10. Dead Can DanceThe Serpent’s Egg
I’ve always loved bands that create their own world, and this really did. It sounds like it’s not from the century it was recorded in, it sounds like this weird baroque music from somewhere else. And they really were from somewhere else, Australia, as far away as you could imagine on earth. This, again, really fits that remit of songs that sound like ceremonial magic. It’s got that kind of depth to it, and also a widescreen sound that could be amazing film music. It’s unsurprising that Lisa Gerrard went into Hollywood and worked with Morricone and did the Gladiator music. [The Serpent’s Egg] just sounds like an archetypal fantasy soundtrack, although the record’s got a lot more to it than just that.
It was on 4AD, so obviously you can tell it’s being done with exquisite taste. Particularly on one track which is called ‘Severance’. That’s one of my favourite songs of all time. I don’t know why. I think it’s just has an atmosphere, and you can’t really pin it down. It doesn’t sound like it’s from within a genre. It sounds like three or four different genres all at once where you recognise them, but you haven’t heard them before. It’s got a slight uneasiness to it, which I really like. It’s such a heavy and strong atmosphere within it that I didn’t get their other records. It fulfils all of 4AD for me.
