Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts [Enhanced]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts is the second album from French electronica duo M83 (Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau) who, thankfully, derive their name from a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Hydra and not from an interminably lackluster stretch of noxious British motorway. The name certainly nods to where their wide-eyed, spaced-out technicolor imaginations are fixed, but they also know how to sound ponderously intense--hence the cold, cello-aided sonority of "Gone," possibly the only track on the album that defies the lambent warmth of the purring analog synths and beguiling reveries that make the rest of the album as enticingly therapeutic as a thermal spa.

Humane post-rock is clearly M83's strongest attribute because both "Run into Flowers" and "On a White Lake, Near a Green Mountain" are curiously pretty cameos, far removed from the automatic anemia of other workmanlike button-pushers. The high point, though, is the symphonic sweetness and motherly female choral vocals of "Beauties Can Die," which is rather like being cradled in the arms of an angel, or at the very least the arms of Sigur Ros and Lesley Garrett. If one really has to die and go to heaven, one rather hopes the journey up there will sound like this. --Kevin Maidment

Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts,M83,Mute U.S.,Ambient Pop,Electronic,Pop,Progressive Electronic,Rock

Tracks:

Birds
Unrecorded
Run Into Flower
In Church
America
On a White Lake, Near a Green Mountain
Noise
Be Wild
Cyborg
0078h
Gone
Beauties Can Die Bonus

Tracks:

Birds
Unrecorded
In Church (Cyann & Ben Version)
Gone (Live)
Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
Run Into Flowers (Video)
America (Video)

Amazon.com

Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts is the second album from French electronica duo M83 (Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau) who, thankfully, derive their name from a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Hydra and not from an interminably lackluster stretch of noxious British motorway. The name certainly nods to where their wide-eyed, spaced-out technicolor imaginations are fixed, but they also know how to sound ponderously intense--hence the cold, cello-aided sonority of "Gone," possibly the only track on the album that defies the lambent warmth of the purring analog synths and beguiling reveries that make the rest of the album as enticingly therapeutic as a thermal spa.

Customer Reviews:

worst dream/ambient pop ive ever heard..........2006-10-19

there's nothing pretty about any of these supposed shoegaze-esque cheeseball ballads. Sounds like jesus and marychain on a casio...go buy ulrich schnauss, at least he can write a melody instead of drone for an hour...kind of brings to mind metal-machine music, dont you think?

Wow!.......2006-10-08

M83 totally blows me away. It's really difficult to describe their music, but I'll take a stab it here. You might say that their music is "post-apocalyptic" - i.e. the kind of music one might expect to hear after the apocalypse, if that makes any sense. Many of their songs might be described as HUGE, with layer upon layer of really intense music. This is what I like to call headphone music. It's really not the kind of music to listen to casually in your car, but more like something you'd listen to while sitting on the floor in the dark or lying in bed wide awake at 3 AM. And it's not exactly easy music to listen to either. I've really never heard anything like this, and it demands your full attention if you really expect to "get it".

Musical Snowstorm.......2006-07-17

M83s chaotic and scratchy start soon blooms into hypnotic lyrics that suddenly end. The next track is somewhat hypnotic in its awakening and fuzzy and static in sleepy ways.

Electronic voices seem to be exploring the landscape without any direction, wandering like lost souls across a newly found bliss. If you like white noise, this may intrigue you. It feels like you are walking through a snowstorm of sound on the first CD.

The second CD seemed much more grounded and Tsuase was intriguing. Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts seems to be the creative high of the two albums and while there is a consistent humming, nature sounds explore the heights.

~The Rebecca Review

3 and a HALF stars.......2006-07-11

Wow. It seems as if you have to think this is a legendary album or you hate it with a passion. No median? Hey, this is a good CD. I was blown away a few times, I was dancing uncontrollably a few times. I am not going to rip this album apart just because it wasn't legendary. I cant listen to the entire CD and say this is the greatest thing I have ever heard. I can say, however, that its worth buying and my ears were satisfied. I would say listen to it for yourself and decide weather you like it. I dont think you will be let down.

buzz.......2006-05-31

i have no idea how to review an album or even critically write about a group but this band (or bloke) fills my head with sound! more than anything around today and competing with the old faves! i am listening to dead cities right now and it amazes me..

Average customer rating:

nothing special
Sonic Brilliance!!
Synthesizer "Loveless"
A do-it-yourself lobotomy kit.
A Truly Amazing Album

Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
M83
Manufacturer: EMI Int'l
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000AISL4
Release Date: 2003-09-29

Tracks:

Birds
Unrecorded
Run Into Flowers
In Church
America
On A White Lake, Near A Green Mountain
Noise
Be Wild
Cyborg
0078h
Gone
Beauties Can Die

Album Description

Full Title - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts. From electronica to ambient, M83's distinct sound is both modern & melodic. The group makes machines seem human by endowing them with a mysterious & innocent character, one that mirrors the personality of the band. The followup to their self-titled debut album, released in 2001. This new release features 12 tracks. Labels/Mute. 2003.

Album Details

From Electronica to Pop to Ambient, M83's Distinct Sound Emerged after Just One Album: Both Modern and Melancholic. The Group Make Machines Seem Human by Endowing them with a Mysterious and Innocent Character, One that Mirrors the Personality of the Two Band Members, Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau. "Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts" Possesses a More Assertive Sound, Going Beyond the Band's First Album. Anthony and Nicolas have Raised the Bar - Without Foregoing their Exceptional Sense of Melody Or Losing their Ability to Communicate Sound in a Fresh New Way - Generating Complexity by Alternating Slow Tracks and Faster Ones.

Customer Reviews:

nothing special.......2005-01-08

Listening to this CD reminds me of Darla's bliss out releases from the 1990's. In light of Windy and Carl, Transient Waves, Orange Cake Mix, (et al.), and even Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, I don't see the need to rave about this release.

It's okay background music if you've got a term paper to write.

Sonic Brilliance!!.......2004-10-10

Let me just say the sound samples available on amazon doesn't do this cd any justice you really have to hear how each track progresses to really appreciate the whole appeal of the music. If I was to describe their style simply think GYBE! that uses synths instead of guitars!! Lots of rantings and powerful cadences that makes it sound as if the world was ending right before your very ears!!

For me there are no standout tracks cause I love each and everyone of them. I would even categorize it as post punk in structure along with the likes of GYBE!, Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky but with a unique character.

Give it a try. If you like it, then this will probably become one of your all time favs.

Synthesizer "Loveless".......2004-06-23

Doing for synths what MBV did for guitars, French duo M83 have created an intensely beautiful wall of sound that is sometimes so dense as to be overwhelming. Named after a gorgeous spiral galaxy in the Andromeda Strain (and not after a noxious British freeway), the music is appropriate to their moniker: it is a swirling mass of thick sound alive with mystery and beauty. The songs melt together into a glacier destroying everything in sight, but they maintain individual entities, and for every massive moment like "In Church" or "Cyborg" there are moments of fleeting fragilty like "Beauties Can Die", a fourteen minute treasure that spends most of its time in reverent silence.
Because of its import status, this wasn't in consideration for many top ten lists from 2003, which is a shame: in hindsight, it was a rather weak year for music, and this album is head and shoulders above other releases from those twelve months - even if it was only in Europe. Get it today! It is well worth the money, especially if you find it for cheaper.

A do-it-yourself lobotomy kit........2004-02-20

Layers of sustained synth notes moving slowly through progressions that are alternately cliched and uninspired. Endless minor progressions meant to evoke feeling.

Insipid crud for the microcephalic set.

A Truly Amazing Album.......2004-02-13

This stuff is great, it doesn't sound quite like anything else. It has aspects of other music. The analogue synths of Kid A, the gradeur of Mogwai, the electronic feel of Autechre, yet it sounds nothing like any of the aforementioned groups. This is without a doubt one of my top five albums of the past year.

Average customer rating:

Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
M83
Manufacturer: EMI
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Electronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | New Age | Styles | Music

Ambient Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Electronic | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B0001CVD4Y
Release Date: 2004-02-09

Tracks:

Birds
Unrecorded
Run Into Flowers
In Church
America
On a White Lake, Near a Green Mountain
Noise
Be Wild
Cyborg
0078h
Gone
Beauties Can Die

Tracks:

Run Into Flowers [Abstrackt Keal Agram Remix][*]
Run Into Flowers [Midnight Fuck Remix][*]
In Church [Cyann & Ben Version][*]
Run Into Flowers [Ig Farben Vorschlag][*]

Average customer rating:

calm down
Electronic waves of wall-of-noise beauty
Pitchforkmedia Review; 9.2 out of 10.0 . Amazing...

Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
M83
Manufacturer: Virgin
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | New Age | Styles | Music

Electronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Ambient Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Electronic | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00008NF70
Release Date: 2003-04-15

Tracks:

Birds
Unrecorded
Run Into Flowers
In Church
America
On A White Lake, Near A Green Mountain
Noise
Be Wild
Cyborg
0078h
Gone
Beauties Can Die

Tracks:

Tsubasa
God Of Thunder
In Church (Cyan & Ben Version)
Gone (Live)
Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts

Customer Reviews:

calm down.......2003-06-19

I think the previous reviewer meant "inhabit" instead of "inhibit". You inhabit this album, not inhibit it... but then are you going to listen to someone who just spews pitchfork left and right anyway? Choose for yourself, people.

Electronic waves of wall-of-noise beauty.......2003-06-07

There are few albums over the course of a year that I will listen to that completely envelop me on first listen. "Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts" is that kind of album. It's dark, optimistic, intense, warm and soothing at the same time. It does use elements of Shoegazing, but not to the point where it seems derivative. I'd recommend this for fans of: Sigur Ros, gy!be, Postal Service, Air, Boards of Canada, Mum and yes, the sounds of Shoegazers.

Pitchforkmedia Review; 9.2 out of 10.0 . Amazing..........2003-05-20

Sometimes, I think it can't be a matter of simple coincidence that sound, when rendered visually, often appears as ever-changing green fluctuations stretched over an infinite black void. The power of music to seemingly construct, alter and distort space can be staggering and, when expertly manipulated, absolutely awe-inspiring.

Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, the second album from electronic duo M83, is such an album-- and one that, with any luck, will win them widespread recognition outside their native France. Simply put, this album sounds absolutely huge, its relentless attention to detail eclipsed only by the stunning emotional power it conveys. For fifty-seven glorious minutes, an impossibly intricate tapestry of buzzing techno synthesizers, distorted electric guitars, cheesy drum machines, and subdued vocals generate a sense of bodily movement through a landscape of beauty, disappointment, glory, and decrepitude. Dead Cities is an album that not only envelops you, but affords you room to explore its vast expanses of beautifully constructed sound.

The most immediately noticeable thing about Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts is how different M83's palette of sounds is from the ones usually used to create music possessing this much beauty and depth. Countless musicians have humanized electronic sounds by generating tones that are warm or organic, but M83 have chosen a more challenging route, conveying warmth and beauty through that familiar filtered buzz of hackneyed synthesizers usually found in techno and dance tracks. Simply put, the sounds that have constituted some of the most vapid, hedonistic, and forgettable music of our time have come back to make us cry.

M83 open their album with one of their most striking misappropriations of trite instrumentation. In "Birds", a tinny sample of chirping birds is combined with swells of synth strings and a computerized voice repeating, "Sun is shining, birds are singing, flowers are glowing, clouds are looming and I am flying." In another context, this combination might have been disastrous, but M83 manage to turn it into something surprisingly powerful. The computerized voice is run through an odd, wavering melodic filter that affords it just the right degree of harmonic dissonance with the synth strings, and takes on a decidedly unsettling feel, turning it into a mantra-like invocation of the unsteady world you're about to enter.

Once inside, you're exposed to a landscape of such depth and complexity that it often seems infinite. Rather than just ending, sounds and songs disappear off into the horizon, always bringing the promise of something familiar but unforeseen to follow. "Unrecorded", the first full-fledged song on Dead Cities, makes clear why M83 have drawn so many My Bloody Valentine comparisons. Building upon a foundation of fuzzed-out guitar, rich bass, synth strings, and a drum machine that sounds surprisingly like the acoustic drums of Loveless, M83 layer burbling techno synthesizers into complex rhythmic intersections, as the song's vast backdrop slowly fades away. Just like My Bloody Valentine and their ilk turned fuzzy, distorted electric guitars into something divine and volatile, M83 recast harsh sawtooth waves as voices of reflection and regret. In "Run into Flowers", almost-real strings and whispered vocals are juxtaposed with overdriven drum machine clicks, as an insistent 4/4 beat carries you through images of lush fields, abandoned factories and polluted rivers.

This kind of juxtaposition factors heavily into "In Church", as a clear pipe organ and an angelic, reverb-laden chorus are assaulted by blasts of white noise. Finally, a wrenching, synthesized melody enters, providing a profoundly moving counterpoint to the sterile beauty that preceded it. By the time you get to "0078h", it's impossible to tell whether the heavily altered vocals are of human or computerized origin, and it's also completely ceased to matter. Oftentimes, the most organic sounds on Dead Cities are the most formless, and the most glaringly synthetic sounds the most emotional.

Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts ends fittingly with the 14-minute epic "Beauties Can Die", which recalls at first the melodic, pastoral electronica of Mum's Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Is Okay. This peaceful opening is soon completely overtaken by a sound that gradually transforms from a low, earthquake-like rumble into a blast of synthesized static. Synthesizers and harmony vocals are layered and layered until the sound is so explosively, beautifully gigantic that you won't mind it's damaging your hearing. The earthquake rumble returns, each time ushering in even more layers of ungodly gorgeous sound, and each time evoking a stomach-turning combination of fear and excitement. At the crash of a synthesized cymbal, the song descends into submerged ambience, and ultimately into a long silence, before resurfacing with distorted radar blips and terrifying shrieks of howling noise.

As "Beauties Can Die" fades, you're left with the feeling that you've just returned from a journey-- that the images passing through your mind for the last hour couldn't possibly have been the result of mere imagination. An album like this extends far beyond your speakers, guiding you through an impossibly rich, detailed world of sound while also giving you room to explore it yourself; you don't listen to Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, you inhabit it.

-Matt LeMay, May 12th, 2003

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