The Dead Company - Mother Feat. Larry Ludwick

Hear The Track Here

Why am I cowering in the corner? Well, I tell you why. I fear pain. Its no good spluttering wtf's at me like that, let me start at the beginning. For me, one of the most painful songs ever (to hear) is John Lennon's Mother. Now as I plead at every opportunity, I have lived in mortal fear of The Dead Company ever since I met them many, many years ago so the combination of my fevered imagination and the impending arrival of the aforementioned corporate entity sent me into 'scuttle' mode and hence, you find me cowering in the corner. It ain't much of a life, I'll grant you that, but better a corner than a coroner. Anyway enough about me, lets talk about Jon Bushaway (Ed: do we have to?) and - in this instance - Larry Ludwick. Neither of them, to my knowledge, is actually dead but hey this is the internet, anything can happen.

Uh uh, even cowering in corners...

Obviously I jest some (Ed: some???) and maybe The Dead Company have calmed down over the years but they don't frighten me half as much as they used to. I had long wanted to use the word sepulchral in a music review, and here was the band that word was made for. Jon Bushaway, it has to be said, has a somewhat jaundiced view of life and maggots such as us, and his music shows this; it's alien, intense and disorienting. Its also strangely beautiful in a dead kind of way, and it is a style I have become very used to, and like very much. His later soundscapes have real value but were he scores is when he gets back to Dead Company basics: edge of the seat and/or lazy as **** experimental electronica and the spoken word.

Soundclick stalwart (and Competition organiser) Larry Ludwick has featured regularly as a TDC vocalist/speaker since the two musicians paired up with Afternoon Show (February 2009). When I first encountered this highly idiosyncratic band it also featured a vocalist/speaker by the name of Sean Boyle (aka Black Circles), so Larry had some big boots to fill and he has done that admirably, and in the process bought a different feel to a familiar sound. If indeed, it is possible to become familiar with something that shifts and changes before your ears, slithering hither and yon. Oh and btw, this is a song/poem about Mother Earth and its not painful at all. Its the kind of track that would go well with a lie down and a nice cup of chamomile tea (rrriiiiigggghhhhtttt.)

Class soundscapes and poetry, handle with care. Highly Recommended wtf'ry.