Dead Voices On Air - From Labrador to Madagascar Review
by Scott Frazier
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"From Labrador to Madagascar" is a disc of strange, ambient, and alien sounds crafted by Canada's Dead Voices on Air, the musical alias of Mark Spybey who has collaborated with members of Throbbing Gristle and the Legendary Pink Dots. Dead Voices on Air has been crafting this sound of droning electric storms for 14 years now, and over "Madagascar's" 50+ minutes that experience becomes very apparent. From the opening seconds of "Tongue like Scree" through the visceral last moments of "Sissili Mandjao", Spybey draws sounds out of a void. Beats and rhythms are created, deconstructed, and destroyed. "Splay" begins with a pulse like bass drum which slowly descends into a swell of choir vocals. Each song moves so minimally and naturally that it takes total awareness just to realize where the song is taking you. It's very rare to hear music that is as restrained as Dead Voices on Air, but it's almost impossible to find music that can fit power, dynamism, and on "Halv" even menace into their restraint. As "Madagascar" boils over and sends the debris of sounds in every direction the beautiful moments and all of the disorder start to seem very similar. This record may very well change the way you look at music. No melodies and no hooks, "From Labrador to Madagascar" is an album that demands the listener's full attention, and it deserves it too.
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Dead Voices On Air - From Labrador to Madagascar Label:Invisible Records
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