By: Jordannah Elizabeth

Prelude

I don’t think it is a secret that The Dead Skeletons are one of my favorite bands. I’ve been listening to them faithfully since their debut in 2008. In celebration of the band’s upcoming physical release of their first full length album Dead Magick, I’d like to extend a full album review to you for one of the best albums released this year (…actually last year, 2010).

The Dead Skeletons earn the respect of so many serious music connoisseurs because their songs are sound (art) installations. This is a band that not only considers their music as art, but actively intertwines their ideas with visual and fine art. Dead Magick is a is well produced, exciting, and grand album. Most importantly, many of the songs simply make me want to dance.

Dead Mantra is an energetic nine minute ode that chants the Spanish proverb (which the band has made famous and has inspired many tattoos and tee shirts) “He who fears death cannot enjoy life”. The song personally makes me want to bounce out of my seat. It reminds me of a 60’s inspired Tarantino film score with a touch of evil, and a perfectly blended twist of love. Om Mane Pene Hung, is a treble kissed experimental ballad that carries the album early on into a playful and and dark realm of imaginative sounds. Yet I have to admit that excitement rang into my heart when Kingdom of God started to chug its way into my speakers. Frankly, the album can be considered a psyche/pop album because of the uptempo tracks that introduce the tone for the album.

The first three songs make a serious statement and create an eerie but familiar musical atmosphere. Many of us have been listening to Dead Magick’s songs one by one (a collection of music videos have been released over the years before Dead Magick was compiled), so hearing these well liked tracks one after the other is an amazing treat.  Psycho Dead begins with a very lofi intro with vintage voice overs, and then grooves into a very sexy motown-style theme. I felt like I was in the Bates Hotel, or running from Jack Nicholson in The Shining. I know it sounds cliche, but this song is such a great score for a horror film. Psycho Dead encompasses a very sensual side of murder and mayhem.

The Dead Skeletons can walk and still catch you with this entrancing song. Get on the Train has a less pop inspired aesthetic and starts to give off a no wave vibe. It’s really wonderful how The Dead Skeletons keep the light touches of hand percussion (tambourine and maracas) in the song because it keeps the tracks tied into a main audial theme of the entire album. If the small touches like that weren’t in this song, I would feel like the band steered away from the general tone of the record with Get on the Train. Dead Magick I drives you down a spiraled tunnel of emotion…as it should. It bares an almost industrial sound mixed with a Rocky Horror Picture Show piano riff that is so tongue and cheek it makes me smile. This album is full of fun and humor. Dead Magick l is a pleasure to listen to because you really begin to feel yourself going on a ride of Icelandic insanity, experimentation, and fun.

Ask Seek and Knock is a beautiful track. I find it to be rather touching. This song also slightly sits outside of the fun dance tracks and flirts with more shoegaze tones. Adding a sweet yet characteristic female vocal makes the track romantic and creative. I would consider it to be a well done psychedelic duet. LJÓSBERINN brings a great balance back to the album by creating a masculine tribal touch. There is still a female vocal in the song, but the song sounds like Ask and Seek and Knock inverted, which I think it terribly brilliant and strategic. Live! kind of reminds me of a lovely 80’s pop track. The Smiths? I going to get my ass kicked for typing this… Springstein? I really felt an awesome 80’s pop sounds that’s bold, unique, and all too good to turn away from. There are so many hidden sounds and ideas that are lost and found again in Live! that it makes a music lover like me giddy. I hear something new every time I listen to this song. It’s really playful and nostalgic. When the Sun Comes Up for the Last Time is my favorite track. I remember when it came out on youtube with a lovely video of Nonni and his children. I was instantly drawn to the sound. I’d never heard anything like this song before. It was different and surprising. It creates an aesthetic that is hard to compare. When The Sun Comes Up for the Last Time really does give you the feeling that you’ve made it to heaven and you’re swinging on a swing, enjoying the warm sun beaming down on you. It is a very happy song and makes post the apocalyptic music experience hopeful and comforting. It’s a beautifully refreshing track, and I like to think of it has a psyche rock lullaby.

The dirty snare sounds of Yama are invigorating and wakes you up from the euphoric atmosphere of the previous track. It reminds you that the fun times don’t last forever, but the music does. Yama resembles more of the first half of the album but is paced well enough that it doesn’t jolt you too much that you forget where you’ve been, where you’re going, and exactly where you are in the album. Yama is a touchy and moody track that has classic vocal whispers and breaths that seems to be a signature of The Dead Skeletons. Unfortunately, Dead Magick has to end sometime. Dead Magick II is the last track on the album and it brings us right back to where we started. After listening to this track, I decided that the album is cyclical. It really makes a ring around your spirit. Dead Magick II goes all out and really makes a final experimental push for the album. All of the songs are well put together and well contrived, so I’m glad the last track is formless. It’s like they’d been waiting to say that in the end, sound will do what it will, when it wants to…and so will the Dead Skeletons. It’s a testament that they are not trying to please anyone, and that they can be seriously experimental just as much as they can make psyche dance songs.

All in all, the album is brilliant, humorous at times, strategic, and one of the best sound installations I’ve ever experienced. For more info on the Dead Magick physical release go to: http://www.deadskeletons.com/