Video of the week: death in vegas – ‘scorpio rising’ July 2, 2018 Less a band and more a melting pot of styles, genres and moods, Death In Vegas could only have come from DJ culture.
Background information | |
---|---|
Origin | London, England, United Kingdom |
Genres | Electronica, neo-psychedelia, shoegaze |
Years active | 1994–present |
Members | Richard Fearless |
Past members | Tim Holmes Steve Hellier Dominic Keane Ian Button Simon Hanson Moses Kirkland Terry Miles Danny Hammond Mat Flint Seamus Beaghen Dave Neale |
Death in Vegas are an English electronic music group, for which Richard Fearless serves as frontman.[1] Influenced by a wide range of musical genres including psychedelic rock, electronica, krautrock, dub and industrial, the band's sound is constantly changing, moving between live rock sounds, electronica and minimal techno. The band was formed in 1994 by Fearless and Steve Hellier and signed to Concrete Records under the name of Dead Elvis. Owing to an Irish record label of the same name, Dead Elvis became the title of their first album instead.
- 1History
- 2Members
- 3Discography
History[edit]
Dead Elvis[edit]
The band's debut Dead Elvis (1997), used a blend of musical genres. Most of the tracks are mainly based in electronica. Shortly after the release of the album, Hellier left the band and was replaced by Tim Holmes, who had already been involved with mixing and engineering tracks on the album.[1]
The Contino Sessions[edit]
The band's second album, The Contino Sessions (1999), marked a slight change in direction with more attention to live instrumentation than their first and the inclusion of guest vocalists (including Dot Allison, Bobby Gillespie, Iggy Pop, and Jim Reid).[1] Although predominantly rock-influenced, the album still retained some electronic elements, in particular the opening track 'Dirge' with its drum machine-based rhythm track. 'Dirge' was featured on a Levi's jeans commercial, as well as the second instalment of The Blair Witch Project, and was used in the trailer for the 2006 film The Black Dahlia. The song was also used in the trailer for the 2013 film Cheap Thrills; at the end of the 2009 remake of The Last House on the Left; near the end of the Being Human episode 'The Longest Day'; and in the second episode of season two of Misfits. Along with 'Aisha' (with vocals from Iggy Pop), 'Dirge' helped the band gain more recognition, culminating in a Mercury Music Prize nomination in 2000. 'Dirge' was the subject of a lawsuit by the band Five or Six, as it borrowed extensively from their song 'Another Reason'. The matter was settled with Five or Six receiving a writing credit. 'Aisha' was a top 10 hit in the UK and also featured in the PlayStation 2 title Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec.[2]
Scorpio Rising[edit]
In September 2002, the band released their third album, Scorpio Rising, after almost a three-year gap. During their time off, the band had toured and briefly returned to their techno roots with the track 'Scorpio', which, although not appearing on any album, was included as the B-side of 'Hands Around My Throat', the first single from Scorpio Rising. Scorpio Rising takes its name from the cult avant-garde film of the same name by Kenneth Anger. The lyrics of the title track (featuring vocals from Liam Gallagher) reflected the controversial nature of Anger's film. It also borrowed extensively from Status Quo's 'Pictures of Matchstick Men'. The matter was settled once again with Francis Rossi receiving a writing credit. It also continued to attract attention from advertisers and filmmakers with 'Hands Around My Throat' being used in a Sony Ericsson advert and appearing on the soundtrack to The Animatrix, while the track 'Girls' was used on the soundtracks to Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation and Angela Robinson's D.E.B.S.,[3] as well as in an episode of the TV show Veronica Mars and a commercial for BBC's most recent production of Sense and Sensibility. This was their last studio album for Concrete Records. Concrete released a best-of album, entitled Milk It, in 2004.
Satan's Circus[edit]
Death in Vegas set up their own label, Drone Records,[4] and released their fourth album, Satan's Circus, in 2004.
The melody of Kraftwerk's 'Trans-Europe Express' is featured in the track 'Zugaga'. Unlike the previous two albums, Satan's Circus did not feature any guest vocalists. The album was also released as a limited edition double pack including a live CD, recorded on the Scorpio Rising tour at the Brixton Academy, London.
Trans-Love Energies[edit]
The band released their fifth studio album, Trans-Love Energies, on 26 September 2011 in the UK. The album featured vocals by Katie Stelmanis of Austra and Richard Fearless.
Transmission[edit]
Death in Vegas' sixth studio album was released on 27 May 2016 on Fearless' 'Drone' record label,[4] featuring vocals by writer and sex symbol Sasha Grey. The former Throbbing Gristle members Chris & Cosey remixed Consequences of love—a Transmission song performed and composed by Grey and Fearless—and in 2017 Michael Mayer adapted the Chris & Cosey remix in his DJ-Kicks album.[5][6]Vice described Transmission as an 'EBM-inspired romp through the darker edges of the sleazier clubs in the nightlife spectrum'.[7] In a cameo appearance DJ Harvey plays Consequences of love in the rave party at the Grand Palais scene of Mission: Impossible – Fallout.[8]
Members[edit]
Current members[edit]
- Richard Fearless - producer, writer, electronics (1994–present)
Former members[edit]
- Tim Holmes - co-production, engineering, mixing (1996-2004)
- Steve Helier - co-production, engineering, mixing (1994-1999)
- Ian Button - guitar (1996-2011)
- Terry Miles - keyboards (2002-2004)
- Danny Hammond - guitar (2002-2004)
- Seamus Beaghen - keyboards (1996-2002)
- Mat Flint - bass (1996-2005, 2011)
- Dave Neale - drums (2011)
- Dominic Keane - bass (2011)
- Simon Hanson (Squeeze, Planet Funk) - drums (1998-2004)
Discography[edit]
![Scorpio rising death in vegas rar rods 2016 Scorpio rising death in vegas rar rods 2016](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126288059/305420999.jpg)
Studio albums[edit]
Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK [9] | FRA [10] | NOR [11] | |||||
1997 | Dead Elvis
| 52 | -- | -- | |||
1999 | The Contino Sessions
| 19 | 72 | 39 | |||
2002 | Scorpio Rising
| 19 | 22 | 22 | |||
2004 | Satan's Circus
| 117 | 79 | -- | |||
2011 | Trans-Love Energies
| 57 | 141 | -- | |||
2016 | Transmission
| -- | -- | -- |
Compilation albums[edit]
- Back to Mine Vol. 16 (January 2004) as part of the Back to Mine series.
- Milk It: The Best of Death in Vegas (February 2005)
- FabricLive.23 (August 2005)
- The Best of Death in Vegas (October 2007)
Singles[edit]
Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK [12] | ITA [13] | ||||||
1996 | 'Dirt' | 79 | -- | Dead Elvis | |||
'Rocco' | 84 | -- | |||||
1997 | 'Rekkit' | 91 | -- | ||||
'Twist And Crawl' | 81 | -- | |||||
'Dirt (Slayer mix)' | 61 | -- | |||||
'Rocco' (reissue) | 51 | -- | |||||
1999 | 'Dirge' (feat. Dot Allison) | 135 | -- | The Contino Sessions | |||
'Neptune City' | -- | -- | |||||
2000 | 'Aisha' (feat. Iggy Pop) | 9 | -- | ||||
'Dirge (Slam mix)' (feat. Dot Allison) | 24 | -- | |||||
'One More Time' (feat. Bobby Gillespie) | 163 | -- | non-album single | ||||
2002 | 'Hands Around My Throat' (feat. Nicola Kuperus) | 36 | -- | Scorpio Rising | |||
'Scorpio Rising' (with Liam Gallagher) | 14 | 30 | |||||
2016 | 'You Disco I Freak' (feat. Sasha Grey) | -- | -- | Transmission | |||
2018 | 'Honey' (feat. Sasha Grey)[14] | -- | -- | non-album single | |||
'—' denotes releases that did not chart or were not released. |
References[edit]
- ^ abcStrong, Martin C. (2000). The Great Rock Discography (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. p. 250. ISBN1-84195-017-3.
- ^Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 146. ISBN1-904994-10-5.
- ^'MusicBrainz D.E.B.S. soundtrack page'. Musicbrainz.org. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
- ^ abcDrone, indie label founded 2004 in the UK.
- ^Sherburne, Philip (19 May 2017). 'Michael Mayer DJ-Kicks'. Pitchfork. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
- ^Simpson, Paul (2017). 'Michael Mayer DJ-Kicks'. AllMusic. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
- ^Baines, Josh (22 August 2016). 'Chris & Cosey Remixed Death in Vegas so We Got Death in Vegas to Pick Their Favourite Chris & Cosey Records'. Vice. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
- ^Balfe, Lorne (27 July 2018). 'Mission Impossible: Fallout Soundtrack'. what-song.com. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
- ^'The Official Charts Company - Death in Vegas'. The Official Charts Company. 5 May 2013.
- ^Steffen Hung. 'Les charts français'. lescharts.com. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
- ^Steffen Hung. 'Norwegian charts portal'. norwegiancharts.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2012-10-05.
- ^'Death In Vegas - UK Chart'. The Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
- ^'Death In Vegas - Italian Chart'. italiancharts.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
- ^Barnabe, Dylan (12 June 2018). 'Death in Vegas 'Honey''. Exclaim!. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
External links[edit]
- Death in Vegas on IMDb
- Death in Vegas discography at Discogs
- Drone Records discography at Discogs
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Death_in_Vegas&oldid=932078222'
Extended lengths of time between creative periods tend to go one of two ways. Sometimes they allow the artist time to breathe, to take on new perspectives and gain new experiences: and fans of Kate Bush and Gil Scott Heron will rightly tell you that this allow the artist to return stronger than ever; that the artist has never sounded so inspired, so fresh and so creative. On the other hand there are the likes of Guns‘N Roses or author George R.R. Martin, whose fallow periods left them creatively bereft and stale, often with a vast mess of impenetrable ideas: talking a lot but not saying anything, as Talking Heads might put it.
Trans Love Energies, the new album from Death in Vegas, errs towards if not falls firmly into the former category. In many ways it is a throwback to a time even before their third record, 2002’s Scorpio Rising. Songs on that album such as title track ‘Scorpio Rising’ or the mesmerising ‘Girls’ (used to such perfect effect in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation) arguably sound more contemporary in 2011 than many of the spacey, breathy computer sounds on this latest offering. Trans-Love Energies lead single ‘Your Loft, My Acid’, for example, is reminiscent of the early Nineties dance tracks that partly inspired Radiohead on OK Computer; it is telling that the computer noises on that great album are the most dated sounded thing about it, and there was probably little need for producer/songwriter/frontman Richard Fearless to emulate them here.
ZX Spectrum issues aside, Trans-Love Energies is a quite wonderful album. With guest vocalist Kate Stelmanis in tow, the band explores a veritable smorgasbord of genres, underpinning each with their signature brand of darkly tinged electronica. Opening track ‘Silver Time Machine’ is a shadowy, swirling track that beautifully juxtaposes classical acoustic guitars with the noise of what sounds like howling space winds hurtling across a desolate moonscape (if, like me, this puts images of the film Armageddon in your head I apologise profusely). ‘Medication’ and ‘Coum’, on the other hand, show Death in Vegas at their funkiest, with the contrasting combination of a chugging underpinning beat, proggy keys and drugged-up vocals echoing early TV on the Radio. These two tracks, building on each other, nicely precede the second half of the album’s change of direction, with ‘Witch Dance’ signalling a switch to a busier, more dramatic soundscape.
The album’s high point however is second track ‘Black Hole’. Segueing seamlessly from ‘Silver Time Machine’, the introduction of distorted My Bloody Valentine-esque guitars and a pained, nasal vocal that impressively doesn’t even begin to grate give the track a kind of subdued urgency. It’s a heavy rock track played underwater, worlds removed from the songs either side of it and yet not sounding a note out of place.
Often in the world of electronic music there is desperation to create a wall of sound, cramming in a huge number of beats and loops to help songs surge and elate a crowded Shoreditch/Brooklyn nightclub. It’s a sound that is hard to get right, as by nature it leads to songs and albums sounding turgid. With Trans Love Energies, Death in Vegas do well to avoid such pitfalls, instead creating an album that is musically and thematically filled with space, both roomy and outer. Ironically it is also an album that Fearless allows to breathe, leaving gaps in the music for his ethereal noises to grow into. It’s a nice touch, and again a throwback to an unfashionable era for electronica, but one that allows them to create a strange kind of beauty out of their trademark darkness.
- Dan Lucas's Score