The Dead C – Unknowns

As I stare out of my window, through the bars, at a small red maple tree dancing in the wind and at the surrounding apartment building, I think about how fucked we as a species turned out to be due to our own sense of self and perception of time. Because we understand death, and we understand time, we made up the notion of the future, an endless source of anxiety and fear.

As I stare out of my window, through the bars, I see people run out of the apartment building, worried they’re gonna be late, the thing won’t be there, someone will judge them on the street, their loved ones will get sick and die, they won’t be good at their job. We worry because we know the future is there, and in the future something must happen, and when something happens it’s either good or bad, nothing just happens in a neutral way. So all our energy goes towards making sure or at least hoping that whatever happens in the future is good.

The Dead C clearly didn’t get the memo about the future thing. They’ve been sounding like a red maple tree in the wind for over 30 years now, committing to tape fleeting moments of absolutely timeless abandon. On Unknowns, their latest EP, they deliver five “short” pieces (compared to previous releases like Rare Ravers or Trouble) from the aggressive opener “Grunt Machine”, with its loud drums and wailing guitars, to numbers like “Glitterness”, on side B, sounding almost hopeful, to the menacing, dark atmosphere of “Still”, to the closing, dramatic “The Field”, which feels as if the needle was dragging through sludge.

What I like to do, with Dead C records, is play them super loud on my headphones and close my eyes. By doing this, I give up control of what’s happening, and they can take me wherever they’re going. Now, you could do this with any record, but not all of them will take you out of time and space like Unknowns, a record played by instinct and existing in the present alone.