Damaged is.

Nothing like as beautiful and haunting as some of his material and the reason for that is pretty simple. One of Jon's friend had died and he wrote this while ruminating about that event. So then, not an easy listen, and one to be approached cautiously - but there again that's the rule with the Dead Company anyway. Stretching out to a whisker over seven minutes, it is by turns angry, wistful, yearning and - it has to be said - a bit of a musical slog. I have the usual fascination with this artist so listening to his work is never a disappointment but I'm sure you'll find plenty to disagree. Not for the faint hearted.

Sombre, restless experimental. Highly Recommended for strong nerves.