The Dead C's Clyma est mort (1993) is the record of a live gig for one person. Tom Lax was running the Siltbreeze label in Philadelphia and had come to New Zealand to meet the artists he was releasing. He heard The Dead C at their noisy, improvised best, turning rock music on its head with a free-form style of blaring, loosely organised sound. Leading a second wave of music from Dunedin, New Zealand, The Dead C were an assault against the kind of jangly pop that had made the Dunedin Sound famous during the 1980s. This book uses The Dead C and in particular their album Clyma est mort (1993) to offer insights into the way the best of rock music plays vertigo with our senses, illustrating a sonic picture of freedom and energy. It places the album into the history of independent music in New Zealand, and into an international context of independent labels posting, faxing and phoning each other.

Discusses improvised rock and DIY labels stretching from Dunedin, the tiny centre of New Zealand pop and rock, to Europe and the US through The Dead C's Clyma est mort album.

About the Author
Darren Jorgensen is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Western Australia. He is the co-author of Wanarn Painters of Place and Time (2015), co-editor of Indigenous Archives (2017), and editor of Bush Women (2018).


Book Information
ISBN 9781501386961
Author Darren Jorgensen
Format Paperback
Page Count 144
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic USA
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc