Album: Blast the Human FlowerAvg rating:
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Total ratings: 70
Length: 4:12
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This one of her attempts to produce something more palatable to the masses, probably under pressure from the label. Her earlier material is full of invention, quirkiness, emotion, drive, and originality. Worth giving it a try.
No sir! Stay away from Pandora, that is just one big box of trouble!A review of Dark Adapted Eye
| Review | by Ned Raggett |
While Dark Adapted Eye is really just an expanded edition of Inky Bloaters for the American market - minus one track from the original but with a slew of other cuts from other sources - it does give the best possible case around for Danielle Dax' sometimes harrowing, often surprising art. The emphasis is certainly on her later stabs at commercial possibilities, which she has just as much of a knack and sense for as she does for heavy-duty experimentalism. A dominant influence on her work in this more mainstream vein is an interesting one; Marc Bolan whose cryptic lyrics and ear for a fuzz guitar hook inform some of the best moments here. Certainly "Big Hollow Man" is as excellent a revamp and updating of the classic T. Rex acoustic/electric boogie as many, but Dax makes her own stamp quite clear, ripping into the materialistic creep of the title with a snarl. The new cuts specifically done for the collection similarly work with such an addictive and attractive combination. "Cat-House" is a wonderfully sly - in many senses of the word - raucous opening number for the collection, while "White Knuckle Ride" lives up to its name. The absolute winner of the new cuts, though, is "Whistling for His Love," one of Dax' most straightforward numbers, and one of her most attractive, a good dance groove with a fine melody, great harmony singing from Dax and concluding sitar. David Knight makes for a fantastic collaborator; while he and Dax perform just about everything one way or another, making it impossible to immediately judge who is playing what, there's no question that what they come up with is winning throughout. The inclusion of other rarities like "Touch Piggy's Eyes" helps make Dark Adapted Eye a fantastic starting place for Dax newcomers. | |
The voice is very similar.
when I think of you,
...couldn't get much higher?
...heart on fire?
How is this not pop, exactly? Too *many* cliches?
Yes, oh yes! "Echo Beach, somewhere in time..."
Well, here's DD:
To quote Groucho Marx: "I'll say she is!"
Don't be ridiculous. Nobody is as hot as Justine Frischmann. ;)
Well, here's DD:
rpfan wrote:
Not bad for cleansing the pallete of some of those heavy, serious songs. I couldn't stand a whole album of it, though.
A review of Dark Adapted Eye
| Review | by Ned Raggett |
While Dark Adapted Eye is really just an expanded edition of Inky Bloaters for the American market - minus one track from the original but with a slew of other cuts from other sources - it does give the best possible case around for Danielle Dax' sometimes harrowing, often surprising art. The emphasis is certainly on her later stabs at commercial possibilities, which she has just as much of a knack and sense for as she does for heavy-duty experimentalism. A dominant influence on her work in this more mainstream vein is an interesting one; Marc Bolan whose cryptic lyrics and ear for a fuzz guitar hook inform some of the best moments here. Certainly "Big Hollow Man" is as excellent a revamp and updating of the classic T. Rex acoustic/electric boogie as many, but Dax makes her own stamp quite clear, ripping into the materialistic creep of the title with a snarl. The new cuts specifically done for the collection similarly work with such an addictive and attractive combination. "Cat-House" is a wonderfully sly - in many senses of the word - raucous opening number for the collection, while "White Knuckle Ride" lives up to its name. The absolute winner of the new cuts, though, is "Whistling for His Love," one of Dax' most straightforward numbers, and one of her most attractive, a good dance groove with a fine melody, great harmony singing from Dax and concluding sitar. David Knight makes for a fantastic collaborator; while he and Dax perform just about everything one way or another, making it impossible to immediately judge who is playing what, there's no question that what they come up with is winning throughout. The inclusion of other rarities like "Touch Piggy's Eyes" helps make Dark Adapted Eye a fantastic starting place for Dax newcomers. | |
A performer whose enigmatic and experimental work reflected the strong influence of Biblical mysticism and Middle Eastern musical textures, Danielle Dax was born in Southend, England. She made her musical debut in 1979 as the keyboardist in the seven-piece Amy Turtle and the Crossroads; the group disbanded after only one performance, but it brought Dax - who took to the stage clad in nothing more than a knit cap and lab coat - to the attention of Karl Blake, who asked her to design the cover for an EP by his Surrey University-based band the Lemon Kittens. Within a week, Dax was a full member of the group; neither she nor Blake actually played music, but they managed to release two highly experimental LPs, 1980's We Buy a Hammer for Daddy and 1982's The Big Dentist, while also establishing a reputation for their notorious live sets, in which they frequently performed sans clothes.
Upon the Lemon Kittens's 1982 split, Blake formed the Shock-Headed Peters, while Dax mounted a solo career. She debuted a year later with Pop-Eyes, a true solo effort for which she wrote and performed every song alone, even handling mixing and production duties and distributing the record through her own Awesome label. While her heavy makeup and colossal hair aligned her with the thriving "Batcave" scene, she steadfastly avoided easy pigeonholing, even making the leap into film with appearance's in Neil Jordan's adult fable The Company of Wolves; she also appeared in Chimera, a film by Holly Woodlawn, the photographer whose work adorned many of Dax's record covers. After reuniting with Karl Blake, Dax returned in 1984 with the Jesus Egg That Wept EP, which also featured the first appearance of guitarist/keyboardist David Knight, who subsequently became a frequent collaborator.
After recruiting a live band, Dax emerged as a significant concert draw; a series of singles including 1985's "Yummer Yummer Man," 1986's "Where the Flies Are," 1988's "Cat-House" and 1989's "White Knuckle Ride" - each slightly more commercial than the last - also established her as a force on the independent charts, and after the success of 1987's Inky Bloaters LP, she signed to Sire. After 1988's Dark Adapted Eye, a compilation of previous work, she resurfaced in 1990 with Blast the Human Flower, an attempt at mainstream success heralded by a misguided cover of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." When the record bombed, Dax and Sire went their separate ways, and she spent the next several years in seclusion, returning only in 1995 with a new label, Biter of Thorpe, and a new EP, Timber Tongue.
Yes. The same