Death Before Dancing - Endtime

Genre electronica Publisher Db4D Records External Links Official Death Before Dancing Website

It is relatively safe to say that most music, whether classical, punk, jazz or electronic is born out of the artist's need to express his or her emotions in a creative manner. Death Before Dancing's Endtime is no exception. After separately having lived the lives of struggling artists in New York City, Christine and Johnny Christian found each other in early 2004 and made the decision to join together and turn their experiences into music.

The duo recorded the album's title track, "Endtime" on an analog drum machine and the project quickly took off. Not having enough on their plates with writing and recording a debut album, the Christians formed their own indie record label, Db4D Records. While it is easy to admire their tenacity and drive to get the album out, Endtime will truly appeal only to a small percentage of music listeners. It isn't an easy album to listen to and only serious fans of electroinica and industrial music are likely to enjoy Endtime.

The album begins with "Drama on TV," which, like most of the tracks consists mostly of Christine Christian doing little more than speaking the same phrase over a drum machine and synthesizers with Johnny occasionally chiming in. If you're looking for lyrical depth, this is not the song in which to find it. Occasionally Christine chants lines like, "Empty people all around making footprints on the ground" but the majority of the song is simply "The perfect drama's on TV/Please go watch it don't watch me" repeated ad nauseum.

The third track, "Dreamsequence" sounds virtually identical to "Drama on TV" as does "Mirror." Luckily, a few songs on the album show some creative experimentation beyond the formula they worked out for "Drama on TV." "Ghost" demonstrates Christine Christian is capable of doing more than simply chanting lyrics and the somewhat dreamy quality of her voice over the intense beats evokes some comparison to Bjork.

"Midnight Blue" also shows the Christians going beyond what seems to have become their comfort zone. The track may be considerably slower than most of the others on Endtime, but it actually turns out to be one of the best on the album. Unlike some of the other songs, the drum machines don't become completely overwhelming and the combination of Christine and Johnny Christian's vocals works well.

Credit is due to the Christians for their efforts, however, while it is admirable that the two wrote, recorded and produced their own album, some more outside input might have been valuable in the recording process.