Dead Can Dance - Dionysus

Dead Can Dance
Dionysus
2018
Spotify

Often with this project it is hard to find something to really dig into. Albums released in the same year can sound so similar and one note that the only way to describe them is by putting them in the context of their time. Sometimes that is the artist's goal, make something of this moment for this moment, while others are seeking something classic, but landing on the now. It takes something really special to have a timeless feel, plucked out of a different era and dropped into our laps in 2018. That statement is incredibly true for the new album from Australian art-pop duo Dead Can Dance's new album Dionysus. This is the bands first album after a comeback in 2012 with Anastasis but they have been making experimental pop since the 80s. Their music is grand, on a scale that we don't often see.. This is music for sunsets played through massive speaks, blaring to the world to come hither and commune. The album's namesake, the Greek god of wine and ecstasy, feels at the center of every note, like the swirling sounds are all leading to one endpoint. We usually find that these centerpieces of songs are love, emotion or pain, some kind of force that propels us as humans to feel one way or another. Yet Dionysus is very different as everything feels like it is setting the stage for a festival of humanity. You'll recognize some Greek musical vibes throughout, but the mixing of music from across the globe into one celebratory force feels pretty damn amazing. It's world music, but it's also more.

There are only two tracks here, but many movements, giving you this real unified sense when you listen. You feel like you are on this journey with many others, even if you might be alone. The only vocals we get on the first track are hummed processions and some distant chanting. The second track does feature the duo singing duets, but they are in an invented language. Yes, you read that right they made words for this one that really only they know. This does to things: 1. it keeps the listener on their toes not being able to rely solely on the words to gleam meaning and 2. it allows Dead Can Dance to cast off any assumptions you may have about their music or music in general. They are fully free here, each space feels new and undiscovered. You can see the lush fields you are marching through, the people in loose clothes dancing and drinking their way to enlightenment.  If you are looking for an album to take you on a journey than this certainly is the one. When you let yourself get lost, and fall into this record it's almost like you are transported to another world, but one that feels cosmically connected to our own. It's wild stuff and maybe this album was worth the six years it took to make.

8.3 out of 10