The Dead Company - The Pain Of Mr Who

Hear The Track Here

Being dead maybe isn't such a drag. Certainly most Goths would agree with that statement as would no doubt members of The World Organisation of Funeral Operatives (gravediggers to the rest of us) who coin it in no matter what the weather. If you think I made that organisation up, you need to get out more but try and avoid this or maybe - who knows - it'll open up a whole new career path. So, obviously The Dead Company are the ones to blame for this spate of abyss staring but being a Dead Company musically isn't always as sepulchral as it may sound. In all the time I have known them (getting on for six, seven years) never once have they ever fallen back on the old 'Dr Phibes' organ sound. Fallen back on everything else within human hearing range and a few outside of it too, but that's a whole other story.

The Pain Of Mr Who is also a piece of Dead Company history and although I never officially reviewed the original track, I came across a review of a remix done by Long John Sliver. In it I describe the original track: 'The production is spot on, willfully insisting on building a sullen, brooding tune that has a rhythmic heart as sensual as warm honey, rippling over your senses with an almost reggae-ish twitch to its buttocks' and having listened to this remix I find it still fits the bill perfectly. Mind you, I think this is by far and away one of my all time favourite TDC tracks, along with one of my fave line ups.

Now, finally, you get to hear TDC as I first heard them all those years ago and I think you'll agree that the combination of Sean Boyle's voice (he was also known as Black Circles btw) and Jon Bushaway's adventurous musical is magical. At the time there was absolutely nothing around like them, and experimental was still being sniggered at. That is in no to denigrate the musicians who have since worked within the TDC framework, all have contributed to the story. However, this is a slice of the band when I first met them and - cleaned and brushed up in its new mix - shows exactly why they meant so much at the time to so many people. Probably the most accessible TDC ever, this is their idea of pop ;)

MUST HAVE slice of TDC history.