Re: Hey You!! (Danielle Dax)

[jpalfke@PARCVAX.XEROX.COM (J. Peter Alfke)]

jsd%UMASS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu (Jonathan S. Drukman) writes:

> And just who is this Danielle Dax woman anyway?

Glad you asked.  Danielle Dax is an Englishwoman who makes wonderful
quirky songs with weird but never pretentious lyrics.  Her first
album, "Pop-Eyes", is a true masterpiece and shows what you can do all
by yourself with a 4-track tape deck and a bunch of instruments.  It
ranges from the sublimely loopy "Here Com the Harvest Buns" to the
eerie "The Wheeled-Wagon" to some Eno-esque (After-science pre-Ambient
stuff) mood pieces.  This album more than any other has fueled my
ambition to acquire equipment and put together songs (I'm now saving
up for the 4-track).  "Jesus Egg That Wept" is an EP more or less in
the same style as "Pop-Eyes", although not quite as inspired.  One of
the songs ("Hammerheads"?) explicitly steals the rhythm track to "The
Dreaming"!  "Yummer-Yummer Man/Bad Miss 'M'/Fizzing Human Bomb"
introduces co-conspirator David Knight on guitar and songwriting.  A
strange and wonderful stomping blues influence on the first two songs.
Good stuff.  Getting more elaborate.  "Where The Flies Are/Up In
Arms/When I Was Young" adds more people to the line-up and weakens the
music.  Still good, just not as good.  Her latest LP, "Inky Bloaters"
just came out a few months ago and is very good.  The sound is much
more like the more recent stuff, but Dax and Knight have come up with
some really good songs and unusual arrangements.

Possible influences and similarities?  I'll rattle off: Brian Eno, Laurie
Anderson, later Pere Ubu, some Kate Bush, even Led Zeppelin III (on Yummer-
Yummer Man) ...

I suppose I'll see this article again by the end of the month.  Sorry I
couldn't help out with the Cure question; my wonderings are similar to yours
on that.

						--Peter Alfke
"Here come the harvest buns,			  alfke.pa@xerox.com
 Bellyfull for everyone.
 Linked in rows, they're dominoes,
 They're sick as a pig when morning comes..."