Danielle Dax has had an interesting career- she trained in opera in her youth; became a multi- instrumentalist and formed the experimental Lemon Kittens in the post-punk era, appeared as the Wolf Girl in Neil Jordan’s Company Of Wolves, went solo, and now works in interior design and art.
Her second album is very much overlooked, though. Jesus Egg That Wept, the title of which was taken from a bizarre newspaper headline, is a low-key beauty, much like Dax herself.
Musically, as with the rather underrated Lemon Kittens, it’s a strange mix of influences. Had Dax emerged at the same time as when Bjork went solo with Debut, you suspect, she could have been huge
But she didn’t have the commercial appeal. This mini- album, the follow-up to Pop Eyes, is pretty out there. Opener Evil Honky Stomp tackles racism, and sounds like The Raincoats doing a bizarre spiritual.
Pariah and Hammerheads are more rooted in the eighties avant-garde, with off-kilter electronic sounds, and Dax’s bizarre vocals which sound like a series of characters. Her background in film and theatre surely bled in to the way she used her vocals like instruments. She wrote and produced the record herself, and it still holds up well, sounding like nothing else from the time. Her eerie, warbling purr or angelic higher notes have been compared to Kate Bush, but she was always in her own little unique niche. She achieved modest success in the late eighties with the wide-screen psychedelic pop of Inky Bloaters, but for me, Jesus Egg That Wept is a more interesting record.
Hit The North 