I want to join a Death Cult

I love just about everything The Cult has done (even the post Sonic Temple releases) but my true favorites are "Love" and the catalog preceding it: all the puffy shirt wearing, psychedelic, post-punk, jangly guitar stuff. Even more specifically I love the pre-Cult material, such as that which is contained in this compilation of re-released Death Cult material that came out in '96. This includes Death Cult's 1983 e.p. and Radio One sessions. Everything is spot on with this material: Ian Astbury's plaintive bellow, Billy Duffy's melodic/arpeggiated, chorused/delayed, riffery, Jamie Stewart's solid, locked in bass handling and the Burundi/tom heavy drum stylings of Ray Mondo and Nigel Preston. "God's Zoo" still gives me tingles when I hear it kick in!


Ghost Dance















And here is Ian's "positive punk" outfit whose namesake was eventually truncated. Astbury was the only member of this group to go on to the other incarnations of the Cult. Like the Death Cult re-release, this comp is comprised of the various e.p.s, radio, and alternative recordings the band left behind after their untimely disbanding. I enjoy this whole album, but the stand out songs are the first three, which comprise the band's only officially released studio recording, the Fatman/Moya/The Girl 12" e.p. The melancholy, and eerie distance exuded from these tracks sound like no other songs I have ever heard. Definitely three of my favorites songs ever.


Nagasaki's Crying Out