DEAD SKELETONS

Dead Skeletons are an Icelandic psychedelic band and yet another great band that can be credited to my girlfriend's discovery! At first i wasn't sure what to make of them as modern psychedelic music or "Psych" as I like to call it tends to be about loud overdriven guitars wah wah insanity and effects galore however Dead Skeletons have taken a different path with psychedelia whilst still quite "trippy" their psychedelia tends to look to the East for their influence and have a groovy kinda mantra-like approach both musically and lyrically!

It's hard to describe these guys really they have a real rhythmic drive to their sound with plenty of great keyboard swooping and effected guitar creating a kinda spacey sound but not so out there or difficult to listen to that only the stoned-out-of-their-heads can get into it! the vocals tend to go from the sparse to a type of mantra like chanting (there are many references to a Buddhist influence with tack titles like "Dead Mantra" and "Om Mani Peme Hung") and have been bolstered by a good chunk of reverb which adds to the effect of the music well.

Last year my girlfriend and I were bemoaning the fact that although we had seen MANY great bands that Dead Skeletons along with another Chilean Psychedelic band called Föllakzoid (See Post HERE) had not been on the bill for the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia in September 2013 then lo and behold in November both bands played together at a LFOP promoted event in our favorite local venue The Kazimier and both bands played a blinding show but to give you an idea of the kind of thing Dead Skeletons do here's a few of my pics...

In the top pic you will see a table they set up at the beginning of the show this is filled with all manor of Buddhist and religious icons and upon which huge amounts of incense is lit as the band warm up also during the warm up vocalist Nonni Dead paints a skeleton picture (2nd pic) each one is individual to the venue they play at, the one pictured was done at the Liverpool show he then pours water over the picture to create the running effect as you can see and the show begins! I mention all this not out of a need to brag but to give you a better idea of where these guys are coming from and as you can see they are fairly committed to the pursuit of psychedelia! The bottom 2 pics are just a decent one i caught during the show and a better view of the "Icon" table and thier guitarist!

So you no doubt get the idea so onto the music since 2011 these guys have only released 3  12" singles all limited and one album So all are presented for you here in the usual glorious 320kbps quality! First up is the album "Dead Magick" there was a 12" and a 7" that preceded this but all 3 of the tracks on those records are included on the album. The 12" EP "(Orð)" (Old Norse for "word") which has 4 tracks and was made partly for an art installation Then there's the 2 Track "Buddha-Christ" 12" to which i have added a bonus track "Kundalini Eyes" a different version from the one on this 12" that was used on the "Reverb Conspiracy  vol 1" Comp album and lastly we have the latest "Dead Comet" 12" from last year with 2 tracks I have also added a bonus for you in that folder the Dead Skeletons take on "Riders On the Storm" from the "A Psych Tribute To The Doors" compilation.

So there you have it the discography so far of this great Icelandic band I intend to post more of this recent wave of modern psychedelic music but before we hit the wah wah and effects pedals on those i thought i'd ease you in gently with these guys, by far one of the coolest and grooviest groups i have heard in a while and also a fantastic live band don't be put off by my heavy handed descriptions these guys are probably one of the more accessible bands of this genre and this is borne out by the size of the audience they draw and the amount of their t-shirts I have seen people wearing! if they come to your town go see them I guarantee your satisfaction!

Dead Magick - Mediafire

(Orð)12" - Mediafire

Buddha-Christ 12 " (plus bonus track) - Mediafire

Dead Comet 12" (plus bonus track) - Mediafire