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Last Active 12-23-19 9:27 pm
Joined 09-16-14
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| THE DANSE SOCIETY: Don't you forget us #14
Fourteenth instalment in my forgotten/dismissed/underappreciated Post-Punk bands list series: Actually, you can go ahead and forget this band. It needs to be said right away. I don't like Danse Society. None of their albums are anywhere close to my secondary choice of listening for any moment. What they did, a horde of others did better. But they acquired quite a cult following over the years, so... | | 9 |  | The Danse Society
Change of Skin
Needless to say, Danse Society's grand comeback came unnoticed, apart from a few sources pointing out an unexpected change of lead vocalist from male to female. Oh also, they're a gloomy electrogoth outfit now.......... .... ... ... ... yeah... ... I, I really don't have anything more to say.
Go-to tracks: hahahha, no | | 8 |  | The Danse Society
VI
The band's latest (official) release is hardly of any essence to your listening experience. In spite of the fact that by this point the band finally learnt how to organise album releases in the modern age, the album was met with hardly any reception. And besides the obvious explanation that it comes from a decades long forgotten goth band in 2016, the reason for the lacking interest might also be in the album's equally lacking quality. The song-writing somehow dimmed down to absolutely banal, while every instrumental aspect seems to have been stripped of any potential to be kicking to any possible extent. It is just absolutely flat all throughout and even when it does strike with emotion, the production is sure to drown any possible enjoyability.
Go-to tracks: Bloodstream, Karma Machine | | 7 |  | The Danse Society
Looking Through
The last album before their disbanding (until their rebanding) is rather a disappointing release. It was during its time and it still is. Not that it'd be offensively bad, but there just isn't all that much to it to really write home about. The album just sort of goes by and exists and you kind of just forget about it after listening. But its pleasant merit it does hold, even if ever so minimal and brief. It was the band's final giving up to the attempt to become commercial-friendly, which did not happen. At that hurts a little.
Go-to tracks: Institution, Looking Through, Midnight Land | | 6 |  | The Danse Society
Demos Vol. 1
A collection of serviceable demos from their 80s work, but to judge it as something outstanding would be quite difficult. As it were, the songs changed ever so slightly from their final version, apart from a certain graininess only the demos contain.
Go-to tracks: just look at the go-to tracks of other releases | | 5 |  | The Danse Society
Heaven Is Waiting
One of the few actual successes the band saw in their day. By this point all the 'atmosphere first' rhetoric had already disappeared from their work. Seduction's subtle charms have withered out and the band fell into the clutches of the trendy at the time goth eyelinerwear. The arrangement got richer and the lyrics more suggestive (somehow), while the overall ethos suffered a slight tad, while the song-writing, already not the strongest link in the band's repertoire, plummeted even lower. Still, a success is a success.
Go-to tracks: Come Inside, Red Light (Shine), The Hurt, Valiant to Vile | | 4 |  | The Danse Society
Reincarnated
In tune with their tendency to fail to promote their work in any way, this album I am not even sure is actually from them. There is absolutely nothing around the net that indicates it being so, outside of a few mentions here and there. VI was advertised at least with a formal announcement, this just popped up somewhere at some point. Okay fine, it's not an actual album, but a mere compilation of greatest hits and unreleased tracks, it still holds up far better than their simultaneously released full album. Among others, it also contains reworked versions of their 2010-onward songs, now with a much more depth and character (and it only took a change of vocalist to do that).
Go-to tracks: just look at the go-to tracks of other releases, as well as this album's versions of: Message in the Wind, Come Inside | | 3 |  | The Danse Society
Scarey Tales
One of the few (possibly the only) times the band has sounded in its strength after the rebanding and change of the vocalist. Not that Scarey Tales is in any way a triumphant return, moreover that there isn't exactly much of anything to return to, but it is a much more solid release than its release contemporaries. Even though the band still failed to recapture the essence of the 80s goth rock they sought after, this release's song-writing and execution felt miles less awkward and cringeworthy. That, however, still does not mean it is a faultless album.
Go-to tracks: Message in the Wind, The Tale, The Wolf | | 2 |  | The Danse Society
There Is No Shame In Death
First off, the EP's opener is 12 minutes long... yeah. Indeed, this was The Danse Society at their most experimental. They were young and foolish and didn't know where to go with their music quite just yet. They had ambitions, as this EP makes clear, but they also had that artistic overdose in them, where they felt the necessity to make sonically shrilling and sharp overlong odes to despair.
Go-to tracks: There Is No Shame in Death, These Frayed Edges | | 1 |  | The Danse Society
Seduction
Yeah, it's that one album people remember. Somehow even in the world of samey goth rock bands, The Danse Society managed to create something of their own. Not that Seduction is a pinnacle of originality, but it does contain a strong... dense... atmosphere that doesn'T necessarily rely on song-writing and melodywork, but rather on the vibe and conceptual feeling of the whole experience. It might drag on a little, but it also charms its way into your psyche, what with its winding runes and haunting aesthetics.
Go-to tracks: These Frayed Edges, Woman's Own, Belief, Ambition, Somewhere | |
Papa Universe
03.29.18 | i do not control the rule of randomness generator, whichever band it chooses, i cover. next band is actually going to be good, okay?
Beginner's guide:
Belief
Ambition
Institution
Red Light (Shine)
Message in the Wind (Reincarnated version)
The Tale
The Hurt | butcherboy
03.29.18 | yep, this band sucks.. | Papa Universe
03.29.18 | damn you, Wheel Decide | DoofusWainwright
03.29.18 | Another band I've never heard of, where do you find them? | Papa Universe
03.29.18 | in my memory, mostly... sometimes online | SandwichBubble
03.29.18 | Don't talk shit about 1 please, thanks | CompostCompote
03.29.18 | 1 is a big pile of number 2. | Papa Universe
03.29.18 | Sandwich, I didn't talk shit about 1... well, maybe a little bit. | bgillesp
03.29.18 | You don't even like this band | Papa Universe
03.29.18 | nah | Papa Universe
03.29.18 | blame the slower schmucks | Papa Universe
03.29.18 | aight, lads then
and these guys don't. check the other lists in the series for better picks | neekafat
03.30.18 | Why do you do this to yourself | Papa Universe
03.30.18 | I like post-punk... and I always hope that the stuff I heard once or twice to about 20 years ago still holds up. | SandwichBubble
03.30.18 | I need to know if 9 really is a 1.0 | Papa Universe
03.30.18 | 1.0 or not, it definitely is 9 | SandwichBubble
03.30.18 | Ringing endorsement if I've ever heard one, might check if I'm in a self-hurting mood |
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